Crash Course in Romance

I fast forwarded through this one a lot. Jung Kyung Ho is one of my favorite Korean actors but this drama is a mess. Is it a commentary about Korea’s class divides and rich parents and their precious children, with their associated pressures and competitiveness? a star teacher’s journey back from a stressful and isolated existence? a murder mystery? I wouldn’t have a problem with it being all of the above, if the writer had done a better job of pulling it all together or making many of the side characters more than one-note caricatures. I assume it’s also supposed to be a romance because, well, the word “Romance” is in the title, after all. But there is little romantic spark. Nam Haeng-seon comes across more like Chi-Yeol’s older sister than a possible object of his desire. Plus I really really hate how she treats her brother. Finally, why do many Korean romcoms have serial killers lurking in them? Is it an attempt to add dramatic tension to poorly written fluff?

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Karma may challenge your perceived entitlement.

In my opinion, Crash Course in Romance revolves around the social pressures and expectations of raising a teen in a status-driven environment. Having to meet those standards and the psychological and physical consequences. The circumstances were brought about by some, but as a parent of six, I blame a great deal on the parents depicted here.

But that is the theme even though the title emphasizes romance. Although romance is a part of the development of the main plot, it is in the background. The main leads are like stars on a much larger stage.
Choi Yeol (Jung Ho) is a charismatic, rich and very capable math teacher who is initially a workaholic. A private institution hires him to teach, and he's good at what he does, but at a price. On the other hand, the other lead, Nam Seon (Jeon Do Yeon), a restaurant owner, seems to live an average life raising her niece, Nam Yi. After watching the first few episodes, I didn't recognize Jeon Do Yeon at all.

Later, I realized she was the same lead actress from "Kill Bok Soon"! Her characters are so different from one another. In C Course, she is the polar opposite of Bok Soon, so I give her props for her acting. In C Course, her wardrobe seemed very plain and ordinary at times. I found her mannerisms to be sweet and caring. It is of course circumstances that bring them together, and their loyalty, trust, and ability to love are tested as they overcome various obstacles and challenges. Along the way, there are twists and turns. Mostly the pressures of academic standards and expectations placed on the kids along with Nam Yi and her friend Lee Jae.

I was irritated by Cho Hee and her bratty entitled daughter Soo Ah (spawned by her mother). In the All-Care Women's Group, Cho Hee was the ringleader. In my mind, they should be called ACITFG, The All Care in Their Feelings Group.

The "romance" part of the series develops as Mr. Choi needs food he can stomach. At Nam Seon's restaurant, he finds that. Past situations lead him to believe it's destined for him to be with Nam Seon, help her niece after she was kicked out of the special class etc. It's different from the typical gitty 20-something romance you see. It was cool. It has been called cringey by some, but I disagree. Those who seek love with the right heart and intention deserve it.

Apart from the school drama, there were some nice lighthearted moments in the show. The series takes a turn after the murders of a student and a teacher, Lee Jae's brother Hee Jae was quiet and mysterious. However, their mother was no better than Cho Hee's mother (Soo Ah's mother).

I began to suspect Mr Choi's assistant Ji Hee after he refused to tell him where he lived. In addition, he dodged his old friend who knew who he was. However, at first, I did not suspect murder. It seemed more like a status issue to me. Maybe he was embarrassed about living conditions or maybe he had a relative he was ashamed of. Because Ji Hee was a very capable and smart assistant. He wouldn't be a dangerous criminal, would he? It was their intention to make you feel that way, of course. Nevertheless, Dude was evil from the moment he treated Nam Seon disrespectfully.

In addition to Nam Yi's kidnapping, another issue with this series was how they just brushed it under the rug. There is no counseling, no one-on-one discussion. I thought the girl wanted to leave with her mom because of the trauma associated with everything in that community. Am I missing something? It's true that Ji Hee died, but mentally it's not easy to return to normal after that ordeal. She couldn't have forgotten, she remembered all of her friends' names and statuses in the hospital, so... anyway...

I give Crash Course above average marks. To me, it does have small flaws (what show doesn't) but it's a good watch. Check out Kill Bok Soon! You will see a totally different person!! Jeon Do Yeon is fire in that movie!

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My new classic after school drama

Romance between actual adults is always a concept that can either hit or miss for me. At times they tend to take themselves too seriously. This drama is just very fun and isn’t going to melodramatic route at all, which makes it feel completely fresh.

It’s so interesting to see this story as there are many layers and turns that this show takes that I didn’t expect. It would spoil the fun to list them all. I’ll say it pretty briefly but this show is fun. I love the concept of adults with kids having their lives and that being the focus. I have seen many dramas about teenagers but not am honestly more interrelated in the adult life and am glad it’s represented in a fun way rather than being too intense.

This show weaves together plot lines and character interactions in such a fun way where there are tropes but they are full of charm.

I have seen Jung Kyung Ho in I’m Sorry I Love you and am very impressed at his maturity through the years. He still is so handsome if not better looking.. of course I say that but his acting is so fun to watch in a romcom. He is so particular and arrogant but he isn’t praised for it. He has a lot of room to develop and already with a handful of episodes I love the banter between the two leads. I’m really interesting in seeing how this show plays out and hope it doesn’t get boring or go in a super dramatic and sad route. This drama should stay lighthearted and just needs to keep doing what it’s doing and it’s very good.

Towards the end it gets a little misguided with the whole second plot.. maybe third plot? Nonetheless it got me with that twist so I was entertained. This drama is just a good rounded out full drama.

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"Crash Course On Romance" is a romantic comedy drama about Haeng Seon and Chi Yeol.

Haeng Seon is an independent woman, who runs a side dish restaurant, raises her niece like a daughter and helps her brother with autism. Life isn't easy for her, but she tries to do everything. Chi Yeol is a famous math teacher, his life appears to be perfect, but he has digestive problems, Haeng Seon's food is the only thing he can eat, so Chi Yeol makes a trade with her, he'll teach her daughter Hae Yi in exchange for food. That's the beginning of their relationship.

At first, the two fight like children every chance they get, but as they spend more time together, Chi Yeol falls in love with Haeng Seon, but since he thinks she is married and a mother, he hides his feelings. The big problem is when people find out about their arrangement and start spreading rumors about their relationship, causing Chi Yeol to distance himself so that Haeng Seon and Hae Yi don't get hurt. The scene where Chi Yeol confesses his feelings is amazing, he does it to defend Haeng Seon from the women who were insulting her. Haeng Seon only realizes that she also has feelings for him when Chi Yeol tells the story about her mother's restaurant and says that he mistook his feelings because of her food. It reminded me so much of a scene from "A Gentleman's Dignity", with Yi Soo realizing that she liked Do Jin too. I felt sorry for Hae Yi having to tell everyone the truth, but she needed to do it so that Haeng Seon and Chi Yeol could be together.

These two are a very cute couple, there are lighter moments and more intense ones, but it's a shame that this took a long time to happen and there is little time to see them as a real couple. And honestly, I think the whole situation with Dong Hee was unnecessary, it just wasted moments that could have been about the couple. Within the story, it didn't fit to have a "villain", because there were already enough conflicts. There's the whole situation about Haeng Seon having a daughter, an autistic brother and there's also a big focus on the students, their problems with school, parents' obsession with studying and how this can harm young people, leading them to extreme. All of this was enough to keep the story going.

It's a good drama, it has a light, fun and easy-to-watch story, it just isn't everything I expected.

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BEST ROM-COM WITH A TWIST OF MYSTERY. MUST WATCH.

I don't write reviews that much however, for this drama I feel like it's better to drop a review so that more people can watch this drama. Many people might say that the FL casting was bad or there were too many unnecessary sub-plots. But I will say that all those things added to the charm of the drama. Though it could pass it as only rom-com as well but I liked those small plots as well. They added seriousness to the issues that this drama wanted to address.
About the FL, I think she portrayed her role very well. She looked perfect as someone who had gone through so much in life and became older earlier. If you go through so much at a young age, your beauty bound to fade away and her casting was perfect for the show. Though I wish they could have dress up prettily at special ocassions but I still feel that the kind of style was her character.
She and Kyungho complimented each other so well and complete the drama. From bickering with each other to falling in love with each other, this couple gave us all kinds of butterfly emotions in stomach.
I also loved how the drama came to a perfect ending with all the characters falling in it's place. The best part was how mothers came to an understanding about their kids and how su-a, who was the most stressed one found a friend in Geon Wu. I am so happy that Hae Yi and Sun Jae was together as well. Our babies grew up so well.
For now I will say that this was the best rom-com of 2023 yet. I am sure we will get more rom-coms this year but for now, this will be on my top list. If you're wondering to watch or not, I will say go ahead and give it a try. After 2 episodes, you will be addicted to the drama yourself.

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Realistic but Comforting

I appreciate the realness of this drama. The romance took a while to develop in my opinion but that’s how real life is sometimes. You take the time to get to know someone, see their faults and learn to accept your own.

A drama filled with understanding differing lifestyles and realizing that all that glitters isn’t gold. And people can fall in love even if they are from different social statuses.

I also appreciate the maturity level. It’s not just child like adults ignoring each other. Misunderstandings are usually cleared up with some sort of good communication.

Also like the attention the writers placed on persons who are autistic.

I think if you’re looking for a slower paced drama/love story with a few of life’s bumps along the way, this one is for you. Overall happy ending.

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Solid slice of life, interesting serial killer angel, cute romances but the chemistry was a bit off

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2023 South Korean comedy romance drama with 16, 70 Minute Episodes.

First I provide a synopsis then a review.

Synopsis
Nam Haeng-seon's (Jeon Do-yeon) has been all about supporting the niece her sister abandoned and her autistic brother. After giving up a spot on the national handball team to raise her niece and take care of her disabled brother, she carries on with the recipes her deceased mother used and runs a banchan shop that became a favorite of food bloggers. Money is tight as a single wage earner and the last thing she needs is to deal with an eccentric spoiled celebrity who breaks her autistic brother's phone following an misunderstanding. Or so she thinks. Choi Chi-yeol (Jung Kyung-ho) works at an elite academy where people line up quite literally to get their child a prized spot in one of his tutor classes. The two are destined to interact though as Haeng-seon's niece requests a slot in Chi-yeol's sessions so she can bring up her scores and Chi-yeol finds that, for some reason, Haeng-seon's food is the only food that does not trigger his eating disorder. It provides a slice of life of South Korea's competitive educational system which provides a backdrop for an unlikely romance.

Review

Overall a very light hearted romantic comedy with a slice of life into the competitive world of academics. I found that view on how much power and influence wealthy parents can have interesting and not all that different than what you might see with ivy league colleges in the United States. I recommend it for anyone that likes straight forward romances, slice of life and family dynamics.

Spoilers

The male and female lead had a 10 year age gap in the actual ages of the actors with the Jeon Do-Yeon being 10 years older than Jung Kung-ho. Do yeon is a beautiful and elegant lady but she looks her age. Kung-ho has a young face that looked even younger than his age and made the gap seem even larger. Both did an amazing job acting but the physical appearance of the age gap really disrupted the chemistry in my opinion. It was more sweet than passionate.

It was a little disappointing that the issue with Chi-yeol's assistant Ji-Dong Hee (Shin Jae-ha) ended with suicide. It felt like too little for everything he had done.

The chemistry between Haeng-seong's best friend, Kim Yong-joo (Lee Bong-ryun) and her brother, Nam Jae-woo (Oh Eui-shick) was also off. With the brother's autism it would have taken a slow build over the series with them slowly showing feelings for each other. Her abruptly expressing interest in him seemed like she was doing it only out of loneliness and his reciprocation wound up feeling like pity. There was no "ah finally" when they became a couple because it really wasn't that much of the series where she expressed interest in him, he initially rejected her, then they were together.

As a fan of the reality dating show "Heart Signal" I was fan girling when Bae Yoon-kyung had a role as Chi-yeol's blind date and 2nd romantic interest. I am excited her acting career has taken off and I thought she did a great job in this show.

I loved the relationship between the daughter/nice, Nam Hae-Yi (Roh Yoon-seo) and her aunt/mother Nan Haeng-seon (Jeon Do-yeon). If you love and raise a child biology does not matter. And, an aunt, because of dominant and recessive genes can be more closely genetically related to their niece or nephew than the mother anyway.

I loved the relationship between the daughter/niece, Nam Hae-Yi (Roh Yoon-seo) and her aunt/mother Nan Haeng-seon (Jeon Do-yeon). If you love and raise a child biology does not matter. And, an aunt, because of dominant and recessive genes can be more closely genetically related to their niece or nephew than the mother anyway. did I not want to see Hae-Yi try to fix him or feel like she owed anyone that, I felt like he wasn't there for her during some really key times when he withdrew and basically ghosted her. That is why I was more a fan of her dating the ice hockey player and fellow student Seo Geon-hu (Lee Min-jae) because he was more straight forward with his feelings, always there for her, and I thought he would have been very good for the often too serious and underconfident Hae-yi. Instead he wound up with selfish and spoiled and almost mean girl Bang Soo-ah (Kang Na-eon) who he claimed was nice but, aside from one time when she welcomed back Hae-yi when she returned from the hospital and gave her notes, never showed a kind side. I thought the ice hockey playing, lovable and handsome Geon-hu deserved better.

The friendship between Geon-hu and Seon-jae was cute as it developed out of their rivalry over Hae-ri. I felt like Geon-hu gave up Hae-ri as he could tell her hear was with Seon-jae but also he started to like Seon-jae as a friend and was willing to give up the girl for the friendship. Still I wish he hadn't settled for a character I did not find likeable. Hae-ri's loyal girl friend Jang Dan Ji (Ryu Da-In) would have been a better choice as she was consistently nice and loyal and he did seem to have a flirty friendship going on with her before he suddenly switched to Soo-ah.

#CrashCourseInRomance
#JeonDoYeon
#JungKyungHo
#RohYoonSeo
#LeeChaeMin
#ShinJaeHa
#OhEuiShick
#LeeMinJae

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The union of my expectation and reality

This review is going to be different from my usual style. I don’t want to go through and dissect the show point by point because it would be nitpicking. I want a broader approach because the show affects me at a more visceral level.

Fundamentally, my overall emotion after completed this show is disappointment. On paper, this show should be one of the biggest hit of 2023. Indeed, the ratings and the online chatters all points to a buzzworthy show. That is to be expected when you start with an award winning script writer who has penned hits like Once Again, Oh My Ghost and Weightlifting Fairy, then add the power coupling of Jeon Do-yeon and Jung Kyung-ho. Throw in a laundry list of veteran support actors and you have one heady mix. This should yield nothing short of perfection. I should be able to just write QED and adjourn to the Union Bar for some (cough) intellectual discords.

However, by the half way mark, I can’t ignore a growing sense of unease and it only intensified as the story unfolds further. What bothers and concerns me is not the acting, which is solid, nor a bad script but it is just so . . . . underwhelming. It lacks that magical quality I'd expect from our writer-nim. To be brutally honest, this is not her best work. Most plots are tropey, the majority of support roles are one dimensional, the murder mystery is hardly suspenseful and why do we even need one? She pushes the button hard on the exam hell suffered by many senior students but she offered little redress. If anything, the ML is a hypocrite because while fully acknowledging how unfair and stressful the CSAT system is, he also makes an obscene amount of money tutoring and basks in his status as a top star teacher.

Similarly, after all the trials and tribulations relating to the exam system, everyone comes up roses. All the young protagonists gets into college courses of their choice. Even the sport jock who failed the exam is now a hardworking lad who won't give up. Hwaiting! It is not exactly a warts and all exposé, is it?

This spills over into the murder mystery. I was really expecting a tight and suspenseful whodunit but it soon becomes clear that the murderer’s identity and even his raison d’etre are fairly obvious. The only people who are fooled by the numerous red herrings are the local police. Of course this leads to some soul searching by the leads but in the end, the punishment fits the crime and we collectively moved on without a backward glance.

This is a recurring issue. While the show decries certain issues, the message is conflicting and diluted. The murderer was tormented and abused but because he committed heinous crimes, he is the one to blame. Everyone else is a victim. Ditto, the helicopter parents who drove their kids to distraction or worse are mostly given hall passes. The Show concludes with scenes of our long-suffering young cohorts being happy, well-adjusted college students enjoying themselves. Is the Show condemning the system or supporting it?

As a piece of entertainment, it is buzz worthy and very watchable and ticked all the boxes. It gets the Monday morning water cooler seal of approval, but I find it wanting. It pains me to have to write this review. It should have been a celebration of a great script and wonderful acting. To be fair, there is an lovely autumn romance with its fair share of swoon worthy moments. The amount of chemistry is up for debate but I digress. There are tensions and high dramas but they are also weakened by some inelegant story telling.

If I had known nothing about the writer and the ensemble actors then I'd be happy to watch it as a decent k-drama with its fair share of foibles but, alas, I do know better. This makes it all the harder to be placated by the last episode which I can only describe as sugar overload. Everyone is gifted with a HEA ending whether they deserved it or not. I, for one, cannot unsee the scene of the pregnant FL's BFF chatting with one of the gang-of-mums about her marriage. I literally groaned out loud.

One final thought. Whomever is the FL’s stylist needs to be locked away in a dank dark dungeon. It takes a herculean effort to dress the FL in the most frumpy anti-fashion way. That, my friend, is THE true crime.

Peace out.

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A Lack of Identity

I actually did love half of this show... the first half.

This is really two shows splices together to make one. The first half really does a fantastic job of making me feel for and root for so many characters. I really loved our FL and her relationship with her niece/daughter and her brother. I also really liked the nuanced ML - his story was actually quite heartbreaking. I liked how they met and how they progress. ML friendship with Jae-woo had me cheesing every time they were on screen together.

The second half of this show felt like a rushed fever dream. There is a completely hairbrained murder plot thrown in. It's poorly introduced and even more poorly executed. The methods our villain uses are quite comical despite the very real consequences of their actions and the whole thing just felt like it makes little sense. I don't think they motives were all that valid or thought out properly and it had me scratching my head. It's just very sloppy.

Now, I admit, I did not realize the crime plot was advertised to be a big part of this show. It was recommended to me by a friend who told me it was a cute love story and I researched little beyond the title. I blame poor titled and a lack of balance for my personal feelings and the score I gave.

This show is not bad by any means.

My favorite parts of this involved the kids. The competitiveness of education was so compelling, the lengths parents are willing to go to help them succeed, the very real mental health issues kids face when put under such pressure, it was all a very raw and nuanced story to tell. I genuinely liked the storyline and character growth here. The lawyer mom and her two sons were by far the group I found the most interesting and I was more invested in their arc than any other.

Overall, this show was worth watching but I would not watch it again.

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