Boyfriend on Demand

Light on plot but heavy on kisses.

I think to fully enjoy this show, you have to realize it is not a full course meal, it's more like a little treat. The stakes are never monumental and the romance is quietly understated. The yearning gestures aren't soul wrenching but the heart still aches. There's not that much plot and it mostly focuses on character development. I can't say it's the best or funniest or most swoony drama, but it's a good time.

I picked this drama up mainly for Seo Inguk but the show did him dirty. I desperately needed more screen time from him, especially in the earlier episodes. He's amazing, sexy, charismatic as always and there's some tough competition but I think this drama has his best kiss scenes ever? He was eating her up every time!!!!

I cringed through episodes 1 and 2 (the humour was sorta funny but super embarrassing lol) but by episode 3 you can easily tell that Jisoo shows remarkable improvement in her acting as Seo Mirae. Perhaps Jisoo just suits the romantic comedy genre well because I didn't like Snowdrop but found her relatable and charming in this drama. She had great chemistry with not only Seo Inguk but Seo Kangjoon and Kim Sungcheol.

The cameos were really fun and swoony and when we progressed passed that, I also enjoyed our budding romance between the leads but the plot could have used more meat.

The whole drama is actually pretty light on plot to be honest, it's mostly a slice of life, healing story for Jisoo's character. Which isn't a bad thing, but I think the story would have been more engaging if the characters had more to work with. But in the same breathe, it felt fresh because it excluded so many tired kdrama tropes like childhood friends, evil CEOs, life threatening scenarios resulting in rushed love declaration etc.

The rewatch value is high for me, just because of the kiss scenes lmao.

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unexpectedly fresh & funny

Boyfriend on Demand follows Seo Mi-rae, a single 30'ish woman with a routine but somewhat tumultuous (& dateless) lifestyle, working long hours as a webtoon producer at a highly competetive online publishing company. She manages the company's most popular writer, leading to a collaboration with a tech company in basing a new virtual dating app on one of the writer's characters. Mi-rae is given a free VR set to trial the app & give a review, thus becoming addicted. On comes an exploration of how emotionally & financially exploitative an AI created "perfect date" can be.

After going wild with role playing through several of the 900 risk free programmed virtual dates - involving hilarious cameos with a couple of celebrity idols - Mi-rae then settles into a comfortable ease with one perfect VR boyfriend, with whom she just just lets herself be herself. Through conversation with him, she examines her own real past relationship with her college sweetheart, its failure, & learns how to let it go. After achieving such a significant personal closure, however, a rude awakening occurs when Mi-Rae discovers her VR boyfriend is not personalized to her & that others are dating this character in the same way in the app, much like experiencing everyone else wearing the same outfit at a party.

Her real life co-worker & rival producer, Park Gyeong-nam, is calm & muted with a strong nerd vibe . He's a tranquil sea in contrast to Mi-rae's near constant turmoil. They work in rival teams as they manage fiercely competing writers, keeping at arms length from each other. Mi-rae meanwhile trials a new VR boyfriend, customized after a lengthy personal questionnaire. Of course, what pops up is in the exact image of Gyeong-nam, but with an idealized personality based on what Mi-rae thinks she wants.

Reality & VR start to meld as Gyeong-nam eventually confesses to Mi-rae when she is already in the throes of virtual dating. Mi-rae is forced to confront her true feelings & the feelings of the flesh & blood person standing in front of her.

Seo In Guk does very well in portraying Gyeong-nam with a quiet consistency. Ji Soo (my 1st time seeing her) pulls off the role of Mi-rae well enough & I enjoyed both performances.

And near the end, the assumptions the app's creators made in what women want from an ideal boyfriend are all hilariously turned upside down. Ha Young is very funny as Mi-rae's best friend who burns through the app's characters like a professional arsonist. Gong Min Jung is perfect as an eccentric talent who never accepts the handouts she's given. Neither character apologizes for being themselves.

I was surprised at how fresh & funny this drama feels. Full of romantic tropes while making fun of them at the same time. The writing is intelligent, with the precautionary warning of never losing sight of what role AI should actually play in our lives. I enjoyed this show very much.

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Better than I expected

I started this series mainly because of the big hype around it, and I didn’t really know what to expect. Unlike most dramas, the first two episodes bored me a bit and I watched them without much focus, but later the show really picked up. The FL was played well, the ML even better. Aside from one overly dramatic scene with the ML crying etc., I think it’s a very good series. Despite the seemingly trivial topic, it presents an interesting story about searching for a soulmate, loneliness, and maybe even an attempt to portray modern society—not just Korean, but more generally how we set expectations for a future partner. In a way, it also touches on the topic of AI, which is becoming more and more present in our everyday lives. I was very pleasantly surprised by the comedic elements—the writer lady’s dating experience was AMAZING, just a pity those parts were so short. Similarly, the subplot with the main character’s friend was great.

I’d even say it shows relationships quite realistically for a k-drama, meaning actual kisses and visible affection. The ML did a great job portraying indifference and awkwardness. Lastly, I’m really happy to see Yoo-in Na in another drama—I like this actress a lot.

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A Good Palette Cleanser

this show is the perfect palette cleanser when you want to recover your brain cells after a bad drama. it’s not exactly deep or groundbreaking, but it completely keeps your attention. the pacing is good, the setting is nice and the visual effects for the application are really fun and colorful.

the acting from the male cast was just completely elite. i desperately went into this show wanting mi-rae to end up with seo kang-joon because of all the edits i saw. but oh my god, i officially fell in love with seo in-guk instead. his micro-expressions are insane, and during his confession and the finale when he cried, i literally cried with him bcs kyeong-nam is just the ultimate best boy. i loved seeing his pov and the way he comforted mi-rae when she was so afraid of getting hurt again was just so adorable. this show did a great job of showing a lot of complexities in love without making it exaggerated.

not to shade jisoo bcs i love her but she definitely got outshined by her male leads. she was okay, but being paired up with such heavy professional actors just made her look a bit weaker this time.

but the plot is where it completely falls apart bcs of the absolute waste of the sci-fi setting. in a world where ai is literally taking over everything, this show had a perfect opportunity to deliver a deep message about why real human connection is superior. kyeong-nam was willing to repatch things with mi-rae bcs he realised he was better for her because he was real and he cared. but the ending totally copped out. look at the author yun song. she just keeps using the app, gaslighting herself into a fake relationship, and literally turning against actual humans who tell her it's bad. it felt so shallow and annoying. i wish she had just given the machine away, learned to love herself, and found real love like ji-yeon sort of did—though even ji-yeon’s ending with min lacked any real depth. if a vr app like boyfriend on demand existed in real life, the world would literally go haywire and destroy itself, so treating it like a harmless, consequence-free lifestyle choice at the end just felt lazy and simple.

its a solid 8.7/10 for the romance and the male leads, but an 8/10 overall because of the shallow plot.

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unexpectedly tender

I started the show because of Jisoo, and although she is still new to acting and at times awkward, I really liked the previous drama she starred in (Snowdrop) and wanted to give this a try as well. I’m ngl, at first, I found her acting very unnatural and just plain bad, and I was sooo close to dropping the whole show— BUT I stuck with it because I wanted to see how the plot would play out, and honestly Im glad I stayed. Idk how but somehow her acting got better as the episodes went on, and I found myself really invested in the life of our main character and her emotional turmoil of choosing reality or the safety of the virtual universe. Boyfriend on Demand isn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but it is cheesy and so fun to watch. There were small plot holes and other aspects I wish were addressed, but overall- I had a great time watching this. It’s silly, but also unexpectedly tender and sweet. Its nothing insane, but still enjoyable to watch :)

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Cute and fun easy watch

Great drama when you need something cute, romantic, and "easy to swallow".

NGL, I was expecting to like Jisoo's acting less, but for a drama like this, she was good! The entire cast felt well chosen, and everyone played their part well.

I honestly liked that the story didn't go too deep into what this new VR dating technology means to society. I feel like that wouldn't fit the easy-going theme of the drama. To me, the story was fleshed out just the right amount.

7,5 might seem like a lower score, but to me, that is just the perfect score for a drama like this. It wasn't groundbreaking, but it was a nice watch to take a rest between other heavier dramas.

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Quirky, Lightweight, Fluffy

What a quirky romcom to enjoy. It's very lighweight, fun and easy to enjoy. It involves a dating situation in a virtual world, so the story is as lightweight as a relaxing game story. The vibe is really positive, nothing really too draggy. The scenery inside Boyfriend on Demand is somewhat thrilling and superficial, like you're living in a fairytale. There are a lot of big hidden messages about relationship and how to communicate things in a relationship. A very bold one especially about the difference between virtual and reality world, and what kind of different adventures await behind them both.

Jisoo, even though a lot of people were bashing her, did quite well here. I can't deny that she sometimes lack of emotions, but it doesn't mean she's a bad actress. She maybe just needs some time, probably switching to second lead roles will help her better. Other actors were doing really good job, they used a lot of big names even for the guest roles. I feel Seo In Guk, unfortunately, didn't able use all of his potential here.

There are a lot of big names in this show. While the cost for the casts must be high, they might use up some of the vfx budget to fund the casting. The visual effect is, again, an eyesore. I don't know why the vfx quality of Netflix originals are getting worse: Trauma Code, Genie Make A Wish, and now this. They used too much AI on this show, it was very obvious on the Poster Room. The storyline focused too much on Seo Mi Rae. I wonder what's the backstory of Park Gyeong Nam, what are the 'changes' happened after he began to like Mi Rae. Also what happened to Yun Song at the end? I was hoping they would show the difference between of getting freed from Boyfriend on Demand (like Mi Rae) and sticking to it (Yun Song), but they didn't.

Even they labelled this as a romcom, I still think some of the jokes were forcefully inserted. Still this is a great quick feel-good show to cheer you up when you're feeling down.

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Above average, but still just OK

This is a watchable drama, but definitely nothing new. I’ve seen C dramas similar to this. There was some fun moments, but also some frustrating moments that made me question why I was watching it.

The good

The acting is the best part of the story. Everyone did a pretty good job and fit the role they were given pretty well. The webtoon story was interesting though not necessarily original since there are a lot of Webtoon themed kdramas out there that are quite similar. Of course, very attractive men as usual.

The bad

There were a lot of draggy parts and a lot of parts that made me question why I was watching this. The main female lead was very delusional in a lot of ways and her not wanting to live in the real world when it comes to dating almost got a little ridiculous towards the end. They dragged the main romance piece out far too long. It became pretty typical a lot of the other K dramas. I typically lean more towards watching C drama romances than K drama romances. The K dramas tend to do better at fantasy, sci-fi, and horror for me.

If this is your kind of drama though, cheesy romance then you may like this one. It was an easy watch and pass the time for me. I’d recommend watching it for yourself to make your own judgment on it.

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Good but skip scenes

Here's my review:

I thought the drama was good overall, but there are still some annoying parts.

First of all, there are scenes you can easily skip. Personally, I found some scenes with the virtual boyfriends pretty awkward not because of the acting, but because of the ridiculous situations. There’s also that plane fight scene that felt really cringy to me (this is just my personal opinion).

The casting is excellent though. Jisoo’s acting was really solid she handled funny, sad, and romantic scenes perfectly. She delivered in every type of moment.

I also really liked the second part of the romance between the two main characters. There were moments of tension, love, awkwardness, and hesitation. You could clearly feel the chemistry between them. Personally, I stopped skipping scenes once she created the character “901” which led to the beginning of their relationship.

I would have loved more episodes focused on the two main characters to develop their relationship further. There were only about two full episodes where they were actually together and getting to know each other. I think they could have done even better with the plot by adding more drama, tension, and romance between them.

In short, if you like Jisoo or BLACKPINK, you’ve probably already watched it. But I still recommend it to those who aren’t in that fandom it’s worth a watch!

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? Boyfriend on Demand — Love, But Make It Virtual ?

Okay, let’s be honest… the concept of this drama? I’m SOLD.
Imagine going on a date with your idol or your favorite drama character in a virtual world — like hello?? That’s every fangirl’s dream come true. 💖

Now yes, people will say, “But what about real feelings?” and “Isn’t that fake love?” — and I get it. Real love comes with misunderstandings, heartbreaks, and accepting both the good and bad sides of someone. But also… who wants all that drama sometimes? 😅

At the same time, it does make you think — if something like this actually existed, would people slowly stop falling in love in the real world? Would we forget what love really means? It’s a fun concept, but also a little scary if you think too much about it.
That being said… if this app ever becomes real, I’m 100% buying a 1-month subscription. No questions asked. 😂

Coming to the drama itself — acting is good, the music fits well, and it’s a smooth, easy watch. But don’t expect anything intense or deeply emotional. This is more of a light, fun, “what if” kind of drama.
So if you’re in the mood for something different, slightly futuristic, and low-stress — give this one a try.

P.S. – Be honest… which idol are you booking your first virtual date with? 👀

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