Pretend Lover (2026)

Typical cliché lacorn-style...

When it begins with "but I'm a man..." I'm already categorize such a series as BS. Of course this is a lacorn-style series which means we have a bitchy wanna be wife and a witch-like wanna be mother in law. The so called "hetero" guy which of course has feminine traits, kissed a rich guy first to escape the loan sharks. The rich guy recognizes the opportunity to make a deal to escape a forced marriage and marries the "hetero" guy for money. And that's the BS story.

Production quality is good, but the audio is lacking. As it is with vertical series, if you watch this as one "movie" the cuts are sometimes rough. Overall a BS series with over-acting, silly sound-effects, some cringy moments and an overly dramatic finale. If there is nothing else to watch, you could do worse, but on the other hand, if you skip it, you save two hours of your life.

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rich boy and poor boy vertical series

Overall: I rated this against other verticals of a similar genre. 50 short episodes. Aired on iQIYI.

Content Warnings: non con kisses, slap, coercion, workplace bullying, manipulation, punch

What I Liked
- chuckled at the push up part
- the dads (except for a couple of lines below)
- avoided the noble idiot trope
- visuals

Room For Improvement
- cliche wannabe wife
- love rival/jealousy
- comedy sound effects/music
- dad said teach your wife a lesson...make her submit
- gay for you trope
- hobbled around the next morning

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