Blkittykat

Beware reader - this is but a complete rambling, and shall (probably) not contain any decipherable opinion on Duang With You.

Because if this is what romance looks like? I don't want it!
From either POV. NO THANK YOU.
I'm not chasing my crush after they say no, in fact, I'm probably never going to confess to my crush - but that's a me thing - but if do, and they say no, I am not sticking around, like Sir, if you don't want me? Bye, I have better things to do.
And I don't even care if the guy chasing me around is handsome - you Sir, are going to jail, you stalker.

From the very first episode, I did not understand why this was something you were supposed to root for - Golden Retriever and Black Cat energy is real - but everytime Duang and Qin interact, it feels like Duang is literally absorbing all of Qin's energy (not that we get to see a lot of it anyway)

Episode after episode we see Duang going around doing the absolute most (too much) to make sure he has Qin's attention, which starts out kind of weird and kind of innocent. Sometimes you see someone and fall hard because they're attractive and talented and you get a tiny crush. And if you keep running into them, the crush gets bigger and you confess, which is exactly what happens here - albeit with the assistance of two characters with whom Duang shares his single braincell (I love them). It's all fun and antics, because Duang straight up says to Qin, 'I'm going to flirt with you'.
And Qin agrees!

But from there on out we get the worst possible love story, where Duang is doing absolutely everything. Absolutely everything in their relationship. He's all around Qin, bringing him food, drinks, helping him with performances, being the shoulder Qin can cry on - he's doing absolutely everything to get this man to go out with him. Which is either irritating, or endearing if you're Qin. Throughout all this, Qin shows no sign of ever being interested, until he suddenly is.. because they danced well?

It was unbelievable in the first place that the man whose sole expression was no expression agreed to date the energetic puppy but it only gets worse.
Because even as they date, Duang is the one putting in all the effort. According to Qin, letting someone come to you while you wait is an admirable trait, which no sir. That's not how relationships work. You can't expect to sit still and let someone worship you - but that is the exact kind of relationship they have.
They try to chalk it all up to Qin's experience with dating, him wanting to take his time before getting into a relationship because his first love got too frustrated when their relationship went nowhere after a while. Which fair, he wants to see if Duang is doing it just for the thrill of flirting with someone or if he's actually in it for the long run. Fair? Right?
NO
It would be fair if Qin barely knew Duang, but turns out, he's known him forever! He's known him well enough to know he was a genuine guy, and he still takes his time.

Maybe I can't fault him, because Qin.. Qin is a lot of things and Duang is just.. a lot.
I didn't like either of the leads, the way they were written. The trope they based their personalities on is soooo easy to mess up, and they did it royally here. They are the exact opposite to each other, so much so that both of them feel like absurd caricatures of human beings. It's too much or nothing at all.

Duang is too much. Sunshiny and ever-positive characters are almost necessary in a lot of plots, but not like Duang. Between the sniffing and the actual dog-like behaviour, his instincts to treat Qin like an actual deity can be easily ignored, but don't. That is not healthy behaviour. We don't watch dramas for ultimate reality but that is not healthy or realistic.

Qin is the complete opposite. I think his facial muscles moved a grand total of 12 times in the series. He is depicted as an entirely traumatized human being, which is again fair because he's been through some stuff, but I really hate the 'love solves all' narrative. That Duang is the only ray of sunshine in his life felt like utter nonsense. Even aside from that, Qin was a character written terribly, sometimes his behaviour really did come across as mean and narcissistic and I did not enjoy it.

Duang With You is an execution of one of my biggest pet peeves I have with literature and media - the perfect leads - no known flaws, all surface. And I don't mean flaws that are not really flaws, like "oh I read too much!"
No, how are they flawed and how does it affect their lives and the story? It doesn't have to be super deep, we are watching a romance but if you're going to have two perfect human beings on screen who do and say nothing to provoke, just simply agree.. it's not sparking any change in any of them! The only thing these characters have to grow from is a slightly sad background story that is resolved in one conversation despite them practically blaming everything that goes wrong in their life on that one thing.

We even got a side couple with just minimal screentime and maximum cringe, there was no real point to have them be a couple, except to maybe see how their pairing in the reality show would work out in a drama.

The only bright spot in this came in the form of three names - Duang, Jamie and Pae. I know I just laid into the way Duang was written, but remember the two people he shares his braincell with? I love them. Their friendship was genuinely admirable and the only healthy relationship in this entire show. They were fun, chaotic, supported each other but were never afraid to call each other out or smack some sense into each other. Their interactions were always the highlight, no matter the episode.

I don't even have the strength to rewrite it in my head, it's not a bad concept, it's just age old and so boring that I don't even want to contemplate on if anything in this could've been done better. There were tons, but I just don't have the energy to do it.

Maybe I was in a terrible mood as a watched an episode and that skewed my entire opinion of it.. but I don't think so. I just didn't like it, but honestly? It does have it's appealing qualities, they just weren't appealing to me. So instead of saying I do/do not recommend, I'll let everyone watching figure it out for themselves. My review has pretty much laid out facets of the story, it's only negative because I didn't enjoy them. So definitely find out for yourself - but for me, it was a no.