MaSuNaRa

The core concept on paper is good and matches with the current times; A VR device / service that offers AI-generated dating experiences and includes hundreds of themes. Things I liked about this concept, is that a few years ago it could have easily been regarded as pure nonsensical fantasy, but considering the current times and AI advances, it is not so unbelievable any more. The company behind the service putting rules to ensure profitability such as users during trial period having a limited amount of hours per theme, or that paying customers get extra perks and privileges also from a business standpoint felt believable. The ways with which the service tried to lure their dormant users to log back in, and to dissuade them from unsubscribing as well as most importantly the issue with addict-ability of such a service all felt well portrayed.

While at first I enjoyed the VR parts, especially when it seemed to suggest that the theme was inspired by a famous webtoon character in other terms the premise was allowed to be cheesy corny and cliched. Then we suddenly switched to another theme before we could even process the whole thing and what effect if any it had on our FL, then we were thrown into one new theme after another, so at this point as a viewer I started to feel that the virtual dating parts were no longer a plot device used to advance the story or provide a sort of character development, but rather it had turned into a filler material to provide eye candy points via cameos (I would be thinking to myself WTH am I supposed to be watching right now?), other than seeing how the FL was becoming addicted to the service and losing sleep and almost her grasp on reality, I can not say I noticed any major character or plot development thanks to it .

The story at this point could be said was somewhat going all places with no specific aim, and the development in real life was almost non-existent (other than some very minor things with the webtoon production job), then all of a sudden the ML confesses his feelings to FL out of the blue both for her and the viewer as well! And while we do later get a small glimpse with flashbacks showing the moment he started to become attracted to her, but to be honest especially considering how we were only shown almost only moments were the FL was being cold, ambivalent, or even sometimes acting with animosity towards ML, the whole love confession felt off at least imo. But that still does not compare to the moment the 901st theme's boyfriend was introduced. At that point I was thinking to myself (was there something I missed?!) Because even if she subconsciously gave his physical description while answering the survey it still felt rather forced.

The progress of their relationship into romance was not well done, the switch from rivals at work, to colleagues to crushes to lovers felt off. Not a problem of chemistry between the leads per se (honestly the FL's acting might have played some role in that but more on that later), it felt more like the writers within the airtime constraints balanced between focusing on the real life arc and giving us more virtual dating sequencing and they did the mistake of choosing the latter. If the real life characters and their relationship was given more air time and enough material to develop their romance and given us more swoon worthy moments than can leave an impression.

As I mentioned above I did not appreciate the FL's acting , I am not interested much into K-Pop so I admit I did not know who she was and was fortunate to have never watched her as an actress before, but I personally thought her acting was subpar. She could deliver the funny parts where she is frustrated embarrassed etc, but when it came to acting the emotional parts her performance was amateurish. Like some other idols-turned-actresses I could feel how she cared to look pretty on screen above anything else). It certainly didn't help that I did not personally like her pushy character (we are shown she was openly flirting with her class mate right in front of his GF)
The ML on the other hand, his performance was not bad though I have seen him do better jobs before, but the character here was 2 dimensional to begin with and the material he had to work with was lacking. Most of his scenes is either he being professional or stoic, when we later caught glimpses of him acting natural. cute or emotional it still didn't provide much depth to the character.

One final thought that I would like to add, is that as I mentioned above the concept of the virtual dating service was both fun and interesting , but I would have really appreciated if the writers had taken the opportunity to provide a deep social commentary concerning AI-Human relationships. Considering the real life cases where such warped human attachment to AI had left mental scars and even resulted in loss of life, it wouldn't have hurt if the writers could have tried to send a message of warning about the toxic effect of such technical advancements on mental health and human relationships. I realize perfectly well this is a fluffy romcom and I am not suggesting they turn the whole thing into a dark melodramatic take on AI, but just suggesting at the end that the addicted users like her BFF later came to realize the downside of it all and warned against it, rather we are shown a person who regretted having used the VR theme story in her own works tried to sell the device and stop using it but at the end still kept it and ended up sinking more and more in the delusion of virtual dating.

Would I watch again, no. Would I recommend, no (unless you are particularly a fan of the main leads). would I forget all about this drama in no time, absolutely.