MatCap

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

This was a depressing drama. But you only really understand that once you watch the final episode. And while it was clear that the relationship between the main leads had reached a rocky place from Episode 1, that was interesting because it made you wonder how they were going to overcome it.

Spoiler Alert. They don't.

A Love Other Than Yours is not a love story. Instead, it's a tragedy about watching a nearly 30-year bond of love die in the most nonsensical and unnecessary way.

Do not make the same mistake so many of us made, dear future viewer. We, who watched this show while it was airing, came back week after week. Driven by a morbid curiosity. Wanting to know what would happen next in this messy drama and speculating on how the story would end. Allow me to save you some time. Something I wish someone could have done for me. I'll stick to the key elements of the story that are likely to make people think twice about watching it.


1. Even though it doesn't seem like it at first, the story ultimately rewards cheating. The FL betrays the ML because she meets a man, the SML, who gives her 'butterflies' and 'lights up her dark life'. By the end of the story, she breaks up with the ML and replaces him with the man she cheated with.

2. The FL is obscenely unlikeable, but she is portrayed as a good person. Even as a 'hero' to the ML. Likely to soften the blow of her infidelity to the viewer. What's more, her attraction to the SML makes no real sense. None of us who were watching the show while it was airing could understand or justify it. He threatened her. Destroyed her property. And even went so far as to threaten to ruin the ML's life, a man she repeatedly claims to love more than anything. And yet, still, her 'butterflies' persist, and her attraction to him only deepens as the story progresses. Even when he's disrespecting the ML right in front of her.

3. Then there is the ML. Pathetic. Spineless. Weak. But those words only describe him when it comes to the FL. He's actually a pretty likeable, funny, and dependable guy in general. But he becomes an absolute doormat for the FL. To the point where he willingly allows her to go sleep with the man she cheated on him with to 'sort out her feelings' before they get married. It's genuinely painful to watch him at times. He truly doesn't deserve half the shit she puts him through. Though, to be fair, a lot of it is self-inflicted due to his intense loyalty to her. Something not remedied until the final episode.


4. But the biggest crime in A Love Other Than Yours is the poor writing choices.

- The writer has FL attempt suicide for no other reason than to progress the story. After which, the attempt is forgotten and never brought up again. Something like this happens again later, where a boy randomly starts drowning out of nowhere just so the writer can make the main leads have a 'meaningful' conversation.

- The writer has the ML spend an entire episode breaking up with the FL. Then the aforementioned suicide attempt occurs, and he goes from wanting to break up with her to being okay with her sleeping with another man if it helps her sort herself out. Therapy? What's that? Can I eat it?

- Both the main leads end up with the second leads, but the romances with the second leads are poorly developed and felt rushed in places. Particularly the SML. Then again, you might like him if you're a fan of dark romance where an evil piece of shit who takes advantage of the FL when she is emotionally vulnerable (twice) is shown to have a tragic past. Then he cries a bit, and suddenly that makes him a good person.

- But the thing that really frustrates me is how they portrayed the love between the main leads. By the end of the story, we as the audience are expected to accept that the foundation of their love had too many cracks to truly last. However, we don't find that out until it's too late to turn back. Prior to that revelation, we are shown several flashbacks of the main leads genuinely in love and happy with each other. Even now, I find myself wondering when that changed and why. But the story never tells us. It only gives us the opportunity to watch it fall apart while wondering why these two people, who had been with each other for so long and loved each other so deeply, had to start dating other people before they were finally capable of having one honest conversation with each other. The poor communication in this story would have made a lot more sense if the main leads had only known each other for 3 years. Not 30.

The acting in the show was great. The music was also good, though nothing I'd want to listen to over and over. Even the premise was interesting on paper. Really, this drama had the ingredients to be something truly great.

But the execution...

Based on the ratings in Korea, the idea clearly was more than the writer/director could handle.

If you still choose to watch, I recommend getting to Episode 8 and then deciding if you want to continue. Episode 7 was the last episode that could have been said to make sense and, arguably, the most enjoyable. But Episode 8 is where everything starts going off the rails.

And I promise you, if you're finding flaws by the time you get there, it's only going to get worse.

You've been warned, friend...