This review may contain spoilers
Dull and Tedious
I genuinely enjoy trope-heavy romcoms like What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Oh My Venus, She Was Pretty, The Secret Life of My Secretary, and Her Private Life. These dramas work because they fully embrace what they are: exaggerated, occasionally ridiculous, and unapologetically tropey, while still carrying warmth and sincerity. When done right, even the cringe feels charming rather than exhausting. That’s the lens through which I went into Dynamite Kiss.
Episode 1 is genuinely powerful and engaging. It’s fast-paced, glossy, and confident in its setup, efficiently introducing the characters and premise while maintaining momentum. It hooks you quickly, so much so that I was already recommending it as a potential romcom of the year.
Unfortunately, from Episode 2 onward, the drama begins to lose its footing. It never fully relaxes or settles into its rhythm. Instead, it feels oddly artificial, like it’s constantly trying to perform as a romcom rather than naturally becoming one. The cringe stops feeling endearing and starts feeling forced. At that point, it turns into a “turn your brain off” kind of drama because the moment you apply even a little critical thinking, the story starts to unravel.
A major issue is the sheer overload of tropes. Nearly every familiar romcom and chaebol cliché is thrown in at once: the rich male lead weighed down by trauma and daddy issues, the poor but kind-hearted female lead, the best friend secretly in love with her, arranged marriages between wealthy families, corporate rivalries, an heir desperate to escape his predetermined path, an employer–employee romance, forced proximity, kidnapping, dramatic rescues, sharing a room. None of these elements are inherently bad, they’re genre staples but they’re piled on so densely that nothing has room to breathe. The drama never allows a single idea or emotional beat to fully land before rushing headlong into the next.
The core concept itself isn’t particularly fresh either, borrowing heavily from My Secret Romance. While romcoms don’t need to reinvent the wheel, they do need sincerity. That’s where this year’s Love Scout succeeded: it embraced familiar setups and even leaned into the cringe, but grounded the romance in emotional maturity and character development. Dynamite Kiss lacks that emotional grounding, making its familiar beats feel hollow rather than comforting.
Performance-wise, Ahn Eun-jin carries much of the show. She’s a consistently strong actress, and her presence adds warmth and likability, but her character largely repeats the same light, bubbly energy she’s shown in Genie, Make a Wishand Hospital Playlist. Jang Ki-yong is undeniably handsome. He really is one fine specimen and he shines in romantic moments. However, his performance can feel over-the-top at times, which is understandable given this is his first proper romcom after a string of brooding roles.
And of course we’re also doing the attractive, rich guy in his 30s who has never kissed anyone trope. Like, really? The ML still having intense feelings for a woman he met for just one day whom he believed was married with a child felt weird af. It taking that many episodes for him to find out she wasn’t married had me begging for mercy.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, they go ahead and throw in the amnesia trope in the last episode. At that point, it felt like the writers had completely run out of ideas and were just calling it a day. Honestly, I can’t even.
The 14 episode runtime felt excessive. Several scenes dragged without adding much to the story, and a tighter 12 episode format would have made the drama far more engaging.
One of the only real positives here is the chemistry between the two leads. It’s genuinely strong, and their scenes together often manage to distract from everything else going off the rails around them.
Dynamite Kiss isn’t unwatchable, but after a genuinely promising start, it quickly settles into predictability. This drama offers spectacle without substance, making what could have been comforting and charming feel strangely empty instead.
Episode 1 is genuinely powerful and engaging. It’s fast-paced, glossy, and confident in its setup, efficiently introducing the characters and premise while maintaining momentum. It hooks you quickly, so much so that I was already recommending it as a potential romcom of the year.
Unfortunately, from Episode 2 onward, the drama begins to lose its footing. It never fully relaxes or settles into its rhythm. Instead, it feels oddly artificial, like it’s constantly trying to perform as a romcom rather than naturally becoming one. The cringe stops feeling endearing and starts feeling forced. At that point, it turns into a “turn your brain off” kind of drama because the moment you apply even a little critical thinking, the story starts to unravel.
A major issue is the sheer overload of tropes. Nearly every familiar romcom and chaebol cliché is thrown in at once: the rich male lead weighed down by trauma and daddy issues, the poor but kind-hearted female lead, the best friend secretly in love with her, arranged marriages between wealthy families, corporate rivalries, an heir desperate to escape his predetermined path, an employer–employee romance, forced proximity, kidnapping, dramatic rescues, sharing a room. None of these elements are inherently bad, they’re genre staples but they’re piled on so densely that nothing has room to breathe. The drama never allows a single idea or emotional beat to fully land before rushing headlong into the next.
The core concept itself isn’t particularly fresh either, borrowing heavily from My Secret Romance. While romcoms don’t need to reinvent the wheel, they do need sincerity. That’s where this year’s Love Scout succeeded: it embraced familiar setups and even leaned into the cringe, but grounded the romance in emotional maturity and character development. Dynamite Kiss lacks that emotional grounding, making its familiar beats feel hollow rather than comforting.
Performance-wise, Ahn Eun-jin carries much of the show. She’s a consistently strong actress, and her presence adds warmth and likability, but her character largely repeats the same light, bubbly energy she’s shown in Genie, Make a Wishand Hospital Playlist. Jang Ki-yong is undeniably handsome. He really is one fine specimen and he shines in romantic moments. However, his performance can feel over-the-top at times, which is understandable given this is his first proper romcom after a string of brooding roles.
And of course we’re also doing the attractive, rich guy in his 30s who has never kissed anyone trope. Like, really? The ML still having intense feelings for a woman he met for just one day whom he believed was married with a child felt weird af. It taking that many episodes for him to find out she wasn’t married had me begging for mercy.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, they go ahead and throw in the amnesia trope in the last episode. At that point, it felt like the writers had completely run out of ideas and were just calling it a day. Honestly, I can’t even.
The 14 episode runtime felt excessive. Several scenes dragged without adding much to the story, and a tighter 12 episode format would have made the drama far more engaging.
One of the only real positives here is the chemistry between the two leads. It’s genuinely strong, and their scenes together often manage to distract from everything else going off the rails around them.
Dynamite Kiss isn’t unwatchable, but after a genuinely promising start, it quickly settles into predictability. This drama offers spectacle without substance, making what could have been comforting and charming feel strangely empty instead.
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