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In Defence of Ridiculous Romcoms
I love the ridiculous premise. I love the title even more. Take Charge of My Heart is cheesy, tropey, and absolutely ridiculous, but honestly? I’m past the point of complaining. Kdramas have been starving us of good romcoms for so long that I’ve started treating every halfway-decent one like a blessing. Give me an absurd premise, a handsome chaebol, a few unnecessary misunderstandings, and a couple with chemistry, and apparently, I’m sold. Have my standards dropped? Perhaps. Am I complaining? Not particularly.
Kim Young Kwang and Chae Soo Bin are well cast and play their roles convincingly. These are the kinds of characters they do well, so the casting feels spot-on. The problem, if there is one, is that they’ve starred in superior romcoms before, setting a rather high bar for themselves. This one feels mediocre in comparison. I kept thinking about Young Kwang’s character in The Secret Life of My Secretary and Soo Bin’s in I’m Not a Robot, and I couldn’t help comparing their performances. IMO, they were better in those roles. There was a certain youthful innocence and naivety in their portrayals back then that feels somewhat absent here. They still work well in these roles, but the magic isn’t quite the same.
The similarities to their previous dramas were hard to ignore, too. The press conference scene brought back memories of the shareholders’ meeting in The Secret Life of My Secretary, while the male lead’s backstory felt reminiscent of I’m Not a Robot. Perhaps that’s part of why this drama felt less exciting than it could have been. It’s difficult not to compare when you’ve seen these actors inhabit such similar characters before, especially when their earlier performances left a stronger impression.
That said, I absolutely loved the couple. They had great chemistry, and I was thoroughly sold on their dynamic. I loved the bickering, how naturally they seemed to fit together, and, of course, the height difference. Everything about their pairing just worked for me. And can we talk about their hugs? Because those had me swooning even more than the kisses. There’s something about the way these two fit together that made me ridiculously happy.
I also love that the show occasionally pokes fun at its own chaebol tropes. It knows exactly how clichéd these storylines are. It knows we’ve seen them a million times before, and yet it serves them up anyway, fully aware that there’s still an audience willing to eat them up. And honestly? Fair enough. Because I was eating it all up.
Now, can we please do something about second male leads who spend years orbiting the female lead without ever actually confessing their feelings? They deserve belt treatment. I wish kdramas would do better with second male leads and love triangles in general. I prefer my male leads straightforward and a little aggressive about what they want, rather than these background-yearning specialists. At some point, the pining stops being romantic and starts being a personal failure.
The second female lead was a disappointment, too. Her character was just... there. There wasn’t enough depth to make her compelling, and she felt more like a plot device than a fully realised character. But she looked gorgeous. She carried the visual department on her shoulders.
For all its ridiculousness and fluffiness, the show was doing a decent job of being the kind of romcom that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Which makes it all the more frustrating that it still resorted to the dreaded breakup in the final two episodes. I will never understand the need for this trope. Outside of a handful of dramas that genuinely manage to make it work, most romcoms could do without the last-minute separation, unnecessary angst, and manufactured conflict. It’s especially annoying when the couple is already working so well together. Why interrupt a perfectly enjoyable dynamic just to put the leads through a predictable round of misery?
But here’s the thing: I can extend a ridiculous amount of grace to romcoms. They don’t have to be realistic, believable, or remotely plausible. I don’t need to believe that any of this could happen in real life. I just need to have a good time watching it. Give me a couple I can root for, some clichés I can happily indulge in, hugs that make me swoon, and enough fluff to make me forget that I have a functioning brain. And Take Charge of My Heart gave me exactly that.
Sometimes, I don't need a drama to be exceptional. I just need it to remind me why I fell in love with romcoms in the first place. And sometimes, that's more than enough.
Kim Young Kwang and Chae Soo Bin are well cast and play their roles convincingly. These are the kinds of characters they do well, so the casting feels spot-on. The problem, if there is one, is that they’ve starred in superior romcoms before, setting a rather high bar for themselves. This one feels mediocre in comparison. I kept thinking about Young Kwang’s character in The Secret Life of My Secretary and Soo Bin’s in I’m Not a Robot, and I couldn’t help comparing their performances. IMO, they were better in those roles. There was a certain youthful innocence and naivety in their portrayals back then that feels somewhat absent here. They still work well in these roles, but the magic isn’t quite the same.
The similarities to their previous dramas were hard to ignore, too. The press conference scene brought back memories of the shareholders’ meeting in The Secret Life of My Secretary, while the male lead’s backstory felt reminiscent of I’m Not a Robot. Perhaps that’s part of why this drama felt less exciting than it could have been. It’s difficult not to compare when you’ve seen these actors inhabit such similar characters before, especially when their earlier performances left a stronger impression.
That said, I absolutely loved the couple. They had great chemistry, and I was thoroughly sold on their dynamic. I loved the bickering, how naturally they seemed to fit together, and, of course, the height difference. Everything about their pairing just worked for me. And can we talk about their hugs? Because those had me swooning even more than the kisses. There’s something about the way these two fit together that made me ridiculously happy.
I also love that the show occasionally pokes fun at its own chaebol tropes. It knows exactly how clichéd these storylines are. It knows we’ve seen them a million times before, and yet it serves them up anyway, fully aware that there’s still an audience willing to eat them up. And honestly? Fair enough. Because I was eating it all up.
Now, can we please do something about second male leads who spend years orbiting the female lead without ever actually confessing their feelings? They deserve belt treatment. I wish kdramas would do better with second male leads and love triangles in general. I prefer my male leads straightforward and a little aggressive about what they want, rather than these background-yearning specialists. At some point, the pining stops being romantic and starts being a personal failure.
The second female lead was a disappointment, too. Her character was just... there. There wasn’t enough depth to make her compelling, and she felt more like a plot device than a fully realised character. But she looked gorgeous. She carried the visual department on her shoulders.
For all its ridiculousness and fluffiness, the show was doing a decent job of being the kind of romcom that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Which makes it all the more frustrating that it still resorted to the dreaded breakup in the final two episodes. I will never understand the need for this trope. Outside of a handful of dramas that genuinely manage to make it work, most romcoms could do without the last-minute separation, unnecessary angst, and manufactured conflict. It’s especially annoying when the couple is already working so well together. Why interrupt a perfectly enjoyable dynamic just to put the leads through a predictable round of misery?
But here’s the thing: I can extend a ridiculous amount of grace to romcoms. They don’t have to be realistic, believable, or remotely plausible. I don’t need to believe that any of this could happen in real life. I just need to have a good time watching it. Give me a couple I can root for, some clichés I can happily indulge in, hugs that make me swoon, and enough fluff to make me forget that I have a functioning brain. And Take Charge of My Heart gave me exactly that.
Sometimes, I don't need a drama to be exceptional. I just need it to remind me why I fell in love with romcoms in the first place. And sometimes, that's more than enough.
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