ajourneytou

I didn't write about the ML because he's a spoiler, possibly the greatest spoiler in the show.
He's not a perfect boyfriend, did you see how awkward he was at the start, how inexpressive he was, how he couldn't communicate very well after he saw himself in the game and needed someone else to tell him what to do? And yet she still chose him why? Because love is not perfect.
She wouldn't be healed if she were single in the end. That would be her unhealed because that was her for three years after her breakup. She was so afraid to fall in love, that falling in love with him was her healing.
I think you missed the message of this drama. It isn't about f all men, it's about that love is being vulnerable to being hurt but being okay with that.

Another review because this drama is that good:

This is what a perfect K-Drama looks like. Delivering on all expectations AND exceeding them, Boyfriend on Demand creates the perfect balance between entertainment and meaning. Somewhere between lavish dates with a chaebol and a seemingly monotonous office life, a story of what it means to fall in love, especially in today's age, blossoms and takes on surprising depth.

The best part about this drama is that it is, at its core, a story about love, dating and romance, and it never detracts from this. Every building block, you will come to realise, feels intentionally placed to serve the drama's message. Workplace friendships and office life don't distract but instead embellish; side characters don't overpower but make you want to root for them. The virtual dating reality concept is given full justice, offering the swoon-worthy and immersive scenes as promised --- but that too, is one of the moving pieces in this drama's genius, a part of the bigger question at its core: what does it mean to fall in love?

With each episode, you realise the writer has an impeccable understanding of relationships in the modern age, and especially from a female point of view --- the disillusionment with the current dating scene, how easy it is to get swept away by fictional characters, how hard it is to open your heart in reality.

The drama also doesn't shy away from showing the potential consequences of getting too invested in a VR reality dating simulation like this one, exposing how makers artificially induce reliance on the virtual characters by encroaching insidiously into the main character's life. It's a poignant reminder in today's age, where idol culture and reliance on AI has become worrying.

The drama does not ever go too "over" on a character or a plot point. Questions such as whether it is right to get into a relationship with a fictional character are handled in the most tactful manner, showing you the merits of both arguments. Ji-Soo's relationship with her ex is explored in a heartaching way but it doesn't unneccessarily complicate her future relationship, at least not in the way you would expect. The virtual boyfriends are absolutely swoon-worthy and one comes very close to giving you the equivalent of a second lead syndrome (Eun-Ho I'm looking at you), but it doesn't and you will see why.

I guess the main question for us, K-Drama watchers, is this: when a fictional story can portray love with such realism and depth, what stops us from using it as a substitute for our own love story? If you're able to come up with an answer, I think this drama has succeed in its message.

Imagine if your boyfriend was on an app similar to hinge but it’s virtual men. That in itself is just crazy. Then you realise before meeting you he met someone that looked exactly like you

If you came into this drama thinking it would be a fun, light-hearted drama about a girl going on different dates, you’d be happy, because it’s just that — and MORE. Way more!

This show delivers on what it promises; swoon-worthy and immersive scenes with handsome boyfriends — but it also artfully weaves a realistic and meaningful story of what it means to fall in love, and our ambivalent relationship with technology in today’s age.

The best part of this show is that it also shows it understands a female’s point of view on relationships well (I cannot speak for the other gender because I am a female). How we get initially swept away by a chaebol who grants us everything we want but get inexplicably drawn to the more normal guy we meet in school. How we like dating but don’t want to be seen as male-obsessed. How our admiration for fictional men are both comforting but also something not to get too invested in.

This drama, at its core, is about love, and it does not ever detract or stray away from it. Workplace friendships, work life are as usual in the drama but they serve to embellish the drama and makes you even want more.

Does anyone else think the three most significant characters are an allegory for the three times we fall in love?

The first, Si-Woo, the love based on attraction.
The second, Eun-Ho, also an allegory for the ex, the love we fall for the most unguarded but also the one we are most hurt by.
The third, Kyeong-Nam, the love that we didn’t expect but the love that was perfect for us.

I think this drama does its best when delivering on emotionally complex scenes, such as when the female lead tells the male lead to go before they have dinner in the first episode, and when both of them talk about their "weaknesses" around the second to fourth episodes and throughout.

That said, there were many things I didn't like about this drama. The first is obviously the tonal shift in the middle which nearly went into makjang territory. I felt that they romanticised Mu-Hee's mental health struggle and didn't deal with it properly.
The second is the underdeveloped supporting characters --- the producer, the manager and the second male lead felt very one-dimensional, a stark contrast to the more complex leads.
The third is the unresolved plot lines --- we don't get to know why the SML didn't "like" the FL at first (was it because she didn't say thank you?), nor what actually happened between the SFL and ML for him to fall so much for her, and (spoiler) whether her liking him overlapped with her being in a relationship with his brother!
The third, and one of the biggest disappointments, is that I think they did not artistically weave in the foreign backdrops into the story as well as I had seen other dramas. For a drama with such a high budget I thought they would be doing more with filming abroad, but instead we get more scenes of them driving through hills and mountains than them actually exploring these foreign countries. I think it's because they didn't explore the history or landmarks of these countries a bit more, and the locals were also portrayed in a very caricatured manner.
The editing of this show is also not the best, and it really starts to falter toward the second half of the show with messy time skips and transitions.
Overall, the leads acted extremely well, unfortunately can't say the same for the other characters, and also about the story and editing.