My Secret Romance (2017)

This is the kind of drama you watch strictly to get a your romance fix! If you're not a romcom fan then don't even bother with this one, but If you are a a fan this could be worth watching if you keep your expectations realistic. This one is like a romcom snack. There are enough likable characters, cute moments, and a decent enough story to keep it entertaining, but there isn't really much substance. What really matters is that the 2 leads make a good pair, and that's what kept me watching.

Song Ji Eun is cute as the shy and repressed Yoo Mi, and Sung Hoon is perfect as the "sexy and he knows it" typical spoiled chaebol's son Cha Jin Wook. Of course their paths keep crossing in the expected ways, and their chemistry goes from annoyance to playfulness and then escalating quickly... VERY quickly. I think that's what initially got me hooked. Still, it was obvious pretty early on that there wouldn't be much to this story. As cute as they were as a couple this love story got repetitive pretty quickly, and towards the end was so unrealistic and overly cheesy that I stopped being interested in them at all. Their inner monologues tried so hard to be deep but they seemed really shallow, and the stakes just didn't seem as high as their reactions made them out to be. The more dramatic it got the worst their acting got.

I think the drama did have some entertaining supporting characters. I enjoyed the mom, even if she was a frustrating mess, and Nam Ki Ae is always good at playing a mess of a mother. I liked the second lead, although he didn't have much of a story to work with. My favorite was the Secretary, who's suits made him an instant scene stealer, and his boo in the kitchen staff. The supporting cast helped to make some of the most repetitive moments easier to sit through.

Even though this drama is shorter than most, I still think it was too long. It could have easily been 10 episodes, or maybe even less. I still found myself eager to watch more moments between the two characters, but in the last episodes it was like they just gave up and started to rely on flashbacks! Ugh! The flashback abuse in this drama is pretty epic. Not only does every episode end with recaps that were super literal, extra cheesy, and felt completely unnecessary, but the final episodes almost seemed like music videos strung together with fan compilations of all the cutest scenes. The last 4 episodes are almost unwatchable because it was mostly everything I already saw. They repeated scenes so much that they lost all of their previous charm, including the kiss scenes.

The music is also super cheesy, which matched the show well, but it was driving me a little nutty. There was even a moment where Yoo Mi sings for so long I though it was turning into a musical. So I give the music a 4 for simply not being my taste. Not to mention the damn sound effects. Someone got a little too happy with the sound effects machine!

Would I watch this again? Maybe. I would probably skip the last episodes 10-12, but it's entertaining enough to watch if I need another quick romcom fix. The ending is such a let down, so I'd really have to have run out of other things to watch.

Overall this is a quick romcom you can easily binge watch, but I say keep your finger on the fast forward button for those repetitive flashbacks. If the idea of literally falling into someone's arms sounds too corny, or if a boss using abuse of power to flirt with an employee sounds like a reason to visit HR not a premise for a love story, then maybe you should watch a different kind of drama instead. I really wish they would have put more effort into the story, but for what it was, I was entertained enough to keep watching. For those not scared away by these mediocre reviews I'd say lower your expectations, and enjoy this cheesy romcom snack. (get it... she makes food :( sorry! )

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This started out cute and fluffy, but the last few episodes were miserably drawn out.
EP 10-12 were painfully slow, they could have been cut and pasted into 1.5 episodes.
13 was ehhhh.... This isn't a masterpiece, the writing is loosely constructed and poorly executed. The story has little depth or substance to hold it together for 13 hours. I can't connect with the female lead's choices (especially in the later half) or her pitiful deer lost in headlights expression...I was hoping it would be a drama somewhat like 1% of Something since the director is the same, but it doesn't even come close in comparison. I Liked Ep. 1-9 but Ep. 10-13.5 are a hard sell.

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