3/10 is my rating. This is a 2019 South Korean coming of age romance drama. Based on a webtoon of the same name. There are 8, 42-55 minute episodes in Season 1 and 6, 43-71 minute episodes in the 2nd season.

First I will provide a Unique Synopsis then Review
Synopsis

A brilliant student app developer, Cheon Duk-gu (Lee Jae eung) releases an app called Love Alarm that is a huge sensation in South Korea. A heart signal is displayed omn the user’s phone app if the app is active and someone feeling the love is within 10 meters. Kim Jojo (Kim So hyun) is more focused on earning money and attending school than she is in worrying about some app. Besides she already has a boyfriend, Jang Il sik (Shin Seung-ho) and does not want to reveql to him that she does not see him romantically. But things get complicated when she stumbles upon a phone with the app and finds herself caught in a love triangle with the unapproachable god of campus, Hwang Sun oh (Song kang) and his best friend Lee Hee Young (Jung Ga Ram). All the girls hope Hwang sun will set off their love alarm but Jojo and he develop interest in each other at first sight and he only sets off Jojo’s love alarm.

How do things change when technology reveals things that might be best hidden? And what if only one side is hidden?
Review

To say this series was disappointing just barely skims the surface of how awful it turns out to be. It does not end happily in my opinion and what could have been a good story takes a surprising and horrible turn. It made me sad. I would not rewatch it nor would I recommend it. I am baffled how anyone thinks this was a good romance. It portrayed such a twisted sense of what love should be I am still annoyed at the mere thought of this terrible series.
Spoilers


I seriously dislke sad movies and series. Some sad content is okay as long as it is brief and it turns around and winds up happy. With this series, it started with a heartwarming romance between Jojo and Sun Oh and, just when things are going well, they get into an accident and she decides to brutally end it with him. Lie and say she doesn’t care about him at all. It was a pointless break up for very selfish reasons. I thought they made a great couple he was lonely and sad from always being treated like an object by his parents and she was lonely and sad because she was an orphan, whose parents tried to murder her, and her aunt and cousin treated her like a lesser human being. They were able to comfort and provide solace to each other and they were all laughter and smiles when they were together. Their love made sense and was happy. If the show had kept that trajectory and even if they did that stupid break up but they got back together and made up later I would still have liked it. But the writers decided that would be the end of it for them as a couple even though they teased us with the possibility they would get back together. The scene where the Sun Oh’s mom, Jeong Mi-mi (Song Seon mi) talks about Jojo and pretty much points out she is still the one in his heart is pointless because they never get back together.

Another pointless story line was the whole conflict with Jojo’s best friend, Kim Jang go as they never reconciled and she just disappeared from the story line with no resolution on her crush nor the rift in their friendship. No big point to having either the best friend or ex boyfriend characters. Unless the point of thise two characters was other oeople thought Jojo could be a jerk, because later I wound up thinking so too. The way she ended her relationship badly with her boyfriend, Jang Il-sik (Shin Seung Ho) was a good indicator of the way she did things, If she decided it was over she did not care who got hurt.

Many commented that Sun Oh betrayed his friend when he went after the girl he had been crushing on for a long time. Hee young had been around Jojo because he liked her and would deliberately do things to bring himself into her presence. But that was it. He never acted on any of that and it made his admiration for her seem very shallow. Sun Oh asked him multiple times if he liked Jojo so he gave him ample opportunity to say he did and act on his feelings. So I wasn’t bothered by that because I felt Hee young had his chance and never took it. Just liking someone does not put your mark of ownership on them in my opinion. Those feeings have to be expressed and reciprocated.. So, I did not fault Sun Oh for liking Jojo and following through with his feelings. I found it incredibly sad that such an unlikable female lead became the one to create a large rift in the brotherly like friendship the two men had. Once again how lonely for Sun oh to lose his friend who eased his loneliness.

That whole “shield” so the other person cannot see how you feel about them thing just ticked me off. It was an incredibly selfish thing to know how the other person felt but have that shield deceive the other person into thinking you had no feelings for them. The fact that Jojo used that showed how selfish in love she was. She was perfectly fine with them exhibiting their feelings for her. Even reveled in it. But she was okay with never showing her feelings and being dishonest with them about why. Okay you cannot get the shield off your phone but how about you tell the other people you have the shield? It was selfish, narcissistic and made me not like her character at all. Oh I am so damaged I cannot show love even if I feel it? Find a shrink lady and quit using people to make yourself feel better.

One reviewer said all the relationships were very superficial. I have to agree. The software developer, Cheon Duk gu (Lee Jae-eung) liked Jojo’s cousin, Park Gul-mi, (Go Min Si) because she was pretty. And really that could be the only reason because she was an awful person. Hee young liked Jojo from afar, until they got deep in their relationship he only ever liked what he saw of her and it didn’t seem like he really knew her. The influencer that loved Sun oh, his new girlfriend, Lee Yuk-jo (Kim Si eun) did not need him to reciprocate which means she was with him for other reasons. Maybe the optics?

The one sided love thing portrayed as romantic was annoying. It was not romantic that Hee young loved Jojo from afar and was willing to be with her even though she said she may never ring his love alarm. That’s okay babe I will just continually stroke your ego by ringing your love alarm all the time. I found that disgusting and selfish of her. Sun oh found the love of his life in Jojo and you had the sense he would never love anyone else that deeply. He seemed sad and unhappy in the “fake” life he was living with hus new girlfriend. All of that being in the spotlight and objectified was exactly what he hated and found lonely in his childhood. But now we are supposed to believe that he will grow to love someone where he did not have those feelings in the beginning, when you are most likely to feel romantic love? So I did not find it romantic that eveyone woud up in these one sided love relationships and we were expected to believe the love would grow and everyone would wind up happy. That so rarely happens you can say it doesn’t happen. The person who loves more winds up hurt and emotionally starved all the time. The person that does not have that romantic love feeling feels guilty for being unable to feel that way about the other person. Love is not something that can be manufactured or forced. So I seriously disliked that this series tried to romanticize such a deeply painful and harmul relationship dynamic.

I could go on and on about how horrible this series was. But, to sum up my discontent, they Netflixed it, the female lead character was unlikable, everyone winds up in superficial substandard relationship and they lied about love. It made me sad for Sun oh that he ended up with someone he was not deeply in love with (they would have made awesome friends, Jojo is taking advantage of Hee young in a relationship where the love balance is so horribly off just to gratify herself and feel safe in the relationship. The horrible cousin winds up with a chance to be with the software developer who she treated like dirt early on and she never changed to become a better person. I strongly disliked every outcome. I never thought there would be a situation where I would be unhappy the second guy got the girl but they made it happen. Those two being together just made it so everyone would wind up miserable.

#KimSohyun #JungGaram #HwangSunoh #GoMinsi #LeeJaeeung #SongKang #KimSohyun #JungGaram #LoveAlarm #GoMinSi #LoveAlarm2 #SongSeonmi #JeongMimi