I was initially struck by the stylish direction and videography, reminiscent of a tv commercial, but not as obnoxious in that respect as some dramas and movies I’ve seen. That, plus the premise of the IT world reimagined as the fashion industry (not a single nerd works for the two biggest “search engine” companies) was enough to keep me watching in the beginning.

Two of the leads, the Ta Mi and Cha Heon characters, were well-acted and likable, as were their boyfriends (although it took me several episodes to stop thinking of Park Morgan as the sadistic violent scary guy from Na Ajushi).

Unfortunately, the third couple, Ga Geong and Jin Woo, were not only poorly acted with no charisma whatsoever, their characters were poorly written as well, with uninteresting back stories and actions and motivation that lacked credibility. Every time they came onscreen, they dragged down the story and I wanted to fast-forward. Also, they were miscast. Did some powerful chaebol owner pressure the studio into casting some of these actors? Ga Geong is clearly at least a decade older than Cha Heon, so how could they have gone to high school together? Also, their high school versions looked absolutely nothing like the adult actors, so I always felt like I was watching different people and that helped to weaken the emotional resonance of the back story between those two. Also, the significant history between Ta Mi and Ga Geong was told to us but not shown (the one brief flashback to the early startup days didn’t cut it), so again that just sucked all the emotional depth out of that relationship.

I wish they had added more screen time to some of the secondary team members like Ellie, Jennie, and Matthew and reduced the tedious time devoted to Ga Geong and her hubby. Those secondary characters were very likable but we didn’t really get to know them. Jennie in the brief karaoke scene totally lit the screen on fire when she was shown singing and dancing for a split second. The chaebol granny was good too, and she was by far the best part of that whole Ga Geong side of the story.

Ta Mi was very charming and relatable and made a strong anchor for the entire drama. However, there were a few things that I would tweak about her. Her emotional hang-ups about relationships got really tiresome, and their origins weren’t explained well. So the fact that you had this perfect, strong, smart, and totally competent woman who had this weird flaw seemed a little off. And she did that eye widening trick a little too often. Also, this isn’t necessarily a problem, but when she would get that emotionally dead inside look staring off into space, it reminded me of Tale of Two Sisters. And do most Koreans wait such an annoyingly long time to stare at their ringing phone before answering it? If I waited that long, it would go to voicemail. And I think they made Park Morgan into too perfect a boyfriend, so he seemed too good to be true. I wish they had made him more like a real person.

The depiction of the IT world and search engines was cartoonish and almost entirely made up. If they had done more research and portrayed it more realistically, that would have been nice, but it would have been more of a pleasant surprise than an expectation, since these types of dramas are usually pure fantasies.

Some random thoughts: Did anyone else keep thinking of the Korean word for vitamin every time they heard Bae Ta Mi’s name? Why are western actors who appear in Kdramas so terrible? Why would Bae Ta Mi and Cha Heon ever go out with that slimy guy who works in the video game group? Did Maserati just provide their cars for free or did they pay a hefty product placement fee?

Overall though, I enjoyed it.