Crash Course in Romance

This is a slow burn romance drama featuring older characters which is refreshing from the high school romances I tend to watch. I really dislike this industry’s way of adding serial killers/thriller elements that is unnecessary in an otherwise cute story. That plot here resulted in episodes 13-14 being totally depressing and what I’d describe as the saddest scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a Kdrama. The finale ends cutely (as expected of the genre convention) but we warned about the latter half of the season becoming unusually depressing - that definitely knocked it down a rating for me even though I found the ending extremely satisfying.

This series really surprised me. I thought it would be a cutesy, light romance, but it flipped the script, and it took me a couple of episodes to acclimatize to the shift. It does follow several developing love stories, but there is also a mystery, murders, life lessons, and for me, a westerner, insights into some elements in the east, like the fierce academic pressure on young people, from both their families and their educations systems, that are the core plot engine of the series. The humour is endearing but seldom silly. The drama can be quite profound. The casting is amazing, especially the female cast. The male lead character was a little hard to warm up to but there was a good redemption arc. I give this series a high 8 (really fascinating) out of 10. [Dramedy, Mystery, Crime, Romance]