tvN Mon-Tues Drama Lovely Runner Continues to Top May Buzz Rankings Heading into Finale Next Week
After the whirlwind March and April in K-drama land where Queen of Tears dominated, May has quieted down with just one buzzy drama. It remains Lovely Runner with Kim Hye Yoon and Byun Woo Seok, nothing else in recent weeks has gotten either ratings or buzz not Atypical Family, The Midnight Romance in Hagwon, or Chief Detective 1958. All this to say that getting a drama to resonate with viewers truly is hard and the outsized attention generated by LR is truly remarkable, though I did hear murmurings this week that the penultimate week’s episodes were not taking the plot down a path that viewers loved. I’m still waiting to binge it all but I hope it finishes strong next week.
Im loving Lovely runner so much! It’s the pure kdrama addiction that I haven’t felt in years! Not even queen of tears got me this hooked, that show kinda lost me in the second half… Anyway this one is such a lovely show with lovely characters and is all about the feels! There’s something utterly genuine about it and the emotions it evokes, I can barely explain it! The characters are awesome separately and amazing together, despite all the timelines they stay true to their innate character and nature. The story is riveting since episode 1 and is still going strong even if not everyone is loving the direction it’s going I’ll just say it’s at least not stagnant and tbh I think it makes sense and I have faith the production will give us a satisfactory ending! I’m so obsessed that I’m searching for BTS scenes, interviews and listening to the OST all day long! I can’t believe it’s ending next week, no more lovely runner to look forward to! I guess I will be rewatching it immediately after it’s ended lol! I can’t recommend this show enough <3
I couldn’t wait and binged watch all up to ep 12 lol. There are some silly scenes and fillers, but it’s still a good show. Love, love seeing BWS as the male lead on my TV screen for a drama!
I’m all caught up to episode 14 and I’m adoring it with my whole heart. I never expected to love this drama that much but it has surprised me greatly. It’s pure romcom goodness with exquisite chemistry between the leads. Hopefully it will have a good ending next week so I can rewatch any time I need a pick me up!! I’m also enjoying Atypical family and Hagwon in their own particular ways, LR is just too addictive lol
It’s no QOT, duh, but it’s enjoyable in a mindless sort of way. Just not feeling the drama this week tho and it felt quite repetitive with the memory reset. But still way better than the other options airing currently.
Midnight romance is such a snooze, and I’m not sure why I expected it to be otherwise. APS has never been my fav PD and never understood the hype around him. I thought this would be different and lo and behold, it’s not.
LR is this year’s King The Land, though I must say I’m enjoying it more than I did KTL. It’s a classic kdrama romcom, not on the same scale of Queen of Tears but it has all the ingredients – an OTP with great chemistry, annoying side characters, lots and lots of cutesy OTP scenes…..and a repetitive plot (I can deal with the memory reset thing but I’m honestly tired of the repetitive villain stuff)
I think Ahn Pan Seok has done some great dramas but he’s better in dramas that don’t focus on romance or have another angle to it besides just romance? My personal favourite is Heard it Through the Grapevine, but I thought the leads in Secret Love Affair and Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food at least had the chemistry to keep things moving. I’m not really seeing that with Jung Ryeo Won and Wi Ha Joon so yeah I ca see how it feels snoozy.
I really love the main couple and really loved this drama through about ep 8 (and loved the comedy in ep 11), but I must say I’m getting tired too. I absolutely hate it when a villain has indestructible plot armor.
[SPOILER ALERT]
Amnesia/forgetting everything happens to be one of my most hated tropes, right up there with childhood connection tropes.
Gosh!! Like hate amnesia themes too…there was a time that was so over used…
It seems to be coming back in trend since I can’t avoid it lately! QoT and now LR! I still really love this drama. I’m going to forgive the writer for everything if she gives me a satisfying ending that’s funny and sweet enough to give me a few cavities lol.
@Soph, 👍🤣
The OTP chemistry is up there with Coffee Prince and makes the show. OST is amazing. I bawled with Im Sol when 20s Sunjae died and I have not cried watching a drama in more than 10 years. I know I am going to rewatch this many times. What a surprise this has been!
I hope KHY and BWS careers take off after this.
this drama makes my heart so happy. i have been obsessed since the first episode, and i can’t believe it’s been able to maintain the quality all the way through to episode 14 so far. i know some people are not completely happy with the latest twist, but i think it makes sense and understand why sol/the writer made that choice. since the emotional core of this drama is so strong, i’m quite happy to overlook the finer details of the time travel elements. i think the chemistry between byeon wooseok and kim hyeyoon is one for the books. it’s simply legendary.
The amnesia thing is her last chance to save him. I mean, it’s important to the story. But fate is playing with them. I usually dont like the amnesia theme either, but for this drama, in my opinion, it’s needed.
Their chemistry is chemistry-ing. KHY is one of those actresses who speaks with her eyes. She’s truly amazing.
I want them in a melodrama. He’s the anti-hero who falls deeply for the female lead. But hope this time, he wont turn into ‘cassava’ lol
This drama was great from the beginning till they met as adult. The story went downs and turned in circles since they got back in the past with their college years. The story doesn’t make sense and the rules change. The idea of a killer was really bad, depressin was far more an interesting theme.
But the couple is adorable.
It’s like QoT for me, the success rests on the love story.
Honestly started it with zero expectations and genuinely grew to love the plot and its characters. It’s more exceptional for me because personally, I despise the time travel genre but can endure in the rare case it if the plot is logical and makes sense and the acting is good. It took 14 episodes but what finally won me over was the insane chemistry between the leads and the realness of the acting. It’s down to earth, wholesome, goodness with amazing acting that feels authentic, in a way that even QOT did not. You feel immersed in their world and a part of it, instead of just an onlooker watching a drama unfold.
Really reminds me of the Reply series, and if you know how Korea loved those series, you’ll understand why they love this drama to bits. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the male lead and can finally see why he’s taken Korea by storm. And the female lead is just this loveable, amazing bundle of sunshine. Two thumbs up. I do hope it ends well next week.
The chemistry of the couple is great , i felt the same for the couple of Strong Woman Do Bong Soon ! The drama started great but lately it’s repetitive , the story of the serial murder it’s not well defined in some timelines . But as i said the couple is too cute that i can’t help to watch . I liked Chief inspector 58, it was rather simple and manichaean but for a non asian watcher interesting to see a little of South korea history . The camaraderie of the actors fun to watch . I watched Midnight romance but i don’t click with the story as for Dare to love me i don’t like it and the couple doesn’t help either , i have nothing against the actors as i like them in another projects . But together it’s a big no for me . Actually aside Lovely Runner there is nothing much to watch .
yeah I think it’s getting repetitive, mainly with the murder stuff and also the time travel rules apparently changing? I can let that pass as long as they show us lots of interactions between the couple but it’s getting a bit confusing to try and follow the plot. And the murder stuff is just ‘she puts herself in danger to try and save him in the past, he gets involved anyway and then gets hurt/killed, either there or later’ like girl this is the THIRD time this is happening now?? (OG timeline, the first ‘meeting as adults’ timeline, now as college students)
I like Ahn Pan Seok’s previous dramas but Midnight Romance is just indifferent and isn’t clicking for me either.
I just caught up to episode 14 and I love it, it’s adorable and charming, the chemistry between the leads is 10/10 and Kim Hye Yoon deserves full credit for her performance in this drama – as some critics have mentioned, she not only makes the character of Sol adorable, it’s through her character’s eyes that you see the appeal of Sunjae (and I get why everyone is going nuts for Byun Woo Seok too, I think his acting is SO much better than in Record of Youth and even if there’s still some room to improve, he matches Kim Hyeyoon’s energy well).
The drama’s greatest strength is its OTP and the writers have had enough sense to keep the focus on them so far, that said the ‘random plot armour serial killer’ angle is getting VERY repetitive. I don’t even mind the amnesia (just as I didn’t mind it in QoT either, what I minded was being robbed of OTP time and relationship AGAIN), what I do mind is excessive screen time given to villains and random side characters at the expense of what viewers are actually watching these dramas for. I know that it’s the plot but I’m fine with Sunjae having amnesia and ‘remembering’ Sol in dreams since their relationship stays in some form in every timeline, what I’m not so fine with is ….how much screen time is Mr Murder going to get again in the finale week?
For the record, I’m really glad to see a drama in a weekday time slot getting so much love and buzz, after QoT I want more kdramas to be successful so tvN doesn’t cancel their drama timeslot the way the terrestrial networks cancelled their Wednesday-Thursday drama slot.
Yeah ! I hope so . When i think that a long time ago…Wednesday/ Thursday drama slot was much coveted with high profile drama !
I’m actually obsessed with LR. There’s some filler scenes but the chemistry is so good, not just with the main leads. I love all the twists and turns. Idk why ppl call this an amnesia tripe where he doesn’t remember her. She goes back in time to erase all memories of them. It was painful to watch all their moments together erased. But it made sense unlike a lot of amnesia tropes. I think LR uses a lot of tropes but it does it genuinely and in such detail that you buy into this fantasy world. ❤️ it!!