Thanks @lollypip

Champagne 🥂 for everyone who finished!

Aw, @lollypip, thank you for the recap, you must be really fed up at this point. I really enjoyed the first ten or so episodes of this show, but I just felt my interest wane and I gave up. You could tell the actors were having a riot back when this drama was still clearly a comedy! 😆

Once again, thanks for your willingness to review this fairytale (it was a fairytale, right?)
Instead of sweet, it was syrupy saccharin gag-me.
At least I liked HJH as Wang joon.
Is the Taiwanese version worth watching?

Thank you @lollypip.

Among the many unanswered questions this nonsensical show left behind is whatever happened to Da Da’s debt for buying Young Gu.

Let’s see how his critics are going to view Wang Joon telling Da Da the truth about Young Gu? Will they still be able to argue he is selfish and doesn’t love Da Da? Of all her so-called friends everyone else around her took a freaking robot’s side. He is the only one who thought of Da Da. I would be furious with them all if my friends hid such a thing from me.

What a joke that Da Da never treated Young Gu like a human. So that’s the koolaid the writer is drinking.

That wedding dress reflected the mood of that romance really well, Da Da looked like a nun in it.

I liked the robot doctors but it was unnecessary to see the scene with the ex CEO who ruined Da Da and Wang Joon’s relationship. He should have been in jail. The only thing I liked about the ending was that Da Da and Wang Joon were able to be friends in the end. That ending was otherwise absurd. Didn’t Young Gu stop working the day they took the picture? When did he print it and wrote a note behind and leave it in the house? And the last scene? I can’t even….

Despite the crapshoot script, I do want to applaud the actors and cinematographer for the single-shot sequence that included almost every character on the set of Doctor AlphaGo Season 4. That must have took a while to rehearse and complete flawlessly.

As I have stated before, I am completely underwhelmed by this show. They carefully show the umbrella on the passenger seat of Wang-joon's car, so how are we to know that it is Yong-Gu? I prefer (much as I liked the robot) to think that it was Wang-Joon after his return from the U.S.

I didn't watch the show but I read all of your recaps, @lollypip! They were great reads and good job for sticking it through.

Finally this show has ended. Congrats to y'all who finished it. Lets move on to better dramas

First glance at that picture, and I totally thought this had something to do with Weightlifting Fairy 😂

Thank you, @lollypip, for your final recap and summation of MY ABSOLUTE BOYFRIEND. My hat is off to you for seeing it through to the end.

*passes the Excedrin for Kdrama Headache #4,692*

Like you, I went into this drama with high hopes and expectations, which were dashed to smithereens as the show wore on. It did have its moments, but not enough of them. I feel for the cast and crew who were giving their all.

Rather than bemoan MAB's shortcomings, I'd like to offer an alternative to it. A while ago, I stumbled across a Taiwanese movie that I have held in reserve until after MAB's finale. To Beanies in need of a palate cleanser, I heartily recommend KUNGFU CYBORG: METALLIC ATTRACTION (2009). From the excellent opening montage that shows a cyborg's components and subsystems being tested and assembled, I was drawn into the story. There's no doubt that uri hero, K-1, was built on an assembly line. The last part installed is his "heart." Immediately after that, these words appear onscreen, as if by Teletype:

"If God created humans, and they created robots, should we not question our makers the way humans question theirs?"
– K-88's last words, 2046

Ah, some philosophical grist for the mill.

As a highly-advanced cyborg, K-1 can pass for human. He has little robot quirks, however, that clue us in that he's not flesh-and-blood. He made quite a memorable first impression on me. I’ll zip my lip lest I spill the beans.

KUNGFU CYBORG: METALLIC ATTRACTION made me laugh out loud with its snappy dialogue, resident (inept) mad scientist, and clever mix of cop show, science fantasy, superhero anime, and romance – along with a dash of wuxia action. And two heroes, plus a renegade cyborg cop with an existential crisis. There are enough robot ground rules to make things interesting. I especially got a kick out of the Transformer-meets-Gulliver-in-Lilliput action. The romance and bromance were touching.

All in all, it was a good watch that tickled my funny bone. Be aware that it is not purely a comedy. There's pathos, too, but it is apropos and in keeping with the film's premise. Enjoy. ;-)

all i can say is i made it till 2/3 in then had to quit. i watched the japanese one first and it was so much better. i recommend it if you can stand to try again. the actor made the robot "act" like a robot.

Mad props to you @lollypip for sticking to it to the end, continuing despite falling ill, not copping out or condensing the last recaps(as I suggested).

I usually don't regret completing any drama no matter how crap. I have mixed feelings about this one though. I had gone into it with rather low expectations, hoping for some light fluff and comedy yet I ended up disliking it so much. Worse, my opinion of Yeo Jin Goo changed so much after this drama. I used to try every drama he's in after I first saw him in Circle but now it's difficult to scrub this role off my mind. . It's not fair but you know sometimes all it takes is one project to ruin an actor's standing in your mind. Hotel Del Luna is not the one which is going to change my mind so it will take another before I can watch him again.

Thanks to the writing and acting, I could not feel anything for Young Gu and Da Da. Selling human robot romance is more difficult than it looks. I think it starts with 'fleshing' out the robot - this part has to be as intricate as possible because we need to know how Mr Robot works - be convinced that he is a robot but looks human, sold on his superior abilities but not without limitations and get charmed by his robotic quirks. This drama never bothered to do this. Putting aside the ridiculous heart cooler issue at the end, it's obvious they couldn't bothered with any kind of scientific explanation. I'm even not talking about the real academic stuff but those of the movie making type. This is exacerbated by Yeo Jin Goo's acting as the robot. There is nothing robotic about Young Gu, he might just as well be a new guy in the neighborhood who decided to crash in on Da Da. With no help from the script and poor interpretation of the role, I was never charmed by Young Gu. This is the first and huge flaw of the drama.

It wasn't entirely without hope because some interesting issues were brought up like how do we define love and how human love is flawed(Wang Joon personifying that) but they were never dealt with in a satisfying manner. Actually, the answer to the latter is simply ridiculous.

The only character I cared for is Wang Joon. Yeah, HJH acted his little heart out. I've always like him but now I understand better why his acting resonate with me. No matter how frustrating Wang Joon could sometimes be, I never doubted his love for Da Da.

I think the ending was a cop out, aimed to satisfy the two camps. If you are rooting for Young Gu, then you'd take the little movement of his thumb as indication that he has miraculously 'woken up' from his slumber. Pretty much like Sleeping Beauty. We are to believe Da Da's tears and undying love resurrected Young Gu.
If you are in camp Wang Joon, then you would take the umbrella in his car as the same one in the last scene.

I dislike Da Da more than Diana by the end of the drama so I hope she ends up with her love bot and live happily ever after. Wang Joon should move on and distance...

The Japanese version is a lot better. This K-remake does not make any sense. Da-da’s crying was increasingly annoying as time goes on. What a failed adaptation!

Watching it until the end was almost a torture, so I REALLY applause you for reviewing it.
At least it's over...

thanks for the recaps...i stopped watching after 16 episodes (from total 40).

I like Yeo Jin goo , but I pray in the name of the Lord for him not to choose this kind of drama anymore, I watch the first quarter of the episodes, but what made me give this drama 6.5/10 was lollipip recaps which I loved @ lollipip thanks for recapping this, it was a good ride thanks to ur recaps.

i started this Kdrama version, but dropped it after a couple eps...

all i remember from the Jdrama version is that i was sobbing at the end...

and then, in japan they do a "2 hr special" after a very popular series so i watched the japanese SP Absolute Boyfriend -- and i was sobbing all over again at the end, asking myself "what were you thinking???"

I only watched here and there, but this show is um dunno how to say this but undercooked severely. It should've been a great idea but it wasn't executed well. The actors tried to do what they could to savage it. Yeo Jin-gu is a cutie, he has such a deep voice lol. He looked like a soft-boi which was made him look approachable and puppy dog-ish. He should return to this type of soft-boi look in a show that's better plotted next time.

Me thinks Viki pre-produced it and KBS was like well we'll just broadcast this since we didn't pay the budget I believe. Glad that Hotel del Luna has turned out incredibly well for Yeo Jin-gu after this mishap.

HJH needs to star in a drama where he is a Joseon military person who was injured in battle (the kind of injury that prevents him to return to fighting himself). He proved his bravery and valor in his fighting, so even though he is not upper class, he is given a prestigious post (by a prudent king) to teach the military arts to upper class children. But the children hate him because they see his training as "bullying", and they know his lower class roots. Also, he doesn't talk much (just generally), so he doesn't defend himself against their accusations, which eventually spread to their parents. Once the parents get involved, a full fledged campaign starts against the "low class" martial arts teacher who is beating up the kids. (Some of the parents are well-intentioned, and others are not, but they are all against him because they believe their kids, and not necessarily unfairly.) It starts with the audience thinking he's kind of a bully as well, but as the drama unfolds, it becomes clear that his motivation is entirely to limit the injuries and deaths they sustain when they inevitably have to fight as well (because he's seen it and is shaken by it).

I just really love the idea of him in a role where he doesn't talk much, and where these characters that he builds so well through actions and glances rather than words and extreme expressions is fully given a chance to develop. Anyway, I've written the whole thing in my mind. I think people would watch that.

I've never watched any versions of this story or read the manga it's based on (although I plan to read it at some point) so forgive me if I'm talking out the side of my mouth because I don't know what I'm talking about, but every version of this drama seems to do pretty poorly (or at the very least has mixed results) with audiences and are all plagued with writing flaw after writing flaw, and I'm wondering if the reason is to do with their being something wrong with the source material that the adaptation writers aren't skilled enough to fix. All of the adaptations that I know about mainly seem to have a lot of trouble making up their mind about who they want the female lead to end up with at the end or just with making the choice clear to the audience, and the most logical explanation to me for why All of them have that same problem would be that the manga must have that problem as well. This isn't going to stop me from reading the manga, but it does keep me from watching the adaptations as that's just not a viewing experience I'm interested in having. Has anyone here actually read the manga and know if this problem stems back that far? Or does the manga not struggle with that, and in that case, why do all of the adaptations seem to? Or am I just making this all up in my head?

Despite that the show left a lot of plot holes(Like what happened to Da Da’s debt or why Diana and others involved in stealing the cooler weren’t given proper accountability, and other stuff). I must admit that this adaptation is the one where I cried the most.
I’ve noticed that people are bothered to why Da Da easily moved on from a 7 year long relationship yet still haven’t moved on from her relationship with Yeong gu even after 3 years, please do keep in mind that the length of a relationship doesn’t define the strength of it.
I was in a 2 year relationship yet I moved on from it easily one-two weeks after the break up. Weeks went by and I met someone else and we dated for 2 months and half but things didn’t worked out and it’s been a year and more now but I still cry about him because even if we didn’t became official, that 2 months and a half I spent with him was the happiest moment of my life, but I hope I could move on from him sooner. I’m sharing my personal experience to confirm that Da Da’s situation is not illogical and impossible at all.

About Wang Joon:
Keep in mind that they were forced to keep their relationship in secret for 7 years, and somewhere in those 7 years Wang Joon already got tired of keeping their relationship, the flower black boxes was just a good excuse for him to execute the break up and even Wang Joon himself admitted that. Wang Joon only fully took notice of how precious Da Da is when he saw that someone else(Yeong Gu) was taking care of her. I’ve noticed that despite that Wang Joon loves Da Da so much, he actually only cares about himself.
Let’s go first with the break up, at first he didn’t want to break up because he’ll guilt himself, but because of the flower boxes he found a way make the break up possible without guilting himself of the thought that he got tired of making the relationship work, he saw no competition at first, therefore, he didn’t saw Da Da’s worth.
But due to Yeong Gu he realizes Da Da’s worth and falls in love with her harder and aside from “love” getting Da Da back would most likely boost his pride too.

It’s alarming to how people find his character development into “sweet and charming” when it was completely toxic. Da Da was already in love with Yeong Gu yet Wang Joon guilts her for loving a robot. Ex’s shouldn’t have a say to what or who their ex will date. Let’s also tackle about how it angers Wang Joon when Da Da cries, he doesn’t even comfort Da Da but instead triggers her more. If he actually cared about Da Da then he should’ve given her comfort in times of trying instead of gaslighting. What he cared about is that he didn’t like the thought that Da Da’s sadness and tears hurt and bother him, his feelings for Da Da bothers him and he hates that. While that is a valid human emotion it was still wrong and toxic of him to lash out and gaslight Da Da and Yeong Gu.

About Um Da Da:
I liked her when she decided to break up with Wang Joon due to the mistreatment she was...

hahaahha i was able to finish this drama, FINALLY. It was okay, there were a few laughable scenes. But many things in this made no sense at all. Time to move on to next drama!