@hacja your #1 is just straight genius. I needed that laugh!

Hahaha, great write-up!!

Really good rom-coms are so rare nowadays. It feels like it's been a while since I seen an epic, deep romance.

Thank you, @hacja!

I'm the same, I like romance in my Kdramas, after I'm not difficile with the genre rom-com, slice of life, comedy, etc.

But this year was disapointing with romance.

I'm happy to know I'm not the only one who missed a good romance in 2022!

First off, 😅.
The trip down your ten dates has me laughing to bring serious to sad to thoughtful, in any order as it hits me, and finally, deadpan laughter thanks to that last screenie. Truly, many shows this year deserve that face after wasting such a time investment and LiFS is one of them.

Yes, romance dramas were very disappointing this year! However, I actually LOVED From Now On, Showtime. The romance grabbed me and didn't let go; I still rewatch scenes from it on occasion.

I dropped Twenty-Five, Twenty-One after the first episode made me doubt that the leads would end up together and my intuition turned out to be correct.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, Love is for Suckers actually had an excellent romance--it just wasn't between the main leads, lol. I'm a little bitter after I compiled a video of all of their scenes together to put on YouTube (so scenes where they interacted) and it was a whole 30 minutes. THIRTY MINUTES, out of sixteen hours!

Loved this so much!

My favorite lines:

*The couple here was jinxed at first, and then the odds of my enjoying watching them went down even further, so I didn’t want to push my luck by continuing.

If ever there was a warning label that should be inserted into the opening scene of a drama, it is this one for "Jinxed."

*This show was enormously popular because of some beautifully acted and filmed romantic scenes, but it hurt that the lengthy and deeply felt first romance shown throughout the drama proved to have virtually NO IMPACT on the female lead’s adult life.

Yes, yes, so much yes. I often struggle to explain how 25/21 can simultaneously be a masterpiece and a disaster of a love story, and you've articulated exactly why. Writers: it's only a touching, poignant lesson in the fleeting nature of youthful love if the main protagonist actually remembers she was once in love.

*On the other hand, if I ever felt the need to pay for romantic companionship, I would instead seriously consider becoming a cloistered monk. And any Park Min-young drama that makes me contemplate celibacy has failed!

I would add that any PMY drama that features lingering, male-gaze servicing shots of her working out in a tight leotard and yet still leaves one contemplating celibacy has absolutely failed.

*After seeing this drama, I am worried about the state of romantic passion in young people today.

I am so jealous that I didn't think of this line first, because it so aptly fits the utter blandness that is "Small Town."

*Am I not their type, because I don’t eat at Subway or drink instant coffee? Do they think I’m not sincere, because I reject the logic of noble idiocy?

LMAO!

In all seriousness, I think they've just forgotten that the best love stories don't need gimmicks (a romance set in the high-stakes world of reality TV! A woman who makes her living pretending to be someone's wife!) or bad sandwiches or sugary coffee: they only need two people with chemistry who spend some time bantering, then having serious conversations, then longing for each other, then kissing. That's it. That's all romance lovers really want.

Why is it so hard for them to give it to us?

You could have gotten a 3 for 1 sale for an ensemble bad romance if you chose THIRTY NINE. Mi-jo had zero chemistry with her BF; Chang-Young had only an emotional affair; and like for most of the show Joo-Hee was friend zoned into the background.

"the adult version of the female lead had obviously been soul-shifted" 😂😂
That made me laugh so hard. I totally agree tho.

Oh, you didn't like Small Town or Showtime Begins :(
I really enjoyed those two (except for SB's final episode).

Excellent write-up, @hacja! I too have found the 2022 crop of romance kdrama severely lacking and disappointing. What happened to the chemistry? The magic of falling in love? To freaking romance? There was none of that, absolutely nothing, in the crop of dramas you listed. I had the unfortunate experience of watching at least a few episodes of all ten shows and suffice to say, I want my hours back.

No wonder I gravitated towards cdramas romances this year - I am not so blindingly loyal to the kdrama medium that I can’t admit their Chinese counterpart’s output was vastly superior in terms of romance. In the future, when I think of romance dramas from 2022, I won’t remember the Korean dramas (well, unless I’m reminiscing about my hair-pulling frustration and migraines), but I will certainly think back on many of the Chinese dramas fondly.

Thank you for the Why Her? slander.

I have only seen Twenty Five Twenty One from your list, and your description of the drama is spot on!

I saw a lot of these too, and mostly agree with you. Except for when it comes to Twenty Five Twenty One. They told us all up front how it was going to end, so I just went along for the ride. It's one of the better dramas I watched this year.

Thank you @hacja for that tour through some less than stellar 2022 rom coms. While I enjoyed 1 or 2 on the list I think that while many at least started relatively strongly, so many went south at the halfway point. I am still wondering why this is. On paper, a rom com should be relatively straightforward, and leave the viewer going away with a smile on their face.
Unfortunately, for me at least, many have left me just giving out at some ridiculous development at the last minute or some weird out of character actions from one of the main protagonists. Is it that more junior writers take over for the second half? I've yet to get to the bottom of this.

Very good analysis of the problems with several of these shows. WE actually enjoyed TODAY'S WEBTOON (which really was not supposed to be a romance in any case) and ONCE UPON A SMALL TOWN (except for the older ladies constant fighting). My disappointment with LOVE IS FOR SUCKERS probably stems from the way that the 'reality TV show' was used- just as you said- and the incredible waste of the talents of both leads. Maybe the drama gods will give them another shot with a better comedy.

As for your #1- I dropped it after the first two episodes and I am glad that I did. That was many hours of my life NOT wasted by sheer absurdity.

Dear @hacja: tried them all and agree with you on every dang one. Also traveled this week with Heyer novels as my long-flight pals. Many writers are called but few have any talent whatsoever.
Now Heyer has her hits and misses (@ over 50 novels) but her characters are given space to breath and become real.
Frankly, reading Koala's translation of Tong Hua's Lost You Forever has spoiled me for all crappily plotted novels in any culture. Can't wait for the Cdrama adaptation. Give it a try: Koala's playground - menu - drama/ book recaps/ (scroll down to) - LOST YOU FOREVER.
You'll thank me, seriously.

Amazing review and great pick for the topic. 😂

The only drama I've seen out of your list is ONCE UPON A SMALL TOWN. Granted, Joy as a policewoman was not at all convincing, but I thought the vet was ok. And for once kdrama characters didn't break up just because one of them moves 8 hours away. The screaming ajummas counted as the horror element in an otherwise bucolic drama (I am so grateful that no serial killer showed up). Overall it was a very Hallmark-style drama, sweet and cute and only digestible if I'm in a certain mood.

*Applause*

May the drama gods take heed of your review and bless us with romance in 2023...

@hacja thank you for sharing this cleverly written, find the hidden tropes, witty reflection of the sad state of K romance. It perfectly captured that growing sense of disappointment when watching a drama with diminishing returns on the original brief. I think a couple of the shows were never meant to be a romance and it was shoehorned in to increase the potential audience; yes I am looking at you Today’s webtoon and Why her.

I feel your pain @hacja. Nine of the shows you listed I either dropped or didn’t even bother starting. The exception was Twenty Five, Twenty-One which I completed. I was actually okay with their break-up but wish her future self was not included as part of the story for the reason you mentioned.

The best romantic comedy I watched this year? Gaus Electronics—which wasn’t even marketed/labeled as one. Go figure 🤷🏻‍♀️

I only watched two of these shows and only one in its entirety. 😂 As a self professed romantic, I steered away from straight romance this year—still not sure why.

#2 'Jinxed At First' got more palatable the more it went along, for the simple reason the lead actress was better equipped to play her later personality of jaded and calculating that she was her initial personality of naive and bubbly. The dark fairy tail aspect was more dominant in the latter half. Any yes, the implied possibility of an incestuous second male lead love-match did come to pass. I haven't seen anything that creepy since 'Old Boy'.

My worst date pick is a controversial one. 'My Liberation Notes' Mr. Gu and Mi-jeong. They undoubtedly had chemistry, but you should not get back with your alcoholic boyfriend after having been ghosted for 3 years just for the pleasure of watching him drink himself to death because you hate the world. That a whole new level of perversion.

@hacja It is always a joy to read your articles. I asked this question to Sic, so I will ask you the same (coz I'm curious). Why did you not drop these dramas when you realized that they are never going to get better after a certain number of episodes?

Hi @hacja - I am normally just a lurker here on dramabeans but I loved this post so much I had to write something. It was humorous and witty. Thanks for a great read. My sentiments are the same as yours. My favorite genre is also romance and this year I was disappointed with kdramas and this post summed it up nicely. I wish they would go back to good kdramas we used to love and enjoy.

P.S. I have to say Twenty Five Twenty One is the worst drama of the year for me. I feel like I have been cheated of the 14 hours I watched (skipped watched the rest of them). With a great actress as the lead, this was such a shame.

That's a nice, witty, funny piece of writing you put out there! And thank you for reassuring at least some of my viewing choices this year. I didn't watch even one of the mentioned dramas, but because of some of them were pretty popular for at least some time I sometimes thought I should try. Glad I didn't.
But then, I'm a very difficult costumer for romances as that is not my favourite genre and I'm just nagging all the time or tune out. Romances anger me too much too often (k or not k doesn't matter here, everywhere on the world they try to sell me ridiculous behaviour as normal), but sometimes I get lured in and on some rare instances I'm even enjoying them! I hope you'll find some romances to enjoy in the future so that you can write an equally funny piece next year about your most successful ten dates with kdrama romance!

Thanks for the giggles, this was a therapeutic read ! 😂😂😂

I have seen only part of Forecasting Love and Weather and the whole of 2521 so I'm glad I didn't start all the rest. This year has been a very strange, bad year of romance in Kdramaland. I'll have to slightly disagree on 2521 as I love it to pieces. I expected the outcome of the relationship, so my expectation was only that if they could stick to the foreshadowed ending (..you know it's somewhat of a rarity in Kdramaland) then I would think of it as an already coherent story. That was why I didn't feel betrayed with all the unfolding despite the rush in the final 2 eps.

I giggled seeing your pictures and their captions. My favorites are the ones from FLAW (and it's indeed a flaw, so to speak) and Love is for Suckers (though I didn't watch the latter). Thanks for the funny piece!

Indeed, this year was a bad one for romance in Kdrama. I very much enjoyed Shooting Stars and Gaus and felt my heart being punctured by tiny needles in My Beloved Summer but overall, the romance nowadays contain more angst and elements of friendship than longing gazes and passion.

Thank you for the write up, your clever writing always brings me a smile! And thank you for properly discouraging me from continuing Café Minamdang!

@hacja Romance is my favorite too. I’m interested to know what is your short list.

Enjoyed reading your write-up!

Love your take on this as I had the same sentiments. I did dropped a few and those I did watched a few at the beginning I dropped. Love in Contract I did watched but could not finished the last few episodes. Although I really did like most of PMY's shows in the past but Forecasting Weather and Love in Contract were not her best ones.

As much as I genuinely love Junho’s acting and came to really like Lee Saeyoung’s as Seong Deokim, it was really difficult to watch his often brutal ‘wooing’ (rolling my eyes) of her which was the Joseon equivalent of dating. And, Jeongjo really did kill her family’s poor servants as comeuppance for her second refusal of him. Apparently, he mentioned it in the epitaph he wrote when she died.

Terrific post, beautifully written, @hacja! As a fellow male romance enthusiast, I appreciated your sharing your views as I mostly get sideways glances from my wife and others when I watch or talk about these shows. (Actually, I never talk about them IRL anymore. I can learn.)

You mentioned Business Proposal, which was probably my favorite new romance show this year (at least the first two thirds, which I loved; the last third I didn't mind). And, not too make too much of a quibble, I liked 25.21 for exactly the reason you didn't: I thought it accurately represented how our youthful relationships can fade away with time, which I found affecting if melancholic. To each ones own.

Thanks again for giving me a great start to the day and to all drama/romance enthusiasts out there: Fighting!

This was such a fun read :D
I loved, absolutely loved 'Once Upon a Small Town' though. I am now reading the manhwa - Accidental Country life.
The pace was just right for me!!