Thank you @dramaddictally for your hard work. You have done well. Please rest. You deserved it. Have a drink, and a massage.

2025 seems to be full of extremes. From the extremely bad Gossiping Stars to the extremely great Tangerines and now back to the extremely bad Unhealthy Love. This means the next one must be great right?

Special 💩 award for worst poster ever. Did someone actually look at it and think “looks good to me”

Thanks @dramaddictally for putting in the time to summarise all that is wrong with this drama. I don’t get how they will stretch this out for 12 episodes, it seemed to be struggling to fill the first two episodes. I wonder if the ratings will even register.

I feel for the actors sitting in that first read through feeling the pain like the January new gym recruits who signed up with the best of intentions and then realised the day after the cancellation option ended that they will be paying for this process for the next 12 months. The actors can at least accept that during these lean times even top actors have at least one mortgage payment drama in their repertoire while looking for the next drama they will actually enjoy working on. I wonder how bad the other offers were that they settled for this one😲 I bet they will be grateful no one will watch it. This joins the ranks of Bad memory eraser and DNA lover as dramas that seemed like they could work on paper but the trailers looked way better than the actual drama.

I watched the first 15 minutes and it is so bad. Very bad. I can’t understand why would someone producing this and think it’s good enough to see the light of the day.

I appreciate a great deal of what is said here but take a bit more positive view. Yes, the show is crude at times but, for instance, how often does a Kdrama explicitly acknowledge that women want to have sex? I love the fact that you caught the real meaning of our ML's comment to our FL's cowardly boyfriend- that his inability to get it up had nothing to do with our FL- and he should stop blaming her for hos problem.

I loved OH MY VENUS but felt that it had a major flaw: The ML was simply too perfect. As a re-telling of Pygmalion's story this simply does not ring true- Ovid's Pygmalion is in fact very much like the ML in this show.

But perhaps where I respectfully disagree is over the idea that one can simply develop confidence by snapping one's fingers and telling oneself to be confident. "You should have more confidence" is the single most useless piece of advice that can possibly be given: Attitudes are not developed that way. They are communicated by example and learned by experience. Engaging in exercise and developing one's body is in fact a time-tested method for building confidence. As one builds one's muscles and endurance one naturally comes to have a greater belief in one's self- because you can see that the results of your effort are in fact paying off- and because those results are literally always with you that lesson cannot be forgotten. Learning a skill or a language can have a similar effect- but probably none are as constant and immediate as the one that our ML is offering. You can put down the violin or the foreign language book, but you never put down your body. It is always with you as a constant reminder of what you can accomplish and that you are in fact a capable person.

This show is far from perfect and many of the jokes do indeed fall flat. I will keep watching anyway to see where we go from here.

I am interested enough to continue watching this show. I am hoping that most of the humiliation of the FL and the cringe humor is behind us, and the story will take off. To me Lee Jun Young picks some very interesting roles, and is comfortable playing villains or romantic leads. Certainly not all of his dramas or movies are good, but I would like to think that LJY chose to play this particular ML character, Hyun-joon, for a reason besides a paycheck (goodness knows he's been busy enough recently).

Thank you for your First Impressions. 🏋️‍♀️

Thank you @Oldawyer for your comment which puts the drama in perspective.

I agree the cringe factor is so high that if the leads were anyone other than Lee Jun-young and Jung Eun-ji I would have heartlessly dropped the drama asap. Even with them I was tempted to drop the drama at least ten times within the first ten minutes. But ... it does get better. A little. 🤏 And hopefully like carefully built muscles over a period of time the drama too will get better little by little over the next few episodes. I totally agree that it is highly divisive and anyone who doesn't want to wait around for the drama to er, tighten up is perfectly entitled to drop it. Like a few Beanies I guess I will stick around for this one.

There were some laugh out loud moments and some ver cringy ones. I won’t drop it yet and give it a few more episodes. I do fine my self more often trying to look at some of these more problematic dramas from a non western perspective. While in the west the self love movement is strong, in places like Korea and Japan etc, image is super important. Just look at the amount of diet stuff they have! So while this is shocking to us, it might not be so to the average Korean viewer. I think that’s why the more spicy unconventional dramas do so well in the west ( like Netflix shows) but tank domestically. It’s all who their target audience is.

After the first pair of episodes, two thoughts come to mind; gym-rat humor and what is the real story.

For the first, if you aren't in the bodybuilding or gym rat world then you will NOT get the humor. I've *known* most of those people at some time. Seeing those various types poked fun at was a hoot. Unfortunately, only a small niche will be able to appreciate it. The good news is that I don't think this is going to be the focus of this drama. Seriously! There is no describing "Second Day Sore" after a heavy chest day...

It seems that we get through her 3 months and Mi Ran can fit her "combat outfit" just fine, though we find out that there's plenty of other things that can go wrong. Things going wrong seem to involve her sister, and that's where I'm having the biggest problem. So, the real story is not going to be 12 episodes of her getting fit and discovering herself.

Which brings me to the second part. What is the real story here? It looks like it's going to be an effort to save the gym for the surface story. After her success, at the end of ep. 2, Hyeon Jung is coming to her for help.

But I think the heart of the story is going to be about moderation rather than extremes. The pushed every fitness/bodybuilding extreme with the ML just as much as they tried to with the lack of fitness in the FL. The real lesson people need to know is there is a happy medium. Those on his extreme are usually just as insecure as Mi Ran was in ep1. I think that will be the real story.

Yeah, it was a bit of a shaky start. But since I've got the background to appreciate the initial humor, I'm going to see where it goes.

Props to our brave recapper and anyone who made it to episode 2. I like both the lead actors, and I went in hoping for something like Oh My Venus. But I have to say that this was the worst hour of a drama I have ever seen, including Heavenly Idol. The weird CGI, the secondhand embarrassment, the body shaming. I felt like I needed a shower after watching it. Just terrible.

Thanks for the recap. This show is definitely packed with cringe humor, over-the-top acting, and second-hand embarrassment. I was especially shocked by the terrible CGI—it was honestly hard to watch. And THAT scene, where the FL was publicly begging for sex? Just wow. Still, I persevered—mainly because of Lee Jun-young, whose acting skills and versatility I appreciate. Another reason is that, somewhere along the way, I started to feel like the show serves as a parody of gym/bodybuilding culture (our ML) and the toxic mindset that equates self-worth with body image (FL). It highlights the extremes: from people obsessed with sculpting the 'perfect' body to those who believe being overweight is the root of all their life problems. While the casting choice for the FL is questionable (given the lack of any visible weight issue), the truth is that we live in a world where fat-shaming is normalized and anything less than visual perfection—especially in women—is criticized or outright punished. Worse yet is the so-called 'concern for health' that overweight people constantly face, usually from unqualified and judgmental sources. So I’ll stick with the show, hoping it has something meaningful to say.
Also when the ex said he just can’t get it up with her what did he mean if not because of how she looks? My first thought is that he is not into women.

I'll admit that the show was a bit over the top, especially in the first episode, but by episode two, it had settled down a bit. Already, it has deviated from what I expected to be a story arc of the FL losing weight/getting in shape over the course of the drama. By the end of episode 2, she had already reached her goal. This was done through hard work and dedication, as her coach inspired her to push through her limits. It was not done through fat shaming. I am not sure what the rest of the drama will be about. Personal growth for both, no doubt. And saving the struggling gym.

I'll keep watching and see ...

It should also be said that in real life an overweight woman, even 10 or 15 kg, has no trouble finding admirers and lovers. I would like to see a similar story one day that recognizes the enormous disadvantage of overweight men, always and in any case seen as undesirable losers.

I actually didn’t think it was that bad. As a regular gym goer (one does what one has to in order to remain functional) I recognised many of the clichés. True it’s all a bit cartoonesque. No way you can get a profound change in just three months, but I agree with the message that working ln your body is good for your self confidence.

SIGH - I do agree that for me, this feels like another case of "When the Stars Gossip". The creators were going for something new and "out of the box" storyline, but got all the science and current social norms wrong. This felt like a mutated version of "Oh My venus" but even I feel bad for OMV for the comparison! And this series lost me at ML saying "fat weights lighter than muscle"!!! This is a particular pet peeve of mine, when so called "trainers" and "health experts" say this. HOW HARD IS IT TO SAY "muscle is leaner/denser than fat and so takes up less space"????? Becoz....1 kg of fat is NOT lighter than 1 kg of muscle - they are both 1 kg! But 1 kg of fat will LOOK BIGGER than 1 kg of muscle, because of volume! And the CGI/body double/padding whatever they are using to show his physique is distracting.....does not feel real at all. Again, I almost think the fat suit in Oh My Venus was more believable!

So...yeah....I am dropping this after the first 2 episodes!

So true that YMMV. I laughed a lot during the first two episodes. It was deliriously silly and setting up for redemption arcs all around. (C'mon...that 'White Poison' scene was comedy gold!).

Was surprised to read such a contrasting opinion, but I guess the world is made up of conflicting opinion.
I am looking forward to the next episodes and plan on hopefully laughing more!