Crash Course in Romance

This series has ripened into two worthy examinations. The first being the fire like role of gossip and inuendo and it capacities for social damage, and the second searingly important role of academic pressure for young adult learners. What high school students navigate in today's world of academic admissions, the grueling realities of rank in social ordering connected. It has really gotten out of control and proportion. This series set in Korea, examines something happening world wide. The rest of the series provides the cushion for this examination to happen and land, in a loving family order that draws the mathlete star into their warm orbit, and they act as the cushion for the series hard edges of cold sky scrapers and other cold realities. The main characters are not perfect but in the end something works. I didn't enjoy the show the first time round, but have fallen in love with it on the second or third watching I remain confused about the female protagonist wardrobe. It feels like they were dressing her through a stylist of some kind that was popular at the time and often what what she was in did not suit her. But it did bring out her sweetness and quirkiness.

I like the concept of this series. It explores the academic situation for many teens in South-Korea, especially the darker side of it; all the stress and competitiveness. I really enjoyed that part. The storyline was quite unique as well. The romance was also enjoyable, especially when there were multiple couples to root for.

As many have said, it felt like the crime part of this series started to take over about halfway. I did like the thriller side of the story, but it could have been better balanced with the romance story. I also feel like some of the side characters' stories were left unfinished at the end. This is truly a shame since some of their stories were really interesting.

Instead of Jeon Do Yeon, Jang Young Nam would have looked much better for the female lead character role.

No doubt the performance by every actor and actress was great, but lead couple's age gap was rather unsettling.

Male lead actor Jung Kyung Ho who in fact is actually over ten years younger than the female lead actress Jeon Do Yeon.

Off course, the decade of age gap between the lead characters in a Kdrama is not completely new, it's just that female lead character looked very aged compared to the male lead, I'm not pointing fingers at the actors instead I'm just not satisfied with casting team. Jeon Do Yeon is rather a very skilled actress, even her latest movie Kill Boksoon was an amazing example of her skills.

I wasn't really interested in watching this, the title made me think it'd be too cheesy. But the title in Korean would have been something like "Top Scandal" instead of Romance so anyway I decided to watch and I'm glad it wasn't just focused on the romance part. By reading the comments here I see that some people find it weird that the female lead was older and "looked like it". That's insulting in so many levels. And more importantly, it happens in real life that people look their age and sometimes they get in relationships with younger people. Both male and female. So that was refreshing to see.

The whole drama managed to include Sky Castle-ish education issues, a mystery case, murder, suic*de (I never saw a trigger warning, maybe I missed it), and others, in just 16 episodes, so that's quite a feat. And that's why it wasn't boring.

The actors were all great, both young and old, as expected in Korean series. If only they spoke juust a bit faster. Watching it in faster speed helped.

Sometimes I was annoyed by how rude they spoke to the brother with Asperger's but I see no one mentioned it so I guess I'm overreacting.

All in all pretty good, and very unexpectedly so!

Dear previous reviewer. I haven't yet written a review on this series as I'm waiting for the next episodes to be released in Europe from Netflix ! I can't wait, it has been PERFECT up until now.... In the meantime I would like to add that I'm on my 4th (fourth) South Korean Netflix series. Since having discovered them with Crash Landing On You, I have been overwhelmed at the quality of these ...what could easily be described as sheer unadulterated adorable romcons, but somehow much more...We are treated to eye candy for the soul and the evoking of all sorts of human misgivings AND attributes. Plus GORGEOUS (and extremely talented) actors, fantastic scenery, escapism from our somewhat sometimes dull and/or hectic lives here in Europe. I have noticed an unusual and telling grasp of HUMAN NATURE captured in all the series I've seen so far...without exception. Each and every character has his/her relatable flaws, but also their strengths....it is SO inspiring to watch. And last but not least, I APPLAUD the subtitled translators into English of these series, they are SPOT ON! (despite a lot of « Gosh », which are SO endearing (the Americans would probably use « Gee »!), but no matter, Gosh to this reviewer is more than perfectly acceptable and cute..don't stop.

To conclude, I highly recommend CRASH COURSE IN ROMANCE as a get- away-from-it all, virtual visit to South Korea...it will broaden your mind (don't sue me if it doesn't, but it should do if your mind need's broadening !