Dear. M

Right off the bat, the drama did a poor job establishing the mysterious M and its mystery. The story was so soulless and shallow it made the 12 episodes runtime so damn dreadful. The whole trio couples were lackluster from all angles, both the actors and their characters. Dialogue was riddled with platitudes and awkward exchanges, making each interaction painful. Even the central mystery, which could have been the saving grace, was handled so clumsily that it failed to generate any suspense or intrigue. The mysterious M could've been an alien for all I care. The ML's sister was the only real sensible semi-functional piece of story in the entire thing. One more thing: from a production standpoint, it adopted the deplorable style of cutting everything short and prematurely; nothing plays in full.

Korean Drama " Dear. M " is a Global Playlist drama, in the series of the Love Playlist.

However, it is nothing like the previous ones. The main problem with it is that it's boring and predictable. Pretty much nothing happens, with the characters simply going through their college life, with some ups and downs in their romantic lives. The big mystery with the mapple posts, often being forgotten when it didn't serve anything to the plot, was not interesting to keep things entertaining and its final conclusion was nothing to get excited about.

Probably the only thing that was interesting was the rivalry between the two ex classmates, but that's about it. No surprises when it came to the romance, some half baked plots, and a few unlikable characters. Especially the main lead was too much of a plain jane acting like a child all the time.

The performances, moreover, were decent.

So, overall, three out of ten.

While the whole love triangle trope set in high school or university has been consistently done in many K-dramas, Dear. M still somewhat feels like a breath of fresh air. In an array of dark, suspenseful, political, and thrilling K-dramas, this series is exactly what we need.

Of course, there are still tons of K-dramas out there that have a similar plot, but one thing that stands out in Dear. M is the fact that it is told in a different point-of-view. Other series with the love triangle-in-a-campus plot often features a wealthy, heir, and smart male lead who has all the chance to win the heart of the female lead. Meanwhile, the second lead is characterized as the one closer to the female lead, but fails to become her "happily ever after". This series portrays the male lead, Cha Min-ho, as the seemingly hopeless romantic best friend of Ma Joo-ah. Here, he competes with Moon Joon, the son of a wealthy CEO. In other words, it seems like their roles have been switched.

Performance wise, I want to praise the main cast for giving such natural performances. What makes it all so different is how it doesn't feel forced and cringey; the actors are portraying their characters in such a natural way that perfectly fits the lighthearted theme of the series. Also, kudos to Jaehyun, Jinhyuk, and Eunbin for their acting despite being known more as K-pop singers.

Dear. M features a coming-of-age romantic story that we have seen before; just in a different perspective. This drama is an ode to the classic K-drama love story archetype, giving us a new story while still sticking to what we are already familiar with.

I heard about this drama a lot on twitter and as a k-drama fan, I was initially not interested because the trailer seems to show a typical k-drama plot about a campus love triangle. But I still checked the first episode out and I was impressed with how non-cringeworthy it is compared to the ones I watched before. It's very straight to the point about the plot, no sways and deep backstories about the characters and just keeps the focus on the 6 main characters. I think this is because it only has 12 episodes, unlike other k-dramas with similar plots where the show would go through a relationship arc that would eventually turn boring, predictable, unnecessary, and cringeworthy. The series ended with the plot resolved and it's very satisfying. The acting is also very natural and not over-the-top, which is just what's necessary. The plot twist was very unexpected too.

I'm a huge sucker for cute little romantic kdramas, so I made sure to check this one out on Viki. There are many characters, but everyone provides an important part in the story. No fillers at all.

What made me think this is the perfect college romance is its theme and atmosphere. It's cute and very lighthearted, and the theme really makes me feel like I go to college with them. I can compare it to Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (AKA my favorite of all time) for how natural it is. Not corny and cheesy, but it still touches quite a few common k-drama scene tropes I adore.

Now let's get to the talk of the town... JAEHYUN. Non NCT fan here, and I did not watch this for him, but I knew most viewers came for him so might as well I talk about his performance. Very good acting from him... not perfect, but also not bad. I see his skills and I believe giving him a more complex role next time would let us see his real potential, because roles like this in lighthearted rom-coms aren't exactly what we should judge an actor for. I also found out it's his first ever acting role so I'm even more impressed with him.

For the rest of the cast, everyone did great. Hyesoo is very talented, and a good singer too which I did not expect. I really like her as an actress, but not so much as a person (because you know...).

So, to end this pretty long thing I typed, I wanna say this has become one of my favorite college kdramas. I love the longing from Minho, the plot twist, the characters, their personalities, and so on and so forth. 10/10 from me!