Coffee and Vanilla

This drama was a mix of 50 Shadesof Gray and 91/2 weeks thrown in with a little typical romance novel love story. I loved it and it didn't hurt that the hero reminded me of Suga from BTS. It was cute and binge worthy.

I am not gonna lie. It is bad. There are so many things wrong with it, but I'll mention the ones that are most important: the acting is bad, there is no chemistry between the main characters, the dialog is terrible and clunky, the color grading is weird, and all the characters look like they are 15 years old and they slapped "grown-up clothes" on them to make them more credible. I could keep on going.

Actually the worst part is the first episode. 20 minutes in and they already love each other and by the end he has talked her into sleeping with him, after he ignored her for a week. It gave me really bad vibes.

"Coffee and Vanilla" was just too vanilla.

The romance was too sudden and that's why the intensity of it was thrown out of the window. There was an implied love triangle that was easily swept under the carpet only to be mentioned towards the ending. The mature parts were okay, but it looked a bit robotic and forced, lacking any emotion and romance overall. So, the drama was just like this : boy falls in love with popular but childish and naive girl, they get together, many try to set them apart, boy comes to the rescue every single time, happy ending. There was no character development, no love story build up and no surprises. Plus, the leading lady was, as you can guess, the vanilla of the story, and rightly so. She had no personality, claimed to be immature, but she never actually changed, even though there were some scenes that had potential. Her love interest was a more complicated that was never explored.

So, four out of ten.

The female lead is annoying. She always has this stupid and surprised look. She doesn't really have a real character except that she is pretty. That's all. She's also a real pushover and all that she does is act cute and vulnerable in front to the male lead. The guy falling in love deeply with her is very unconvincing coz of the woman's lack of character and it doesn't help that the acting from the actress was bad.

There are lots of steamy scenes but they all look really awkward, like the FL isn't enjoying the man's touch and just going with the flow. The dialogue in those lovey dovey scenes is also repetitive.

The female lead's innocence? Cute at first, but it quickly crosses the line into "how is she this naïve?" territory. At times, it feels more like stupidity than innocence, and it can get frustrating to watch.

Watching her let every single man around her make decisions for her is beyond frustrating. At one point, you just want to scream, "Girl, make up your own mind!" Her complete lack of agency really drags the show down, and it's hard to get behind a character who can't seem to think for herself.

And let's not forget Dori Sakurada's role. Don't get me wrong, the guy's talented, but he's totally overplaying his role here to the point where it becomes uncomfortable to watch. It's so dramatic, so extra, that I honestly had to pause a few times just to breathe.

I still watched the whole series. Despite all the ridiculousness and eye-roll moments, Coffee and Vanilla is one of those guilty pleasure shows that's just so easy to binge-watch. It's dumb, it's cheesy, but yet a guilty pleasure.