Lovely Runner (2024)

An amazing start, but...

1. Something about "fix me" stories as it relates to people with disabilities just doesn't sit right with me, I was hoping the part of the story about the FL being a wheelchair user would return, at the very least because it was wrapped very quickly, but instead it was mainly used to further the plot, with few moments focused on representation, which was disappointing.

2. The serial killer plot dragged on for sooooo long and it ended in such an anticlimactic way, it felt like in the end the writer didn't know what to do with the guy.

3. The constant timeline changes killed the momentum, especially the last one because I absolutely despise the amnesia trope, I find it usually useless because it puts a stop at the character/relationship development.

All of that means that if the drama was shorter, around 12 episodes, some of the issues with the storytelling could have been resolved, at least for me. All in all though, I did enjoy the lead couple immensely, no matter the little things I disliked, their chemistry always made up for it in the end.

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Plot is quite weak and repetitive it's an alright drama I don't know what is all the hype about it

Alright let me tell you there is already a lot of dramas with second chances time travelling and going back to save there loved ones but this one just gets on my nerves the plot just keep repeating they keep time traveling it's quite annoying it's like they keep serving us the same dish in different plates and I don't know I found the female character quite cringe trying to act cute not only that her character is quite dumb and she does everything without thinking I felt second hand embarrassment for her even in the last tae sung saved sun jae she just time travelled for nothing plus what was that truck driver motive for killing sun jae like writer just wanted to end the drama so bad she left so many plot holes and cliches and the only thing I can say is that the drama hype is all because of byeon woo seok just check insta and half of the edits of this drama is about him

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Who can rewatch this ???

Sure, here is the revised review using ML (Male Lead) and FL (Female Lead):

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I feel that the plot is good, but the story development is quite poor, especially due to the FL's foolishness which prolongs the story. There are many things that don't make sense, particularly her overpowered magical abilities that she doesn't use.

After that, the story relies on plot twists instead. I won't spoil the content, and yes, I couldn't predict it, but it wasn't very impressive. I have to say it's a drama where the characters are extremely foolish. Watching it, I felt frustrated with both the FL and the police; it was very illogical.

I was very attached to the ML, feeling warmth from his expressions of love and intelligence, which made the ending satisfying.

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Still undeserving high rating. Show has a negative message

9.1 is crazy high. Show still needs a rating for what it truly deserves

This show being in the same position like some of the few 9 above rated shows in this site seems like an insult. Try checking the other 9 above rated ones here and I wouldnt complain. God, there's even lower rated dramas that deserved a 9 but didnt make it. I recently just rewatched Story of Yanxi Palace too ( best c-drama) and that show is stuck at 8.8 here. Then i'll just give my own opinion of what I've digested from this show as to feel validated for this trouble.

The Good:
OST, Attractive and talented main actors (BWS is the clickbait of the show), good editing. Thats it.
The Bad:
Storytelling, Characters, and Moral story.

Storytelling:
No need to talk about the good, let's start with the bad. The plot of lovely runner has been done many times and is simple as it gets, I was actually curious how they would execute it as long as it holds out. Story was solid, not unique but alright. It wasn't a standout time travel plot like taiwanese drama 'Someday but Oneday' but Lovely Runner need none of it since all they had to do was to be consistent in story telling, but thats the first disappointment. Storytelling of the show was dead and non cohesive. They introduced our depressed female lead had a disability, then our kpop idol male lead who had a mysterious regret. Great start but for some reason they abandoned this part to the point where everything later on is just shrugged off literally because everything becomes solved with our plot device called time travel.
Throughout episodes 2-16 the show literally forgot the story introduction and became a forced love till death do us apart story instead of like showing us how our main leads cope with their initial problem then later on learning how to love because it was instantly solved with the continuous time travel. She had a disability, well one time travel later it's fixed! and goes on to never ponder about it again. He had a troublesome regret, well one time travel later it's fixed! and never ponders about it again. Same goes to the side characters, they had a problem before, well one time travel later it's fixed! Sure. Genuinely theres nothing wrong with time travel and making it as a solution to the plot's conflict and LR isnt the only one doing it but LR is taking the wrong path and it's proven towards the end. Our main leads literally did not suffer consequential matters that were done by time travel cause it was fixed again and again. It's like LR is a water filled transparent vase that keeps on getting broken and the writer keeps on putting a patch to seal it. As to why this is problematic, I talk about it later down on the moral story of the show. Let's move on to the characters.

Characters:
One dimensional characters to the point where they were written to be perfect for each other. Too perfect perhaps. When they genuinely have interaction, we never get a gist of their human thoughts because it will be used as filler time to put fluff romance and unintelligent dialogue, same goes to the other characters. Like I said, the story itself wasn't difficult so the plot should've been the characters but they were just given dead and unrealistic characteristics. What goes on FL's mind besides the ML? and etc. Basically they were written to be fated and meant for each other 'cause they gave us the reason why but the show spare zero effort to give us a reason how.
Let's not even start with the villain. It already has the trope that is rampant in Kdramas, the mysterious killer. But the mysterious killer isn't so mysterious because he's literally a random with no background that was given an excuse to be psychopathic but turns out to just be lazy writing. Atleast other kdrama dared to give their mysterious serial killer to be mysterious and even given a acceptable motive.

Moral story:
Earlier I mentioned how time travel was used as a plot device for fixing the problems this show has and why it's bad. The main reason is because Lovely Runner's story and conclusion made us feel that way. Time travel dramas would give the viewers a message that going back in time would be consequential and morally give a message.
Last year, Twinkling Watermelon aired and also introduced time travel. There, the main leads get caught up to the past of their parents. This experience led them into their character development and eventually the conclusion of the show. The leads wanted to change the present but was lead to the inevitable. None of the things that happened in their time travel changed the literal present timeline but instead what ended up changing is our main characters and how they view themselves and their parents. This is how you leave positive a message for your story. Think again, why did China ban time travel dramas, they did it to not confuse the mass as they think it leaves a bad message. So recent C-drama time travel would come up with ways to make sure it doesn't conflict with the ban.
Lovely Runner's plot has an unhealthy message. The biggest no was when they bypassed through Im Sol's disability just like that using time travel and never to be explored ever again. The story couldve used this opportunity to simply give Im Sol the moment to cope and live on through this disability to leave out a positive message. It's such a negative outlook to such problems that if you're ill fated then all you need to basically change your fate is with a simple time travel and fix problems easily like that, no room for acceptance whatsoever.

Still Lovely Runner, without the criticism should still be a solid 7.5. Despite all, the fluff and romance is definitely the best in recent k-drama release. I just hope people carefully digest a show before easily handing out 10s in MDL.

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Over used trope

Story was good but it has been done before. Time traveling and romance between a celebrity and a fan is nothing new. . In the first episode, female lead was in a wheelchair and i thought wow this one is going to be good. But that was only shown in 1st episode and she gets normal later. Unfortunately, I was struggling to find some exciting factor in the plot but there was none. Sol gets to travel to the past and change fate but she makes blunders over blunders.i get that it was part of the plot. But it wasn't very interesting to watch same thing over and over again. Apart from her stupidity she was really selfish from the beginning till the end. You are a fan doesn't mean you get to interfere with someone's life like that. For example, she tries to get in his way of joining the band and tries to stop him from auditioning etc. She acts like a stalker not a fan and she treats him soo bad. Male lead had no self respect at all. Love is one thing but that was too much as he tolerated her again and again.

Simply put the story was quite bland and had no exciting moments. It was hard to keep watching.

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Cheesy Fanfiction Loaded with Fanservice and a Side of Time Travel

I was really excited to watch this show after hearing all the great things about it. It seemed liked everyone was talking about it like it was up there with Queen of Tears, so maybe I had my expectations set too high to begin with because I was rather disappointed with how it turned out. The show isn't entirely bad, but it's very lacking.

I thought the overall tone of the show was fun. There were some funny moments and cute interactions between the leads, but most of it is overshadowed by the poor writing and lack of character development. The cast did good in their roles, though there is a bit of overacting that I suppose kind of fits with the quirky vibe but does seem out of place sometimes. First time seeing Byeon Woo Seok in a leading role like this, so I was excited to see how he does. I think he did good considering the poorly written character he had to play, but some of the overacting bits and exaggerated comedic expressions were a little awkward to watch. I do like how Seon Jae was not your usual cold and lifeless ML that we see a lot of in K-dramas, and he had a bit of a fun personality which was refreshing. Kim Hye Yoon did good as well, but I do agree with others that say her character could be a little annoying at times. The rest of the side characters were kind of just there to be there. They didn't really add much to the story, and I kind of wished the writers would have given a little more screentime to delve into the complexities around time travel and how that can impact relationships in Im Sol's life (something that Twinkling Watermelon did great on). Maybe more focus could have been on Seon Jae's depression and how Im Sol tries to help him through it (like the show "Seasons of Blossom"). The lack of character development for any of the characters, especially the leads, made the emotional aspect of the show suffer. I didn't really feel connected to any of the characters, so it just kind of felt like the writers were trying really hard to make me feel emotional and invested when I was anything but. Everything just seemed very surface level, like they had the potential to dive in way deeper when it comes to time travel and attempting to save a loved one by going back to the past, but instead they focused more on cliche fanfiction-like romance to make hearts flutter. But at the end of the day, even those heart-fluttery moments didn't really feel real or genuine since there was very little character to feel connected with and I wasn't even emotionally invested in their relationship. The time traveling was confusing at times and didn't really make sense. I wasn't a fan of how they kept switching between time periods and basically "resetting" everything multiple times. It got repetitive very quickly and the push-and-pull with the FL got boring.

The villain was kind of a joke. I still don't really understand what the point of him was, and I feel like the writers really tried to squeeze by hoping that no one would notice how poorly written his character is. He didn't seem all that threatening to me, especially when the script was rather predictable and I could tell based on the numerous dramas I've seen with similar villains that it was going to end up playing out the same way. He was just a crazy bad guy who was only there to progress the story when needed and add some conflict here and there. Every time he showed up on screen with his one bad eye I was like "oh great, I forgot about this guy".

I wasn't familiar with Lee Seung Hyub before this show, but he was surprisingly a breath of fresh air. He added that bit of comic relief while also not being too obnoxious or annoying. Im Geum and Hyun Joo were kind of funny and cute sometimes, but mostly just annoying and were clearly there to add comic relief. This wasn't really necessary since the show itself has enough comedic moments.

Then there's the love triangle with Kim Tae Sung. I read that his character was actually written specifically for the show and wasn't in the original. It seems like most people love him, but I felt more annoyed than anything else. His character was also not developed well at all, and he seemed kind of pointless until the last few episodes. He would just show up every now and then to add cheesy fanservice and jealous ML scenes. The dialogue in his scenes felt especially cliche to me when looking at it from a writing perspective. Like it's painfully obvious it was just fanservice most of the time, and of course they had to have the FL's past self be in love with the 2ML, while the present day FL is in love with the ML. Both Seon Jae and Tae Sung are constantly fighting for Im Sol's attention and love (more rivalry fanservice incoming), but both have very little character outside of this and this continues until basically the very last episode. It's hard to see how you could have 2ML syndrome when his character isn't at all interesting and very underdeveloped, added with the fact that he only has a few scenes here and there and doesn't really contribute much until the very end.

Sorry if my review seemed all over the place (I was really just typing whatever came to mind). Overall, if you're looking for a cheesy cliche rom-com that isn't necessarily groundbreaking but just as an easy watch, then this show could be for you. If you're looking for more of a complex story and deeper connections with its characters, then you might want to look elsewhere.

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Fizzles out but stays cute

I’m kind of surprised by the glowing reviews on this one, because as cute as the main couple is (and not only are they cute, they’ve got an AMAZING kiss scene)…I really think this is one of those dramas that starts out strong but ends up fizzling out.

The first episode is extremely strong; the heart-wrenching tragedy of the male lead’s death gives our female lead a purpose in her time travel journey, and the added layer of her being able to walk after being in a wheelchair for so many years adds is also great. There’s commentary about disability and inaccessibility, which I really appreciated. I also really loved how we saw Im Sol getting back the will to live.

The next few episodes were still promising; it was the right balance of funny and heart-wrenching, and I was also pleasantly surprised that the FL already went back to a changed future.

The first thing I didn’t really like was the mystery element. The recent trend of inserting a random serial killer into a rom-com drama is something I really do not enjoy, and this was no different; it felt like a lot of the profound commentary we got at the start about living with a disability or depression and suicide became reduced to “actually there was a villain, so our ML was never depressed, and our FL shouldn’t have been disabled anyways.”

As the drama went on it felt like the story focused more on the mystery, with the second lead randomly popping in to fulfill his police officer role, while our main couple also got more repetitive: Im Sol was always sad because she had seen a sad future, while Sun Jae was in a perpetual state of ignorance, or even amnesia. The actual state of the future switched around, sure, but their core characters were always the same.

Ultimately, I think this was still a very cute watch; there are funny, chaotic scenes and the male lead is one heck of a green flag. I just wish it kept all the substance and momentum it had at the start.

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im sorry for the person im gonna be

there's a lot of things that i wanna say about this drama because the more i watched it the more i started to force me to finished it and i couldn't. i watched half of the 14th ep and i decided to watch another thing 💀

i'm not gonna talk abt the acting cuz idk abt those things but instead i'm gonna talk abt sol's character. she pissed me off so bad, she just did things that i didn't like and she was just doing it for stupid reasons. that time where she made the guy from her career eat the mouthwash just because she didn't want sunjae to see her??? and the fact that she wanted sunjae not to fall in love with her and okay, i kinda get it but why would you say that if you're gonna cry and start to date him suddenly?? doesn't make sense. sol needed to make up her mind SO BAD i bet she also didn't know what she was doing

i also didn't know when was the time that sol felt something for sunjae because in 2023, she told him she did but did she really? when was that actually? /gen like, i never noticed that (i think it was when sunjae asked her if she didn't feel anything towards him at any of those times she was in when they were at her house)

also, can we talk abt the crime subplot?? if there's something i hate on romcoms dramas is that mf crime subplot like, why?? if i wanted to watch a crime drama i would. and please don't try to excuse them with the "it's because she couldn't walk" okay i get it, but there's so many options for that, she could've just get in a car accident-

speaking of which, there were a lot of drama at some point because of the guy that abducted her, sunjae confessing and sol's mom at the hospital?? 🧍🏼‍♂️

even tho i gave it a 6.5 i won't say this was a bad drama. like, i actually enjoyed it and it gave me a good chuckle and, if it wasn't for sol's personality i would say sunjae and her had a good relationship, it was cute and all.

btw omg i loved sunjae's personality. he was so cute, he really liked sol and he was so down bad for her. i love when the male leads are a losers <3

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This should have been just a movie. Finishing it felt like a task. Woo Seok is not yet a great actor, and I kinda rooted for the second lead more since Song Geon Hee was the more charming character. Kim Hye Yon acted well. I can't blame her for her less than stellar character. I know time travel is the trend nowadays, and that's fine with me, but the I had to turn my brain off so as to not get offended by the time travelling logic. I watched this with my wife because it's one of the top rated dramas "of all time" on this site. Never again will I trust a less than year old drama in the top 10. There needs to be more reviews to knock this down the list.

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Didn’t like the female cast.Kim Hye-yoon looks like a old hag

Finished Lovely Runner yesterday. Good enough as a rom-com. The love chemistry between the hero and heroine was very strong and the romance was there. I mean, it has all the sweet romance a viewer wants. In short, it lives up to the name "Lovely".
Now let's talk about the main plot. I am a fan of dramas such as personal time travel, body switch (Hollywood, Bollywood, Anime, K drama all). Looking at the depth of the story, it seems a little weak. Like other dramas, it could not hold intense, suspense. 4 - What I was predicting in episode 5 happened in the drama plot twist.
Kim Hye-yoon is only 27 years old. The school dress looks older for some unknown reason. It doesn't suit her very well.Her acting is so poor and over acted in every scenes.
Overall it was an enjoyable drama.

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He may be the most successful Stan in history

This started off pretty depressing. Based on the massive amount of love and fluff posted in socials, I was taken a back by the first scenes with our leads. While it was unexpected, I do wish they would have leaned more into that plotline. The first episode was a great foundation to open up the depth of the characters, especially Sol. I was disappointed by the lack of development in her character. Her logic matched that of her teenage self more than the 'grown woman' who was traveling back and forth in time. I think we were all annoyed at her attempts to help Seon Jae but push that poor guy away.

Seon Jae. The newest tree in the forest of green men. A cinnamon roll. As stated in the above title, he is the most successful Stan in history. This man not only pined after her as teens but held onto her (mentally) in just about every timeline. I would have loved to see more about his side of the world as things changed. He really provided the community with unrealistic bf expectations. From the hand scene in E4 to the apologizing to her when he couldn't remember, when SHE removed herself from the narrative.

The side characters didn't add much but I really enjoyed them. I would have loved some more screen time for Tea Sung, In Hyuk, and Hyun Joo (minus the husband, he was aggravating as all hell.)

I see a lot of people ranking this at a 4/5 or a 10. I'm somewhere in the middle. I liked the storyline and characters but they took an interesting idea and watered it down.

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