Storyline; Love Revolution ( based upon the eponymous webtoon) was surprisingly humorous at times for a “ sugary sweet and all things neat” idol drama. On the other hand, it’s important to note that a lot of the main story setting rides upon the old high school tropes of our “ puppy dog” Male lead Gong Ju Young (Park Ji Hoon) tried to chase after our “ indifferent and Ice Queen” female lead Wang Ja Rim (Lee Ruby) throughout cliche setups. Although there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with this, the story was consequently, unoriginal , the pacing was often disjointed and consequently made it easily forgettable and indistinguishable from other predecessor idol dramas.

Is it the same as the webtoon?- The characters and basic premise are taken from the webtoon, however, there are some evidently “ safer” differences in the drama than the source material . Unfortunately , Love Revolution isn’t widely available yet in many languages outside of Korean, however, netizens and fans of the original webtoon have seemed to point out a lot that some of the original material focuses on “grittier” realities and storylines for our characters. Whilst the drama should be respected as a standalone production in its own right, it does raise some questions how different Love Revolution would have been if it focused on some more “ realistic” elements of these storylines, and if it would have made a difference to characterisation as well.

Characters; Love Revolution bases its characters upon main key tropes of high schoolers with Ju Yong as the “ lovelorn” Male lead, Ja Rim as the “ indifferent” love interest, Kyung Woo as the “ laidback” one (Young Hoon) and their associated friends ( respectfully played by Jung Da Eun, Im Da Young, Ko Chan Bin and Ahn Do Kyu ) mostly used for comical relief. As romantic dramas go , Love Revolution isn’t entirely terrible for character progression with more complicated reasons explained behind Ja Rim’s personality than at first glance as well as Kyung Woo. On the other hand, a lot of the characters progressively become used as plot devices as the series progresses rather than actual individuals with emotions.

Relationships; Although it’s important to note cultural differences and attitudes towards “ youth” relationships in Korea being a little more modest than some more countries, let’s also not kid ourselves that a lot of the show avoided evident and more “ realistic” elements of teens ( including showing this one episode is an “ embarrassing” misunderstanding after a sex education lesson) ; in order to avoid controversy ( especially with the careers of the idol actors of the show such as Park Ji Hoon and THE BOYZ’s member Young Hoon).

The evident main couple of the show is centred upon Ja Rim and Ju Yong w. Whilst a lot of their relationship is centred upon their differences, a more apparent and eye raising factor which can appear for viewers is the lack of communication and respect between the two teens. Ju Yong often seems to force Ja Rim into uncomfortable situations, whilst Ja Rim’s attitude and behaviour towards Ju Young did seem to send out some very mixed signals. Although Ja Rim should be blamed no more than Ju Young, their lack of communication and equal respect ( on both ends) did not advocate (even when they began to slowly get to know one another better), a healthy and respectful relationship. Of course the show shouldn’t be disregarded as it did try to show us the difficulties of a first real relationship on both sides , the lack of understand and development at times between the two as a couple was a little concerning.

Acting; There has always been a bit of a natural fallacy amongst drama watchers than idols can’t actually act , however, many idols such as IU and Im Siwan, have obviously proven these labels as being misguided . As Love Revolution is concerned, it’s fair to say that our idol actors aren’t terrible within their performances, however, it is fair to say that both Ji Hoon and Young Hoon’s acting is undeniably “ corny” at times and certainly not the best idol acting out there either,

Overall thoughts- Skip or Watch?- Love Revolution is another classic example of a clever marketing strategy by the respected companies and representatives of the idol actors and the makers of the webtoon to draw in a predominantly young fan base through sweet and sugary romance setups filled with tropes and cliches . It must be stressed that this isn’t a dire drama to watch and certainly something to consider to binge or if you’re a fan of these setups, however, for those who actually want depth to the story and characters, then there are so many older and better idol dramas out there to consider.