Start-Up (2020)

If you're here purely for Kim Seon Ho, this drama isn't for you.

I've never written a review before, but bear with me here.

I will focus less on going through everything about this story's plot and more about the fact that seems to have infuriated a lot of people, which is the fact that Kim Seon Ho's character isn't the main romantic lead. The reason why I decided to watch this drama is because I love Nam Joo Hyuk since I watched Weightlifting Fairy, and I had recently finished watching The School Nurse Files, where I absolutely adored him as well. I don't mind Kim Seon Ho as an actor, I neither like him nor dislike him (though I'll say I lean more into liking him than anything else) which is probably why my enjoyment of the show wasn't tinted by the fact that he wasn't the main love interest, and I was looking forward and throughly enjoyed the happy ending we got.

All of that being said— and you can call me biased because of this— I never really felt like Han Ji Pyung had any chance of being a real second love interest for Dal Mi. I don't think there was ever a love triangle; Dal Mi definitely was fixated on the boy from the letters but ultimately never really liked the Han Ji Pyung she met (romantically, that is), and the revelation that he was actually the one who wrote the letters changed nothing about those feelings— except maybe making her disappointed in the fact that it wasn't actually the real Do San who wrote them.

I think Dal Mi liked Do San from the moment she met him and the fact that she thought he was the boy from the letters was simply something that added to her initial attraction. She said it herself that the moments where Do San didn't seem to be the boy of the letters stirred something in her that she really liked.

I don't think there was ever any competition because like I said, there was never a love triangle. And I totally get people being disappointed that Ji Pyung didn't end up with Dal Mi, but a drama where that happened would have to have been a completely different story from the get go.

As I said in the headline, If you're here purely for Kim Seon Ho, this drama isn't for you. But if you're here for Nam Joo Hyuk, then it absolutely is.

It has emotional, funny, frustrating and intense moments that made it very enjoyable for me to watch, and after watching Record of Youth which left me feeling so utterly disappointed, this was a soothing balm for my soul.

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