Love Alarm Season 2 (2021)

Yet another terrible Netflix kdrama (HEAVY SPOILERS)

I disliked the first season but decided to watch the second one hoping it will be slightly better (just like, in my opinion, My First First Love). I honestly don't know what was I thinking.

I will start with an arguably best thing about the drama, namely its setting. I am not exaggerating when I say that the concept behind the drama is fantastic. Social media addiction has entered a new level due to a Love Alarm – an app, which rings every time someone who has a crush on you gets close to your phone. However, soon after its creation, the app becomes troublesome to many. The idea of finding true love is now turning into yet another social media competition for likes. Couples no longer trust each other, and people are overwhelmed with loneliness, which leads to new class divisions, protests and mass suicides. The antiutopian world the drama shows is incredibly thought-provoking. Sadly, as it usually happens, what could have been a great story was ruined by poor screenwriting.

The plot seems a bit complicated, but if you think about it, it's just yet another modern version of Cinderella but with a typical second male lead love story and a slight twist in the end. The ML, Sunoh, is a spoiled child of a politician and an actress who are literal sociopaths. The FL, Jojo, is an orphan who lives with her aunt and cousin, working numerous shifts to pay her dead parents' debt. The main characters attend the same high school, fall in love, and everyone is mad at them for numerous reasons. So, pressured by Sunoh's family, Jojo decides to break up. To do so, she installs a shield for her Love Alarm app, so she can lie that her feelings have changed, yada yada yada.

Now, in season 2, we are in college years. Jojo is now dating a second male lead, Hyeyoung, who was best friends with the ML and had a crush on the FL throughout the first season. By accident, the big trio reconnects, and it turns out that – surprise surprise – Sunoh is still in love with Jojo. But because Jojo's Love Alarm still has a shield on, we don't really know who Jojo loves. So now Jojo not only has to make a choice, but she also has to come clean about this whole lying-about-her-feelings thing. And then she does and chooses Hyeyoung. That's it. That's the story.

I don't even know where to start. First of all, the characters - literally everyone has a personality of a rock. I'm aware that the drama was probably meant to show how the love confessing app would change the way people express their feelings, but for the love of God, not a single one of the characters is able to resolve anything humanely. It's incredible how the FL had not one, not two, but three boyfriends throughout the drama and yet showed no signs of charisma or empathy. Even the tragic backstory doesn't help her case – she is one of the blandest characters I have ever seen in a kdrama. Moreover, she hides the truth from everyone and has literally no good reason to do so? For most of the series, she refuses to explain the ML why she was forced to end their relationship, even though this big secret has no relevance anymore and only causes further problems. Similarly, she has no reason to not tell the SL why her Love Alarm does not ring for him. Jojo is the one full of lies and yet somehow manages to make it all about herself, as she wasn't the most problematic one.

To tell you the truth, the ML and the SL are as unlikeable as the FL. Their only personality trait is being obsessed with Jojo. And let me remind you once again. For Sunoh, Jojo is a high school girlfriend who was with him for a month or two four years ago. And for Hyeyoung, Jojo is a girlfriend who doesn't love him back, cheats on him and basically treats him like a doormat. Besides that, I would maybe have some sympathy for ML and SL if not the fact that they are literal stalkers who do not take "no" for an answer. Out of everyone, the only character I felt bad for was the ML's girlfriend, Yuju (because yes, the ML is so loveable that in season 2 he had a girlfriend he didn't even like). It's ridiculous how the screenwriters attempted to portray her as vain and silly when she was, in fact, the most caring and, in a way, expressive character out of all. I'm sad she had to end up with that jerk.

Secondly, the plot. This story could have been an email. The whole drama it's the good old circle of miscommunication. Almost all of the problems would not have happened or could have been resolved by talking. I hate it how the characters could not talk it out even when given the perfect opportunity. Moreover, the screenwriters ran out of ideas at some point, and it shows. The drama had some really interesting subplots. One of them revolved around Love Alarm's original creator, Dukgoo, who programmed the app in order to confess to his crush, Jojo's cousin Gulmi. Dukgoo's story was quite complicated and linked to many crucial events in the drama. He created the app, sent Jojo mods and even had a link to protests and suicides caused by Love Alarm. As I mentioned before, this futuristic theme was way more interesting than the love story, and thus the subplot had a great potential to develop in the second season. However, it seems like the screenwriters just gave up on it, giving Dukgoo an illogical ending that doesn't explain a thing.

Overall, I would not recommend watching Love Alarm. It's one of the top positions of my "how the hell did I even get through all of the episodes" list. The plot is boring, and the characters are even worse. And if you like the idea of technology messing up with people's feelings, then go watch Black Mirror instead.

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