#Rimolab (2020)

Nom, Nom, Best French Cuisine Ever!!!

At the surface level, the story is very simple: After a bad breakup, Dr Mimi resorts to settle only for the perfect man "World's Best Steak" until she develops a unique friendship with a fellow online gamer.

Now, remove the backdrop of online friendship and that's just the plot of gazillion romantic-comedy dramas out there, one might wonder. But what differentiates it from others is two things.

Firstly, the setting of COVID-19. Unlike showing some masks and sanitisers, this drama extends into showing the shift in workplaces' paradigm, work-life of health care workers & the consequential harassment and how even restaurants and other places cope with the changing scenario. Even the change in dating places and "bases" is shown. This is endearingly shown by simple events like distribution of customer calendar can lead to a domino effect of spreading happiness and assurance to a grandma living miles away during tough times, or the buying of meal coupons can aid the restaurants. Although this drama is fictional, this doesn't fail to show the handling of the pandemic in Japan in an innovative way.

Secondly, the unconventional and delicate handling of otherwise serious issues like the mature handling of the lovey-dovey couple's decision making process or resolving the suspicions and jealousy. The best part was the importance given to the consent of the child in his father's dating. Heck, even the second male lead couldn't be hated. Lastly, the handling of online relationship merging with the real-life one. The way it didn't fake its transformation into a perfect real-life relationship or didn't completely deny the possibilities of such a relationship happening was applaud worthy.

The entire drama is a complete heartwarming treat and never induces anxiety. If at all any such moments develop, the issues are all dealt with in the episode and the only one time it didn't, was to give a completely wonderful finale. The ending was totally unpredictable given the recent release of so many marriage centred rom-com jdramas. I was a tiny tiny bit disappointed in the conventional sense. But the ending was totally justified and had a really lovely message which has time and time reiterated to us yet many of us keep forgetting it.

There are so many many food references from calling Dr Mimi as French cuisine by her ex, and comparing all men with food by Dr Mimi, to the game IDs as food names, and Dr Mimi watches Indian Food Journey (a food show). Like they say good food is a good mood. These reflect how eating and cooking food helped us cope with 2020.

The comedy aspect can sometimes be a second-hand embarrassment and face-palming but I couldn't stop grinning widely. The romance aspect was so mature and cute. Who cares about a full-on makeout scene when even hand-holding can be so hot!! The days when I watched episodes I would feel so happy and warm. All the characters are so lovely and have their own dimensions. If at all any character was acting oddly, they soon resolved their "issues".

The actors have really done a superb job. Especially Haru, who with her numerous expressions makes the character more lively and comical. The Music was very unique to this drama and the violin-Esque number suited the drama moments well. The jazzy music played other times uplifted the drama's liveliness. The end track was memorable and serene. Rewatch value, for all its messages and heartwarming scenes, it is totally worth.

Final note, Remolove needed 2020 (events), 2020 needed Remolove.

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