Love Alarm was a Pleasant Surprise

Decided to check Love Alarm's ratings on MDL after completing it and was surprised to see so much negative reviews because I actually really liked it. Most of the hate I read comes from Jojo not ending up with Sun-oh, however, I found Love Alarm to be a pleasant surprise and an enjoyable drama overall.

Although I liked the Sun-oh/Jojo ship during S1, I always liked Hye-yeong more but never really expected them to end up together since he seemed liked the typical 2nd ML. Come S2 I was happy Hye-yeong/Jojo were dating but was pretty anxious throughout that she would go back to Sun-oh, as is usual in drama cliche.
I think the most satisfying part of Love Alarm is the emphasis place on choice- particularly Kim Jojo's choice. Her character receives a lot of hate for the breakup in S1, but it feels completely justified when you look at it from her perspective. She acted upon her instinct of self-preservation and distanced herself from Sun-oh so she wouldn't get hurt. Later, of course she is completely aware of what she did, why she did it, and how she hurt Sun-oh. In S2,4 years or so later after they broke up, the only thing she owed him was an explanation, not to reciprocate her feelings back to Sun-oh.

Now, to Hye-yeong. While the Sun-oh/Jojo romance felt more like a fling/testing out their feelings, the Hye-yeong/Jojo romance was more supportive and heartwarming, which was why I liked the latter better. In S2, although it was obvious she loved hye-yeong as well, it was hard to be absolutely sure since she had the shield up and couldn't ring his Lover Alarm. It was also due to the shield that the love triangle (Sunoh-jojo-hyeyeong) kept coming up since it caused Sun-oh to think Jojo still had feelings for him. The tension of the love triangle was due to the fact that Jojo couldn't ring any of their Love Alarms so no one could really be sure of her true feelings. All the while, Sun-oh kept coming on to her. This is also the part where Jojo's choice comes into play. Because they were essentially relying on whose alarm she would ring, which she couldn't due to the shield, she CHOSE to show who she really loved through her action, which was always to seek Hye-yeong. And this is what makes Love Alarm different from conventional Kdramas. A lot of times, romance and rom-coms may leave a feeling of dissatisfaction known as Second Lead Syndrome because we find ourselves rooting for the 2nd male lead but the FL ends up with the 1st ML. Usually, the 2nd ML is more supportive, caring, makes a better pair with the FL,...etc. but almost always loses to the 1st ML just because. Other times, the ML and FL would temporarily break up, the 2nd ML would be there for support, then the FL would reunite with the 1st ML again. Love Alarm flips the cliché around and gives us a realistic and satisfying romantic ending.

Overall, the series is short, sweet, and has a good heartwarming romance.

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