While watching Secret Love, I was initially sucked in because this felt so different from the rest of the kdramas out there. I use to be a big fan of the genre, but then I realized that almost all of them followed the same formula, so I stopped.

I'm slowly getting back to kdramas, so I picked this one up and at first I was all in. I loved every moment of this show. The acting was top notch and the story, at least in the beginning, was complex and unique.

I loved it!

So why the 7?

Well, what I loved about the show was the complexity of everything and how everyone was flawed. As the show progressed and more secrets were revealed, I thought that it would continue to add to the depth of the characters, instead I got the same kdrama. Rich guy falls in love with poor girl. Poor girl has a guy that likes her and the rich guy has a girl that likes him. Drama ensues.

I can accept that. What I couldn't accept was this love story. Min Hyuk and Yoo Jeong just didn't make any sense as lovers. Min Hyuk had some reverse Stockholm Syndrome where he fell in love with the person he was tormenting. It came about from obsession and then he loves her. It made sense. But for Yoo Jeong to love him back all of a sudden? No. That never made sense and never felt authentic to me. After five years of being harassed and tormented, you don't just suddenly say "I love you too."

I also felt like the story dropped the ball with Do Hoon, who was the most interesting character on the show. He's been brought up in a family that expects him to be the best, but still keep his morals intact. That all changes when he allows Yoo Jeong to take the fall for him. Him getting close to Min Hyuk and trying to destroy him seemed to be his ways of making amends, but in the end I really didn't know what he was doing.

I enjoyed my time watching this and was eagerly waiting for the next episode to appear so I could watch it, but now that everything is said and done, was this really all that different from the rest of the kdramas out there? Kind of, but not really. There's a lot of plot holes and the ending was rushed. I just wasn't satisfied when it was done.

I am in the minority with this, so if you think this might be something you'd like then check it out, but if you are looking for something new in the kdrama world then I don't think you'll find it here.

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