Why You Should Consider "Dare to Love Me" as Your Next Kdrama Watch

 By now, Lovely Runner's final episode has ended, and if you are like many who watched it, this drama made looking forward to Monday a thing. But that last episode might have left a void in your drama watching. While May brought in a ton of excellent dramas, Lovely Runner's addictive vibe might have overshadowed the desire to check any of them out. 

One drama that may have gotten overlooked is Dare to Love Me. It's another kdrama romcom like Lovely Runner, and unfortunately it aired on Mondays and Tuesdays, the same days as Lovely Runner. The sad thing is this drama has a lot of the things people want and love in kdramas, and overlooking it will be a loss. 

By now, six episodes of Dare to Love Me have aired. In case you may not have given this drama a shot (or in case you have and you want to check out why I like it), here's ten reasons why this drama seems like the real deal.

1. A great OST. The opening song got me from the start. https://open.spotify.com/track/2wN5T0FxxU7wyuU0RNmy6b?si=106a29e45b964f02
2. An interesting and unique setting. Our male lead is from a cultural landmark, a village that maintains the Joseon-era way of life in every way and form, including dress, everyday way of life, and social status. This setup not only makes for comical fish-out-of-water scenarios, but also some dark trauma. 
3. A ML who's a perfect gentleman. If there's one common complaint in the kdrama fandom about male leads, it's that they usually start out acting mean towards the FL. While enemies-to-lovers can be a fun trope, it can get tiresome if they don't handle the relationship change neatly. Not so here. We have a male lead raised by Confucious standards, and he carries himself with honor and treats everyone with dignity, but especially his "teacher." But all those old-world manners transfer nicely to modern day, and our male lead is made all the hotter for it.
4. A FL you can cheer for. Sure, she's a bit of an underdog when the drama starts out, but she's talented and bold. And her hardships don't last long; they start changing in episode 2 and end with a big band in episode 3. It takes a talented actress to pull off such a feat, where a female lead can be vulnerable and brave at the same time, and Lee Yoo Young is masterful in her take here.
5. Great chemistry between the leads. Yes, it feels like she was a teacher/mentor to him, but I think it's mostly because he holds her in such high esteem. He keeps calling her "teacher" and treating her like one. But they seem great together, regardless of their relationship status.
6. Comedy that isn't too cringey. It's too easy to make the humor come at the expense of the FL and this yield a painful watch, but I think it comes off as more humorous. Again, we can credit Lee Yoo Young here for coming across as more everyday woman and less a caricature.
7. A great cast of characters. We have the ML's female bodyguard (who isn't enamored by her boss romantically), a pitiful graphic designer taken by his new muse, strong female characters, and a number of others who I won't mention as to not spoil their reveal. But the entire cast is serving here. 
8. Older-people romances. There are TWO flirty romantic situations going on with older characters, one couple being in their 50's and another in their late 60's. 
9. A compelling crime setup. We find in the first scene that someone is stealing artifacts from the village. There's also a suspicious death, and many characters are shrouded in mystery.
10. Many different storylines. Surprise supporting characters show up with surprising motives in this story with many plots. So many twists and turns!

Now that our Monday/Tuesday watchlist has a void, maybe give Dare to Love Me a go? It likely won't be an epic, but so far it's a solid romcom whose episodes will likely fly by, given all that it's got going for it.