Love Alarm (2019)

Aburrido como ninguno

Me pareció algo aburrido por lo que no pude entender su gran éxito y aceptación por el público en un principio, hasta que vi la segunda temporada.

Aunque le tengo cierto cariño a este drama -pues no se puede negar que la trama basada en la app es de lo más genial e innovador- la verdad es que ni siquiera recuerdo haberlo disfrutado, sin embargo la segunda temporada me gustó tanto que estoy dispuesta a ver nuevamente todo el drama a ver si cambia mi percepción de la primera temporada. Por lo que si estás dispuesto a ver 8 capítulos no tan buenos (por no decir super aburridos) de la primera temporada, para luego ver 6 capítulos buenísimos de la segunda temporada, te lo recomiendo, pues los últimos 6 capítulos valen la pena (por lo menos para mi) y después de todo, para ver la 2da temporada, 1ero necesitas ver la 1era.

Sinceramente, para mi, la 1era temporada cobra sentido con la 2da, la 1era temporada sola (sin la 2da parte) no tiene sentido, es casi una pérdida de tiempo, por lo que si llego a cambiar mi opinión de la 1era temporada al volverla a ver (lo cual dudo mucho porque realmente me aburrió) es definitivamente gracias a la segunda temporada.

Nunca me gustó Sun Oh (me cae muy mal) así que soy team Lee Hye Yeong.

P.D: no entiendo la comparación con True Beauty, Belleza Verdadera es otro nivel.

Por cierto, si te gusta la comedia (como a mi), probablemente este drama no sea para ti, pues Love Alarm no es ni lo más mínimamente cómico, y talvez es por eso que se me hizo tan aburrido a pesar de ser un drama bastante corto.

Enserio tenía altas expectativas, todo el mundo habla de este drama, me quede muy decepcionada, es uno de los dramas más aburridos y peores que he visto.

Lo vi todo en un mismo dia y me dió sueño. Love Alarm lo tenía todo para ser un gran drama, algo espectacular, logró mucho éxito, pero no logró ser un gran drama para mi.

No me gustó (entre otras muchas cosas) que a ambos chicos les gustara la protagonista desde antes, o sea, comienza el drama y ya les gusta jojo.

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Mas preguntas que respuestas

Realmente a Love alarm le tengo un cariño muy grande ya que fue mi primer k drama pero cuando volví a ver algunas escenas es muy mala JAJAJA .
Osea tenian todo para ser un excelente drama pero no supieron manejarlo, para empezar es un drama muy cliche: la protagonista pobre que no tiene padres y su vida es muy triste y el protagonista hombre que es un egoista, guapo, popular y rico de dinero JAJA
Bueno es una historia que empezo bien y conforme pasan los capitulos te dejan mas preguntas que respuestas y es muy confuso pero es entretenido y para mi es muy facil de ver.
pero bueno no me quiero extender mucho en esta temporada ya que quiero hacer una reseña mas elaborada en la temporada 2 asi que los veo alla

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¡Ganas de la siguiente temporada!

Comencé a ver Love Alarm por la tarde y al día siguiente por la mañana ya la tenía terminada. Es un dorama corto y de duración ronda sobre los 50 minutos los capítulos.
La historia me parece real y un reflejo de la sociedad. Puesto desde el punto de vista de una app pero podemos aplicar esos '' A 10 metros hay una persona que te quiere" como un me gusta o mil me gustas en las redes sociales en la realidad. Siempre pendientes de quién tiene más o quien menos, y si han recibido los mismos me gustas en una foto que en otra.
El secreto de Jojo está muy bien llevado a través de los capítulos. En cada uno te van introduciendo poco a poco pistas de lo que les habría pasado a sus padres y cuál había sido su final. Además, los comentarios de su prima te hacen tener más intriga sobre lo ocurrido. Algo negativo de la historia, que realmente no se sabe cuál ha sido el problema que lleva a los padres de Jojo morir. Durante la serie solo dicen los cambios de la madre o las deudas para poder mantener a su hija.
Algo que no he entendido es si Dug-ku se suicidó o no. Porque la escena aparece y se menciona que nunca más se le ha visto, pero a mi me da la sensación de qué es el detractor de la aplicación.
Es un dorama que vería de nuevo sin dudarlo.
Votación negativa a la música, porque ni siquiera he estado atenta. No me ha llamado la atención ninguna.

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I've never watched a drama where I didn't like any of the characters but Love Alarm managed to accomplish that.
The entire cast is full of characters that just isn't realist and there will be many times where you will ask, "Why?"
The main female protagonist, Kim Jojo, is one of the most idiotic characters I've ever met. She follows a guy down the alley just because he "has something to say." If this was the real world, she'd have been raped right then and there. She makes poor choices (when you watch it you'll understand which ones) and she never gives a clear explanation as to why she did it. The drama never explains why Jojo decides to go down this route and why she isn't fixing it. The drama plays it off and later on shows that she actually regrets it. Now, I understand why she regrets it and that she wants to undo it, but I don't understand why she isn't even trying to FIX it. She can easily explain her situation and I'm pretty sure everyone will believe her, but she doesn't even attempt it. There are so many plotholes and so many questions that the drama doesn't bother to explain or answer. Maybe because they left it all for season 2 but at the moment it's not released yet so the director cannot expect us to just accept it as it is.
One of the characters I hate more than Jojo is Sun Oh. The drama plays him off as romantic and cool, but he's actually really creepy. His character is childish and selfish and thinks the world revolves around him. Not once did he stop and think about how his best friend or anyone else around him except for the girl.
*SPOILER BELOW*
Hye Young makes it pretty clear that he like Kim Jojo. Although he never outright told Sun oh that he likes Jojo, Sun Oh already knows at this point. And you know what Sun Oh does when he finds out his best friend like this girl?
HE CHASES AFTER HER.
THIS BOI. What is going on in his head? "Hmmm. my best friend, who has always been there for me and supports me, likes this girl and she is his first crush. I should encourage him and let him have the chance to confess first because, after all, he liked her first. But, you know what, because I'm just the shelfish jerk I am, I'll go out there are whisk Jojo away and kiss her right after my best friend tells me he likes her. Brilliant!"
And you know what Hye Young does? NOTHING. FOOKING NOTHING. OMFG. And both of them made a pact and told each other to confess to Jojo at the same time. This way, it's fair to both of them.
BUT NO. N O.
FUCKING SUN OH, LIKE THE BITCH HE IS, DECIDES, "HEY, NOT ONLY DID I KISSMY BEST FRIEND'S CRUSH, I'LL ALSO CONFESS TO HER FIRST EVEN THOUGH I JUST PROMISED HIM WE'LL DO IT TOGETHER."
BITCH WHERE.
BITCH WHO.
I'M PISSED FOR HYE YOUNG.
And after Sun Oh and Jojo breaks up, Sun Oh doesn't let Hye Young go after Jojo. Like bro, it's his life. Just because you broke up with her doesn't mean he has to obey your every command.
And why does Hye Young still like Jojo? Dude, she rejected you like 10 times. Give up.
AND OMIGOD, DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON FUCKING GUL MI.
SHE'S EVEN MORE SELFISH THAN SUN OH.
How is it Jojo's fault that her parents tried to kill her? Why in the world did Gul Mi come to the conclusion that it's Jojo's fault that her parents are broke? And why doesn't Jojo just fight back? Maybe it's because she doesn't want to get kicked out, but still. She should've spoken up about it.
And she thinks that everyone else is beneath her when she herself hasn't gone anywhere in life. She didn't just screw up her life and her cousin's, she also bullies a guy into committing suicide.
You would think at this point she would feel bad, but no. She continues and takes out three million won from Jojo.
And another thing, why is everyone saying Jojo is such a pretty name? No, please stop. Jojo is an anime and forever will be an anime to me.

So, in conclusion, this drama is just plain stupid and frustrating. I could barely finish an episode without getting mad at a character. I wouldn't recommend this drama unless you really like getting frustrated.

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An “ Alarm” Ahead For Terrible Screenwriting ...

Screenwriters Lee Ah Yeon and Seo Bo Ra evidently adapted this from the webtoon for their eponymous contemporary drama “ Love Alarm” centralising upon the same premise of high school student Jo Jo ( Kim So Hyun) and her love triangle with “popular student ” Hwang Sun Oh ( Song Kang) and his “ kind-hearted best friend” Lee Hye Yeong ( Jung Ga Ram), in a world determining love through one app.

By default, this drama should be a masterpiece; its source material and premise are fairly creative and original, the characters are intrinsically interesting and it has a top-notch cast as well. However, “ Love Alarm”’s biggest inconsistencies can be pinpointed to two focal areas; characterisation ( or the lack of it) and the lingering problems which arise through the existence of the alarm itself.

Perhaps the biggest elephant in the room to tackle is our main heroine Jo Jo. It is made pretty evident that Jo Jo actually has a lot of intriguing qualities as our main character; her circumstances growing up have been difficult, she’s struggled with trauma and she’s never been “ overly exposed” to the love alarm ( like the viewer) in the same way her fellow peers have .

Yet whilst Jo Jo has all the right qualities of being a relatable and well-written main character, her actual personality traits make her seem a fairly hollow “ Mary Sue”, rather than an actual flawed human being. She’s deemed as “ pretty, smart and popular” by her peers yet the two latter classifications were fairly flawed in terms of who Jo Jo is supposed to be as a character. Jo Jo being “ popular” isn’t an immediately ridiculous trope with the considered factors of her “ attractive” appearance and being book smart, but let’s be honest in considering that Jo Jo lives in a society still determined by trends as a form of social hierarchy .Even in an alternate society, this seemingly manifests to the idea of the app “ Love Alarm”, something Jo Jo prominently does not have. Whilst this in itself is of course not something Jo Jo would realistically be written out as suddenly “ not being popular” , it would still remain obvious even amongst Jo Jo’s social crowds that she isn’t up to date on certain trends and styles, something which was neither realistically raised or shown critically in the show at all.

Additionally, Despite Jo Jo’s seeming intelligence and her circumstances leading to at least some street smart personality traits , Jo Jo is a shockingly dim-witted character within putting herself in danger or helping to create numerous misunderstandings throughout the show. Of course this was supposed to intensify the “ drama” and make Jo Jo’s feelings more heightened for the two male leads, however, it seemed even if Jo Jo was more “ naive” of her actions than anything else, cruelly ignorant to lead on both Sun Oh and Hye Yeong, two individuals who clearly hold feelings for her, than create the amount of ridiculous dilemmas as she did in the drama. Whilst the drama wanted us to feel evident pity for Jo Jo in the season one finale, it was hard to truly feel attachment towards a character who had little to really offer in the first place.

Naturally this moves us onto the problems of our two main leads Sun Oh and Hye Yeong. Arguably, Sun Oh does have some more noticeable character traits than Jo Jo in the beginning of the series; he’s rich, and similarly popular , but acts out in his often “ stoic” manner because of his own inner psychological turmoil surrounding lacking parental love.

This in itself should have been something which drew Sun Oh and Jo Jo upon their similarities ; Jo Jo may not have parents whilst Sun Oh does, but they both lack that intrinsic parental love which most of their peers have had and thus struggle to find love in the same way. Yet as much as Sun Oh did have some interesting character qualities, he wasn’t given the chance to either grow or mature with his relationship with Jo Jo at all over the course of the series. In fact, Sun Oh is strikingly quite a selfish and fractious character who neither seems to actually reflect or learn from any of his mistakes even going as emotionally gaslight his best friend and
ruin his relationship with both Jo Jo and Hye Yeong rather than actually mature as an individual .

Arguably Hye-Yeong did have more likeable qualities out of Sun Oh as a love interest and Jo Jo as a main character; he often comes off as complacent, but at least this is actually made prominent as one of his flaws, which he learns to mature upon with his pursuit of Jo Jo - the girl he harbours a crush upon without the need of the app. On the other hand, what is undeniably annoying about Hye-Yeong as a character, is that he is often a little too forceful upon Jo Jo when she made her feelings evident at times in the show, and ironically too staid rather than sticking up for himself when Sun Oh began to emotionally gaslight him. Whilst Hye-Yeong had all the right qualities of being possibly one of the few well-written characters in the show, he often felt too irregular as a character; jumping from sudden growth to reversal in two seconds flat.

As for the rest of the characters of the show, Love Alarm is a halcyon for your typical minor trope characters, yet perhaps one minor character who arguably had many intriguing characteristics was “ outcast” Cheon Duk Goo( Lee Jae Eung). Duk Goo plays an undeniable major role within the events of the series and realistically has a lot of inevitable flaws including his own lack of self-confidence. Nevertheless, it was berating even with the app, exactly what Duk Goo, possibly one of the few decent characters of the show, saw in Gul Mi ( Go Min Si); Jo Jo’s “ popular” and selfish cousin. Perhaps it is entirely wrong to attack Gul Mi per say as being entirely “ horrible” as she did have some noticeable problems from being spoilt by her mother, as well as pressurised due to her popularity to “ fit in” with her classmates and Duk Goo’s involvement as her “alarm” entirely threatened this from her point of view. On the other hand, it was still fairly hard to see Duk Goo learn from his mistakes as well as Gul Mi actually maturing from being a selfish schoolgirl , in addition to fundamental questions about how the app actually works .

These dilemmas include; how such an app would be legalised or not face backlash ( protests or negativity) openly, if the app can or has made “ errors” or faced glitches over more than one love alarm per person , why the presumed “app developer” hadn’t been approached by greater technology firms wishing to invest or purchase the app’s rights, as well as of course more upon the “ love alarm” for same-sex couples. Although the show briefly mentioned about the public shame of the love alarm in this scenario, it felt a little sugarcoated not to explain or develop into characters who have faced this. Finally, there’s the most evidential problem of how this app actually works.

The ideology of the app is undeniably artistic licensing; we’re not really supposed to “ understand” the actual methods of the app and we can presume certain theories towards how this actually functions. Nevertheless, there were several lingering questions which were naturally raised about the app’s existence in Love Alarm throughout the series.

So, this leaves us on the most obvious question. Is Love Alarm actually worth watching? Love Alarm undeniably has an intriguing story premise, high production value and a top-notch cast. On the other hand, Love Alarm is simply its own worst enemy when it comes to avoiding falling into tropes, badly-written characters and plot inconsistencies. With a second season on the horizon, it’s wrong to entirely draw out that the story won’t smooth over some of these issues, and there are certainly some interesting ideas going forwards. It’s probably fair to say that Love Alarm isn’t a “ dire” show and certainly something to watch if you’re fan of “ cute, romantic and fluffy” dramas. On the other hand, this show is a waste of time if you’re looking for actual investment in well-written main leads, a sensical storyline and realistic and deep critiques which should have been raised in a show tackling such ideas of technology intermingled with relationships .

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This show is one of the biggest waste of potential I have ever seen. The concept for this show is so unique and interesting, it could be taken in so many interesting direction. However, this show decides to tell the same cookie cutter love triangle story line, with some of the most unlikable characters I have ever seen in drama's. Now I've watched shows with unlikable characters, I've watched show with stupid characters but never have I watched a show where all three of the main leads are unlikable and stupid at the same time. All of them make stupid selfish choices and when they come to regret them they make no effect to fix anything and wallow in their own self pity. Also that ending wasn't and ending nothing ended in the story there was no closer therefore it can't even be called an ending. It was a cliffhanger for the second season however, with these character's I'm not sure if I'll waste my time with the second season

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I have a major bone to pick with this drama.

The idea for this drama was eye-catching. An app that tells who who's in love with you if they're in a 10m radius? Sounds kind of sci-fi and would definitely be interesting in a high school setting. I'm a sucker for high school dramas so I thought this would be something new to try. Boy I could NOT have been more wrong...

First of all, the motives for Sunoh's actions were creepy; Jojo should NOT have followed him into an alley, and literally WHAT was up with him going to kiss her IMMEDIATELY after he realized Hyeyeong, his best friend, was in love with her?? Can you have a heart?? I understand you were raised differently and don't know how to act in those kinds of situations but god damn, LAY OFF. Sunoh acted like a baby throwing a tantrum through this whole show, it was downright IRRITATING.

Jojo was only mildly more bearable, but I didn't understand why Sunoh fell in love with her in the first place: there was nothing inherently special about her character because her entire character was based around her trauma; there was no other traits about her that were played up. Imagine only liking someone for their tragic backstory. I know she was like "oh I'm trying to be cheerful despite all that's happened" bitch WHERE you look MISERABLE ALL THE TIME. I became increasingly tired of her towards the end when it's very apparent she could have solved all of her problems just by telling Sunoh and Hyeyoung about the shield. I know there's going to be a season 2, but many of these issues could have already been solved if she had just come clean about her feelings in the first place, saving both her and Sunoh a world of pain.

Hyeyoung... this poor boy was really just trying his best but god damn... grow a backbone PLEASE. You KNOW you have a shitty best friend but you are not obligated to stand by him all the time because you are your own person with your own opinions and feelings. When we finally got that at the end when he was being honest with Jojo, it was like [gordan ramsay meme but it says"finally some good fucking CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT"]. Honest to god, FUCK JEONG SUN OH. It was more than right for him to leave the guy after standing by him even after he went after the girl he clearly loved. The moment he left that robot behind was the only fucking good character development.

Also a moment of silence for Hyeyoung's mom. She ain't dead, we just appreciate her for being a nice and kind mom.

Other than that, the casting was good despite the acting being sub par. Overall, would not give this drama another look. This is eight hours of my life I will not get back, but I guess it was good to see Jojo and Hyeyoung grow towards the end.

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Im so confused with this storyline and pretty disappointed too. I thought it was going to be, you know.. good writing for once? But everything was still cliché and i rolled my eyes a lot. Story is so jumbled up and the characters are so bad, they confuse me a lottt. Its like, did the directors really do this?? Everything is so bad and the question im always asking while watching is "What??????"
I cant really explain it, but this show is just such a disappointment, I really hoped it'd get better and nope. It didnt. It really didnt. It just got worse and pissed me off even more. And the characters. I cannot get over how bad... Damn

Get a better scrip hunty this aint it.

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Everything about this drama is extremely westernised.
Not surprising considering this is a Netflix production, but the Korean drama charm is not there:

- 40 minutes long episodes of a 8 episode season, with a second season coming (very untraditional to kdrama)
- Kiss on the very first few episodes.
- No aesthetics whatsoever.
- Very westernised cinematography.
- Absolutely no humor/light-hearted moments. Everything is dramatic and serious.
- Very dull, cheesy or otherwise dry conversations between characters with little personality.

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This turned out to be a big dissapointment. I have to say that I really love the idea of the Joalert. Before it was aired, when I read the plot I thought that it was indeed a cool idea and that it would be a great drama. I was thinking that the love alert would have many paths to take( you could make a romantic story or go from romantic to something really fucked up). Indeed, they do throw in some protests or mass suicide or a rapist but they were just a few seconds from a long time of basically nohing.
I see no sense in Jo Jo s family story and trauma. It s true that I haven t seen until now in a drama a kid that survived that kind of a thing but, again, it had almost no connection with the story. Scenes must mesh together but in Love Alarm they are like different stories put blindly together. The evil cousin and aunt, her difficulties and how the cousin kept saying that she killed her parents were ABSURD.
How Sun Oh stole, really stole his best friend s crush was a really bad move, it s hard to love him after he did that as a character. He s lucky that he is better looking so it makes you forget how childish and unacceptable his actions are. I understand a love triangle but that usually happens after each guy crushes on the girl but kinda not knowing about the other or they are enemies. In the end only they fight over her. Here? As soon as he hears about Hye Young s crush, Sun Oh goes immediately and kisses her because??? On what basis did he fall for her? He didn t for fuck s sake. It s something that leaves you stupid. Like what the hell did just happen?
What s the purpose of the scene where after the accident she couldn t contact him and went to his house and everything? I found it useless. Just time lost that could ve been replaced with some full of sense scenes. And after that the breakup. Why? Why?? Jesus.
I really liked Deok Goo though.
Another thing is the 8 episode release. Again. Why? Can t we have it the old kdrama way with 16/ 20 or whatever? I really hate the Netflix involvement here.
In conclusion this is bad. Really bad. I m not sure if I ll watch the sequel (if there will be one). God, I m so upset over it

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First of all, I really enjoyed the plot. It's not an ordinary one. In fact, I love how it treats about high technology and the way it effects society. Something that surprised me actually is that this kdrama portrayed homosexuality! South Korea is a pretty conservative country and the fact that the director had insisted on portraying it makes me realize their society is becoming more accepting :)
The feeling of anxiety, always being on the lookout, embarrassment, acceptance, denial, excitement were well portrayed by the main leads. I support Kim So hyun haha, she's a very good actress. I've known her since School 2015 and I know her capability. Our rookies here Jung Ga Ram and Song Kang did an excellent job and I'm sure they'll be very successful in their acting career in the future.
Okay now the things i disliked about the character: Sun Oh.
He's very possessive, clingy, creepy and hard to like. I couldn't really stand his character. The moment he went after Jojo, I lost it. Is something wrong with him? He clearly knows that Hyeyeong, his loyal and kind childhood friend liked her and he STILL WENT AFTER HER. It was almost as if he didn't want Hyeyeong to get the girl and started to used his'' charms'' that any girl can fall for to Jojo for which she in fact did fall for. It's so disgusting to the part where Song kang says something like'' Oh you were never by my side all along''. Like *****, first of all, he did let you have the girl and didnt complain about it. Grow up.
Anyways yeah that was my rant about how unbelievably disgusting his character is.
Overally, good show that is binge worthy. We'll see what happens!

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