Lonely Enough to Love: Premiere Impressions

Lonely Enough To Love is MBC’s latest romance drama starring familiar faces Kim Soeun and Ji Hyunwoo. Amidst the multiple serious and dark K-Dramas on-air, Lonely Enough to Love stands out for its predictable tropes and simplicity. The series will span 16 episodes but will only air an episode weekly, great for rom-com lovers who are short on time. 

Synopsis

The series is about a group of adults residing in Happy Together, a co-living house. The residents struggle with a relatable conundrum—they wish to date, but they don't want it to be serious. They prefer being free, but they also don't want to be lonely.

Cha Kangwoo (Ji Hyunwoo), the male lead, is a psychiatrist who despite his cheerful demeanor, has trauma due to his past experience with romantic relationships. Our female lead, Lee Naeun (Kim Soeun), is a freelance copy editor with a penchant for generosity and does not tolerate injustice. Busy working towards becoming a novelist one day, Nauen has not had much romance in the past four years. Kang Hyunjin (Park Geonil) is a flight steward who is longtime friends with Naeun. He lives by his own strict principles but softens in the face of his love. 

Impressions and Thoughts

Naeun’s struggles with her career and Hyunwoo’s consultations with his patients and the lesson with his students immediately signal the drama’s direction as a self-discovery and healing drama. It does feel that this drama is not geared towards the general public but more towards working adults, as the sentiments of career-first and singlehood are taking root in many developed societies. 

The premiere episode is not very eventful as the majority of the time is used to establish the characters and their relationships with one another. The key event between the two leads that unfolds in the premiere is Naeun’s misconception of Hyunwoo being an abusive conman. Unbeknownst to Naeun, Hyunwoo was actually in the midst of a unique consultation with his patient to help his patient better understand themselves via a mirror technique. Naeun, mistaking them to be a couple, perceives Hyunwoo to be physically abusing his patient, and bravely interferes. It is due to this misunderstanding that Hyunwoo begins to catch feelings for Naeun. 

From this brief recap, we can be sure that this K-Drama will be using many cliches and tropes moving forward. Surprisingly, these cliches and tropes are not overly dramatized and distasteful, and actually pretty bearable—possibly due to the leads’ ethereal visuals. They later realize that they are housemates in Happy Together and Naeun begins to warm up to Hyunwoo after multiple attempts to avoid him. 

One of the standout points of Lonely Enough To Love is definitely Naeun’s character. Her pride to keep up appearances and struggles when it comes to her work will definitely speak to you if you have ever been in a similar compromising situation. Besides this, it is definitely the visuals of the cast. The styling of the leads has been impeccable in the premiere episodes, with both of them serving up eye-catching professional and laidback leisure looks. Besides the multiple star guestings we are shown in the early minutes of the premiere, familiar idol faces such as Noh Jihoon, B1A4’s Gongchan, and former 4Minute’s Son Jihyun are also part of the fixed cast as supporting roles. While it is unknown if they will be having their own character developments, one thing’s for sure—they have successfully raised the visual standards of this K-Drama. 

What viewers can expect in the coming episodes would be more development for the second male lead, Hyunjin. It would be interesting to see how the K-Drama manages to mold his character to be a love interest of equal standing to Hyunwoo, and of course, flesh out his softer side. 

Conclusion

Although Lonely Enough To Love seems to be adequately promising for now, the worrying issue is that only one episode will be broadcasted weekly. With a whopping 16 episodes in total, this series will reach its conclusion in November. Against multiple romance K-Dramas slated to debut this coming September, Lonely Enough To Love must continuously come up with engaging plot developments to sustain its viewers’ interests as viewers dropping this for another K-Drama of similar genre seems likely. 

Lonely Enough To Love airs on Tuesdays on MBC Every 1. Interested viewers can stream it on Viki and iQiyi and make their own judgments.