I Hate You Juliet Review
I finished I Hate You Juliet more than two months ago and thought it would be nice to finish this review. This has been sitting unfinished in my drafts for over a month. I apologize for the delay on this.
Up front, I’m going to say that I didn’t love this drama—I had a lot of hope and expectations as I wanted to see Lee Hong Ki shine and dazzle as a leading man again. I fell for him hard in Bride of the Century, laughed at the utterly ridiculous premise of Modern Farmer, and totally adored him as PK in Hwayugi. Hong Ki is a solid actor and I’ve never not liked him acting work.
To be fair, I did like I Hate You Juliet and I didn’t have a problem finishing it. Halfway through, the story and characters started to win me over… slightly. It took me about 8 episodes until I started to get in the groove of the story and like the direction it was going. That’s a long time to get me on board with a drama, but I really hung in there for Lee Hong Ki.
It’s a web drama, so it tops out with 18 episodes. That may sound like a lot, but we’re talking short episodes here that are around 20 minutes or less. For that reason alone, it’s very easy to binge-watch I Hate You Juliet. If you’ve got around six hours to spare, it’s easy to finish this one in a day.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again—I occasionally have issues with web dramas. The plots tend to be far too ambitious for the short-episode format and the character development falls by the wayside. I think this dramawas overly ambitious in those areas, which made the overall quality less than I was expecting.
What’s the plot?
After an electric shock, a top celebrity (Lee Hong Ki) is suddenly able to hear a script-writer’s (Jung Hye Sung) thoughts. Knowing her true thoughts and feelings, he finds himself falling madly in love with her! But when he loses his ability to read her mind, would he still be able to win her heart? -Viki
I had an extremely tough time getting through the first 5 episodes, which I mentioned over on my First Impressions post. Some areas actually improved as the story continued, but the plot and development needed a lot of work. By episode 8, I was feeling more confident about the drama as it seemed to get its legs and have an actual direction.
I was waiting for Jung Hye Sung to win me over, but sadly, I never really connected with her character. She had some good moments story wise—I won’t deny her that. As the story continued on, I did start to resonate with her character. My honest feelings are that the writers had grand ideas of how they wanted to do her story, but the execution fell flat.
Jung Hye Sung and Cha Yeol were childhood friends. Both of their mothers were close friends, but that friendship was destroyed by a misunderstanding. I really loved Hye Sung and Cha Yeol’s mother’s and I wanted to see more of them and their story; I was a bit bummed that story line took forever to come to fruition, especially when they had such a cute sismance once they reconnected.
Jung Hye Sung has been mooning over her sunbae, Bong Joon Mo. Isn’t it ironic that she starts to fall for Cha Yeol and those feelings dissolve? But let’s not forget that this drama loves its tropes. Of course, there’s got to be a bit of a love triangle going on, but thankfully it’s not drawn out. Joon Mo ends up confessing to Hye Sung, but as she doesn’t feel the same way, nothing much comes out of it.
Cha Yeol and Hye Sung like each other and realize they were childhood friends. It’s great to see them together and work things out. This couple is cute together, and I have to admit that I love how Cha Yeol melted around Hye Sung as time went on. We started to see more of his true self and that was very satisfying.
Final Thoughts on I Hate You Juliet.
Overall, this drama is a quick binge-watch. The story isn’t half bad but it certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel. There’s a happy ending, the fantasy element is a nice touch, and our leads have a fun dynamic. If you’re looking for something quick and easy to binge-watch, this isn’t a bad choice. I had fun watching it for the most part, but this is a once-and-done drama for me; I probably wouldn’t re-watch this one—not even for Lee Hong Ki. (Okay, I may rewatch some LHK scenes that made me laugh out loud. There is definitely a possibility I could do that in the future.)
It has a solid 8.9 rating on Viki, so I recommend trying out a few episodes and see how you feel. It didn’t quite hit the mark for me, but I laughed and cried while watching this drama at times, so honestly there is good content to be had.
The pitfalls are the short episodes don’t do much for the character development and the overall plot. Also, I wish that some of the writing was a bit more tidy. But for what it’s worth, I was still glad to watch this drama. Just know it’s probably not going to make many people’s “favorite dramas of all time” list.
You can give this drama a try over here on Viki.
Source: It Started with a KDrama
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