The Co-Life

I was surprised after watching the k-drama Lonely Enough to Love to see a lot of negative reviews about it (which is also why I never read reviews until I've had a chance to form my own opinions.) I didn't see the reason for most of the complaints about the series, the actors and the storyline.

The series features lots of quite attractive, nice characters wearing fashionable clothes, living together in a beautiful shared house, eating lovely food, drinking fabulous-looking beverages and having their own issues, which are not what I'd call gritty at all. It's rather like the Disney World version of a romance series; more like what you see in Chinese dramas. Also, aside from some sparse, pretty chaste kissing and one rather tame intimate scene between the lead actors, the content could be G-rated, too. That said, I thought it was fine.

This story is about a group of young men and women living together in one house, which in the real world is becoming more common these days. They each have their own room, which is like a studio apartment, but everything else in the house is shared. For one reason or another none of the characters is dating, wants to date or is interested in having a romantic relationship. That's the set-up.

The main romance is a love triangle that forms between psychiatrist Cha Kang Woo (Ji Hyun Woo), aspiring writer Lee Na Eun (Kim So Eun), and Lee Na Eun's BFF airline attendant Kang Hyun Jin (Park Geon Il). After attacking Kang Woo, who she mistakes as a psychopath, Na Eun is forced to move in with Hyun Jin, who lives right next door to, you guessed it, Kang Woo. As she finds out how wrong she was, Na Eun is also swindled by con artists posing as book publishers. I almost had the exact same thing happen to me when I was an aspiring writer (I flatly refused to pay any money to be published, which saved me from being swindled when I was quite poor.) Anyway, from that point I was completely invested in Na Eun's character.

Kang Woo quickly falls for Na Eun, and then Hyun Jin starts to see his BFF as a woman instead of a friend, which sets up the competition between the two male characters and just adds to Na Eun's troubles. Eventually she has to make a choice, and I thought the actors really did the best job depicting how difficult that can be when all three people actually like each other.

There are a few unusual quirks about this series. There's a gay character who isn't depicted like a running punchline; he was elegant and interesting, and the actor played him as a person instead of a joke. Thank you for that, Gongchan. There's an American and Korean couple who have a relationship crisis that has nothing to do with their ethnicity or cultural differences, also refreshing. Finally there is a man in the midst of a divorce (he happens to own the co-living house, too) who despite his troubles is happy, well-adjusted and generous -- and I've seen a character like that portrayed as a healthy person in only one other k-drama. A reminder that not everyone getting divorced is a complete mess.

I enjoyed this series because it was meant to be enjoyable. Not everything has to be gritty, right? Park Geon Il shamelessly stole every scene he was in, convinced me he was absolutely serious competition for Na Eun, and probably had 85% of the female audience rooting for him, too (I liked Ji Hyun Woo's character just a tiny bit more because he's got a unique face, soulful eyes and a wonderful smile.) Available to watch for free on Viki.com with lots of commercials.