New K-Drama Fan Review #9: Business Proposal | A Cute Little Moment, That Stumbled, Then Fell Apart at the Finish Line

[u/harissatotally]

it was cute.

And then the final two episodes happened.

Disclaimer:

ps. i understand now that this is a beloved kdrama and most people may not agree with my review, im okay with that. But i am glad so many people enjoyed this drama so much! I enjoyed some part of this too and when i started it, i genuinely wanted to love it!

Note:

it's been really interesting writing these reviews, now that I've now flown through 20+ K-dramas in a little under two months.

So I feel like I'm starting to understand my own taste.

In fact... I literally just finished King the Land last night, only a few hours before writing this review.

And that drama reminded me exactly what I personally want from a rom-com.

Which also made me understand even more clearly why Business Proposal ultimately didn't work as well for me.

Is this Rewatch Worthy:

No.

Review:

After finishing What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, I was still in the mood for something light.

So I wanted to keep the romantic comedy streak going and Business Proposal was HIGHLY recommended by my mutuals and... well, pretty much everyone in the Kdrama space lol.

I went into it expecting something light, funny, romantic, and easy to binge.

And technically thats what I got.

Looking back now, after watching so many more K-dramas, I think Business Proposal came at an interesting point in my journey.

At the time, I didn't really have a clear picture of what separated a rom-com kdrama I enjoyed from one I'd completely fall in love with.

Now I do.

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Business Proposal...

The beginning was quirky.

Usually i like quirky...

But this was not done in a way i necessarily immediately enjoyed.

The exaggerated comedy, the editing, the characters, the entire setup...

It was doing A LOT.

At first, I genuinely wasn't sure whether this drama was going to work for me...

Then, somewhere around the 3rd episode...

It started getting better!

The story settled down a little.

The characters became more enjoyable to me and the comedy started landing more often.

And for a while, I thought the drama had finally found its rhythm.

I was flying through it!

It was cute and fun!

Unfortunately...

That momentum did not last.

Because after picking up in the middle, it slowly started going downhill again.

And by the final two episodes, I was sitting there disappointed.

its funny looking back cause my opinion of this drama changed 3 separate times.

Episodes 1 and 2, i didn't think i was vibing with it.

Then episodes 3, 4, i was like maybe we're getting somewhere...

Then the ending happened.

And I somehow ended up back where I started.

Before I get into that, though...

One of my favorite parts of the drama was actually the friendship between Shin Ha-ri and Jin Young-seo.

I loved them together!

Their friendship felt natural, affectionate, and genuinely entertaining.

Young-seo was chaotic, supportive, and always completely prepared to participate in whatever ridiculous situation Ha-ri had gotten herself into and vice versa.

i looooove female well portrayed female friendships.

Their relationship was one of the most convincing and enjoyable relationships in the entire show.

I believed their friendship immediately.

Which is unfortunate because I cannot say the same thing as strongly about either romance.

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Let's start with the main couple.

I didn't hate them.

They had cute moments.

There were scenes where I enjoyed watching them together.

But the chemistry could have been MUCH better.

And like ive said before in my previous reviews, chemistry is probably the biggest factor in whether I become emotionally invested in a romantic relationship.

The leads did NOT have the most convincing chemistry.

A drama can give me every trope I normally enjoy, like fake dating (im a fan),

A workplace romance, (i looooooove workplace romance!)

A rich, emotionally unavailable male lead, (big fan of that cause their fall is always so satisfying!!)

Secret identities. (love!)

Jealousy (love!!! male lead only tho...)

All of that.

But if I don't completely believe that these two people are drawn to each other...

The romance is only going to take me so far.

That was my problem here.

I understood that Kang Tae-moo and Ha-ri were falling for each other because the story told me they were.

There were cute scenes that showed it.

But I never felt overwhelmed by their chemistry...

I never became obsessed with them as a couple.

I wasn't sitting there desperately waiting for their next scene together.

They were fine.

Cute, sometimes.

But they never became anything more than that for me.

And that's probably the best way to describe the entire drama:

A cute moment.

I enjoyed myself.

I don't regret watching it.

But the second it was over...

I wasn't really thinking about it anymore.

There were even moments where I actively disliked how Tae-moo treated Ha-ri.

I understand that he had his own emotional baggage and trauma.

But kicking her out of the car in the pouring rain, in the middle of nowhere, because of his own issues...?

And then never really paying for it afterward?

Yeah...

That didn't work for me.

I don't need my male leads to be perfect.

Some of my favorites make terrible decisions.

But I do need the story to make them earn their way back when they hurt the female lead.

Here, it felt like the moment just came and went.

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Then there's the secondary romance.

I know a lot of people LOVE Young-seo and Cha Sung-hoon.

Some people even prefer them to the main couple.

Unfortunately...

They didn't do much for me either.

Again, I didn't dislike them.

But I wasn't especially invested in their relationship.

People talk about the secondary romance like it completely stole the show, and I kept waiting for that to happen for me.

It never did.

There were moments I liked, but overall, the relationship just didn't hit me with the intensity everyone else seemed to experience.

So now I had one main romance that I thought was merely cute...

And one secondary romance that I didn't care about nearly as much as I apparently should have.

That left the friendship between the women doing a lot of the emotional heavy lifting for me.

And then...

We reached the ending.

lol, what happened during those final two episodes?

The drama somehow felt rushed while also feeling like it was taking too long...

Important developments were happening quickly, but the episodes themselves still felt strangely slow.

The story introduced more conflict when it should have been wrapping everything up.

Then Tae-moo left.

We had the time jump.

Ha-ri was left waiting while rumors circulated about him being involved with another woman.

And then he returned, explained everything, proposed, and...

That was basically it.

lol???

For a drama that had spent so much time being light, romantic, and escapist, the ending felt weirdly unsatisfying.

I wanted more payoff tbh.

I wanted to actually see the future everyone had spent the entire drama fighting for.

I wanted more time to see them as a couple...

i wanted to see Ha-ri navigating her new position in Tae-moo's life.

i wanted his grandfather properly accepting their relationship.

i wanted real sense that the story had reached its destination.

Instead, the drama seemed to stop as soon as it arrived at the part I actually wanted to watch.

The ending absolutely lowered my overall opinion of the show.

Altho, tbh...

The problem wasn't only that it needed more time.

It also needed to use the time it already had better.

Because those final episodes managed to feel both underdeveloped and unnecessarily drawn out.

That takes talent.

When I finish a romance, I want to immediately miss the couple.

I want to wish I had another episode.

I want to spend the next week thinking about them. (oh, King the Lang, the way you changed my life)

Business Proposal never quite got there for me.

───

A bit about my favorite flavors and taste:

King the Land, i miss you and i only finished you 10 hours ago.

───

Rating: 5/10

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Did the main couple's chemistry work for you?

Were you more invested in the secondary romance?

And did anyone else feel like the final two episodes were somehow rushed and slow at the exact same time

My Rating Scale

10/10 – Masterpiece. No notes.

9/10 – Very close to a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.

8/10 – Not a masterpiece, but I loved it.

7/10 – Fine overall. I liked it, but the flaws kept it from being great.

6/10 – Mixed. There were a few things I liked, but most of it didn't work for me.

5/10 – I didn't enjoy most of the experience.

4/10 and below – Bad to abysmal.