Yi Guyeokui Michin X: Mad For Each Other

June 22, 2021 3:30 PM - Season 1 (Full Season)

Bothered to realize they are next-door neighbors and share a psychiatrist, a man and a woman find it's impossible to stay out of each other's way.

The Review Geek - Episode 1 recap (complete season recapped by episode on the site)

Dramabeans 'Mad For Each Other' tagged entries

Decider - Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mad For Each Other’ On Netflix, A Slapsticky Korean Rom-Com About Two People In Crisis Who Keep Finding Each Other

MyDramaList show page

posted by oh yeah! (4 comments total)

This just finished it's 13-episode season on Netflix yesterday, and overall I really enjoyed it. I agree with the Decider reviewer on finding the humor too slapsticky/unfunny, but only at the beginning. The show gets much better after a few episodes, once they've explained the backstories of the two leads, and introduce all the side characters of the ensemble. If you get turned off by the pilot, it's definitely worth giving it a longer chance (and the episodes are only in the 30+minute range).
posted by oh yeah! at 3:50 PM on June 22, 2021

I like smaller budget, low stakes K-dramas with good writing and normal-looking actors (get tired of generically beautiful women and hyper-chiseled guys). So, I liked this show. The two main actors are adorable, although the guy does yell a lot (he has anger issues). Although he doesn't yell as much as Rain did in Full House, because that would be impossible. The little dog was super cute. And Korean dramas are SO SO clean. Did the two leads ever even kiss? I don't think they did. The lady's abusive ex-boyfriend was very creepy and hate-worthy. The one scene that sticks out to me was the lady cutting a mailing label with her address off a box and sadly tearing it into little pieces. Of course, I do that, and I'm a guy with no enemies.
posted by jabah at 6:12 AM on June 29, 2021

Did the two leads ever even kiss? I don't think they did.

No, they kissed -- remember, he leaned towards her when she fell asleep on the couch, and when she woke and asked what he was doing, and he tried to stammer out some non-creepy explanation, she told him to do what he was trying to do, and then there was kissing and (male) shirtless-ness, and it was later referenced in dialogue that they'd slept together. As kdramas go, I thought this one was fairly explicit. I also thought the whole subplot with Sang Yeop/Samantha was pretty sweet too -- I mean, the part was pretty asexual, easier to have characters being accepting of him than of an overtly gay drag queen, but, still, it was nice to have everyone just letting him be himself once they got over their initial panics.
posted by oh yeah! at 12:27 PM on June 29, 2021

I worry I didn't express my thoughts clearly on Sang Yeop/Samantha before. What I meant to say was, it seems like a lot of kdramas are kind of in the 'Hays Code' mode when it comes to LGBTQ+ characters/themes -- doing that thing of 'the only sympathetic queer character is an unhappy/unrequited/tragic one' or for use in farcical misunderstandings about a straight character. So I thought it was nice that this show made a point of having the ensemble get over themselves about Sang Yeop dressing up as Samantha. His desires harmed no one, as compared to actual villains like the abusive ex-boyfriend, or the neighborhood flasher. And his friendship with the part-timer was sweet. (But I don't know if it would have been better if they'd become an explicitly romantic pairing, or if it that would have made his character less sympathetic to the general Korean audience -- like the way some US shows would be fine having a gay best friend cheerleading the straight characters but not giving him an actual romantic plot of his own.)
posted by oh yeah! at 6:18 AM on June 30, 2021