“Love Alarm” (좋아하면 울리는): Season 2

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
April 24, 2021

☆☆☆☆
Kim Jo-Jo (played by Kim So-Hyun)
Lee Hye-Yeong (played by Jung Ga-Ram)
Hwang Sun-Oh (played by Song Kang)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Sometimes, Netflix’s involvement in K-Dramas is a drag. One of the beauties of watching Korean series is that almost always, there is a beginning, middle and end after 16 episodes. And then the actors (and viewers) move onto a new drama. “Love Alarm” was one of the first Netflix series that split a K-Drama into two seasons. By the time this second season was released — 1½ years later — I honestly couldn’t remember much of what had happened in the first season without reading my previous review for a recap.

This second half drags on to the point where I found myself not wanting to even finish it. I’ll be talking about a few things that happened in the first season, so if  you don’t want to be spoilered, stop reading and come back later. (Spoilers for this current season will be noted in the Spoiler Alert section below the trailer).

You may recall that in Season One, Jo-Jo had a shield put on JoAlarm (좋알람), which alerts users if there is someone within 10 meters who loves them. Her reasoning? She didn’t want to hurt either of the two young men who were in love with her: Hye-Yeong and his best friend Sun-Oh.

But listen up: Life is all about choices. You loving someone doesn’t mean you’re entitled to that person loving you back. Free will is involved, and if a man can only accept her choice if an app tells him she’s not lying, that is a huge issue. Both these men are besotted with her over a period of f.o.u.r. long years and seem unable to move on without her. That’s not a her issue. That’s a him/them issue.

This app sounds like a lot of fun, but the consequences could be dire. Love isn’t a constant flow that remains the same in any relationship. You can be in a loving relationship and have feelings of hatred for your partner after an unpleasant disagreement. Even assuming that the app has ways to differentiate between romantic love and the love you have for your family, can you imagine how embarrassing it’d be if the app outed your sexuality before you were prepared to tell the person? Or if you had a crush on someone who you never really wanted to be with romantically, but thought about them every so often just because?

The first season showed so much promise and had a more nuanced take on young love. This second season? It’s what I call a chore drama — you watch it as you fold laundry or open your mail etc.

Airdates: Eight episodes — each about 1-hour long — were released on Netflix On March 12, 2021. You may see the review of the first season here.

Spoiler Alert: The creator of the JoAlarm, Duk-Gu, was Jo-Jo’s high school classmate. He survived a suicide attempt. His older brother, Brian, went on to become the face of the app. Duk-Gu later provides a way for Jo-Jo to counteract the shield. Now, the JoAlarm rings when Hye-Yeong is near her, “proving” that she loves him.  Duk-Gu had been in love with Jo-Jo’s superficial cousin, Gul-Mi, who as a teen was a wannabe idol-in-training, but now works in her mother’s convenience store. Near the end of season two, she is reunited with Duk-Gu, but is still disgusted with him because he’s not good looking like Brian. She rejects him again. As I said in my review of the first season, Gul-Mi has a a nasty personality. But. She has always been honest about her feelings. She wants a good looking, rich man. She never liked or wanted to date Duk-Gu. She is the only young character in this series who doesn’t need a love alarm to tell her who she loves.

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