Extraordinary You (2019)

Just when I was starting to get bored from the kdrama tropes and had switched to watching mainly cdramas, Extraordinary You came out.

It was a pleasant surprise to see these young actors who don't have much experience as leads under their belts - yet they carried the story so effortlessly. So much so that I completely bought the story about life in the world of comic books.

The main characters' side swipes at the overused tropes of romantic dramas were what got me hooked in the beginning, but it was the heartfelt acting - especially from our two leads, that kept me going.

I felt every smile, every tear, every fear that went through their faces. And I prayed as hard as they did to writer-nim to please make this a happy ending.

Yes, it's not perfect, there were some threads left hanging and some sub-plots that were too conveniently solved. But it didn't ruin the story for me.

Most of all, I like the overarching message in the drama - that we have the power over our own lives, we just have to have the courage to take control.

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I, like most people, began watching because of the high ratings (9.1 atm) and the intriguing synopsis. MC in a comic book trying to fight against her fate? Sign me up! The first few episodes did pretty well in setting up the story and world-building. You have Dan Oh who is headstrong and determined to change her fight as a sick girl who has a crush on Baek Kyung, Baek Kyung who treats Dan Oh like trash, Haru who tries to help Dan Oh change her fate, Joo Da who is your typical helpless female lead in the comic, Nam Joo who is your typical rich male lead in the comic, and Do Hwa who is your typical sweet second-male lead. However, towards the middle of the story, Dan Oh's goal switches and she turns into the cliche girl whose life now centers around romance and being with Haru. Scenes become repetitive as characters lose their memories, scenes successfully manage to be changed only with slight tweaks, and Dan Oh continuously suffers from her sickness without being able to do anything about it. You're up to the last four episodes and you're thinking, what's progressed between Dan Oh and achieving her sickness goal? NOTHING! The only progress there has been in Dan Oh's life is in the romance department between her and Haru. And of course, the last four episodes rush everything and almost nothing is explained or satisfyingly resolved in the end. Who is the writer? Why do shadows exist in the first place? Why don't the characters just get skipped to the next important scene automatically? How do the changed scenes affect the writer's planning in real life? What's the point of this whole drama if the characters will face the same problem in the other works the author writes? What happens to the characters after a story is completed? Why does Haru sleep in school? Is he homeless? Where's his parents? Why don't we know anything about him after 30 episodes other than that he likes Dan Oh? Dan Oh's best friend is Ju Da's bully, yet why does Dan Oh never do anything about it?

Pros:
- Unique concept (even though a lot of potential is wasted)
- Charming and complex characters (especially Do Hwa and shadow Ju Da)
- Superb acting despite messy storyline (major props to Baek Kyung's actor)
- Great character developments (Baek Kyung)
- Mix of historical drama background

Cons:
- Turns into your typical romance story with a high school girl infatuated with a guy and prioritizing him over her own life
- Undeveloped characters (looking at you, Haru)
- Sends bad messages (romance vs. life, no free will, can't change your fate, bullying)
- TONS of plotholes
- Not a lot of questions answered
- Repetitive scenes
- Terrible and rushed ending

All in all, if you're looking for a romance drama with a bit of a "forbidden love" twist and angst in it, this is for you. Just don't look too deep into the whole character-being-unable-to-change-her-fate concept. If you're planning on watching it because the synopsis sounds interesting, brace yourself for the disappointment. The rushed ending leaving millions of questions unanswered will crush you.

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I'll try to make this short.

It had SO much potential and I don't say this lightly. It really did. The first half was amazing, new and very intriguing! But during the middle something happened and it became really slow and had so little progress in each episode. I just continued because of my attachment to the characters and for that part in me that knows that the story is actually pretty good and I want to know how it'd end.
Honestly If I could I'd remove 4-5 episodes from the middle that had so little affect on the story and felt repetitive and useless.

The ending is good but a lot of questions weren't answered and you're left with a number of loose ends.

I won't go into details because it would take forever.

The acting was great! Everyone was made for their role and did it exceptionally well! The chemistry between the main leads (and every other couple really) was also perfect and both of these things made up for the plot drag.

To summarize: it's good! If you're looking for something perfect this isn't for you but if you're looking for a romantic cute drama with good chemistry and don't mind about the plot holes this would be perfect for you!

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I came into this drama expecting nothing at all since I was fairly bored and the first few episodes totally blew my mind. The drama started off with a clear message to the viewers: Dan Oh, a girl who is trapped in a manga world tries to break free and keep herself alive from the unfairness and absurdness of the cruel world while trying to find the meaning behind her life.

However, it started going downhill and the message of the drama started to disappear too. Dan Oh went from trying to change her life to saying " Haru!!" during every single scene she was in, it was cute at the beginning but gets extremely repetitive quickly. At first, the introduction of the character Haru was seemingly interesting for me. Who is he? What is his relation to Dan Oh? Why is he the only one who can change the story? As the drama progresses, we got to know the answer behind the first two of these questions and found out that they were lovers in the previous drama, as for the latter... we still don't know. It seemed as if Haru life revolved only around Dan Oh, we really never got to see him really do anything besides think about Dan Oh, nor do we know what his hobbies are (other than saving Dan Oh). His character became utterly boring and one-dimensional to me. The second male lead: Baek Kyung was just an annoying jerk throughout the series and the writers only redeemed him in the second last episode. Second last episode! All through episode 1 to 14, his only role was to get annoyed at Dan Oh and Haru, shout at everyone and slam the locker. The love triangle was so draggy cause we all know that Dan Oh likes Haru and Baek Kyung was clearly not in the picture. Instead of spending episodes with repetitive scenes such as: Dan Oh & Haru cute moments together with Baek Kyung watching from afar with an annoyed expression, the stage happens and Haru gets jealous seeing Dan Oh with Baek Kyung, the stage ends and DanHaru leaves together but then stops on their tracks because Kyung mentioned something about how "Eun Dan Oh is my fiance!!!" and then cue the amnesia storyline but make it happen twice. The writers could have focused on answering important questions such as: How did this manga world happen? Who is the writer? How did Kyung's brother become self-aware and what is his role? Are all the characters going to be stuck in this loophole forever? What's the weird portal? Why is the comic book stored in the library where everyone could easily find it? Meanwhile, you have another love triangle (yes another one) between Do Hwa, Joo Da, and Nam Joo. Do Hwa is literally the only likable character in this series and shadow Joo Da is just really badass and together they would make a great couple right? Wrong. Joo Da chooses Nam Joo, a character who is only there to calls her "my woman" at every opportunity he gets and because if she leaves him, he won't have anyone to care about him.


The acting was incredible. I was skeptical of Rowoon's acting at first since I've never watched him in a drama before but his acting really amazed me. The rest of the cast's acting was brilliant too.

The OST was good too.

Overall, if you can overlook all the plotholes and the annoying repetitive scenes and the cliches then this drama is for you.

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the first half of this drama was amazing. it was unique and unpredictable - rare to find in kdramas, especially school ones. it quickly became the only drama i was looking forward to every week. i loved everything about it from the plot to the characters. seriously the characters are so good and funny. i grew to love them all (epsically do hwa) my expectations for extraordinary you kept going up and up, and every week it passed those expectations and kept giving me more of what i wanted. and about half way through it became a typical school romance and didn’t have any of the uniqueness to it that it once had. it became repetitive and i found myself not looking forward to it as much.

the acting is really good. considering it’s a high school romance, the acting is good. i actually love hyeyoon’s quirky acting and found it made the show better. the drama wouldn’t have been what it is without her acting.
i never knew rowoon was such a good actor. i usually don’t pay attention to idol actors but he’s one of the ones who can actually act. i really felt his emotions throughout the drama.

i also have to give it to the supporting characters: jaewook did an amazing job too and portrayed his role to the best of his ability and brought out its full potential. he managed to make people really hate his character, and if an actor can do that then in my opinion they’re a great actor. everyone else did an amazing job; i really can’t fault any of their acting.

the osts were really good too and really fit with the theme of the drama. the first half had more of an upbeat ost whereas the second half had a sadder, deeper ost (still upbeat tho) which really reflected the drama itself as the first half was more comedic and light and the second half became more dramatic and tense.

i don’t wanna give anything away so i’m gonna end this right here. but overall this drama is still one of the best kdramas of the year and best school romance drama altogether. if the first half hadn’t been so good and set my expectations so high i probably wouldn’t have thought the second half was lacking. but the hype for this drama is real. even if you don’t like school dramas, this is a must. yes it gets draggy towards the end but it’s still worth it. even just watching it for the danharu moments is worth it. and seeing dohwa always smiling and brightening up the mood. if you’re sick and tired of cold abusive bad boys as leads then watch this. haru and dohwa are the best boys.

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An “ Extraordinary” Waste of Time..

It’s fair to say that sometimes certain dramas can be incredibly overrated.Although this isn’t an entirely groundbreaking commentary upon dramas, it’s important to remember that sometimes a lot of these shows are “glorified “ by fans in favour of the “casting” or “ chemistry” between the leading actors or chosen cast of the drama, and Extraordinary You is no exception.

Naturally it is of course wrong to truly say that the actual show didn’t have any good features; it played satirically upon the youth romantic comedy genre with its own parody of the F4 ( “ A3”) from Hana Yori Dango/ Boys Over Flowers, the concept itself of a teenage girl ( Kim Hye Yoon) coming to find her own sense of freedom and control where she is written as an extra in a webtoon ( not an entirely “ brand new” concept when compared to older dramas such as “ W; Two Worlds”) was intriguing and the mystery behind Ha-ru ( Ro Woon) for at least the first couple of episodes added to some early advantages of the show as well.

Yet when taking a greater step back by comparing the overall storyline , character performance and characterisation of the drama, there’s no sugarcoating that Extraordinary You was quite simply a “hot mess” .

Whilst Hye Yoon must be praised for several heartfelt moments through her performance , the irony is not lost that for a show playing upon romantic cliches by screenwriters In Ji Hye and Song Ha Young, Eun Da Oh was the epitome of a “ stock” and restricted female lead with little actual character depth, interests outside of her obsession with “ Ha-ru” or actual intrigue for viewers at all over the whole of the drama. Whilst of course there’s nothing wrong with a female lead making a decision over her own love interest ( in particular with the concept of the show), her apparent declaration to defy fate and become independent through actual character progression apart from obsessions and boys, was tossed out the window after this scene early on in the drama.

Additionally whilst Ro Woon brought a mysterious air of composure to his portrayal as the leading man, Ha-ru, his performance sometimes felt a little lacklustre and wooden at times within the show. Naturally this also partially the fault of the screenwriters as well from transitioning Ha-ru as an actual figure of intrigue and an individual early on in the drama ( parallel to Lee Jae Wook’s character, Baek Gyung) to an overrused plot device. It seemed evident that not even before the halfway point of the drama Extraordinary You became too obsessed with its own cliches and repeating the same cliches over and over not as a statement or joke against romance mangas/ manwhas, but ironically as actual plot line.

This consequently lead the show down a really slippery slope of gradually worse characterisation even with fairly intriguing and comical characters such as “ Dry Squid Fairy” ( Lee Tae Ri) to reverted plot devices and lacking originality by the ending of the drama. Overall whilst Extraordinary You isn’t an unbearable or dire drama to watch, however, after the halfway point, the actual intrigue and devotion towards the drama becomes minimal and by the ending of the drama, there’s that awful lingering relief that it has ended your suffering by finishing it. Certainly a waste of time if you’re looking for something with genuine originality and intrigue .

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for those who have a second male lead syndrome and want some unique story with a likeable heroine

Have you ever had a filling that a heroine and a second lead are meant to be together? They have great chemistry, understanding of one another and generally bring the best in each other? Yet for a reason as old as kdramas, they won't ever end up together?
So what if these characters were given the mind of their own? How would story unfold then? Well, thats basically what this whole kdrama is about and you know what? It is genious.
The writer/director very successfuly captures the basic criterias for usual cliched love triangles.
Now, we have two love triangles:
1.
Kyung - the typical jerk male lead who is cold towards heroine yet is excussed because he has a tragic past
Dan oh - clingy heroine who loves ml no matter what and has health cindition
Haru - second lead who is mature and caring and has kind of bromance with ml.
2.
Namjoo - popular and rich ml
Jooda - poor and submissive fl
Dohwa - cheerful and charming sl
This drama perfectly portrays everything wrong with such triangles. It shows how fls are often owershadowed and consumed by ego of mls. You could say that whenever they have scenes together, its always about mls and their wishes. Drama does a great job exposing how in these typical relationships, a female leads wrong being benefits male lead since heroine becomes dependant on him and stuck with him.
Things are completly different when fls are with second leads. They are equal with them. Yet it is never meant to be. I especially liked how well the story is packed in a way that it was able to convice me as a viewer that Haru is not what is meant to be a ml.
Extraordinary you is first and foremost a romance story. I do enjoy this genre but im very critical of it since i rarely encounter a story which is both engaging and believeable without being sexist. I ended up being very satisfied with romance in this drama. It is hands down, one of the most beautiful and tragic romances in unconventional way.


The theme is not the old and tried amnesia. Its more about author/character relation which takes inspiration from absurdist literature. It is quite tricky subject and i was surprised how well it was explored.
Along with criticizing traditional kdrama pairings, this drama also criticizes repetitiveness and unwillingness to chance even if story itself requires it. So, constant memory loss serves the purpose of showing us how author takes the freedom away from their creations by putting them in cliched positions.
In the end tho, (spoiler) Dan Oh and Haru won. Since they are nameless in new manhwa and can be free.


Acting is great. Really natural and without exggeration. I was surprised that Haru is played by an idol. Actress who plays Dan oh managed portraying bigger than life, cheerful, stubborn and determined heroine without comic exaggeration and it didnt feel forced at all.

As for characters, they are definitely the higlight of the series. Especially Dan oh which is rare because usually in kdramas fls dont get much character with complexity ( its changing now tho ). Dan oh is funny and extra yet she is not annoying or naive. She deals with existential crisis throughout this drama.
As for Haru, he is everything we love about second leads. He is caring and kind towards Dan oh and their relationship is based on trust and understanding. Their scenes together were so heartwarming and chemistry was just electrifying.
Kyung, he is the ml out of the triangle in the comics world and supposedly second lead of this drama but it doesnt feel this way at all. In this Dan oh centered story, Haru and Baek seem to have role of similar importance. It is good decision on the writers part for two reasons: first, this way sl isnt there just to create mild obstecle for ml. He and Dan oh have a special bond. Second, this way we still have feeling that he is the one who is supposed to be a ml.

Soundtrack is very balanced. I usually dont like how overly dramatic and always present the soundtrack is in kdramas but this one had a very good choice of songs that captured the mood of the drama.

This drama had great potential and it exceeded expectations like no other drama i have seen. It started with good quality and remained such throughout the drama. And believe me, as a experienced series viewer, from star trek tos to westworld, i know thing or two about good quality series.

In short, it is one of the best kdramas out there even in non-kdrama standards with a very original and kind of philosophical themes such as free will/determinism and the dilemma of whether or not being awarne of your fate is worth it if you cant do anything about it.

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Great concept, bad execution.

This show is an example of how to ruin a drama with great concept and potential into a mess. The first 5 episodes really really impressed me to the point where I made my own storyline that could have made more sense than the original show.

Acting: I wouldn't say I loved the main character's acting,both dan oh and haru. But lee jae wook, he was extremely good. His character deviates between frustrating and depressing every few episodes, and he showcased that so well. Other than that, I felt absolutely no chemistry, no emotions and no feelings about any character, was dissapointing. April naeun really surprised me though, she acts pretty well and is so beautiful!

Characters: The writer failed in this department. Literally no character has depth, especially haru. He literally has no personality except for ...well.. he like dan oh. Dan Oh's character was bearable for 5 episodes, actually she was cute. But after that I found her lines and expressions extremely cringy. She was trying to sound a little too cheerful, didn't enjoy that. Dan oh starts off as a strong character, then she ends up crying every few episodes, was hard to watch. The other extra characters like the bullies and other classmates were really annoying, they keep doing same shit every day. Every interaction of the main three characters I started to skip by the end of the show, except for juda and lee do hwa scenes( they were cute).

Script: I have actually never seen a drama with so many plot holes,repetitive (even though there is a reason for some of the dialogues being repeated)and extremely cringy dialogues all rolled up into a package so perfectly like this one. After the good 5 episodes, we got into a really bad phase for like 5 episodes and I thought that the show was getting better, but no it ends with nothing.This show explains nothing. We reach nowhere.

Music: The osts of this show are really good though. They had all these idol group like april, stray kids and verivery to sing.

In conclusion this show is extremely frustrating and nothing much to watch. Watch only if you have absolutely nothing to do in life.

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I loved the premise and the start. Even though reviews said it became repetitive, that didn't sound too unlike certain other dramas so I watched it optimistically. I loved how it mocked Boys Over Flowers throughout - really nicely done. The filming is beautiful. I like that it's self-aware. The acting is good.

I enjoyed it but after a while it becomes so boring when the characters start to have the same conversations over and over and over again. After a while, all conversations felt like recaps of what had happened and scenes became a mixture of this, plus a bit of teasing about how things might work out next.

It felt like always waiting for things to happen, with strangely dull payoff. I think someone said in their review here that Dan Oh's role becomes just exclaiming 'Ha Ru!' towards the end, and they weren't wrong. A shame - there was so much opportunity! There were so many makings-of-good moments that were enough to keep you watching through the increasingly mundane scenes towards the end - I just wish it had more of these.

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I wasn't expecting much of this drama and just started it because I was bored of other dramas I was watching.
And it was amazing!!! This drama captured me from the start and the message it had behind of this all (maybe I made that message up myself) was awesome. About self awareness, about finding yourself, in real life too, once your character develops you start to act a certain way, and sometimes you say things you don't want to and do things you don't want to, while you never do or say things you want to. Slowly loosing yourself in this hectic world and living through your karma without a way to escape. So becoming self aware makes you raise a big question "why the hell do I need to act this way? I want to make my own fate". And then you also start realizing how you can be an extra in someone's life, and even overall. And how hard it is to change the written scenario. How we may have past lives and our actions there may have led to the stuff happening here and all. Also how after becoming self-aware people get separated from normal society as they notice more and they become alone but how friendships here if they come they are much deeper.
Anyway I really liked this strong message at the start and was amazed at this drama and Dan Oh who was trying to change her fate. However the webtoon originally doesn't make dan oh a fate-changer from the start, all she wants is to find first love. In the drama however we get this strong Dan Oh who wants of course first love too but rather she wants to find someone who will change her destiny. That strong Dan Oh quickly changes into cute Dan Oh saying Haru Haru Haru all the time. At fist i loved it!! It was super cute but by the end it got too repetitive for me.
Haru comes into the scene and is like super mysterious. I loved the mystery around him it was very interesting. I loved his interactions with Dan Oh. I loved their love story! They had such a cute chemistry. Again his character became shallow and repetitive at the end. (IN the manhwa story itself extra is always shallow I understand that, and why it could be like that, but that also made many people like the "second lead")
Beak Kyung was an annoying jerk at the start. I loved him because I liked the actor in the WWW search. But here he was likable at the start for me. But at the end he redeems himself and becomes the most interesting character i guess.
The other side characters and the side "lead" characters were amazing. Like Lee Do Hwa and Yo Joo Da <3
However there were this meaningless love triangles, that became repetitive at the end.
The story got around HaruXDan Oh, Bake Kyung watching from afar, and the heart decease... Maybe they made it like that because it will be hard for them to get the mystery of that world BUT it would have been soo great if they gave us answers like "why did they become self aware in the first place? Who is the writer? Why is he drawing the same characters over and over and over again with no creativity at all? What is that hole? Why did other certain characters become aware...? Will they be stuck in this loop forever till the unoriginal writer dies? How did this world become kinda real in the first place? Why is the manhwa found in this world? Why does Haru draw so well? etc etc etc so many questions and all left unanswered.
I think my expectations just got too high because of the amazing start. It was going better and better each week jumping over my expectations even higher and higher. But the in the later part of the drama it all went downhill sadly.

Though the ending is kinda what I expected it to be... the uninteresting expectation lol. At the start everything i thought was wrong and i was sooo excited about it! I love when a drama doesn't go with my expectations but rather it goes higher. It quickly became the only drama i was looking forward each week and the thoughts that it might the best drama of 2019 crossed my mind too. But at the end it just went to the cliche direction.

Now the cast and actors did an amazing job!!! I loved each of them. I met some of the in other dramas and they didn't disappoint!! The characters were really great too!!
The plot had an amazing message and idea at the start, but couldn't execute it well. It went MUCH better than the webtoon but at the end it just returned to the webtoon..

OST was awesome!! I loved the themes I loved the songs!! I loved the love story at the start and was screaming all around xD

Overall:
It was a great drama and one of those that have super promising start and go downhill in the middle, however this one didn't fall as deep as many others do so I still rated it high because the performances and the execution was great. It just went to the kinda cliche and sad direction.

I don't usually rewatch dramas so i put a random number in there.

What I liked:
1.Self awareness message
2. Dan oh who wanted to change her fate
3. Mysterious Haru
4. All the second and side characters
5. Music
6. Idea
7. Love story

What I didn't like:
1. Repetitiveness
2. Dan Oh and Haru at the end
3. Baek Kyung at the start
4. draggy-ness at the end
5. ending
6. unanswered questions!!

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It had a good start but eventually the drama became boring and nonsense. what a stupid ending, doesn't it mean that the story will repeat itself for ever and they will never be able to do anything against the will of the writer!!! even if they succeed to be together, they will start this suffering all over again once the story is ended!
It feels like a cliche tragedy reincarnation story, don't let the good start fouls you, don't believe that this drama is different because they made fun of other cliche dramas.
Honestly, it should have been a short web series instead of 32 episodes drama.
I'm disappointed :(

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I started watching this drama because the plot seemed interesting. How would the characters react when they realize they are in a fake world, with a fate already decided ? And not even the main characters of the story ? The first episodes where Dan Oh realizes that and wants to change her fate made me hope it would be a refreshing drama, but it didn't last long.
After that, the drama is just the typical romance in high school. And I couldn't even get myself to support the main couple because screenwriters made Haru look completely dumb in the beginning. I even wondered if he was supposed to have a handicap or something. I understand some scenes were for fan service purpose, but it could have been done in a less stupid way. So you might be happy if you're a fan of Rowoon to begin with, but I was just facepalming. Plus Rowoon isn't very good at acting, although it gets a little better at the end. So for most of the drama I couldn't believe he loved Dan Oh. And the problem is, that's the only thing his character is here for. He doesn't have a back story like Kyung that could have made me like another aspect of him.

Other than that, this drama is full of dramas' clichés (you'll even find one TWICE) and of "plot twists" that you can see coming from miles away. At some points I thought I would be surprised, that things will be less simple than I thought... and no. It never happened. This drama doesn't take any risks, and it's such a letdown with a promising plot like that. Except for one character (who is not even a main one) most characters don't have any evolution, or a veeery rushed one as if screenwriters just realized the end was near and almost nothing had changed. The ending was meh because again, it was nothing I couldn't predict.

The only things I liked in this drama are :
1) the two first episodes where Dan Oh realizes she's a mere extra in a comic.
2) characters laughing at the ridiculousness and cheesiness of their comic world, very similar to Boys over flowers. While actually, Extraordinary you is also very cheesy.
3) Kyung, only because he was the main source of things actually happening in the drama which is otherwise very plain. But I got sick pretty quickly of the lead/second lead dynamic with Haru.

To sum it up this drama is boring and couldn't live up to my expectations, and I really don't understand why some people love it so much.

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