I'd like to preface this review by saying that I don't enjoy giving bad reviews like this. Asian dramas themselves are underdogs in the Hollywood-biased world where I'm from, and giving them a poor rating feels wrong. But this drama...I had to. TL/DR? This might be better received among watchers that frequent lakorns with slap/kiss themes. For those of you that are unfamiliar with and/or disinterested in that concept, The Handsome Cowboy isn't for you. Trust me. Story: The broken story was my biggest issue with the drama. I realize that with an eight-episode romcom my expectations shouldn't be THAT high to begin with, but still...It didn't deliver. To me, the success or failure of a story is determined by the writer convincing the audience that, despite a character's flaws, he or she is still worth rooting for. To me, Sibtit isn't. Not by a long shot. The drama writer created Sibtit as an extremely realistic bad boy. At first, I loved that. Realistic and flawed characters that aren't plucked right out of fantasyland? Heck yeah. Sibtit pushed buttons just as he should have, and I loved the first few episodes. But as I got further into the drama, he continued to push them, even after a series of giant mistakes, where I expected him to head down the path of redemption. And it didn't stop. They egged his character on to the point where he became unforgivable, and there wasn't NEARLY enough time to redeem him. Does that kind of stuff work in full-length dramas? Sure! In eight-episode romcoms? NO. What am I supposed to take away from the story? That dating violence is okay because the OTP got their (undeserved, imo) happily ever after? I was supposed to be laughing and fangirl swooning, but it just made me sick. On top of all of that (as if that wasn't enough), there's Prikkang. Her blinding faith in Sibtit - how she was so often a victim to his force or neglect and STILL forgave him - it was sickening to me. I understand the appeal of her character in a general sense. I get it. But this was too much when paired with Sibtit. She got the guy in the end, but at what cost? Was it worth it? Is relationship happiness more important than your value as a person? Was your sacrifice really that noble? UGH. I just...can't anymore with this. Acting/Cast: Despite all of his character's faults and the drama's poor execution, I can't rob Push the respect of playing a realistic character well. He brought out every single emotion he should have in such a role. I hated him, and I still struggle with seeing him outside of Sibtit. I thought Esther had a good chemistry with him, too, and she convinced me of her character's gullible and sweet demeanor, no matter what I thought of the story. The rest of the cast fell into recycled archetypes - the GBF, the heinous second female lead, the nice second male lead, etc. Nothing memorable, but nothing particularly bad, either. Music: The OST and score to this were unmemorable. I believe it suited the length and style of the drama fine enough, but I don't recall any of it now, and I doubt that I would recognize it if I heard it in passing. Rewatch Value: I won't ever rewatch this unless I'm in a hateful mood and need something to yell at (anybody else have those moods?). There's no good takeaway value in the story, and, frankly, the characters make me want to vomit.