At a time when both Bollywood and Lollywood seem to be contesting to out cringe the other by producing the most awkward movies anyone has ever seen, we’re here to provide you a K-drama recommendation that is currently among the top ten most popular shows on Netflix. Take a step back from the saas-bahu kay jhagray, the satti savitri verses the slutty savitri trope and take a deep dive with us in to this enemies to lovers K-drama that revolves around a blossoming relationship between a celebrity math teacher and a single mother.
1 Food as a love language
If you’re a food lover, and want to escape from reality to take a deep dive in to a different culture worlds, then this is the perfect show. The central bond that keeps the main characters together is their love for food. This is what has helped K-dramas establish their own space, an emphasis on how love can be found in the most simple things, like making food for someone. We have two broken characters who have suffered hardships because of finances, poor mental health and poverty, learn to come close to one another because of their shared love for a particular dish.
2 The greenest of green flag enemies to lovers story out there.
Unlike Pakistani dramas where apparently enemies to lovers means adding aik kilo badtameezi and do chamach thappar to make the most recoiling drama ever, K-dramas have been lauded for championing unproblematic, wholesome male leads who respect and empower the women around them. Choi Chi-Yeol is a celebrity math professor whose in popular demand among students all across Korea to ace math in high school, however his crippling anxiety and depression is giving him insomnia and an eating disorder. However, when he crosses paths with Haeng-Seon, a hard working single mother who runs a cafe to support her daughter’s education, they both help each other overcome their trauma and soon start falling for each other.
3 Explores the cut-throat competition within private schools and mental health struggles of students
Aside from the comedy and the light-hearted banter between the main leads, the show is not afraid to address the practice of private schooling, and how the mental health of students is impacted as they compete for the best grades and colleges. The drama is set in the backdrop of the upcoming CSATs in Korea, and how students are pressurized by their parents and teachers to work hard everyday to get the best results. Mostly, the show also reflects how the privilege’s of good education comes at a high cost, with the struggles of Nam Haeyi, who comes from a working class background, and struggles to get good grades like the rest of her peers because she is unable to afford expensive private tuitions offered by academies after school.
4 Wholesome supporting characters
One of the most endearing tropes that have kept setting k-dramas apart from any other form of entertainment is the emphasis over found families, that as we grow old we can pick and choose our own family members, rather than the ones we are linked to by blood. In this show, aside from the male leads, side characters like Haeng-Seon’s autistic brother Jae-Woo, are fleshed out to provide more depth to the story, and especially with the way he forms a bond with loner characters like Chi-Yeol, to help him learn about the bond of family for the first time.
Crash Course in Romance plays every Saturday and Sunday on 8 pm on Netflix.
