Reel Tastes & Travels – a light dose of entertainment to wake you up

‘The Happy Ever After‘

Finally, Kyeong-min and Mi-rae get together and, after a last few minor bumps in the road, get their happy ending. Honestly, once Mi-rae had emotionally healed enough to be open to an actual relationship, the Boyfriend on Demand concept was pretty much worn out as a plot device. So, its presence in the final two episodes feels a bit forced, especially the way it’s shoehorned into her friend’s (Ji-yeon) and client’s (Yun Song) storylines. On the whole though, the final episodes do a good job of making it feel like the action is flowing (despite not too much of actual import happening) and Kyeong-nam and Mi-rae are adorable together, which helps make it work. So let’s see how the various character arcs get wrapped up.

Kyeong-nam and Mi-rae: They are blissfully happy together although there is a bit of a pall cast by the specter of Mi-rae’s past BOD usage (particularly Yeong-il). I think Kyeong-nam is so head over heels for Mi-rae that if she’d just been open with him about it, it would have been a total non-issue. As it is, he stumbles upon it accidentally and then struggles for a bit about whether he can be enough for Mi-rae when a supposedly better version of himself is available as an option. This in turn causes a final crisis of confidence for Mi-rae. Happily, after a bit of angst, they both communicate and realise that their fears are unfounded and all is well in the world again. As a side note it is funny how Mi-rae and Kyeong-nam finally decide to come clean about their relationship to the office, only to have almost noone believe them. I imagine at some point if they get married, the office will be utterly gobsmacked when they get the invite.

Yun Song: She spends most of the time struggling first with falling behind Hwany, and then with the scandal she gets embroiled in when she introduces a new character in her series inspired by her BOD boyfriend (yes, she’s suddenly on BOD as well). Her contract gets cancelled (but then somehow doesn’t? It’s a bit confusing), she throws some tantrums (and then suddenly gets over it and plays nice with the company director) and contemplates giving up her virtual dating life (before making her peace with it). It’s all a bit of a mess with no clear arc or character growth and mainly just serves as a catalyst for Kyeong-nam to find out about Yeong-il. 

Hwany: His unrequited love is crushed (sort of), and it’s hinted that he may find romance with one of Mi-rae’s colleague. Kudos to him though for being the only one smart enough to figure out Kyeong-nam and Mi-rae are dating, and then to provide solid advice to help Kyeong-nam clear his head during the whole Yeong-il debacle. 

Ji-yeon: There is a whole subplot about Mi-rae’s friend getting on to BOD and proving to be a whiz at getting through the various dating scenarios. Her blog posts about it (akin to cheat codes for video games) go viral and she’s approached by the BOD product manager to help improve the app. It’s also shown that he is smitten with her and… that’s it. Not quite sure about the point of this apart from padding out the runtime. 

Final thoughts: Overall this was an enjoyable show which had a lot of fun leaning into various romance tropes. My main gripe is that the side characters are not well developed and very clearly exist only to push the main plot forward. Makes it difficult to care much about anyone other than the main leads. Luckily Jisoo is charming as Mi-rae and Seo In-guk as Kyeong-nam is also really likeable (at least once the main romance actually gets going…he’s a bit one-note before that). So, it’s still a fun watch and one I wouldn’t mind recommending (though perhaps not at the top of my list!).