Any rom-com fan knows that a bickering-their-way-to-love lead couple makes for some entertaining laughs, sweetened with a dose of smugness as the viewer because we all know how it ends. And I have a niggling feeling that SBS’s Love at First Sight will feature one of those couples who start out really at each other’s throats, which sounds (sadistically) delightful. The aforementioned lead couple in this new rom-com are Kim Young-kwang (Room No. 9) and Jin Ki-joo (Come Here and Hug Me), playing a perfectionist boss and a temperamental secretary, respectively.
I feel like we just did this dynamic, and in a rom-com to boot, so I’ll be looking forward to how Love at First Sight sets itself apart. And there’s some hints to suggest that this iteration of the boss-secretary loveline starts out with a lot more antagonism than we had in What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim. Kim Young-kwang, pictured in the first stills released by the show, will play a department manager at T&T Mobile Media, who has an uncanny ability to recall every face he’s ever seen and read a person’s mind through a single facial expression.
His character is hilariously named Do Min-ik, a pun on Dominic – which coincidentally (or not) means “lordly.” True to his name, Do Min-ik thinks of himself as above all others, which I’m sure would be endlessly grating if not for his secretary Jung Gal-hee (Jin Ki-joo), who’s as petty as he is mean and is sure to give as good as she gets. I love a heroine with a spine. But despite their rather catty exchanges, the self-important boss begins to seek out his secretary after a mysterious, once-in-a-lifetime incident occurs.
Love at First Sight will be directed by Lee Kwang-young, whose credits include Nothing to Lose and Handsome Guy and Jung-eum, while writer Kim Ah-jung, of Divorce Lawyer in Love and Three Colors of Fantasies, will be penning the script. I’m not familiar with any of the director or writer’s credits, but I’m going to go in hoping for the best, as I do with all rom-coms. Let’s just hope that optimism pays off.
SBS’s Love at First Sight will follow Haechi in the Monday-Tuesday slot starting on May 6.