DNA Lover kicks off this week with a crazy, classic K-drama premise and a leading lady to match. We’ve got genetic pseudoscience butting up against modern relationship dynamics, with players, philanderers, and polyamorists buzzing in all directions. I’m here for the kooky K-drama antics, but not so sure about the new takes on love.
EPISODES 1-2
I don’t know if I’ve ever watched a drama starring Choi Siwon that I actually liked, but it doesn’t stop me from coming back around for more. And DNA Lover seems to fit the bill already. It’s a bit of a train wreck that I can’t turn away from, with a heroine straight out of the mid-2000s and a premise that makes no sense — which is why it just might work.
The setup is that HAN SO-JIN (Jung In-sun) is a genetics researcher whose real job is to find cures for hair loss, but whose passion is to find her perfect match. She uses all her spare time to decode dating genes and try to find the man that’s literally coded into her DNA. “Love is blameless,” she says. The real problems come after love. In her case, she’s dated a string of players — always catching them with other women — and then felt betrayed and heartbroken. But now she knows it just wasn’t fated — they weren’t predetermined in her DNA.
And while our heroine is doing everything she can to find The One, our hero, SHIM YEON-WOO (Choi Siwon), is doing everything he can to avoid finding a special someone. He flips through women like calendar pages, dating and dumping with the kind of callousness usually reserved for a character we’re supposed to hate. (And, so far, I kind of do.) When his current 12-years-younger GF complains about his dismissive attitude, he brutally breaks it off over the phone.
But worlds collide when So-jin goes to a sushi spot to get tanked after her latest breakup — and happens to sit near the ex-girlfriend Yeon-woo just destroyed. Both women loudly curse and complain about their recent heartbreak until they’ve drunkenly devised a plan to get revenge on the cretin who caused this pain.
Brassy and bold, they storm into Yeon-woo’s luxury apartment — where he’s listening to opera and putting together a kazillion piece puzzle — and his ex pleads for him to take her back. She thinks they’re fated, but he doesn’t believe in fate (which, we’ll later come to learn is because his father ran out on his mother and it drove her mad, waiting for her “fated” love to return).
When So-jin hears the way he speaks to this woman that’s pouring her (albeit, wasted) heart out, she yells that he was obviously never sincere and he doesn’t deserve love. She runs at him with a bottle of hair mist she’s developed to reverse balding and sprays it in his face. Coincidentally, he’s just cut himself shaving and the elixir enters his skin cells, where it causes almost instant hair growth. The joke from here on out is that he has one sideburn that regrows every day, making him look like Elvis — but, you know, only on half his face.
And now to introduce our second male lead: SEO KANG-HOON (Lee Tae-hwan) who is not going to let me escape this drama without a serious case of SLS. First, he’s a firefighter. Second, he has a sad backstory about not being able to save someone from suicide. And third, he’s the better man. Period.
After the shenanigans at Yeon-woo’s apartment, Kang-hoon arrives to see his hyung, but ends up having to escort the lovelorn ex out to a taxi. He tells Yeon-woo that he only thinks about himself. Why doesn’t he take a glimpse of the woman he just broke up with? Does she look normal right now? “Look at how you’ve hurt her.” (I mean, we’re in love with this guy, right?)
The weird (very K-drama) thing about this is that Kang-hoon is not only close friends with Yeon-woo, but with So-jin. And yet, Yeon-woo and So-jin do not know each other. Kang-hoon is such good friends with So-jin, in fact, that he says he’ll always treat her nicely, like he does right now, even if she gets married. (So, it’s like a best friend/mega crush/maybe love situation.)
Yeon-woo and So-jin meet again, this time under calmer circumstances, when she’s in charge of the prenatal tests for Yeon-woo’s hospital. (Did I mention he’s an OBGYN? Yeah, doesn’t really matter.) On a personal note, he’s raring to meet her so she can find an antidote to his sideburn situation. Plus, she caused him to knock over his studio-sized puzzle, and I’m not sure which mishap angers him more.
So-jin collects some cell samples from inside his mouth with a swab. But Yeon-woo is so accustomed to hitting on the ladies, he’s getting flustered by her proximity. And yet, that doesn’t stop him from threatening her if she doesn’t find a remedy for his one-sided chop within 24 hours. Dun, dun, duuun.
Okay, that about does it for the plot, but we have one more character to conquer, and that’s JANG MI-EUN (Jung Yoo-jin). She’s a polyamorous dating columnist that appears to dedicate her life and career to educating people about polyamory — and then, also, dating a lot of dudes. According to her definition, polyamory is about non-exclusivity “because love is most amazing when a person can truly be themselves.”
She’s known to be a seductress, and so, of course she and Yeon-woo have some history together that I’m not entirely sure of (but, I mean, look at them together). She’s just returned from six months abroad, when she runs into Yeon-woo in a parking garage and he makes a flirty comment. She asks if he wants to start meeting on Thursdays — since she has no other men booked on that day. However, he doesn’t appear to be interested in the offer.
We end with high drama when a majorly depressed pregnant woman goes to the roof of Yeon-woo’s hospital, prepared to jump. We’ve met this woman throughout the episodes, first when Kang-hoon comes to her rescue at her home (it’s not her first suicide attempt). And then when Yeon-woo is faced with telling her that her baby has problems and likely will not live long after birth. She has to make a decision about what to do, but the baby is the only thing that makes her want to save her own life.
As our doc, firefighter, and geneticist gather around and try to stop a calamity, So-jin goes out onto the ledge with the pregnant woman to try to talk her down. When the woman can’t be convinced and starts to jump, So-jin flings her back onto the roof — but So-jin goes over the edge instead. Yeon-woo grabs ahold of her and they both fall, wrapped in an embrace, toward the inflated mat that the firefighters have set out to save them.
And that’s our premiere week. If this is giving you nostalgia for an earlier era, you’re not alone. It’s hokey and hopped up on nonsense, with a just-dumped heroine whose looks and life are a little messy. If it weren’t for the polyamory, I’d think this was a decade old.
I was surprised, though, for something that seemed so campy and lightweight, there were some really dark moments. I’m not one to issue trigger warnings, but in this case, the woman with severe depression, and the circumstances surrounding her baby, struck me as something you might need to be in the right headspace for. And — going into a drama like this one — I was not!
The thing that makes me most curious, and also worried, is the discourse on polyamory. The show is clearly trying to define it for an audience that may not be familiar with it, but the definitions given so far have been loose, and I worry it might do more harm than good. For example, when one character asks, “What makes it different than cheating?” Mi-eun responds, “Are you afraid that you can’t be your partner’s exclusive lover?” Uh, that’s not an answer. She never mentions the consensual nature of polyamory — where all parties involved are aware and agree to it (which is really the point, isn’t it?).
But I’m really curious to see how this will bump up against our story about fated love. Our heroine believes in an OTP, while our hero serial dates — but does not overlap — his girlfriends. That is, he’s a monogamist too. Where does this leave our second female lead? Will she just be off to the side, bristling against the idea of an OTP? Or will she actually have an effect on the story? At one point, we hear this line: “Whether it’s love or art, you have to find a distance you can enjoy it from.” Something tells me I’ll be enjoying this drama from a little bit further back in the stands than I’m used to. But that just means I’m finding my comfort zone.