My Holo Love

My Holo Love is a lukewarm drama  - and I don't mean that in a negative way. It felt like a watered down version of a few other dramas I have seen - and again, I don't mean that in a negative way. This story was a romantic drama that doesn't need you to be too invested for it to be enjoyable. I wasn't scrambling to get to the next episode, but I was also fine with just letting the episodes keep playing. Netflix has it listed as a "limited series", but I feel like they could have shaved off 3-4 episodes at least and it would have been fine. The storyline was full of tropes (this is part of why we watch them) but a lot of the dramatic points were much more dramatic than they needed to be and were too drawn out. 

The basic plot of the drama revolves around a young woman named So-Yeon, who suffers from face blindness, and a young software developer who has the first successful AI, named Holo (because he appears as a holograph, get it? Love it.) Nan-Do, the developer of Holo, has chosen for Holo to look exactly like him, cause that will never be an issue, right? His older adopted sister Yoo-Jin runs his company while he lives as a ghost, after faking his own suicide years before. So-Yeon is extremely lonely as well, although she lives among others. Her face blindness makes it impossible for her to keep relationships, because the only people who know she has that problem are her mom and her friend/roommate. Most people think she's a cold-hearted bitch. Their paths collide when she is walking home from work and Yoo-Jin (who is wearing the Holo-glasses used to actually see and hear the AI) is running from people trying to steal the technology. 

Holo seems to recognize So-Yeon and tells Yoo-Jin to give her the glasses temporarily for safe keeping. She slips them into her purse unknowingly and off we go. 

Long story short: So-Yeon falls in love with Holo, who is her wonderful companion helping her with her face blindness issue. When Nan-Do comes to collect the glasses, So-Yeon kisses him while drunk and while thinking he is Holo. Nan-Do freaks out because he has never been kissed before. Holo gets help from Nan-Do about human feelings and says that he is also in love with So-Yeon. The two men (does that count if one is a hologram?) become jealous of each other but unite when they need to save So-Yeon's life, which turns out to be quite a few times. Yoo-Jin has a really cute budding interest with Chan-Sung, the VP of the company trying to steal Holo. In a lot of dramas, Chan-Sung's character would end up as the major back-stab, but in this drama I could tell really early on that he really wasn't a bad guy, he was just trapped by filial expectations and the fear that his abusive father beat into him. His father (spoiler/shocker) turns out to be the one who killed Nan-Do's mom all while Nan-Do grew up  believing his mother killed herself because she couldn't deal with a "difficult" child (read: probably going for autistic although they don't say it explicitly, but there are certain tropes). So-Yeon finds out about Nan-Do and the times they were together when she thought he was Holo. She gets irritated at first, and rightly so. But she comes to figure out that the one she fell for was Nan-Do all along. Blah, blah, blah, they all thwart the plans of the evil CEO, with his son wonderfully standing up to him and backstabbing him and not his friends. Holo is lost in the process, but he saves everyone else. Of course, a year later Yoo-Jin and Chan-Sung are getting married and a surprise guest ends up in the photo. How he ended up there is beyond me, but it makes for a happy ending. 

Now - some quick words about the cast. 

Ko Sung-Hee plays So-Yeon and she does a great job. There are some moments of course that the script could have given everyone a little bit more to work with, but she did well with what she had. She handled the loneliness, distrust, and vulnerability of her character so well. 

Yoon Hyun-Min plays both Holo and Nan-Do and it is very entertaining to watch. The characters are very different personality-wise, and I can only guess how much fun it was for him as an actor to be able to take on both roles simultaneously. (Also omg he is so very handsome).

Choi Yeo-Jin plays Yoo-Jin and she's amazing. Not only is she absolutely gorgeous, but she handled both the power of her character acting as a CEO and the warm-hearted and tender side of being a big sister. She also had a few moments where she is trying to be cool and powerful in front of Chan-Sung but she trips or something and they cracked me up.

Hwang Chan-Sung plays Chan-Sung (not even joking, wow). I have seen him before and I really like him. The development of his character was done so well and he definitely added some charm.

The rest of the cast was also great - there were a lot of side characters that I really enjoyed, but if you watch the show you can enjoy them for yourself!

All-in-all, this is not a must-see, but it's also worth a watch if you're interested.