Crash Course in Romance review: Jung Kyung-ho and Jeon Do-yeon’s sweet love story really didn’t need a serial killer to drive its point home

The real threat

Crash Course in Romance, at its heart, is a warm and winsome love story between a celebrity math tutor Cho Chi Yeol and Nam Hang-saeon, a golden-hearted single mother running her own store, and who wishes the best for her daughter. It’s the last year of her school—-and the CBSE/ICSE boards equivalent means it’s an incredibly stressful time for all parents as everyone wants to get the best education for the children. The show captures the sheer desperation and frustration of parents—-in the form of a group of worrying and conniving mothers, and how they would literally resort to just about anything to ensure their children’s future—-even if it includes cheating. They won’t let anyone else get a leg-up either—-they resort to spreading cruel rumours and slander to destroy other’s reputation. Their children are on the verge of breaking—-but it’s for their own good, their mothers believe. Nothing should stop them from academics, not even the death of their own schoolmate.

Nam Hang-saeon isn’t one of these mothers; she trusts her daughter Hae-yi implicitly. Hae-yi’s close friend Sun-jae isn’t so blessed unfortunately, as his mother, a well-reputed lawyer, is determined to see him succeed at all costs, unable to realise that this obsession is what drove her first son to the edge. The overwhelming feelings about the future as a student especially is a far more real, cruel threat than a morose serial killer whose motivations are still not entirely clear by the finale—-the show should have just focused on the parents wrestling with their demons, and the dysfunctional relationships that form due to the pursuit of success, if it wanted to run with the idea of conflicts. The mother-son duo’s fractured relationship was suddenly healed, diluting the impact. The last two episodes saw a sudden frantic chase to trace a murderer, who, of course, got a storyline that felt like it was jammed into the series as an afterthought. The resolution to his tale also was rather lazy and unsatisfactory, like a badly written fan-fiction. The emotions in the show were already at a feverish pitch without the killer in the mix.

Love and warmth

Till Episode 13, despite the murderer wandering around looking for his next targets —-Crash Course is filled with warm, romantic and hilarious moments. Jung Kyo-ho and Jeon Do-yeon bring out the sweet awkwardness of two people falling in love in their late thirties. Choi Chi Yeol, at first, seems like a cold and hardened man, owing to his rather fractured and traumatic past—-and he prefers to immerse himself in mathematics to fill the void. On the other hand, Nam Hang-seon has a bustling and busy life with her daughter, close friend Young-joo and brother, who is on the autism spectrum. There is a wholesomeness surrounding the little family—-be it in their vacations to fishing spots, watching horror films at night and eating together. We see what the lonely Choi Ch-yeol sees—-togetherness and love. As much as he tries to ignore his fondness for them, he cannot, and after Hae-yi is unceremoniously removed from his classes owing to the bunch of evil mothers hatching a conspiracy, he strikes a ‘strategic partnership’ with Nam Hang-seon—-he tutors her daughter, she can give him food from her restaurant. They have typical K-drama spats of course before they begin their journey from friendship to love, almost quarrelling like two teenagers, much to the amusement of their friends and colleagues. Yet, there is an emotional tenderness that exists between the two, without crossing the border into excessively mushy, as it wouldn’t fit their personalities. It is mostly a feel-good love story between two middle-aged people, finding love and strength in each other.

Crash Course in Romance is mostly a fun and sweet watch—-despite the contrived killer storyline and hastily done last two episodes that had numerous plot holes. Perhaps watch it for two people being adorable, or maybe watch it because even if you don’t get mathematics or Korean, it just sounds like poetry when Jung Kyung-ho explains it.