The Worst Comparison Lovely Runner VS Twinkling Watermelon (based only on first 2 episodes )

Lovely Runner gives more Mr.Queen vibes than Twinkling Watermelon imo. This could be a really hot take tho :D

Please react... My dearest Korean drama.. It's a very beauful emotional rollercoaster drama.👃👃👃

I like both of the shows, and they are similar yet different. But with twinkling watermelon I felt myself enjoying it more with every episode, while with lovely runner I felt myself getting more lukewarm every episode.

haven't seen the video yet, but reading some comments, i have to agree that writing wise, twinkling watermelon is better and more complicated than lovely runner. But those two are still my top 2 fave kdramas currently because of different reasons. In TW, I cared more about the male lead's relationship with his dad than his love interest but it's also the first time that i felt soo attached to all the side characters to the point i missed them so much by the time it came to the finale. the only thing i didn't like about TW was that the 2nd half of the finale (where they show the new future) felt so rushed and incomplete. i too wanted to see what happened to the female lead's parents and a little more interaction with the TW band members would have been a nice bonus. if they didn't rush the ending and made 1 more episode, they could've shown eungyul coming to terms with his new present timeline because having a new family, social status and everything inbetween would be so disorienting. also, we don't even know if he eventually gets all his memory of this new timeline, like having no memory of the life you've supposedly lived is kind of scary. Anyway, as for lovely runner, i love how it prioritizes characters more than trying to build a complicated story, the writer knows how to make the audience care for the male and female lead. the unique thing about her (lee sieun) writing is the dual perspective. we rarely see romance on any media (tv shows, movies, books) where we see what the male and female leads are experiencing, feeling and thinking. i think this boosts the romance, the audience can clearly see the yearning of both characters and root for them more. also, i don't really like watching things that make me cringe that's why even though crash landing on you was so popular back then, a scene in the first half of episode 1 made me cringe so much to the point that i wasn't able to finish episode 1 and i kinda haven't tried watching it again haha (maybe in the future?) but even though LR has soo many cringey moments, i can't seem to stop watching it. this drama made me realize that there are good cringey stuff that can make a person's day ^^

I, just like you, don’t want to do spoilers here, so I will try to not ruin it for those who haven’t watch either. My issue with both of this shows is the same thing. Kdramas like to stick to the 16 episode arc or 20 ep or more if it has two seasons which rarely ever happens. And I don’t think every story should last as long. Though I love both this shows the writing,the acting the fact that they both got me in my feels was amazing.However, they could have been shorter. We are all busy and my time to watch this show for pure entertainment it’s limited so it bothers me when just like Lee mentioned a b or c list character has more screen time. I know they are trying to make side stories to keep the episodes to a 16 minimum. And that’s my issue I feel they drag n it makes me not want to watch again. Or the least fast forward those parts. So in my opinion people who should have had less screen time in LR the brother, Sun Jae’s dad apart for the son/father bonding scenes, sol’s mom and sun Jae’s dad interactions I could have had less of them etc and that’s where my complaint lies. Amount of time spend on bs that’s meant to stretch the story. Other than that I feel both shows were great in their own way and definitely quite different from on another. My two cents! 🙏

I tried watching twinkling watermon, but I couldn't finish it. I wasn't actually invested in the characters and in the story, I watched some funny moments on youtube and that was enough for me. Lovely runner is one of my favorite dramas of this year, I love the characters, the story, how they build the tension, even if the story is full of clichès and moment you can predict (It reminds me of old kdramas), it has also those unpredictable plot twists that i live for. We can't compare Queen of tears with Lovely runner, both are amazing, but they are so different from each other. They don't belong to the same category in my mind aand they never will. What I can say is that I find Lovely runner lighter so I find entertaining watching the episodes again and again withouth getting tired of it, for Queen of tears I enjoy rewatch some iconic scenes but I don't think I can watch it again as a whole without skipping scenes <3

I wonder what will be your top 5 kdrama after watching Lovely Runner

Personally, I watched and loved both shows but don't really find them very similar. Especially in terms of the main plot and story focus. Maybe it's the time slip genre and positive response from the audience that brings the automatic comparison.

I definitely got Twinkling Watermelon vibes off JUST the first episode, cant convince me otherwise. Just the first episode though, time travel, disability, music boy group, love story, highschool. The characters, the story and everything is TOTALLY different, just having all those traits gave me the same "vibe". I also HATED the premise of "fangirl goes back in time and a potential love story ensues", it just felt so cringe when you've been in the kpop world for the past 15 years like me, and see how ridiculous some fans can be, or how dangerous sasaengs are. Then I watched episode 2, and was like... nvm im digging this show LOL 🤣Always important to give things a try! I'll have to check out your reaction to the episodes on youtube later.

My only problem with Lovely Runner is that I don't really like Sol's character that much, I find her cringe and annoying 😅

I’ve been saying this! Characters are the most important part. And I feel the exact same way about twinkling watermelon. They were fine, I didn’t dislike anyone, but I just didn’t care all that much either. So I wasn’t too interested in their relationships, romantic or not.

I really like lovely runner, i just thought you wouldn't like it based on this comparison and to my mind, even as a woman who does normally relate more to female main characters, twinkling watermelon is a better show than lovely runner. i find twinkling watermelon better written, more relatable and the characters just feel deeper and have more shades to them imo. i will agree with you on the tension/stakes front. there are several looming threats in twinkling, but most of the struggle is internal. male lead needed to overcome his sense of responsibility for his family's well-being and have a more balanced relationship with his father, female lead had to overcome her death wish and repair her relationship with her mother. this is just my interpretation and given that the ending failed a little for me, because the male lead can't save his father's hearing but he can be rich now? we don't see the female lead's return home except to reunite with him? it dropped the ball for me. marry my husband ending >>>> twinkling ending. that said, i haven't seen the ending of lovely runner yet.

I'll admit I only watched the first 2 minutes of this, BUT based on your first statement is the exact reason why I liked TW more. We all have different preferences and that's a good thing. Just means there's something out there for everyone. I'm 5eps in on LR and it's not working for me at all. 🥲