Love Alarm 2 pendulums between sweet romance and borderline exhaustion in this bite sized season

I enjoy watching rom-com K dramas, besides the gorgeous looking men, they are a great form of escapist entertainment. Like everyone else, I was looking forward to Love Alarm 2, having quite enjoyed the first season, which aired in August 2019. To give you a little recap, in the last episode of the first season, we see a brief time leap, where Jo Jo (Kim So Hyun) and Sun Oh (Song Kang) have broken up and moved on in their respective lives. 

Through Hye Young (Jung Ga Ram), Jo Jo understands what it means to like someone and wants the Love Alarm application removed. Sun Oh and Hye Young drift apart from each other because of their mutual liking for Jo Jo. Hye Young realizes who owns the popular Instagram account The Ringing World. As anti-Love Alarm protesters storm the entrance to the event's venue, the 'developer' introduces Love Alarm 2.0 and its new feature. Season 2 picks up from there.

The story moves forward to the present time, four years since the events of last time. Our primary characters are now 23 years old. *SPOILERS ALERT* Hye Young and Jo Jo are dating, while Sun Oh is in a romantic relationship with Lee Yuk Jo, played by Kim Si Eun. He pretends to be happy but his heart still pines for Jo Jo. 

The Love Alarm app has now updated itself to Love Alarm 2.0, which allows users to see projections of who they might fall in love with, how their feelings can grow and solidify, and how a relationship might potentially develop between two people. The three main characters traverse through the features of this new version of Love Alarm 2.0 as their past experiences continue to haunt them and how they must find a resolution for themselves. 

I was looking forward to the drama, primarily because this drama introduced me to the very handsome and talented Song Kang and Jung Ga Ram. But admittedly, I found myself exhausted half-way through the season, even though it has only 6 episodes! There are fleeting moments of poignancy that tug at your heartstrings, but like a click of the alarm, they vanish into thin air. Love Alarm 2 pendulums between sweet and predictable romance versus borderline exhaustion, and disappointedly, I found myself not rooting for the couples' endgame at all! 

Kim So Hyun is wonderful as the restrained and graceful Jo Jo and Song Kang's eyes speak the language of hurt and heartbreak beautifully. It was wonderful seeing Jung Ga Ram taking a more definitive stand this time and Go Min Si was delightful as Park Gul Mi. There were moments, albeit brief ones that touched my heart. An emotional sequence between Hye Young and his father and Jo Jo, with her past, was heart-touching. Sun Oh and Jo Jo had the most tearful and captivating moments together. But despite all of this, Love Alarm 2, misses the mark by a mile.

*SPOILERS ALERT* The last episode teased the possibility of a new season, and with the eponymous Daum Webtoon still unfinished, there's no telling where things will go, or where the creators can take them. Fingers crossed. 

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