Love Scout is a romantic comedy about the CEO of a headhunting company (Han Ji Min) who is amazing at her job but completely disorganized with everything else and a single father who becomes her secretary (Lee Joon Hyuk).
Han Ji Min plays Kang Ji Yun. She is the independent and hardworking CEO of a headhunting company. She has a cold demeanor and keeps people at a distance, but she slowly begins to warm up to her handsome new secretary.
Lee Joon Hyuk is Yoo Eun Ho. He is a single father who is very organized and excels at everything he does. Though he gets off on the wrong foot with his new boss, he helps her however he can and soon finds himself wanting to be around her more and more.
Then we have Kim Hye Yoon as Jung Soo Hyeon who is a single mother whose son is close with Eun Ho’s daughter. Finally, there is Kim Do Hoon as Woo Jeong Hun works at Ji Yun’s company and is the son of one of its primary investors.
I would sum up my experience with Love Scout as pleasant. It’s a pretty simple and straightforward drama in its premise and execution. It doesn’t do anything exceptional, but it does everything very well.
For those looking for a proper role reversal romance in Dramaland, Love Scout is probably one of the most well done that I’ve come across. We have Ji Yun as the cold, collected CEO who keeps everyone at a distance and has trauma in her past. Then we have Eun Ho as the most kind-hearted, sweet, and dedicated secretary who is also a wonderful single father. He’s really the perfect man.
This drama follows the typical character and story patterns that we would see from a more “common” romantic comedy so closely that you could almost reverse the gender roles with only very minor tweaks to the script. Which is a plus to say that they did properly execute the swap and made things very neutral.
As for the drama itself, its strength lies in keeping everything mostly light and fun with good dialogue as we go through the typical story motions of a romance with a bad first encounter, bickering, slow warm up, friendship, and then romantic feelings. It was nice watching their relationship blossom as they grew closer.
Ji Yun also has some walls that need to come down and some trauma that needs to be worked through. Also, addressing issues of single parenthood and the challenges that that brings was present in multiple ways throughout the drama. Having slightly more mature actors in the lead roles was nice too as they embodied their roles well and had a lovely chemistry. Their relationship is the most central plot point and is the anchor of the drama.
With most of the plot revolving around the main couple, it didn’t feel like there was a whole lot happening sometimes, particularly in the first half of the drama. There were a few things running in the background like happenings with Ji Yun’s business and a plot line involving the second couple, but all of this was kept pretty small for a good chunk of the drama.
It then does the thing where in the last few episodes it suddenly goes much deeper with these issues and gets a bit more serious. Ji Yun’s trauma had the potential to have a big impact, but it was all taken care of in less than an episode, and while it did bring about some nice revelations for our couple, it kept things fairly angst light. Some background drama involving the business had also been brewing for a while, and that all came to a head which brought about some last-minute dramatics.
Then we had the second couple that had a cute thing going. I really wish we could have went deeper with them as a couple as well as individuals though. It just would have been nice to have spread out some of the secondary plot points throughout the drama a bit more.
Overall, Love Scout is an easy watch that leans fun with just a dash of angst. The romance is a bit of a slow burn but very nice when it gets going. The supporting cast is entertaining and rounds out the drama well. As I mentioned at the beginning, if you’re looking for a pleasant experience, Love Scout is the drama for you.
My Rating: 7/10
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