- "Love Alarm" is a Korean drama now showing on Netflix. The first season has eight episodes currently available to watch on the streaming service.
- The show sets up a classic love triangle between its three main characters, and a dystopian new dating app only makes things more complicated.
- The story revolves around Love Alarm, a dating app that detects whether anyone within a 10-metre radius likes the user. It reveals crushes, brings couples together and breaks hearts.
- The "Black Mirror" style drama blends high school politics with a prescient awareness of the way social media pervades our lives.
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Swiping right and superlikes have become a standard part of modern dating. Life in lockdown has recently sparked an abundance of new digital strategies to find love, from video speed dating to sharing a movie via Netflix Party. But what if there was an app that could measure your feelings?
That's the key concept in "Love Alarm", a Netflix original series with a dystopian twist on teen romance. The show revolves around a futuristic dating app that reveals who you like – and who you don't – to the world.
Love Alarm rings whenever anyone within a 10-metre radius is attracted to the user, creating a new way for high school students to measure each other's popularity and adding an edge of tension to the drama of first love and secret crushes.
Why you should care: 'Love Alarm' takes the typical teen love triangle and twists it into something darker. This show is perfect for fans of 'Black Mirror' and 'Gossip Girl.'
When aloof but lonely new kid Hwang Sun-oh (Song Kang) falls for popular girl Kim Jo-jo (Kim So-hyun), there's a catch – his shy best friend, Lee Hye-young (Jung Ga-ram) likes her too. But with Love Alarm on everyone's phones, this is a world where it's impossible to keep feelings hidden.
From "Gossip Girl" to "Pretty Little Liars," a teen show mixing high school politics with a tech-driven drama is nothing new. But "Love Alarm" updates this formula by using its titular app to create a new social hierarchy. Love Alarm turns romance into a popularity contest, as rumours swirl about who has the most admirers, and who has none at all. The app verifies Sun-oh's cool kid status. Every girl in the school seems to be sending digital hearts to the handsome new boy – except one.
Jo-jo works two part-time jobs, and simply can't afford a new smartphone to download Love Alarm. But she sparks Sun-oh's curiosity nonetheless, and his interest ignites a wildfire of jealousy. The show isn't afraid to explore the loneliness and fear that Love Alarm inspires. Hye-young lives with his secret crush as a bombshell waiting to drop. Jo-jo becomes the target of vicious bullying. And the chorus of admiring notifications only cements Sun-oh's belief that love is a fleeting, fickle charade.
What's hot: 'Love Alarm' features standard high school drama stereotypes, but strong acting and bold writing make every character compelling
The show goes beyond high school clichés to subvert its characters in unexpected ways. At school, Jo-jo plays the part of the sunny, smiley girl with everything going her way. But her carefree attitude hides a heart filled with fear.
An orphan who works night shifts at a convenience store to pay her ailing grandmother's hospital bills, Jo-jo is not as confident as she seems.
Nor is Sun-oh, whose too cool for school persona begins to crumble under the pressure of being the guy every girl wants to date, and the one every other guy wants to get rid of. The son of a scheming politician and a famous actress, Sun-oh hates the spotlight, which Love Alarm only intensifies.
The show sets up a sweet romance between Jo-jo and Sun-oh, as they bond by sharing their troubles. But Love Alarm is already breaking hearts and sharpening feelings of pride, jealousy and shame. The repercussions shatter friendships and splinter the fragile bond between them.
What's not: There is never any explanation of the science behind how the app measures love, and the story shifts abruptly from Love Alarm's initial launch to its total takeover of society.
"Love Alarm" keeps the details of its central concept hazy. The show skips the scientific technicalities and political wrangling that would accompany the release of such a powerful piece of technology to focus on the drama it sets in motion.
While this streamlines the story, it also mars the show's plausibility. Viewers will have to suspend their disbelief for some of the plot twists that unfold.
Four years later, Sun-oh and Jo-jo have left high school, and joined a world where Love Alarm has reconfigured society. Happy couples present their phones at wedding ceremonies to prove their unity, while others use the app to test their partner's loyalty. Self-help books dispense advice on getting more rings, as shady schemes offer to boost a user's count in exchange for money.
"Love Alarm" is a gorgeous show that transforms Seoul into a romantic wonderland. The trees are golden in autumn and abundant with blossoms in spring, twinkle lights front every cute café and hipster bar.
But these pretty visuals sharpen the show's ideas around digitised romance. The tranquil date spots are less welcoming in a world where loneliness has become a public theatre.
The bottom line: 'Love Alarm' is a daring drama that delves into the repercussions of mixing romance and algorithms. The love triangle at its heart fuels pertinent questions around privacy, mental health and the toxic potential of social media.
The series has been renewed for a second season, and episode eight ends on a brilliant – and infuriating – cliffhanger. After Hye-young finally confesses his feelings to Jo-jo, she finds herself caught between him and Sun-oh, who rings her Love Alarm again. Meanwhile, Love Alarm 2.0 is about to be launched.
This is a compelling romantic drama that explores the way social media influences our behaviour and how these subtle shifts have the power to reshape society.
Grade: A
Read more:
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