[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Dating Agency: Cyrano" Episode 12

The nursing home subplot ends up going a better direction than I was expecting, as we have less emphasis this time on the wacky adventures and more on exactly what's making life so difficult for this couple. I'm still not entirely sure how well this subplot as a whole dovetails with the larger plot of the agency. We're not exactly at the point where we can accuse the love story between Byeong-Hoon and Min-Yeong of being damaged by past trauma, but that point may be coming soon.

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Outside of the love manipulation plot, a lot of the story feels out of focus here. There's nice little character moments sprinkled throughout, but nothing terribly memorable or definite that I can remember that clearly. I'm disappointed that Ah-Rang stopped the videotaping, since now his character is back in the spot of having a poorly defined purpose in the ongoing schemes.

The drama is in the awkward position right now of wanting to be mysterious, because a certain amount of mystique is necessary for the final revelation of Seung-Pyo's motivation to really hit. Unfortunately, this lack of focus makes it difficult for anything to be really be that engaging in the meantime. Weirdly, the love manipulation plot and the Cyrano Agency drama are at a bit of a crossroads, because while the former needs time to really be believable, the latter is starting to feel like filler waiting until the timing is right to get to the next pivotal event.

Fortunately, we do arrive at that moment before the episode is over. The last episode's cliffhanger was a bit of a disappointment, in that it didn't have that strong an effect on the overall direction of this episode. We're in much more definite ground this time around, since it's unlikely this current event can be as easily ignored. Indeed, the preview contains no hint of whether or if there will be another client coming up.

The essential question now is what the drama will be doing in its final throes. If I line up the basic themes of all the love manipulations so far, it's a fairly diverse list. Excitement, nostalgia, irrationality, fear, and trauma have all been explored in their influence on the decisions people make in their romantic lives. If these themes have been explored, simplistically, it's been because the nature of the love manipulation schemes practically mandates it. We may be looking at a glorious combination of all these influences soon, provided the writing doesn't get lost in itself again.

Review by William Schwartz

"Dating Agency: Cyrano" is directed by Kang Kyeong-hoon, written by Shin Jae-won and features Lee Jong-hyuk, Choi Soo-young, Hong Jong-hyun and Jo Yoon-woo.