Boyfriend on Demand: Fangirl Review

Fangirl Feelings (skip this section if you don’t want spoilers)

The Story from a Fangirl Lens

What began as a fun light-hearted adventure of a girl exploring the world of dating post-breakup became a serious reflection about the dangers of technological advancement. As the anti-romantic on her webtoon team, Mi-rae agreed to review and beta test the Boyfriend on Demand VR service since the creator she worked with had her booked published into the simulation.

After some initial hesitation, she falls head-over-heels for the spoils of the lifestyle and attention within the simulation. She even recalls some of her fondest college memories with her ex-boyfriend during one of the stories that helps her find closure in the heartbreak. One of my drawbacks about the series comes through what happens next.

Mi-rae proceeds to go on a plethora of dates through the VR service. While she is enjoying it, it is only left to our imagination as to how most of these dates play out. The show collected the infinity gauntlet of boyfriends for her dates from Jay Park, Lee Soo-hyuk, Seo Kang-joon, Modern Tarzan… the list goes on and on. Sadly, we didn’t get to experience much substance for many of these dates though.

While figuring out her own life, Mi-rae’s archnemesis and coworker Park Kyeong-nam was always there and unsure about his feelings. I appreciated how the writers hinted at what his character’s actions, revealing that his coldness toward Mi-rae wasn’t due to his distaste for her but rather that he actually cared for her.

The plot twist of this story revealed that Mi-rae’s “perfect boyfriend” was the spitting image of Kyeong-nam really was the cherry on top. Was it kind of obvious that this was coming? Yes, but did I enjoy the reveal anyway? Absolutely.

Some aspects of the series needed to be cut in my opinion. Mi-rae’s best friend was good to keep the conversation going, yet in the end, why did we need to know that she gamified the system if nothing but a coffee meeting came out of it? What was the point in the rival producer falling in love with the assistant?

The Characters

This happened to be the first drama that I have ever watched with Jisoo, and I believe that the writers intentionally did not give her many lines in the beginning. Her acting improved throughout the series, but she seemed to struggle in the onset in my opinion. The acting aside, I fully believe she did a great job in the role. It is clear that the entire show was written around her character, and she shined.

Honestly, some of that awkwardness wasn’t a bad thing because her character is naturally more introverted as the webtoon producer so it worked.

I felt pretty indifferent about Kyeong-nam in the end. I’m obviously happy that reality won over the virtual, but he spent an entire episode blowing her off and did not say a word. Communication obviously wasn’t his strong suit, but if we’re going to make a series about virtual vs reality, would a girl really welcome her boyfriend that stonewalled her for multiple days back in that way, especially after she dealt with that once? I don’t know.

There’s a few contradictory moments here and there, but it didn’t make me hate the series one way or another. I truly did enjoy the characters for what they were, especially Jo Han-chul with his HERMÈS mugs. He’s like my favorite dad or uncle in every series I watch haha!

The Reality of Boyfriends on Demand

As with most dramas I’ve been watching lately, this one fed my fangirl delusions in a scary way (kind of). It isn’t unrealistic to say that we’re not far off from a world where Boyfriend on Demand really does exist.

People are falling in love with ChatGPT, Claude and other AI chatbots. The reality is that AI-ationships are happening, not just in the movies but in every day life.

One therapist did a study on Artificial Romance and found that “28.16% of adults claim to have at least one intimate or romantic relationship with an AI.” AN INSANE FIGURE! Wait… does Love and Deepspace count? It is a video game, but I can put it down whenever I need to (haha!).

While the focus of the series was on simulated relationships in the Boyfriend on Demand service, it also showed just how influential that relationship could be on your professional career in the storyline of Yun Song, the webtoon writer. She plagiarized a BoD match for her Webtoon and suffered the grave consequences. Ultimately, Song chose her life with her virtual boyfriend over her writing reputation.