[HanCinema's Drama Review] "I'm Not a Robot" Episodes 25-26

Min-gyoo's relapse proves to be inevitably depressing. Even after the initial shock subsides and Min-gyoo's physical condition stabilizes, further revelations about the sheer extent of Baek-gyoon's fraud only make Min-gyoo more and more cantankerous. However nice Baek-gyoon tries to be here it's hard to see him as anything but the villain here. Especially since the drama's actual villain, Yoo-cheol, is nowhere to be found.

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Elsewhere, I miscounted the number of times Min-gyoo and Ji-ah ran into each other by coincidence. It's actually four times, not three, because of that time she went to the entrepreneurial fair wearing that goofy disguise. The heart balls make a reappearance here. They're a critical piece of establishing evidence intended to convince Min-gyoo that everything Ji-ah statement made to Min-gyoo as AZ3 was said with the utmost sincerity.

This is all very sweet, although I still have trouble seeing how Min-gyoo can look past his abject humiliation and give Ji-ah another chance. The production team really worked themselves into a corner. By putting so much emphasis on the emotional nature of the relationship between Min-gyoo and Ji-ah, and failing to give either of them any other goals, the betrayal cuts way too deep. There just isn't any plausible means of reconciliation.

Once again the lack of subplots is the main culprit here. At a time like this more than anything else we really need something else to focus on, but the few alternate stories we have are just too half-baked to have much of an effect. There isn't that much behind the romance between Baek-gyoon and Pie, and they're consoling each other over the pretty vile act of deceiving Min-gyoo anyway. That the scientist team pursues Min-gyoo, rather than trying to run away from him, is the only scene that really works in terms of making them sympathetic, since they could only possibly be worried about how Min-gyoo is doing personally. 

At least that's what I'm assuming, since we really don't have any idea what's happening with the AZ3 project now. Which is symptomatic of the same issues. The purpose of the AZ3 project has never been clearly explained, except that Min-gyoo's company can probably make money off of it. Now, if Baek-gyoon had seen Ji-ah's interactions with Min-gyoo and realized that AZ3 was well-suited to provide companionship to lonely people, and this had changed his outlook, then Baek-gyoon would be a sympathetic character. But we never got that.

Review by William Schwartz

"I'm Not a Robot" is directed by  Jeong Dae-yoon, written by  Kim Seon-mi-I and Lee Suk-joon-I, and features Yoo Seung-ho, Chae Soo-bin, Uhm Ki-joon, and Park Se-wan.