I'm Not a Robot

I’m Not a Robot

8.5/10

I'm Not a Robot

Genre:                                                Episodes: 16                                           Year: 2018

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

Kim Min Gyu is the director of a finance company, but lives in seclusion after developing an allergy to human contact. Hong Baek Gyun is a developer of android robots, and his most recent AI, Aji 3, is based on his ex-girlfriend, Jo Ji Ah. Baek Gyun is in the process of selling Aji 3 to Min Gyu, when an accident causes the robot to break down. Baek Gyun offers to pay Ji Ah to pretend to be Aji 3 while the robot is being fixed.

Cast:

Chae Soo Bin (Jo Ji Ah/Aji 3)

Yoo Seung Ho (Kim Min Gyu)

Uhm Ki Joon (Hong Baek Gyun)

Park Se Wan (Pi)

Song Jae Ryong (Hoktal)

Kim Min Kyu (Ssanip)

Kang Ki Young (Hwang Yoo Cheol)

Hwang Seung Eon (Ye Ri El)

General Thoughts:

Well 2018 sure has started off strongly. After going through a year that had a bit of a drought of good romantic comedies, ‘I’m Not a Robot’ was like the long awaited rain. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and not a start-with-a-bang-end-with-a-fizzle scenario.

This was the rom-com i needed in my life right now

The robot/human set-up is a new take on familiar trajectory, but it was handled so, so well. The path was pretty similar to a lot of typical rom-com stories- meeting-deception-falling in love-discovery of deception-fallout-make up. That being said, this drama had its own twist on that set-up that made everything seem much newer and more innovative than it actually was. 

Good Characters = Happy Audience

Rather than it seeming like this drama was treading the same path as a hundred others before it, it was more like this drama was coming along to show those hundred others how it should be done. Scenarios I usually find myself rolling my eyes at, such as the angsty patch in the middle, instead had me feeling invested and understanding. Because rather than using these situations to try and spur the plot along or fill out more episodes, ‘I’m Not a Robot’ used those moments to highlight character development and struggle that it had laid the groundwork for previously. What the show did so well is that it made its characters the main focal point- not the various occurrences in the plot. Yes, there were robot hijinks and a company backstory, but very clearly the main point was Ji Ah learning her self-worth and Min Gyu learning to trust others. The hows and whys were important too, but it was the way our characters responded to these situations that was the main draw. And of course the characters themselves.

The human allergy was constructed surprisingly well

Min Gyu was completely loveable, and quickly became a hero to root for in the very first episode. By opening with Min Gyu and not Ji Ah, the show allowed us to get a complete understanding of who he was, how is human allergy impacted his life, and ultimately how much he craved human contact. This was essential, as his first few interactions with Ji Ah didn’t exactly show him in the best light- he didn’t get out of his car to greet her, refused to pay her, and was basically a big ol’ jerk.

Yoo Seung Ho, please stay in rom-coms

But because we’d previously seen how terrified Min Gyu was of his allergy and how totally awkward he was (he threw a birthday party for his robo-vacuum), this scene became hilarious rather than being a reason to dislike the lead. Ji Ah wasn’t as whacky as our hero, but she was a refreshing and loveable heroine.

She may have the lowest IQ, but she has the most common sense

She did have a few Candy traits, but she was also innovative and stubborn, which gave her a sense of individuality. I loved that the show played her IQ for comedic effect as it was done in a sensitive way. No one was making fun of Ji Ah for being dumb, but the characters’ surprise (including coming from Ji Ah herself) when things worked out well for her were just hilarious. Such as her heart lamps being based on a complex hypotheses that took the scientists years to figure out, or her simple solutions to problems she couldn’t solve (such as breaking the box rather than finding the code to open it) that made Min Gyu think she was a extraordinary, futuristic robot. The side characters were all delightful, particularly those on the Santa Maria Robotics Team. Baek Gyun was a refreshing second lead, as it’s not often we get totally nerdy second leads actually being the ex-boyfriend of the heroine. They’re usually two completely different ballgames. But Baek Gyun had his own character arc of self discovery. I’m endlessly glad that the writer opted for Baek Gyun searching for the meaning behind his and Ji Ah’s break up, rather than simply having him compete with Min Gyu for her affections.

I always prefer when the second leads don't encroach on the happiness of the leads

There were certainly elements of regret and Beak Gyun wishing he could go back and be a better man to Ji Ah so that he could keep her, but his quiet, individual realisation that he and Ji Ah were now two different people made him and his arc so much more engaging and enjoyable. For a drama that had its heroine posing as an actual inanimate object for a large portion of its runtime, the male leads to an outstanding job at treating her like her own entity to be connected to and communicated with, but not fought over and won.

Teaching Min Gyu How to be Human Part 1

Hoktal and Ssanip were mostly there for comedic relief, and they were very funny, but they also had their more poignant moments. These came particularly when there were scenes of bonding between Min Gyu and the Santa Maria team. It’s Hoktal and Ssanip who are at the dinner Min Gyu throws, and it’s these two that chase after Min Gyu's car after he discovers Aji 3 was a human.

Scientists and love are always a fun time

Where the importance of these characters lie is that it shows Min Gyu opening up to a group of people, rather than only to Beak Gyun- which makes a world of difference for Min Gyu’s development. I was so happy to see that there were also a variety of female side characters- and they all had different, yet likeable personalities. How often does that happen? (For those of you who don’t know- not often). Pi was nerdy without being classically shy. She was bold and sure of herself, and was a great addition to the story. Her one-sided love and eventual love-line with Beak Gyun was super sweet and I always enjoyed watching the two interact, as Pi was often the greatest source of hard truths for Beak Gyun, as she was significantly more socially clued in than Baek Gyun. Sun Hye was used more for comedy alongside Hoktal and Ssanip, but in a similar way as Pi, she was the perfect person to deliver hard truths to Min Gyu. As someone who wasn’t a part of the Santa Maria Team, she was excluded from the complete betrayal Min Gyu felt when he discovered how the team had been deceiving him, and as such she was able to give him the facts of the situation without getting yelled at, scorned or ignored.

Learning to Forgive- also known as Teaching Min Gyu How to be Human Part 2

It was Sun Hye’s message that everyone would move on without Min Gyu if he didn’t choose to forgive that lead to the big reconciliation. Sun Hye’s character was carefully set up all series long with just the right amount of involvement so that she would be able to deliver this message- which I found to be an example of truly excellent writing.

Two thumbs up for a second female lead who isn't a basic b*tch

I was all primed to dislike the second female lead, Ri El, and I was so pleasantly surprised that she wasn’t at all how I thought she’d be. Rather than being the petty, shallow rich girl who comes to marry the hero, Ri El has a lot more depth. For one she has a conscience, which already depicts her differently from every other rich female character. Despite being the second female lead, I loved how separate her story was from Min Gyu’s, as it gave space for the main romance to grow and prevented us from getting annoyed by her character. Rather than watching her pine over the man she doesn’t get, we get to see Ri El begin to realise how her father is using her for his own agenda. Ri El doesn’t just sit meekly by, and goes out on her own to figure out how she can break away from her father and become her own person. Rounding out our support cast is Kang Ki Young as Min Gyu’s ex-friend. I’m so glad that Kang Ki Young is getting more meatier roles (he’s mostly had roles more like Hoktal and Ssnip before), as I’ve always found him a great actor. He’s an excellent comedic actor, but after seeing him as a kitten murderer in ‘While You Were Sleeping’, I’ve been excited to see him get more roles.

The company plot-line stayed where it belonged- in the background

He played Yoo Cheol with a great ambiguity. For a long time I was unsure if there was a simple misunderstanding between the men, or if Yoo Cheol actually seriously wronged Min Gyu. Yoo Cheol’s conflict was really interesting to watch, and provided some interest in the company plot-line. Like most company plot-lines, I didn’t actually care about what went on in the company,

I like you so much better in comedy than in melo

but Yoo Cheol’s actions in the company directly aligned with his relationship with Min Gyu. If Yoo Cheol supported his father he was abandoning Min Gyu for good, but his choice to walk away from his father and all his wrongdoings is what enabled him and Min Gyu to reconnect. With all great characters there of course needs to be great acting to back it up. Kang Ki Young wasn’t the only one that impressed me. I’ve sort of come to dislike Yoo Seung Ho a bit- not as a person, but as an actor. I don’t have any problem with his acting, which I find to be of a high quality, but then I started to realise that either his characters were annoying (Remember) or the drama was just bad (Ruler). I think that maybe because he’s so good at crying it gets overused a bit and his characters can sometimes be annoyingly weepy. But I like him so much more in rom-coms. He’s cute and funny and delightful, but also has the acting ability to back up the more emotional moments in the drama. I loved him as our hero, and he suited the role really well. Chae Soo Bin was just an absolute standout. Her last three dramas just fell of my to-watch list, but I’d heard good things about her.

She also kinda has the perfect face for playing an AI

Seeing her in action is so much better. She has a great flair for comedy and is a solid emotional actress- I was on board her rants and raves and all her heartbreak, and she made Ji Ah a beautifully relatable character. As well as making Ji Ah a wonderful heroine, I love Chae Soo Bin as Aji 3. There was great distinction in her facial expressions, her body movements and her voice, so it was always clear (to us) which character she was portraying.

Magic umbrella of magic

Also special shoutout to the Westerner who wasn’t the worst actor on the planet- what a nice change of pace from our usual white guys/gals. The directing and writing matched each other perfectly, and one thing that really stood out to me was the competence at which they told their story. The writer and director had faith that we were all smart little cookies and could follow along without feeling the need to overexplain anything, or rehash the same information again and again. This kept the story feeling fresh and the momentum racing. I also applaud the show for its minimal use of character flashbacks. Despite drawing parallels between the leads and why Ji Ah understood Min Gyu’s loneliness, the show didn't feel the need to actually show us a childhood version of Ji Ah being similarly solitary. Instead we heard this information as we needed it from characters in the present, which also allowed us to see Min Gyu’s response- which we wouldn't get in a flashback. I’ve never been a big fan of overusing flashbacks, and despite how easy it would have been to do that here, we don’t get an overload of them.

What Was Great:

Human Emotion:

I’m finding more and more that what gets me invested in dramas and causes me to really fall in love with them are the characters behind the story.

And I love these characters

A lot of the time it feels like we’re just going through the motions and using the same old formula when it comes to the rom-com storyboard. ‘I’m Not a Robot’ doesn’t do anything groundbreaking story-wise

Rather than using miscommunication as a plot device, this drama actively avoided it

(in fact it follows that old formula to a tee), but it’s the way the characters were written so humanely that made the drama so great. The characters feel like people- not just figments of some writer’s imagination. Often the problems presented could only be overcome through our characters’ development, and it worked because our characters acted like actual people and tried to learn from their mistakes and better themselves. And they communicated well- how much do I love that practically a whole episode was devoted to Ji Ah and Min Gyu sitting down and having an open, honest discussion about their feelings and how they wanted to proceed (hint- I loved it a lot). The writer knew exactly what scenes would be impactful and could draw the exact emotion she wanted out of the audience- a trait that a lot of rom-com writers seem to lack. 

Bearable Angst:

Usually I hate angst in rom-coms. There’s always a patch of it, usually just on the other side of halfway, and usually it’s ridiculously unbearable and completely avoidable. However, in this drama the angst made sense.

I get why they can't be together and I get why that sucks

Falling love with a robot is pretty angsty stuff. She’s not real, she’ll never be real, and the ‘person’ you’ve fallen in love with is just a machine with pre-coded responses (or so Min Gyu thought). Min Gyu’s choice to reset the robot in an attempt to overcome his feelings for her was believably sad.

It is inadvisable to fall in love with your pre-programmed companion

This was helped along by the fact that his complete isolation and lack of interaction with people from the outside world made it understandable how he could end up falling for a humanoid robot where most other people would be able to clearly draw a distinction between human and robot. The heartbreak from both the leads after the reset also made complete sense. There was no plausible way for the two to see each other again at that time. Min Gyu thought the robot he’d fallen in love with had been completely reset, and Ji Ah can’t reveal that she’s a human for fear that Min Gyu’s feelings of betrayal will trigger a fatal allergic reaction. Min Gyu’s actual feelings of betrayal are again understandable, as he’d been lied to by people he’d come to trust and love completely. There was no easy away around this particular angst- from the moment the drama synopsis first became available we knew we’d be headed for this particular territory. Because there’s just no way to come out of that sort of deception (as innocently as you may have gone into it) without hurting the one who was deceived.

This situation could not have been avoided

There was no moment when Ji Ah should have told Min Gyu and just didn’t, because from the moment she stood in as Aji 3, Min Gyu was always going to feel betrayed when he discovered the truth. The pièce de résistance was that the angst was just the right length. It wasn’t so short that it made the characters’ reconciliations unbelievable, and it wasn’t so long that I stopped caring.  

What Wasn’t:

Forgotten Plotline: 

I know it was pretty strongly hinted that Min Gyu’s groundskeeper was Madame X, but the whole Madame X thing just kinda got ignored a bit.

I don't even have a screenshot to go in this section- just shows how little airtime this plot-line got

I didn’t necessarily need a big Madame X reveal, but at least a little confirmation, or backstory or something would have been nice. As it was it just kinda felt like they ran out of time to include that particular plot-line.

Recommend?

I 100% recommend this for those that are lovers of a good rom-com. 

I adore all the parallels of this kiss