appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Pierce Conran

Lead cast: Roh Jeong-eui, Lee Chae-min, Jo Joon-young
Latest Nielsen rating: 0.9 per cent
Realism and K-dramas are not terms that typically get along with one another, but the new youth romance Crushology 101 takes artifice and superficiality to new levels.
The series is based on the webtoon Bunny and Her Boys by Ni-eun, which serves as the local title of the series in South Korea.


The concept is a simple one. Ban Hee-jin (Roh Jeong-eui, Hierarchy) – nickname Bunny – is a gifted sculpture major who appreciates beauty, especially if it can be found in a young man’s features. Fortunately for her, beautiful young men quickly queue up in front of her.
She calls herself a “softie for good looks” and to account for her vocation as a sculptor, she explains how she “sublimated this overwhelming sensation into art”. One of her works is proudly displayed on the school grounds. This piece, which evokes the Renaissance sculptures of Greek gods, is titled “ultimate male divinity”.
That is a lot of quotes for one short paragraph, but with a show that so clearly shows off its vapidness, analysis seems futile.
Speaking of taking the show at face value, it is hard not to notice – or be physically affected by – the nauseating visuals. Crushology 101 impressively boasts both the brightest and dullest visual palette we have seen to date this year.

The images are blindingly hazy but, rather than sun-drenched and candy-coloured, the show’s visuals are dominated by off-whites and pale pastels, predominantly pink and mauve.
Each time a handsome boy appears on screen – Bunny will quickly amass a quartet of runway-ready admirers – the show pulls off another staring-into-the-sun shot. Colour bleeds out of the frame as the image slows down, and it becomes hard not to wince while looking at the screen. Strategically placed lights point straight into the camera, further blinding us.
Complementing this dizzying display are the ever-present cherry blossoms. Not only are cherry trees in spring bloom featured in nearly every shot, but digitally created cherry blossom petals constantly rain down on the leads.
Bunny does not begin the show with any of the Adonises we will meet. She is dating Ko Bong-soo (Kim Hyun-mok, The Judge from Hell), and the series makes it very clear that he is supposed to be ugly.

Bunny does not mind dating an ugly boy because she just wants to be loved, until the truth is revealed. After accidentally hitting the live button in a radio booth while on a call with a friend, Bong-soo reveals to the whole campus that he sees Bunny as an easy mark and seeks only to bed her.
After this terrible experience and to the relief of her horrifically shallow friends, Bunny finally comes to her senses and decides that she will only date pretty boys.
Pretty boys almost immediately queue up in front of her, and she is obsessed with their beauty. This includes visual design major Hwang Jae-yeol (Lee Chae-min, Hierarchy), with whom at first she has a contentious relationship after accidentally breaking his iPad.
Also in her line of sight is new sculpture student Cha Ji-won (Jo Joon-young, Dear M). Not only is he a sweetheart, but he is also the heir to a major corporation, which makes Bunny fawn over him all the more.

After dropping by a gallery to admire the work of sculptor Jo A-rang, she meets a fellow art lover (Kim Hyun-jin, My Sweet Mobster) and has coffee with him, only to later realise that this new admirer is in fact A-rang.
Bunny will also have a fourth potential suitor, Jin Hyun-o (Hong Min-gi, Study Group), but he has yet to show up.
Crushology 101 tosses in a number of rote K-dramas clichés – slow-motion hug-falls, awkward drunk parties – each more uninspired than the last, and basically calls it a day.
The bar is not high for a show like this, which deliberately exaggerates K-drama tropes to offer hazy, small-screen wish fulfilment, but there is no imagination whatsoever to the proceedings.

Not that this is its only problem. Between its dearth of creativity, utter vapidness and crass moral standards, there is plenty to choose from.
While the Yein University background and Bunny’s many suitors are presented as being fantastical, the show’s biggest problem is that it is Bunny who is the most unrealistic part of the package. Nothing about her rings true as a character, and when you do not ground fantasy in reality, there is nothing to draw you in.
Crushology 101 is streaming on Viu.


K-drama Reborn Rookie: Lee Jun-young’s corporate body-swap fantasy hums with melodrama

HBO Max K-drama Fifties Professionals: Shin Ha-kyun action comedy revisits hits of old

Netflix K-drama The Wonderfools review: Park Eun-bin lifts fun but flawed superhero romp

HBO Max K-drama The Legend of Kitchen Soldier: Park Ji-hoon leads winning military comedy

Korean drama reviews

K-drama Crushology 101: vapid youth romance with Roh Jeong-eui wallows in cliché

Roh Jeong-eui in a still from Crushology 101.

Roh Jeong-eui as gifted sculpture major Bunny in a still from Crushology 101. Between its nauseating visuals, its shallow characters, and its uninspired clichés, the K-drama fails to entertain.

Roh Jeong-eui (left) as gifted sculpture major Bunny and Jo Joon-young as new sculpture student Cha Ji-won in a still from Crushology 101.

Roh Jeong-eui (left) as gifted sculpture major Bunny and Lee Chae-min as visual design major Hwang Jae-yeol in a still from Crushology 101.

Kim Hyun-jin as sculptor Jo A-rang in a still from Crushology 101.

Roh Jeong-eui as Bunny in a still from Crushology 101.

7 of the best new K-dramas to watch in April 2025, including Netflix thriller series Karma

Shin Min-a as Lee Ju-yeon in a still from Karma. Photo: Jihyeong Seo/Netflix

Shin Min-a as Lee Ju-yeon in a still from Karma, a limited series debuting on Netflix in April 2025. Photo: Jihyeong Seo/Netflix

Who is Lee Kwang-soo, Running Man founding member and star of many films and K-dramas?

Lee Kwang-soo in a still from Karma. Photo: Jihyeong Seo/Netflix

Korean actor Lee Kwang-soo is currently appearing in the K-dramas Karma and The Divorce Insurance. Photo: Netflix

Gong Seung-yeon and Lee Kwang-soo in a still from Karma. Photo: Jihyeong Seo/Netflix

Lee Kwang-soo in a still from The Divorce Insurance.

Lee Kwang-soo in a still from It’s Okay, That’s Love (2014).

Jung Yu-mi (centre) and Lee Kwang-soo (right) in a still from Live (2018).

Shin Ha-kyung (left) and Lee Kwang-soo in a still from Inseparable Bros (2019).

(From left) Lee Kwang-soo, Ju Ji-hoon and Ji Sung in a still from Confession (2014).

Lee Kwang-soo (left) and Park Bo-young in a still from Collective Invention (2015). Photo: CJ Entertainment

Disney+ K-drama Hyper Knife review: Park Eun-bin, Sul Kyung-gu tango in surgical thriller

Park Eun-bin as surgeon Jung Se-ok in a still from Hyper Knife, a Korean drama series co-starring Sul Kyung-gu on Disney+. Photo: Online

Sul Kyung-gu as neurosurgeon Choi Deok-hee in a still from Hyper Knife.

Park Eun-bin as spurned surgical protégé Jung Se-ok in a still from Hyper Knife.

Sul Kyung-gu as Deok-hee in a still from Hyper Knife.

Sul Kyung-gu (left) and Park Eun-bin in a still from Hyper Knife.

The 13 most anticipated K-drama series of 2025 ranked, from Squid Game 3 to Tempest

Jisoo in a still from Newtopia.

Kim Min-ha in a still from Way Back Love, which debuted at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival to rave reviews and is one of 13 K-dramas to look forward to in 2025. Photo: TVing

The main cast of Can This Love Be Translated? a K-drama from the Hong Sisters.

The main cast members of Two Women.

The main cast of The Price of Confession.

The main cast of When Life Gives You Tangerines.

Kim Da-mi (left) and Son Suk-ku in a still from Nine Puzzles.

Gong Myung (left) and Kim Min-ha in a still from Way Back Love. Photo: TVing

Jun Ji-hyun in a still from Tempest.

Squid Game season 3 follows shortly after season 2, which was in effect half a series.

Lifestyle

K-drama

K-Pop

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Between its nauseating visuals, its shallow characters and its uninspired K-drama tropes, Crushology 101 fails to entertain on any level


Between its nauseating visuals, its shallow characters and its uninspired K-drama tropes, Crushology 101 fails to entertain on any level.


K-drama Crushology 101: vapid youth romance with Roh Jeong-eui wallows in cliché

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Between its nauseating visuals, its shallow characters and its uninspired K-drama tropes, Crushology 101 fails to entertain on any level

Between its nauseating visuals, its shallow characters and its uninspired K-drama tropes, Crushology 101 fails to entertain on any level