REVIEW: ‘Spice Up Our Love’ Is An Adorable Treat For Fans

Spice Up Our Love is an adorable, quick spinoff Kdrama series of the recently wrapped No Gain No Love. It is made for those who hardcore fell in love with popular R-rated web novelist Nam Ja-yeon (Han Ji-hyun) and CEO of Kkulbee Education, Bok Gyu-hyun (Lee Sang-yi), and reaches a different level of silliness while exploring its web novel-like world. However, be warned. Jumping into this two-episode special without having watched up to the end of Episode 5 of No Gain No Love will make this a confusing and less rewarding watch.

The start of Spice Up Our Love sets up the stage for our mini isekai-style adventure. After a creepy opener featuring the web novel’s heroine, Ja-yeon is still shaken by the comments left by the troll, but not long after, she finally meets Gyu-hyun head-on. Things escalate, with her throwing copies of his comments on the ground. He tries to pick them up, but a truck comes barrelling down. Ja-yeon witnesses it and, in her shock, passes out and hits her head on the pavement. When she wakes up, her world is no longer hers, at least not entirely.

Ja-yeon is trapped in the body of her web novel heroine, Seo Yeon-seo. She wakes up in a hospital, only to find herself face to face with her nemesis, Gyu-hyun. Except he’s not Gyu-hyun anymore. He’s actually Yeon-seo’s love interest and boss, Kang Ha-joon. Some hilarious scenes ensue where Ja-yeon is trying to figure out what’s going on, with her figuring out the rules of the web novel universe in real-time with the help of a recurring face. But for the entirety of Spice Up Our Love Episode 1, Ja-yeon resists anything to do with the Gyu-hyun lookalike.

Episode 1 solidifies the tropes to which fiction is tethered. Regardless of what Ja-yeon does, the chapter has to hit certain scenes, and the results of her misguided efforts illustrate how loosely held together reality is. For actress Han Ji-hyun, she is perfectly adorable and bewildered as she tries to take the reins of her own creation.

As for actor Lee Sang-yi, he gets more room to be as outlandish with the comedy beats. In a world where his Kang Ha-joon is protected by plot armor, he gets to do the impossible. Leaping extraordinary heights, being everywhere Ja-hyeon turns, and more.

Spice Up Our Love tackles the isekai rom-com.

Admittedly, Spice Up Our Love Episode 2 is slightly rushed towards the end. But with only two episodes, there’s a lot of ground to cover. The idea of a character realizing that they have no control is fun to play around with, and director Jung Hoon and screenwriter Jo Min-jung try their best to explore with what little time they have. What resolutions are accomplished are thinly obtained, but thanks to the chemistry and acting of Ji-hyun and Sang-yi, it’s easily forgivable.

Less forgivable is the lack of use surrounding actor Lee You-jin’s evil secretary. It’s clear that in Spice Up Our Love, the face change between Kang Ha-joon and his secretary is meant to represent Ja-yeon’s changing feelings, but how Min-jung writes the secretary’s evil transition is poorly conceived. His brief evil moment towards the end of Episode 2 feels hollow in execution and convenience, leaving more to be desired. Again, with just two episodes, though, some sacrifices had to be made for time. This one was just glaring.

With an additional episode, Spice Up Our Love could have had time to flesh out the themes surrounding the lack of control for Ja-yeon and Ha-joon. From the lack of control over the troll comments to lack of control over her own story, it is a missed opportunity. Ha-joon, in particular, could have had more time to dwell on his lack of autonomy as a made-up character, giving Episode 2’s final moments more emotional heft. However, Spice Up Our Love is meant to be a silly, fun affair, and it achieves that feeling in spades.

Spice Up Our Love is the best kind of little treat for fans of Ja-yeon and Gyu-hyun from No Gain No Love, filling in gaps and our hearts. Even if it’s not perfect and could have used one more episode to spread out the emerging themes in the two episodes, who can complain when we get one last goodbye from our Kdrama faves? Watch No Gain No Love first, and then hop into this after Episode 5. It’ll make the most sense then.

The two-episode special, Spice Up Our Love, is now streaming on Prime Video.