REVIEW: ‘Love Scout’ Is A Healing Balm For The Soul

Workplace romances like Love Scout have a special place in my heart. It’s tricky to breathe new life into a well-trod romance subgenre, but writer Kim Ji-eun makes subtle changes to the formula to give fans something different. Swapping the genders of the CEO and assistant adds a unique energy to the professional pairing, but how the romance develops between Kang Ji-yun (Han Ji-min) and Yu Eun-ho (Lee Joon-hyuk) is the healing balm needed for the soul.

At the start of the series, Kang Ji-yun is an overly serious CEO obsessed with her work and getting results. She’s not the most personable boss, never remembering her employees’ names unless they are someone she considers useful – not the greatest confidence booster for anyone under her employ. Despite how good she is at her job, Ji-yun is also a hot mess. In her mind, she has no time for rest or organization. She just has to focus on her career.

However, this is not a smart way to live in the long run, and her exhausted colleague, Seo Mi-ae (Lee Sang-hee), hires an assistant for her. In comes the lovely Yu Eun-ho, who is coming off an incredibly toxic work environment and an industry that has essentially blacklisted him. The job couldn’t come at a better time, but he has his work cut out for him since his first meeting with Ji-yun didn’t go so well.

Part of the journey of Love Scout is seeing how the two adjust to each other’s personalities and work styles. Much like Ji-yun, Eun-ho takes his job incredibly seriously, which, at first, annoys Ji-yun immensely. Here is an employee going above and beyond in his tasks, something she intrinsically values, and yet, it’s getting in her way. As the two get to know each other, an understanding is reached. Eun-ho learns that Ji-yun is not as cold and cutthroat as he assumed, and Ji-yun starts to learn how to take care of and invest in herself more.

Ji-yun’s journey in Love Scout is powerful and incredibly needed.

Admittedly, Ji-yun has the biggest character arc of the duo. She starts off cold and closed off, but it merely serves to protect her. Life has not been kind to her. After the death of her father, she carries a lot of pain and resentment towards him for abandoning her. This sense of abandonment has carried over into her field of work, too. Five years prior to the events of Love Scout, Ji-yun is ostracized by the fellow headhunting company Career Way. Despite leaving, the current CEO, Kim Hye-jin (Park Bo-kyung), won’t stop trying to destroy her.

Needless to say, the protective shell Ji-yun has created for herself is understandable. The thing is, having such an impenetrable wall does little to endear her to her employees. And her single-minded focus on work and her capabilities without taking care of herself shows how poor her self-worth is. Through Eun-ho’s influence and love, we see throughout Love Scout how she softens and allows herself to open up again, and it is healing. Not just for her but also as a viewer too.

Comparatively, Eun-ho hasn’t allowed his experiences to harden him in Love Scout. He has the most adorable, squishable daughter in the world to take care of, and he can’t afford to let that trickle into her life. Finding the moments of rest and joy is something he does to set an example for Byeol. In a way, these actions heal the wounded child in Ji-yun’s heart who never got to experience the full breadth of proper parenting.

It’s no wonder then that Ji-yun eventually sees herself in Eun-ho’s daughter, Byeol (Ki So-yu), who is growing up with just one parent. Part of her healing journey is through her interactions with Byeol, who also wears down the woman with her antics. From chasing kittens to having princess parties to surprising Eun-ho with a party, the relationship between the two almost rivals the strength and adorableness of Ji-yun’s relationship with Eun-ho. Whether or not such a thing would have been possible without Eun-ho’s influence is unlikely.

Sometimes, being second fiddle plays out but it takes its time to get there.

However, one thing that wouldn’t have happened if Ji-yun and Eun-ho hadn’t gotten together is the partnering of secondary characters, Jung Su-hyeon (Kim Yoon-hye) and Woo Jeong-hoon (Kim Do-hoon). Su-hyeon is the heir to Oh Chul-young’s (Jo Seung-yeon) company, though it’s not entirely clear what it is Chul-young does outside of glowering, taking potshots at CEOs and his son, and investing in competing headhunting companies. He works at Peoplez to spite his father, but, as an employee, he’s seldom shown actually working in Love Scout.

Woo Jeong-hoon, on the other hand, has a lot to keep her busy throughout Love Scout. She’s a single mother struggling to create children’s books that can pay the bills. Oh, and she has a major crush on Eun-ho. Her son and his daughter go to the same school, and they live in the same apartment complex, so the close proximity makes it easy for that crush to flourish. Eun-ho, however, is oblivious. Naturally, you can see the kind of romance set-up laid out before it’s even executed.

The path for the two characters is riddled with ambiguity, with the screen time not always taking much space in each episode compared to our main lovebirds. This creates an inconsistent flow, but what scenes we do get developing their storyline are incredibly rewarding, with the two bonding over their failure to win over their respective crushes. On Su-hyeon’s end, his crush on Ji-yun is rather poorly developed onscreen, so it’s harder to buy he actually cared for her outside of what he tells Ji-yun in his confession scene.

The chemistry between the two actors is friendly but not quite there in terms of selling the believability of the romance. It’s even more noticeable than the chemistry between actors Han Ji-min and Lee Joon-hyuk. Since the characters are figuring out a lot throughout the show, some of the chemistry issues can be explained away that way. But, taking that out of the equation, they are the weaker couple of the two.

Shining the spotlight on the employees goes a long way.

Taking on a client case per episode format, Love Scout spends each case introducing us to the core group of employees at Peoplez. This goes a long way to help the audience remember who these characters are. Also, with each employee getting the spotlight and succeeding with occasional aid from Eun-ho, we get to see Ji-yun finally learn the names of those who work with her the most, slowly earning their loyalty over time. This gives the individual performers a chance to shine, but also, from a story level, pays off in a huge way at the end.

That’s why the lack of development of specific characters and their storylines is glaring once noticed. Outside of her contempt for Ji-yun, Hye-jin is little more than a barely two-dimensional character despite actor Park Bo-kyung’s best efforts. She is meant to be who Ji-yun could become if resentment boils over, but the character’s one-note villainy wears thin by the end of the series. A similar note can be made for Oh Chul-young, but he gets a little more development in the final episode. There still could have been more done, though.

The role these two characters play in Ji-yun’s downfall by the end of Love Scout doesn’t get as much attention as it should. When Hye-jin is finally punished, the storyline is quickly wrapped up and mostly forgotten. Considering how prominent Career Way and Hye-jin were featured throughout the series, it’s a shame. Once Chul-young forces Ji-yun to sign over Peoplez, that’s the end of that. It’s a strange writing decision that the shorter episode count did not help. But these nitpicks can be easily glossed over if you don’t think too hard.

As it stands, Love Scout’s strength lies in the powerful and dynamic relationship between Ji-yun and Eun-ho. On a personal level, watching Ji-yun heal and learn healthier ways of being present in the world and around people made me feel myself healing in the process. Surrounded by friends, colleagues, and loved ones, Ji-yun is finally in a place where she is cared for. And that’s something I think many of us can understand. Being loved and valued, treasured and taken care of, is the best experience, and Love Scout demonstrates this completely.

All episodes of Love Scout are streaming on Netflix in select regions and on Viki.