Boyfriend on Demand: What’s So Wrong With the Unexpected?

With the rise of “hybrid romances” in South Korean television, it’s been hard to find a good ol’ rom-com. That sort of light and fun story that isn’t scared of placing romance at its narrative core and letting its characters change and grow through their romantic entanglements. Recently, these kinds of straightforward series have been shunned in favour of seemingly more “complex” tales that necessarily include mystery, thriller, or overly fantastical elements.

Why has our bread-and-butter rom-com become such a “silly” genre that it needs something “extra” to give it relevance?

Well, Netflix’s Boyfriend on Demand decided to swim against this current and embrace romantic comedy conventions freely and unabashedly. That’s why, despite its expected clichés and fairly simplistic plot, Boyfriend on Demand emerges as a surprisingly refreshing series.

Directed by Kim Jung-sik and written by first-time scriptwriter Namgung Do-young, Boyfriend on Demand offers 10 delightful episodes that aren’t revolutionary in any way — but that present a timely, contemporary, and ironically humane tale about our need for companionship and the irresistible imperfections of our romantic adventures.

This review is spoiler-free. But if you’re in a rush, why don’t you pin our summary? It’s at the bottom!

Welcome to “Boyfriend on Demand”!

Boyfriend on Demand is the story of Seo Mi-rae (Jisoo), an exhausted and hardworking webtoon producer who has no time — or apparently, no need — for romance. After a painful breakup with her college sweetheart left her even more cynical than she naturally is, Mi-rae doesn’t see the point in investing her precious time and energy in a relationship that will eventually end.

At the office, our heroine works alongside fellow webtoon producer Park Kyeong-nam (Seo In-guk). Through Mi-rae’s eyes, Kyeong-nam is a seemingly aloof but highly competent professional who only makes her life more difficult and competitive. But, when the camera takes a step back to allow us to observe Mi-rae’s work environment from a more objective perspective, we realise that Kyeong-nam isn’t only what Mi-rae chooses to see. He might be a bit introverted and not incredibly communicative, but he can be attentive and thoughtful, too. And he surely has a massive crush on Mi-rae.

But Mi-rae is too busy — or too biased — to notice. Kyeong-nam’s gentle attempts at closing the gap between them are bound to go even more unseen when Mi-rae is assigned to manage Yun Song (Gong Min-jeung). Yun is the eccentric author of a very popular romantic webtoon who is known for working her producers to the bone and driving them completely bonkers, which means that Mi-rae’s carefully designed work-life balance is destined to be thrown out of the window.

But this opportunity introduces her to Min Jun-young (Lee Hak-joo), the Strategic Planning Manager at tech company DU. Min is developing a subscription-based virtual dating simulation called “Boyfriend on Demand”, and Yun’s most popular protagonist has been chosen as one of its many characters. Since the program is still in beta testing, Min invites Mi-rae to try it and review it herself. She’ll be compensated for the experience, so how bad could it actually be?

Mi-rae then takes us to the “Boyfriend on Demand” universe: a hyper-realistic, custom-made simulation where the user can be whoever they desire. Most importantly, “Boyfriend on Demand” allows them to be the heroines of the romantic exploits of their choice, in which they are wooed by the boyfriend-personas of their dreams.

And so romance-averse Mi-rae is soon bewitched by the perfect and fanciful scenarios of this artificial simulation. After all, “Boyfriend of Demand” is a program designed for customer satisfaction and, within the obliging and controllable settings of its framework, there are no unpleasant surprises or unexpected complications. Her happy ending is guaranteed: she’ll be forever doted on by a flawless boyfriend who will never run out of platitudes and whose “affection” will never waver or change.

But are perfection and predictability what Mi-rae really needs when she’s an imperfect and unpredictable human herself?

Your Brightest Dreams x Your Mundane Reality

Lighthearted yet surprisingly thought-provoking, Boyfriend on Demand portrays romantic love as a beautifully spontaneous and unique bond that comes into existence without rhyme or reason. The thematic core of this narrative lies in the inevitability of unpredictable change, in the fact that we all exist in constant flux — and that’s why human bonds are so magical. What Mi-rae has to accept in order to live a more fulfilling life is that, willingly or not, we’re all evolving every day.

So love is the product of serendipity and leaps of faith — a risky bet that every new version of yourself will continue to cherish every new version of your loved one as you walk into an unknown future together. Boyfriend on Demand then becomes a celebration of everything that makes our relationships humane: the unexpected, the awkward, the irrational, the inexplicable longing. Romance changes us as much as we change our romances, nothing more than a delicate dance of charming fickleness in which we’ll have to learn and re-learn to care for the person next to us.

Boyfriend on Demand conveys this message by creating contrast between the shining perfection of the simulation and the fairly restrained imperfection of Mi-rae’s real life. The script then leans into the clichés on one side while subverting them on the other, two worlds that ask our protagonist to choose between what she wants and what she needs.

“Boyfriend on Demand” provides Mi-rae with every single romantic trope under the sun, homogeneous events that lack authenticity and warmth but offer the heart-fluttering exchanges we’re supposed to expect. Everything is bright, colourful, quixotic, just like every single romantic comedy out there (“hybrid romances” exist in “Boyfriend on Demand”, too, which I found fairly ironic). Mi-rae doesn’t have to make an effort because her admirers will automatically pursue her. If she gets tired of one, she can simply move on to another, and if they all become too monotonous, she can design a custom-tailored love interest for herself.

Meanwhile, Mi-rae’s real life is considerably less shiny, less colourful, and less certain. Mi-rae needs to put in effort to nurture her relationships and establish open lines of communication. Her love interests aren’t one-dimensional personas that are easy to read and control. She struggles to understand Kyeong-nam’s pragmatic nature: his identity is as puzzling to her as hers is to him. Mi-rae and Kyeong-nam have to learn each other’s language and rhythm, a lifelong journey that they embark on through cute and tender but clearly less passionate and idealised exchanges.

Reality demands more from us: we need to push our biases and prejudices aside to try to see others as who they really are. We need to empathise, to clarify misunderstandings, to tell bitter truths. Loving a fellow human being requires courage and vulnerability — and these are not easy traits to muster.

While “Boyfriend on Demand” is always comfortable and convenient, real life can be awfully embarrassing and unpleasant at times.

Whether we should hold on to something tangible, spontaneous, and unique despite its troubles or stick with something artificial, controllable, and perfectly tidy isn’t the question Boyfriend on Demand tries to answer. In an age where AI relationships are becoming ever more common, the show chooses to portray its story through markedly non-judgmental lenses. Each character in Boyfriend on Demand is free to make their own decision according to what they deem important, and the narrative avoids most social commentary.

The series forgoes the discussion of social or ethical dilemmas related to the development and use of artificial intelligence, creating a universe that feels almost utopian as a consequence (I mean, Mi-rae is a 30-year-old woman who can rent an apartment, pay $330 for a monthly subscription service, and go out with her friends — all on a single income!). While AI often leads to dystopian stories, Boyfriend on Demand establishes a sort of fairy tale in which reality and digital escapes can co-exist without any major drawbacks.

The closest you’ll get to any social commentary is a few clever remarks on how society exploits loneliness for profit, but everything else is mostly implied. That’s a narrative choice: Boyfriend on Demand makes use of a small cast of characters and limits its storylines and themes to offer a fantasy that raises timely questions, but opts not to present any definitive answers. It’s enjoyable, charming, and funny — and if you pay attention to what happens between the lines, it can give you quite a bit of food for thought.

Are the Visuals Really All That?

Sharp dialogue grants rhythm to the story while Mi-rae’s adventures in the show’s virtual simulation make the overall narrative more dynamic. But what really struck me as a particular strength is how female characters are provided with agency to respond to the many tropes they encounter: instead of foolish lovesick puppies, women in Boyfriend on Demand are opinionated, outspoken, and determined. They don’t see their need for romantic love as a weakness and aren’t scared of or inhibited about their romantic or physical desires, which is quite refreshing to see.

Visually, Boyfriend on Demand could have invested even further in this contrast between reality and virtuality, going beyond subtle changes in colour and aspect ratio to create a more textured and divergent visual language for its two universes. I believe more distinct visual identities would have highlighted this dichotomy, giving more depth to the script and avoiding some of the odd visual effects. The score is full of tunes that are just as standardly sweet as the ones you’d expect from the romantic comedies the show emulates — it fits the tone, but doesn’t stand out.

With a cast that includes special appearances from Yoo In-na, Seo Kang-joon, Lee Soo-hyuk, Lee Jae-wook, Lee Sang-yi, Kim Sung-cheol, and Kim Young-dae, you simply can’t go wrong. As for the core cast, Jisoo makes Mi-rae endearing while Seo offers two very different, yet equally confident, deliveries. For one, he has a quiet allure (with his performance reaching irresistible nuance at the end of episode 8). For the other, he has a more carefree, peppy approach. In the end, both are utterly charismatic and a delight to follow. We also need to add that Ha Young is a scene-stealer as Mi-rae’s dating expert friend Lee Ji-yeon. Gong Min-jeung is absolutely marvellous as Yun, while Kim Ah-young and Ko Kyu-pil inject the series with their usual quirky appeal.

Should You Watch Boyfriend on Demand?

Boyfriend on Demand plays around with the conventions of its genre to deliver the kind of rom-com that is becoming rarer to find. Cheerful and entertaining, this story isn’t embarrassed to let its characters yearn for romantic love, conveying their need for companionship through scenarios that go from absurdly silly to modestly mundane.

If you’re looking for an assertive discussion on the effect of AI on human relationships or multiple complex storylines, you definitely won’t find them here. On the other hand, if you — like Mi-rae herself — just need an upbeat and straightforward narrative that makes you laugh and unwind at the end of the day, Boyfriend on Demand might just be it.

You can watch Boyfriend on Demand on: