This is the highest rated drama on MyDramaList that I have watched to this day, but, as much of an emotional attachment I have been able to develop to this drama, I cannot help but recognize its many flaws that make it quite an overrated drama overall. Now, don’t get me wrong, this drama was freaking awesome. I loved the leads and the side characters to bits, and the music, although not the most impressive soundtrack, did contribute quite a bit to the waterfall of tears I shed for this drama. But because I loved it so much I can’t help but wish for some parts of it to be a little different. So here we go: Right off the bat, I’m just gonna be honest and say that I didn’t like the drama at all during its first 3-4 episodes. It just didn’t click with me right away. The comedy was a little ridiculous, but I learned to get past it and love the drama anyway. The first “part” of the drama that happened in North Korea felt very repetitive. It was the same sequence of “ooh boy she’s come up with a plan to get out of North Korea” only to be followed by “oh man, another unforeseen obstacle prevented her from escaping successfully” and repeated several more times to the point where I just didn’t even hold out any hope for her escaping AT ALL. Now to address some cliches. 1)Fated to meet *barf* 2)Ri Jeong Hyuk’s brother’s death caused him to become distant and cold-hearted (dramatic much? I get that you loved him, but plenty of people lost their loved ones and didn’t act like the world suddenly ended) 3) Now this may just be my personal opinion, but the “big bad villain following the rich South Korean heiress into her country to kill her” sequence was a little ridiculous and super annoying to watch. While we’re on the topic, I tend to err on the more realistic side of Korean dramas, and watching these two lovesick idiots take bullets for one another time after time and end up in a hospital bed was just a little too gruesome and depressing for me. I tend to avoid dramas where characters face violent or even fatal encounters for that exact reason. Last two complaints, I PROMISE. I wasn’t a fan of how Ri Jeong Hyeok kept lying to the South Korean officials about his intentions for the sake of saving Yoon Se Ri from legal troubles when he left. He was clearly making her miserable and yet he kept lying I JUST UGH. While I’m probably one of the few (or maybe not lol) people that thought that eliminating the second male lead was a bold and frankly quite a fun choice, I can’t say the same for how they wrapped up the ending of the drama for the main leads. Once again, largely personal opinion, but I found it so depressing how the couple could never truly be together and had to rely on two weeks for every YEAR to meet each other. I didn’t watch 20 hours of a Korean drama only for you to tell me that they don’t even get a proper happy ending! Now, while I just typed up a huge freaking essay of complaints about the drama, I have to admit that watching CLOY was one of the best experiences of my life, all the frustrating parts of it aside. The side characters/second leads were so well developed over the course of the drama that I felt like the love story between Jeong Hyeok and Se Ri had a dramatic impact on all the characters on both sides of the 39th parallel. This drama explored all angles of the story and wrapped up the side characters’ narratives even better than it did with the leads, and while I will always cherish the main leads’ romance, it is the side characters that ended up completely stealing the show and making this drama one for the ages.