Hate to be a wet blanket but whew I have many thoughts and this will be long. The writers of this drama were incredibly confident, to say the least, but the numerous issues presented throughout the show were astounding. You Raise Me Up was something that intrigued me due to the more mature plot. The trailer made it seem like it was quirky and creative and I will say, it most certainly was different, hence the reason why I picked it up to begin with. It’s not every day you see a kdrama discuss sexual topics such as erectile dysfunction, especially in a comedic way. Unfortunately, I did not find myself laughing as much as I had hoped. If anything, I was deeply disturbed by the direction this show went.

Before I immediately jump into the negatives(which will be a lot) I want to at least discuss what I actually did like. The show definitely wasn’t boring and because it was short, it was very easy to get through. I also thought Hani and Yoon Shi Yoon did a great job, especially Shi Yoon. Yong Shik was such a lovely guy, and I really enjoyed how he brought this character to life. The pain he was feeling was real, and his low self-esteem was relatable. Overall, I am a sucker for soft male leads and he definitely fits the bill. I also really REALLY enjoyed the two lead’s chemistry(though there are power dynamics I did not like, which I’ll discuss later) and thought they were great together. It didn’t feel awkward or forced, and I genuinely found myself smiling from here and there during their scenes. The acting for the most part was pretty good so I don't have a single complaint in that department.

Another thing that I did like to an extent was the general idea of YRMU. The show was clearly trying to push some boundaries in the kdrama landscape, and I can appreciate what the writers were attempting to do. It’s not common to see a drama about a young man with erectile dysfunction who also has an obsession with pink and pretty much hates his entire life because of it. Quirky dramas have come out before, obviously, but they’re considered quirky for a reason. I was excited about how this was going to go and how Hani’s character, Ru Da, would fit into all of this, but that’s pretty much when it begins to enter a territory that I am not entirely happy with.

Medical malpractice is huge in this show, and I tried to excuse it at first because it is fiction, and kdramas are known for glamorizing poor work ethics, but for some reason, it really bothered me here. It all starts when Ru Da makes a bet with her boyfriend that she can “fix” Yong Shik in order to get back at said boyfriend for essentially not being a great partner. She wants to show him that she can find someone much better than him, and overall, it makes me feel icky. Bad enough romance is going to take place between a doctor and a patient, but then they also wanted to add in not one, but two, of these very doctors conspiring against our male lead just so they can be petty and spiteful; I say they because Ru Da’s boyfriend, Ji Hyuk, is no angel. He takes Yong Shik as a patient for a short period of time and within that time manages to purposefully humiliate him in front of Ru Da, air out confidential information, and continuously states that he is hopeless and pathetic(this man is supposed to be a therapist by the way).

What really grinds my gears is the fact that neither of them suffers any consequences for their actions. Yong Shik finding out that she was only helping him because of a bet was incredibly anti-climactic. He not only forgives her that very same episode but then he implies at the end of the show that he was only upset because he liked Ru Da and not because they were literally fucking with him and his treatment. Both Ji Hyuk and Ru Da apologize but there was no reason to add in such conflict to begin with if these two characters had nothing to lose and if no consequences were going to take place. I understand that Yong Shik is a forgiving person(and a doormat ahem ahem)but it would have been nice to see Ru Da actually work for forgiveness. I am trying to be more understanding since the show was only 8 episodes, but I can’t help but think about how they could’ve gone about this differently if they felt the need to cram the show with medical malpractice every chance they get.

Personally, all of this is what makes the romance undeserving and incredibly uncomfortable. There is an obvious power dynamic between Yong Shik and Ru Da as she is his doctor and he is her patient. It was hard to ignore this brutal fact considering all she put him through beforehand. Despite the fact that they very much did have chemistry, it was completely shattered by the way YRMU went about telling this story. Yong Shik was not in the best place mentally and was clearly suffering from depression and possibly even anxiety and/or OCD. To see Ru Da use Yong Shik, speak harshly towards him when he isn’t making progress at the pace she’d like, and then get romantically involved with him while still treating him just disgusted me and I couldn’t get past this fact, no matter how strong their chemistry was. Even the way she guilt trips him and calls him pathetic, yet again, to continue receiving treatment from both her and Ji Hyuk(who he felt extremely uncomfortable around)was awful.

The way suicide was handled also made my skin crawl, especially because so many kdramas are incredibly ignorant when it comes to this topic and how it works. The way Ru Da tried to shame Yong Shik for wanting to take his life and hammering home the very things he already knew was very nasty. Suicide is not selfish, it’s not meant for someone to be pitied and it is a very real and serious issue that is more common than many realize. If YRMU wanted to address mental health, I am not understanding why they couldn’t do actual research and why they wrote the doctors as unprofessional, uneducated, and apathetic. It was beyond frustrating how the entire premise of the show is about Yong Shik overcoming his trauma, seeking help for his mental health, and finding the underlying cause of his erectile dysfunction, and yet, not a single writer knows a single thing about any of these topics.

Also, Yong Shik's character development for an 8 episode drama was almost nonexistent. The show decided to cram almost everything pertaining to him healing into the last 2 episodes, especially in the very last episode. He mainly stays consistent throughout the drama and the constant self-pity and deprecation became incredibly old by the 5th episode. As much as I rooted for him, it was hard to continuously feel bad when he was like this for the entire show. Pacing can be difficult when you only have so many episodes to work with, I get it, but what was the point of writing a drama about a man overcoming mental health in order to help with his erectile dysfunction if we weren't really going to get any of that?

There were a few other issues such as the subtle transphobia thrown in for laughs and the plot being a general mess, but I am not surprised considering the nature of YRMU in its entirety. It was clear that the writers were overly confident and that they wanted to make something that would stand out in an oversaturated industry; it felt as though they were trying to make a less offensive and more palatable version of Backstreet Rookie, which is a very loose comparison(very, very, VERY, loose), but you get the point I’m trying to make. *sigh* A lot of kdramas that follow this specific genre tend to be extremely hit or miss and it is difficult to find a good one. I was just really hoping this wouldn't be one of them.