Our Sticky Love (2026) Review: A Great First Episode Attached to a Very Average Romance

Our Sticky Love is one of those K-dramas where the first episode makes you think you may have found something much more fun than what the rest of the series eventually delivers.

The premise certainly sounds promising: a prosecutor gets caught up with a dangerous gangster, survives an attack, and wakes up with amnesia. The man who saved her then claims to be her boyfriend and takes her back to his small hometown. From there, the drama mixes romance, comedy, crime, action, and a little bit of mystery.

That combination could have been great.

Unfortunately, for me, the drama loses its momentum surprisingly quickly.

A Strong First Episode

The first episode was easily my favorite part of Our Sticky Love.

There is a proper hook, the situation is immediately unusual, and the contrast between the dangerous opening and the lighter romantic comedy that follows gives the drama some personality. I was genuinely curious about what would happen next.

There are also little comedic moments that work surprisingly well. One of my favorites is the car and puddle scene, which reminded me of the classic water-splash gag from Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo (2016), where the guy tries to protect the girl from getting splashed. It is a simple joke, but it is the kind of physical comedy that can still make me laugh when it is executed properly.

And yes, I have to mention the female lead’s introduction. The drama clearly knows how striking Ha Young is and isn’t shy about showing it. The early episodes give her plenty of opportunities to flex her looks and her physique, and the confidence of the character initially makes her quite fun to watch.

I also liked that the amnesia setup initially gives Eun-sae some reason to question what is happening around her. A woman waking up without her memories and discovering that a man she doesn’t recognize claims to be her boyfriend is inherently strange, and the drama gets some mileage out of that situation.

For a while, I thought this could become a really entertaining romantic comedy with a slightly crazy premise.

Then it starts becoming much more ordinary.

The Problem: The Romance

The biggest issue for me is simply that I didn’t care about the central romance.

A rom-com needs something that makes you want to watch the leads together. It can be amazing chemistry, funny dialogue, an interesting relationship dynamic, great characters, or simply a strong emotional connection.

Our Sticky Love didn’t give me enough of any of those.

The leads spend plenty of time together, but spending time together isn’t the same thing as having chemistry. Their relationship gradually moves toward romance, yet I rarely felt that spark that makes you excited for their next scene.

This is especially disappointing because the setup gives the writers so many opportunities to create an interesting dynamic. She is a prosecutor who has lost her memories. He is a former boxer who spent years working for a gangster. He is pretending to be her boyfriend while trying to protect her from the people hunting her.

That should create tension.

Instead, the drama increasingly settles into a fairly standard “quiet guy and cute girl living together in a village” romance.

And once that happens, I stopped caring.

Some viewers clearly connected with the couple much more than I did, particularly because the drama gives Tae-ha a very protective, gentle personality beneath his criminal past. Other reviews also point out that the romance can feel uneven or unnatural despite the amount of time the characters spend together.

For me, the chemistry just wasn’t there.

The Gangster Angle Sounds Better Than It Is

The male lead’s background is another missed opportunity.

Tae-ha is supposed to have spent many years as a gangster and one of the most trusted men of a powerful crime boss. That creates an interesting contradiction: a man with a violent past who becomes extremely gentle and awkward around the woman he loves.

In theory, I like the idea.

The problem is that the drama doesn’t always make these two sides of his character feel like they belong to the same person.

The gangster side often feels like something from another drama. Then he returns to the village and becomes the shy, almost overly innocent romantic lead.

Several reviews made essentially the same observation from different angles: the character’s gangster history and his extremely soft romantic personality don’t always fit together convincingly.

I don’t necessarily need realism from a K-drama. I can happily accept ridiculous premises if the drama commits to them.

But there needs to be some internal consistency.

If you’re going to give me a hardened gangster as the male lead, either make him genuinely intimidating or deliberately make the contradiction part of the comedy. Our Sticky Love sometimes seems unsure whether I’m supposed to take his criminal past seriously or simply enjoy him as a shy boyfriend.

That weakens both sides.

The Plot Gets Lost in the Middle

The other major problem is pacing.

The beginning promises a crime story. Eun-sae is connected to a corruption case, there is a dangerous gangster looking for her, and Tae-ha has his own complicated history with that world.

But then the drama spends a lot of time in the village.

The village itself isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, it is probably one of the better parts of the series. The problem is that the central story doesn’t always feel like it is moving forward.

Several viewers described the middle portion as slow or boring, with some feeling that the drama could have been substantially shorter. One review specifically described episodes 5–7 as slow before the story picked up again later.

I had a similar experience.

It isn’t that absolutely nothing happens. There are always little events, side characters, comedy, romance scenes and bits of Tae-ha’s past.

But I kept asking myself:

What am I actually waiting to see?

That is a dangerous question for a drama.

If the answer is “I want to see the leads fall in love,” the romance needs to be strong.

If the answer is “I want to know what happens with the gangster plot,” the thriller needs to maintain tension.

If the answer is “I want to hang out with the village characters,” then those characters need to be compelling enough to carry the show.

Our Sticky Love sits somewhere between all three.

The Village Is Probably the Best Part

Ironically, the part of the drama I found most enjoyable isn’t the romance.

It is the little community around the leads.

The village characters give the show warmth and provide most of the lighter comedy. The grandmother, the village women, the doctor and the other supporting characters help create the cozy small-town atmosphere that the drama is clearly aiming for.

There is a genuine found-family element here as well. Both leads have complicated relationships with their original families, so the village gradually becomes a place where they can belong. That theme works better for me than the central romance because it feels like the drama is actually saying something about what makes a person feel at home.

Other viewers similarly highlighted the village and its residents as one of the show’s biggest strengths.

I just wish the writers had trusted that aspect more instead of constantly trying to manufacture romantic moments.

Ha Young Is Worth Watching

Even though the romance didn’t work for me, Ha Young is one of the reasons I didn’t completely give up on the drama.

This was her first major female lead role, and there is definitely screen presence there. Eun-sae is at her best when she’s allowed to be energetic, suspicious, funny and slightly unpredictable rather than simply functioning as the romantic half of the main couple.

The character is also much more entertaining when she remembers that she is supposed to be a capable prosecutor.

That version of Eun-sae has personality.

The amnesiac version can sometimes feel like she has been dropped into a generic countryside rom-com.

I also liked the fact that the drama gives her some moments where she questions the strange circumstances surrounding her instead of instantly accepting everything. That makes the premise easier to tolerate.

Several viewers who liked the drama singled out Ha Young’s comedy and screen presence as major strengths.

So even though I wasn’t sold on the romance, I definitely wouldn’t write her off because of this drama.

The Villain Had Potential

Baek Sang-gil is another example of wasted potential.

At first, he looks like exactly the kind of villain this story needs. He is dangerous, powerful and connected to Tae-ha’s past. His presence should give the romance and village storyline an underlying sense of danger.

But the further the drama goes, the less threatening he feels.

The crime plot disappears for long stretches, which makes it difficult to maintain the feeling that the leads are actually being hunted. By the time the villain becomes important again, the drama has already trained me to think of the village storyline as the main story.

The late reveal involving Tae-ha’s family adds another layer to the villain, and I will give the drama credit for trying to give him more than a generic gangster backstory. Some viewers actually found the father-son element to be one of the more interesting parts of the final episodes.

For me, though, it arrives too late.

The idea itself isn’t bad. It simply needed to be integrated into the story much earlier.

It Feels Like a Drama From Another Era

This may be the biggest reason Our Sticky Love didn’t work for me.

The entire drama feels like it was built from familiar K-drama ingredients from around a decade ago.

Amnesia.

Fake relationship.

Childhood connection.

Small-town village.

Gangster with a soft heart.

Misunderstandings.

Rain.

Romantic gestures.

Overly convenient coincidences.

A last-minute family revelation.

None of these tropes are inherently bad.

I actually like plenty of dramas that use them.

The problem is that Our Sticky Love doesn’t do enough with them to make them feel fresh.

It sometimes feels less like the writers are telling a specific story and more like they are assembling a collection of things that are supposed to make a romantic K-drama cute.

And being cute isn’t enough for me anymore.

Why I Prefer Crazy Love

This is why I would recommend Crazy Love (2022) if you’re looking for a romance with a much more chaotic and entertaining energy.

Crazy Love isn’t exactly the same type of drama, but it understands something important about romantic comedy: the relationship itself needs to be entertaining.

The characters need to create situations that you actually want to watch.

There needs to be tension, personality, ridiculousness, chemistry, or some combination of all four.

Our Sticky Love has the ingredients for that kind of drama, especially in its opening episodes, but it gradually becomes too safe and too conventional.

Final Thoughts

Our Sticky Love isn’t completely without merit.

The premise is interesting. The first episode is genuinely promising. There are funny moments, a pleasant village setting, some enjoyable supporting characters, and Ha Young shows enough personality to make me curious about what she does in future leading roles.

There are also some nice emotional ideas underneath everything: finding a family outside of your biological family, escaping the identity other people have forced on you, and learning to choose happiness instead of simply surviving.

The problem is that the drama doesn’t make those ideas compelling enough on a scene-by-scene basis.

For me, it starts strong and then drops surprisingly fast into a slow, fairly predictable romance that I simply didn’t care enough about.

And the lack of chemistry is the biggest problem because once the romance stops working, there isn’t a strong enough plot to compensate for it.

If you enjoy cozy village romances, familiar K-drama tropes and a gentle male lead, you may have a much better time with this than I did. Some viewers clearly found it warm, wholesome and easy to binge.

But if you’re looking for something with stronger chemistry, a more exciting plot, or a romance that feels genuinely crazy and unpredictable, there are much better options.

For me, Our Sticky Love is a great first episode attached to a very average romance.

Rating: 5/10