[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Dating Agency: Cyrano" Episode 6

It's back to goofiness here, as Byeong-Hoon soon finds himself embroiled in a new love manipulation that seems beneath his dignity. Personally, I'm inclined to agree. The new client is a pretty big dork. I know love can pop up in the strangest places, but this woman's only apparent reaction to him is "thinly veiled hostility". And here we have him lighting up like a puppy dog when she so much as responds to his weak attempts at conversation.

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Still, a job's a job, and for a love target this cranky, a very direct contact is going to be necessary. The job naturally falls to Min-Yeong- and at this point it really begs the question how the Cyrano Agency got anything done before she showed up. Her bubbly, harmless, and aggressively friendly demeanor serves her well here, as the Cyrano Agency schemes to get her a job working for the vicious target. It occurs to me that if the love business is on a downturn, the Cyrano Agency could always double as an assisted employment office.

For the most part this episode is just cuteness and set-up. The love watch makes an appearance, but it's only purpose in the story is to answer the question of whether the team's resident tech guy is capable of feeling any kind of emotion at all. I kind of want to see it used for something convoluted, but the love watch is such a weirdly specific idea to begin with I have no idea how it could be worked into a broader plotline.

In any case, the question is directly brought up as to whether any of our main characters should, themselves, get involved in romantic relationships. This has been such an obvious underlying element of the show that just listening to Min-Yeong's confused wide-eyed single word response is worth a laugh. It's always a nice reminder to see that the main unifying principle of the members of the Cyrano Agency is that they see themselves as assistants to stories- not members of an actual story themselves. They like the concept of Cyrano de Bergerac more than they do the story's genuine emotional depth.

While this episode is decent, it's nothing really great. Perhaps my expectations are a bit high, though, given how intensively fun the fourth episode was when it served the same basic purpose in the narrative. That might just be a matter of personal taste. I generally find high school scheming to be a more interesting placeholder activity than cutting vegetables, though the latter certainly has its charms.

Review by William Schwartz

"Dating Agency: Cyrano" is directed by Kang Kyeong-hoon, written by Shin Jae-won and features Lee Jong-hyuk, Choi Soo-young, Hong Jong-hyun and Jo Yoon-woo.