Crash Course in Romance follows a mother with a golden heart as she navigates the fiercely competitive world of private education, all in order to fulfill her daughter’s wishes to enroll in a celebrity math instructor’s class.
The private learning and tutoring industry is one of the contemporary world’s biggest and most lucrative businesses, raking in hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
Crash Course in Romance deals with the aforementioned problem as its central premise, around which revolve storylines dealing with a dozen rom-com tropes and quirky characters, while balancing the hilarity with the more mature themes.
Here are 7 other Netflix shows like Crash Course in Romance, tackling the soppy and the goofy, along with clichés and tropes aplenty:
1. The Fabulous
Cast: Chae Soo-Bin, Choi Min-Ho
The Fabulous follows four best friends who chase their dreams in the cutthroat world of fashion. Meddling with their climb to success are a host of things, ranging from jobs that are too demanding to romantic dilemmas and wild escapades of the nights.
Apart from the similar genres it shares with Crash Course in Romance, this Kdrama deals with an industry that’s only more lucrative than education and similarly problematic.
2. Behind Every Star
Cast: Lee Seo-Jin, Kwak Sun-Young, Seo Hyun-Woo, Joo Hyun-Young, Shim So-Young, Kim Kuk-Hee
Behind Every Star revolves around agents at a talent management firm, handling some of the strongest personalities while also dealing with office politics.
What’s more, is that the celebrity clients they have to keep happy are loads of trouble themselves.
3. Sh**ting Stars
Cast: Kim Young-Dae, Lee Sung-Kyung, Lee Si-Woo, Lee Jung-Shin
A rom-com revolving around the classic love-hate relationship of two love birds, Sh**ting Stars sees Oh Han-Byul, the PR leader at Star Force Entertainment, dealing with her scandalous client — the top star actor Gong Tae-Sung.
4. Mad For Each Other
Cast: Jung Woo, Oh Yeon-Seo, Baik Ji-Won
Following Lee Min-Kyung and Noh Hwi-Oh, this quirky rom-com follows two next-door neighbors who inadvertently cross paths with each other, one too many times.
Oblivious of their residential proximity to each other, the two have to contend with a series of unpleasant encounters before eventually realizing that staying away is nearly impossible.
5. Business Proposal
Cast: Ahn Hyo-Seop, Kim Se-Jeong, Kim Min-Gue
Business Proposal deals with a sort of similar power dynamic between the central characters like the titular show, following Shin Ha-Ri and Kang Tae-Moo as two individuals are thrown into a romance by unprecedented circumstances.
Ha-Ri volunteers for her friend’s blind date, intending on scaring the prospect away, only to realize that the date is her CEO Kang Tae-Moo, who makes her a proposal.
6. Do You Like Brahms?
Cast: Park Eun-Bin, Kim Min-Jae, Kim Sung-Cheol, Park Ji-Hyun, Lee You-Jin, Bae Da-Bin
This heartfelt rom-com might not be as quirky as Crash Course in Romance, but the central premise here sees a romance blooming between two individuals with a similar power dynamic, as well as a landscape that can be competitive, albeit not nearly as fierce as education.
7. The Interest of Love
Cast: Yoo Yeon-Seok, Mun Ka-Young, Keum Sae-Rok, Jung Ga-Ram
There are four men and women at the center of this Kdrama that deals with romantic storylines all rife with the clichéd trials and tribulations that come with pursuing love and wanting to do anything for it.
Also Read: 10 shows like ‘The Glory’ on Netflix, Disney+ & more