‘Take Charge of My Heart’ Season 1 Review: Can a Love Story Really Run on Borrowed Power?

Netflix dropped all ten episodes of ‘Take Charge of My Heart’ on October 9, and the premise alone is enough to make you hit play. Baek Ho Rang is a wealthy resort executive whose artificial heart is running low on power, and Na Bo Bae is a screenwriter whose touch gives off electric shocks after a childhood lightning strike. An accidental kiss reveals that her charge actually does him good, which leads to a three month arrangement so he can stay alive until his surgery.

This is a fantasy romantic comedy directed by Park Soo Won, who previously made ‘Birthcare Center’, and written by Song You Chae. It adapts the web novel ‘Charge Me Up’ by Hae Boon, and it reunites viewers with Kim Young Kwang, whose Netflix résumé includes ‘Trigger’. Seeing him pivot from darker material to a lighter, more playful register was the part of the series I was most curious about.

The best thing about ‘Take Charge of My Heart’ is the way it lets its two leads do the heavy lifting. Chae Soo Bin makes Bo Bae’s embarrassment funny without turning her into a doormat, and she reacts to every bossy instruction with a quick, expressive face that sells the comedy better than the script alone ever could. She is the reason the show stays warm even when the writing gets lazy.

Kim Young Kwang takes a slower route with Ho Rang, and I think that patience pays off. He starts out stiff and controlling, someone who treats a human being like a power source, and the actor never rushes to sand those edges down. When jealousy and real feelings begin to spill past the terms of the contract, he gets noticeably funnier and looser, and that shift is where the romance finally clicks.

The central move from a cold agreement to a genuine relationship is handled with a lot of charm. Bo Bae gets her own moments of confidence as the power dynamic flips, and those scenes give her more shading than the setup first promises. It is a familiar road for a romantic comedy, but these two make it feel pleasantly lived in.

The trouble comes whenever the story leaves the couple alone. The family and corporate rivalry around Ho Rang’s resort empire is the weakest thread, and it often feels like a different, heavier show stapled onto a light one. Too many plot mechanics pile up around the final stretch, and the tonal whiplash pulls focus from the two people we actually care about.

Ten episodes is the right length for this kind of story, and I appreciated that the series does not stall its leads apart just to fill a longer order. Still, the binge sags a little in the middle when the subplots take over, and a tighter focus on the romance would have made the whole season sing.

Overall, I found ‘Take Charge of My Heart’ to be a sweet, funny and slightly overstuffed romance that wins me over because of its performers rather than its plotting. The leads are delightful, the central gimmick is used cleverly, and the corporate intrigue is the only thing keeping it from being something special. I give it 7.5 out of 10.

Did the charm of Chae Soo Bin and Kim Young Kwang win you over in ‘Take Charge of My Heart’, or do you think the corporate drama drained the battery, so tell me in the comments whether you agree with my verdict.