"I continuously felt judged": Transit Love 3's director reflects on challenges and issues she faced with the show before its finale episode premiere

On Thursday, April 18, the Korean media outlet YTN Star released its interview with Transit Love 3's director, Kim In-ha. The interview was conducted on the occasion of the South Korean reality dating show's finale episode premiere on April 19. During the interview, the director spoke about various aspects of the show and its direction.

Especially given that she had to fill the shoes of the director and the standards set for the show in seasons 1 and 2, she felt a lot of pressure while filming. Despite Transit Love 3 becoming a huge commercial success, she still felt hesitant during several instances of filming and was affected by the criticism that landed on the internet from time.

Even with the show ending, she still expressed her uneasy mindset and fear due to the pressure she felt to make the third season on par with the success, fame, and popularity of its previous two seasons. Here's what the director shared about the challenges faced as every episode landed on the internet.

"I still felt the pressure every episode. Before broadcasting, it was scary because it hadn't been released yet, and during the broadcast, I continuously felt judged by each episode." said Kim In-ha.

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Transit Love 3's director Kim In-ha shares her thoughts on the challenges and hardships faced during the making of the show

Transit Love is a South Korean reality dating show produced and sponsored by TVING, and it kickstarted in 2021. While the first two seasons were directed by Lee Jin-joo, the third season was carried over by Kim In-ha. Given that the show garnered attention from its very first season, expectations from netizens only kept increasing the bar for the show's standards.

Naturally, Kim In-ha had quite a lot of responsibilities while creating the third season. During her recent interview with YTN Star, she dished about the same. When asked about the pressure she must've felt while making the show, she was also inquired about her feelings about the show ending soon.

She responded by stating that until the end, she was fixated on producing a perfect series that fit with the show's standards and couldn't help herself from revisiting the episodes.

"I should have finished the editing long ago due to the schedule, but every time I look at it, I see something else to tweak. That keeps me coming back. I thought it wouls be relieving but I can't stop."

She was also asked how the experience of filming Transit Love 3 was different from the previous reality dating show she directed, Pink Lie. She answered,

"It was my first romance show, so I approached it with more vigor. While that had been fun, Transit Love 3 felt different because it involved stepping into an already existing program. It was more frightening, perhaps because I had done it before and a romance show require more detailed emotional lines, especially since Transit Love involves ex-partners, which made it particularly delicate."

Additionally, she was also asked about the few changes that the show faced such as the implementation of factors such as Breakup Delivery, Personal Room, etc. She replied by stating that she intended not to make many changes to the show to safeguard the identity of Transit Love. However, to build a little more unexpectedness and keep the viewers on their toes, a new flow was required.

"We added mechanisms to break the familiar flow. The items being returned through Breakup Delivery had more impact than expected due to their symbolism."

Finally, she also spoke about working with a veteran panelist and production team. She expressed that though she was initially intimidated by them, she was rather welcomed and they were able to create chemistry sooner than they thought.

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The finale of Transit Love 3 is slated for release on April 19, 12 PM KST on the streaming platform, TVING.