“Really does look a bit empty” — Fans react over Netflix's latest release, Lovely Runner's missing episode titles

Released in April 2024, Lovely Runner quickly became a fan favorite and was aired on tvN and Viki. The drama starred Byeon Woo-seok as Ryu Sun-jae and Kim Hye-yoon as Lim Sol.

Several international fans expressed their disappointment when it didn't air on Netflix. However, Netflix brought the show on its platform in late July 2024. Meanwhile, the titles of each episode of Lovely Runner are reportedly visible on Viki, but fans noticed the titles were missing on Netflix.

Lovely Runner episodes with title names on Netflix. (Image via screenshots/Netflix)

The news went viral online and they discussed other K-dramas such as It's Okay To Not Be Okay, which had its episodes named after fairytales, and Our Beloved Summer which named each of its episodes such as Pride and Prejudice, Before Sunset, Catch Me If You Can, 10 Things I Hate About You, etc.

Fans praised Our Beloved Summer for taking inspiration from popular Hollywood movies to name its episodes. Hence, Lovely Runner's monotonous numerical episode title display disappointed them. One fan wrote on X,

"It really does looks a bit empty on Netflix without any episode title or description for each episode."

Fans discussed on X about other K-dramas adding creativity to their episode titles. Some fans pointed out that Lovely Runner's limited production budget may have prevented them from investing in hiring experts for additional jobs such as naming the episode.

"Missing the time when kdramas have title per episode like our beloved summer’s episode titles named after famous movies. THEY ARE SO ICONIC FOR THIS," one fan wrote.

"Which reminded me, Netflix didn't put lovely runner's episode titles. For that I thank vui for making me know all the episode titles while #LovelyRunner is still ongoing, " another fan noted.

"I think it just depends on the drama's budget and their resources if they decide to do this, esp for netflix, their target market has to be translated to eng so sometimes it's overlooked as direct trans is not enough to explain the title," one fan said.

Some conjectured that a drama only gets streamed with numerical episode representation such as Episode 1, Episode 2 if it doesn't appear on Netflix exclusively.

"#ItsOkayToNotBeOkay's eps named after actual fairytales and few others written by Ko Mun-yeong was ICONIC. Incorporating details of the tales told, with a moral, in each ep while keeping the whole cohesive, entertaining and relatable? PERFECTION," one other fan shared.

"Looked for the episode titles too and got disappointed afterwards," another fan commented.

"Most of them do, but sometimes the platforms didn’t include them on the ep title. I noticed netflix included them if the series is their original series. If it’s not, they dont write it. But the titles are IN the episode caption (idk how to say it)." another fan remarked.

---

It's Okay To Not Be Okay and Our Beloved Summer's unique episode titles compared to Lovely Runner

Lovely Runner, Our Beloved Summer, It's Okay To Not Be Okay episode title comparison on Netflix. (Images via Netflix)

Our Beloved Summer, starring Choi Woo-shik and Kim Da-mi is a Netflix original Korean series that aired 16 episodes in 2021.

The story is a coming-of-age story about a former high school couple who broke up in their adulthood. A production firm planned to re-shoot them for a documentary similar to the duo's high school documentary film, which led to their reunion.

The 16 episodes names were inspired by Western movies and were as follows:

• I Know What You Did Last Summer
• 1792 Days of Summer
• 10 Things I Hate About You
• The Boy, or the Girl, I Liked Then
• A Secret That Can't Be Told
• Pride and Prejudice
• Catch Me If You Can
• Before Sunset
• Just Friend
• Hello, My Soul Mate
• Our Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days
• Begin Again
• Love Actually
• Life Is Beautiful
• Three Idiots
• Our Beloved Summer

Furthermore, It's Okay To Not Be Okay starring Kim Soo-hyun, Seo Yea-ji, Oh Jung-se, and Park Gyu-young was aired on Netflix in 2020.

The drama focuses on mental health issues, anxiety, and depression, as well as the struggle of two brothers—one of whom has autism—against social norms. The K-drama was a ground-breaking effort that was widely well-received and successful. Its episodes were named inspired by fairytales and they are:

• The Boy Who Fed on Nightmares
• The Lady In Red Shoes
• Sleeping witch
• Zombie Kid
• Rapunzel And The Cursed Castle
• Bluebeard's Secret
• The Cheerful Dog
• Beauty And The Beast
• The King Has Donkey Ears
• The Girl Who Cried Wolf
• The Ugly Duckling
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Father of the Two Sisters
• The Hand, The Monkfish
• A Tale of Two Brothers
• Finding The Real Face

Meanwhile, Lovely Runner is about Kim Hye-yoon as Lim Sol, who is a huge fan of the fictional K-pop band ECLIPSE and its vocalist, Ryu Sun-jae (Byeon Woo-seok). After receiving the news of Sun-jae's untimely death by s*icide, Sol travels back in time to change Sun-jae's past so that she can change his fate.

---

Lovely Runner, Our Beloved Summer, and It's Okay To Not Be Okay are all available on Netflix for global streaming.