BLACKPINK Jisoo's 'Boyfriend on Demand' Is Out — And the Acting Debate Isn't Over
Six years into her acting career, Jisoo is still fighting the same battle.
Netflix's Boyfriend on Demand began streaming globally on March 6, and with it came the now-predictable wave of discourse that follows every new Jisoo project: is she getting better, or isn't she? Based on early viewer reactions, the answer is somewhere in the uncomfortable middle.
The 10-episode romantic comedy casts Jisoo as Seo Mi-rae, a webtoon producer ground down by work and romance-averse by habit. Her life shifts when she stumbles onto a virtual dating subscription service called "Monthly Boyfriend" - a device that drops her into 900 customizable date scenarios with seemingly perfect partners. Back in the office, her abrasive rival Park Kyeong-nam, played by Seo In-guk, keeps colliding with her reality. The push-pull between virtual fantasy and real-life friction is where the story lives.
Director Kim Jung-sik (Work Later, Drink Now, No Gain No Love) has spoken plainly about the stakes. Jisoo appears in more than 95 percent of the series. There's nowhere to hide, and no ensemble to lean on.
That's the core problem critics have raised since the trailer dropped. iMBC reporters who screened the first four episodes before the premiere wrote that after six years, Jisoo's fundamental limitations remain intact. The specific issue, consistently cited across Korean and international outlets alike, is her voice: a nasal, somewhat constrained delivery that disrupts the rhythm of scenes and makes the quick, playful dialogue of romantic comedy land awkwardly. Physical comedy, when the script demands it, feels occasional rather than instinctive. Several viewers described certain scenes as resembling a variety show skit rather than a scripted drama.
Kim addressed the criticism at the February 26 press showcase, saying Jisoo worked "incredibly hard" and that "effort can overcome talent." Jisoo, for her part, was candid: "Since Mi-rae is around my own age, I wondered if I could act more naturally, like wearing clothes that fit me well." She said she had extensive conversations with Kim to find a version of the character that felt right.
Not everyone has been dismissive. Some viewers noted that her comic reactions - particularly in the more absurdist virtual dating sequences - land better than expected, and that she carries genuine warmth in the role. Seo Kang-jun, Lee Soo-hyuk, Ong Seong-wu, Lee Jae-wook, Lee Hyun-wook, Jay Park, Kim Young-dae, and Lee Sang-yi each appear as virtual boyfriends across different themed episodes, and the novelty of the premise gives the show momentum even when performance questions surface.
But the pattern is hard to dismiss. Snowdrop in 2021. Newtopia. Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy. Each project brought the same critique, and each time, those close to the production insisted growth was visible. The director's "effort over talent" framing has appeared, in some form, before every Jisoo drama.
Whether that framing holds for Boyfriend on Demand will depend on whether audiences find the show's charm strong enough to absorb its lead's limitations - or whether, for the fifth time, the conversation about Jisoo's acting outlasts the conversation about the show itself.
