Some premises sound ridiculous when you say them out loud. Take Charge of My Heart is one of them, and it knows it. Baek Ho-rang (Kim Young-kwang) is a chaebol heir who runs a resort for his family's group and lives with an artificial heart. Na Bo-bae (Chae Soo-bin) was struck by lightning as a child and has carried an electrical charge ever since, so she avoids touching anyone. When a storm interrupts his surgery, his new battery turns out to charge only when she is close. The series takes that idea and runs with it, without ever winking at the audience.
Netflix released all ten episodes on 9 October 2026. The series is based on the Naver web novel Charge Me Up by Haebeon, and this review contains no spoilers.
A contract, a bucket list and a deadline
The engine of the story is an old favourite: the contract relationship. Ho-rang needs Bo-bae near him to keep his heart running until his next operation. Bo-bae, a TV writer, needs a convincing romance on paper before her writing contract runs out, and has never been able to get close to anyone. So he offers a deal: she charges his heart, he helps her work through her romance bucket list. Both of them treat it as business. You know that will not last, and the fun is in watching how quickly it stops being true.
That is also why the series starts so well. There is no slow first hour of setting up offices and families. Within the first episode you understand the rules, the stakes and why these two cannot simply walk away from each other, and from then on every touch carries a small charge, sometimes literally.
Every touch carries a small charge, sometimes literally.
Two leads who make it work
Kim Young-kwang has played the charming rich man before, in The Secret Life of My Secretary, and he is very good at being both arrogant and slightly ridiculous at the same time. Chae Soo-bin, known from Love in the Moonlight and Where the Stars Land, gives Bo-bae a mix of loneliness and stubbornness that keeps the character from becoming a gimmick. Before release she admitted she had doubts about the genre; on screen you would not guess it.
Their timing together is what carries the series. The comedy works because both of them play the absurd situation completely straight. Around them, Cha Woo-min as idol and actor Ji Eun-ho, who has a crush on Bo-bae, and Jeong Jae-kwang as Choi Do-yoon add the expected complications without taking over.
Familiar, on purpose
Director Park Soo-won makes no secret of what she is doing. "The flavor you already know is the most addicting," she said before the premiere, and that sums it up. Chaebol heir, contract romance, a rival who arrives at the wrong moment: you have seen the ingredients before. What makes the difference is the electricity idea, which gives every familiar scene a new reason to exist, and the pace of ten episodes, which leaves little room for the filler that drags down so many sixteen-episode romances.
The catch
If you have no patience for rom-com conventions, this will not convert you. The rich-heir setup is as old as the genre, and the series leans on it without much irony. But if you like your K-drama romances light, quick and a little silly, this is one of the best of the year so far. Our advice: start on a quiet evening and expect to watch more than one episode.
Take Charge of My Heart at a glance
- Where to watchNetflix
- Released9 October 2026, all episodes at once
- Episodes10
- DirectorPark Soo-won
- WriterSong You-chae
- Based onthe Naver web novel Charge Me Up by Haebeon
- ProductionNEW POINT and WHYNOT MEDIA
Main cast
- Kim Young-kwangBaek Ho-rang, a chaebol heir with an artificial heart
- Chae Soo-binNa Bo-bae, a TV writer with an electrical charge
- Cha Woo-minJi Eun-ho, an idol and actor with a crush on Bo-bae
- Jeong Jae-kwangChoi Do-yoon
How it did
In its first week the series reached No. 3 on Netflix's global Top 10 for non-English TV, with 3 million views.
Sources Netflix: Take Charge of My Heart premieres October 9, The Korea Times: recharges classic rom-com formula, Soompi: teaser and cast, Parade: cast and premise, The Korea Times: Netflix weekly non-English chart.
