I Am Not a Robot

December 6, 2017

Kim Min-kyu (Yoo Seung-ho), a man allergic to human touch, orders a robot companion. When the robot malfunctions, its creator Ji-ah (Chae Soo-bin) must pretend to be it. The Gangnam villa establishes his isolated world.

December 6, 2017

Ji-ah's performance as a robot — the specific demands of performing non-humanity while being human.

December 13, 2017

The full extent of Min-kyu's isolation — the specific prison of an allergy that prevents all human contact.

December 13, 2017

The robotics laboratory where Aji-3 was built — Ji-ah's actual world, in contrast to the performance she is maintaining.

December 20, 2017

The feelings Min-kyu is developing for a robot — and what they mean when the robot is actually a person.

December 20, 2017

Moments where Ji-ah's human responses break through the robotic performance.

December 27, 2017

The drama's central romantic tension — Min-kyu gradually wanting to touch the robot who cannot touch him back without breaking the deception.

December 27, 2017

Ji-ah's growing feelings for Min-kyu — the impossibility of the deception continuing, the impossibility of ending it.

January 3, 2018

The weight of maintaining the deception — what it is doing to Ji-ah.

January 3, 2018

Min-kyu's trust in Aji-3 — the drama's most painful irony.

January 10, 2018

The deception approaching its inevitable exposure.

January 10, 2018

The truth revealed — Min-kyu's response and what it means for his allergy, his isolation, his feelings.

January 17, 2018

The psychological origin of Min-kyu's allergy — the childhood trauma that created it.

January 17, 2018

Ji-ah's courage in pursuing a connection she knows is complicated.

January 24, 2018

Min-kyu's allergy responding to the specific nature of his feelings — the drama's most optimistic claim.

January 24, 2018

The finale. Yoo Seung-ho and Chae Soo-bin's warmth in a romantic comedy that used its sci-fi premise to ask what connection actually requires.