Dramas like
Lost

The pairing, and it is not a stretch. Same subject of somebody in their forties who has quietly concluded they are nothing, met by somebody younger with no options left, and the same idea that being properly seen by one person is the whole event. Where Lost lets that turn romantic, this one will not. Difference: it has an actual plot, an office conspiracy and a neighbourhood full of people, so it fills its hours where this one sits in them.

Slow start Episode 4 is the turn. Before that it just looks bleak.

Two survivors, avoidant and in pain, long before they are in love. Same patience with people who behave badly because they are exhausted, same interest in physical damage that does not photograph well. Difference: it is a proper romance with a conspiracy running underneath, and it commits to recovery, so the last third is warm.

Slow start Episode 3, once the shared history behind the collapse becomes clear.

Stasis as the subject, and a family that mostly does not speak. Same pace 1 stillness, same conviction that a small life deserves a full series, same suspicion of anything resembling an event. Difference: it is rural and dryly funny, and liberation is a stated goal rather than something nobody dares name.

Slow start Episode 3, once Mr Gu starts drinking with Mi-jeong. Before that it is deliberately airless.

Exhausted adults, glacial by design, and honest about grief. Same low light, same long silences, same central pair who are drawn together by shared depletion rather than attraction. Difference: a revenge plan gives it a spine and a direction, so there is always somewhere for a scene to go.

Slow start Episode 4, once the revenge plan stops being a plan and becomes a habit of seeing each other.

Adults making one real decision slowly. Same naturalism, same pace 1, same respect for the ordinary weight of a family's disapproval. Difference: it is a romance in the daylight, much gentler, and nothing in it is as far gone as either lead here.

Slow start Episode 4, once both families are involved. Before that it is glances and pharmacy small talk.

Time as the thing that has already been lost. Same subject of a life that did not happen and the same willingness to let a character be bitter about it. Difference: heavy 5, and it is built on a fantasy device this one would never reach for.

Slow start Episode 4. Sit with the confusion, it is doing work.