# Dear X (2025)

> A cruel, beautiful manipulator climbs to the top by destroying the people who care about her.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/170931

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 64 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, thriller
- Created by: Ban Ji-woon
- Network: TVING
- Cast: Kim You-jung, Kim Young-dae, Kim Do-hoon, Lee Yul-eum, Jo Hyeon-jin, Bae Soo-bin, Lee Seo-an, Gi So-you
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37890201/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: dark, tense, cold, unsettling, bleak

## What critics say

Audiences broadly praise Kim You-jung's performance and the dark, twisty revenge story, though its cruelty makes it harrowing viewing.

## Synopsis

Dear X (2025) is a South Korean psychological crime thriller series created by Ban Ji-woon for TVING. Kim You-jung plays Baek Ah-jin, a beautiful, cold-hearted woman who sees through people and manipulates their hearts while climbing toward the top of society. Kim Young-dae plays Yoon Joon-seo, Kim Do-hoon plays Kim Jae-oh, and Lee Yul-eum plays Lim Le-na, each drawn into her orbit as the people she targets. The engine of the story is Ah-jin's wish to escape a childhood of cruelty and reach a position of safety, while the people she has stepped on begin to close in. Each episode peels back another layer of her past through flashbacks, tracing how her abusive upbringing shaped the manipulator she became. This is a single-season limited series of twelve episodes, with a Korean television production style and a dark, tense tone. Its atmosphere is cold and unsettling, built on quiet cruelty, emotional dread and the slow erosion of trust. Fans of The Penthouse and Sweet Home will find resonance in its revenge plotting, its morally corrupt protagonist and its glossy, heightened Korean drama texture.

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