Overall Rating: A
Subtitles: Decent subtitles, but another one where I disagreed with some of the translations of common phrases.
Brief Synopsis: A group of families living together in a neighborhood in Seoul weather the everyday struggles of finances, family, and love together. Watch it on Netflix here.
**Full show spoilers below the image. If you do not wish to be spoiled, do not proceed**
Ending Type: Like all of these shows it ends in a very nice way, closing out the main stories and suggesting the hopefulness of continued life for all involved parties. Not a big fan of the main romance reveal and ending, but otherwise very pleased with where everyone was at the conclusion.
Characters:
For this one I’m just going to link the AsianWiki page because the character list is fairly extensive.
Full review:
Ah, we are finally at the third and final installment. As usual this show brought us wonderful relationships and community and a charming and beautiful look at the everyday life of families during the late 80s and early 90s in Korea.
This one was unique in that it followed five families in one neighborhood. The main friend group were the kids from these families (some the oldest, some the youngest, one a middle child) that were all the same age. However all five families, including parents and siblings, were also main characters and the overlaps and interplays in the relationships was phenomenal. I loved that our main female character was a middle child, stuck between a high achieving older sister and a beloved younger brother. She was not very good at school, but one thing this show did give her was a wonderful personality. Sweet and genuine and caring, Deok Sun was always there for the people around her no matter what they needed. She was fun and spunky and silly, and she was loyal. Generally just a wonderful human and an awesome companion to whoever she was sharing a scene with.
I’ve always loved the way these shows treat the parent relationships, and this one took that to the next level with multiple parental relationships to display. From financial disagreements and general struggles of people with growing children who have been married for a long time, to the casual intimacy that only long-term couples can share, this show had it all. Lots of laughs, lots of tears.
The parent-child relationships were especially powerful, with the balance between nagging and fears and disappointments but that enduring love. The final moments between Bo Ra and her father were especially poignant.
I can’t express enough how powerful these shows are in bringing life to the ordinary, how they make perfectly normal people come alive on the screen and allow us to laugh with them and feel their pain and love them and cheer for them. It’s phenomenal.
This was, in many ways, the strongest of the Reply series. Not as much focus on the “who is the husband” tease, a variety of families going through various difficulties, sibling relationships in addition to the friend group relationships, disparities in financial situations and the impact of that on friendships, etc. Like so much good stuff here, such a gift.
But as the writing of these series got better the main romance got worse. I will forever stan Reply 1997 and the beautiful main romance there, a lovely driving force of the whole thing. The red herring love triangle in that one never felt threatening– it was always a given that our main couple would walk down the aisle together. In Reply 1994 I got hardcore secondary love interest syndrome. I always knew our brother/sister dynamic would prevail but I resented it because I felt like the second male lead was given a more compelling romantic story.
In this one I’m just…. what. Like what an ultimately upsetting narrative choice. Happily this show had enough going on that the way this particular romance worked out didn’t overshadow my enjoyment of the whole thing, especially since the romance threads were only very small parts of the overall story. (Honestly I think Sun Woo and Bo Ra got more romance-based screentime overall and I’m OK with that).
But I like, really need to complain about this because I was in no way here for this. And y’all, I even read spoilers in advance because I didn’t WANT to be disappointed again. I figured if I went in knowing how it ended I could be on board with the couple from the get-go and just let it be and not get swept up in the love triangle. I’d read that this one had an intense one because the two guys were such close friends and didn’t want to hurt each other by acting on their feelings. And that was accurate, yes.
However the end result was…. narratively confusing at best, painfully dull at worst. For the first half of the drama Taek isn’t even really a character– he shows up for one scene an episode, is almost always just very sleepy, has no expression whatsoever, and his one character trait is that he’s bad at everything. Wow, a compelling romantic lead. Meanwhile Jung Hwan is a main character, often has voiceover narration, has a lot of screen time each episode, has an in-depth and multi-dimensional story, and multiple scenes each episode about how much he likes Deok Sun.
Even when Taek became more of a character he was still barely around and had a completely flat personality and consisted of nothing other than not being able to do things and smiling at Deok Sun when she took care of his very basic failures. Like the woman had to plug in a hot water heater for him so he could make tea.
The ENTIRETY of the Taek/Deok Sun relationship was Taek sucking at basic shit and Deok Sun doing it for him, and him smiling at her and her being like, “Silly Taek, don’t you know anything?” Please tell me how in the actual world anyone was supposed to be invested in that as a relationship. Like even by itself, existing in a vacuum, it’s a terrible and tepid romance that inspires 0 emotional investment and frankly just makes me feel bad for the heroine whose entire identity is collapsed into “how can she take care of her partner?” Friends, helpless guys are NOT cute. The servant girlfriend trope is NOT CUTE. This romance storyline was awful.
But then in the context of Jung Hwan existing as a dynamic character constantly looking out for her, aware of her, there for her, and madly in love with her, and her, for almost the entire show, also having feelings for him and wanting to believe that he likes her back– like wow how was this the ending they decided on? Really how?
I was especially pissed at the Jung Hwan confession scene that was absolutely real but then was played off as a joke, and then that was just it. Suddenly he doesn’t care anymore and tells Taek to go for it and the feelings he’s had the entire show that have guided him THE ENTIRE show just…. vanish never to be addressed again. Truly poor writing. Truly an awful romance. Very upsetting overall.
If I hadn’t finished Hospital Playlist on the same day that I finished this one I’d probably say I was actually done with this creative team because even if everything else about their shows is pure gold I can only be pissed off by romance plots so many times before I’m no longer interested in engaging. I don’t watch shows specifically for the romance but when that’s a huge plot point and it’s done this poorly… yeah.
Ok, that is slightly unfair because Sun Woo and Bo Ra were a phenomenal romance storyline and I was here for every moment of it. Especially enjoyed that it was their wedding featured in this one– such a good story of two people who grew together and loved each other purely and with the strength of first and enduring love. A+ to that.
But that very long rant aside, honestly I loved this show. The family relationships + the friendships + the general just, reflections on what life is like for normal people doing normal things. I’m obsessed and so into it and generally just a big fan of this series. So don’t let the romantic disappointments stop you.
High Points: Always, always, the realness of the characters, the wonderful humor, and the awesome community relationships.
Low Points: That main romance, y’all. What crap.
K Drama Kween 