It was so hard to rate Just Between Lovers because there were characters and storylines that I absolutely loved and then ones that I could not have cared less about. I ultimately did give it a pretty high rating because the best parts of the show made it so worth watching.

The main reason to watch this is Lee Jun-ho. The acting range that he has in this show is astounding. He perfectly captured the heartbreak, anger, charm, and recklessness of Gang-doo. Even without knowing his backstory, I immediately felt connected to this character. It really is Jun-ho’s show and no one else can really match his performance, but I did still like the female lead. The chemistry between the two of them was captivating and they really showed their emotions every time they looked at each other. Their characters and the romance was what kept me watching.

Going into this show, I thought it was going to be a lot more focused on healing and it was a bit of a disappointment that they barely go into that. The characters, especially the two leads, are deeply traumatized people. Highlighting the impact of trauma can be an important message but it didn’t seem like the characters got any kind of help and just were better. The show continued to dump more and more trauma onto Gang-doo’s character all the way until the very end of the show. It would’ve felt a lot less bleak if they didn’t add in all health issues at the end and instead just focused on him getting the help he needed and realizing how loved he really was. It was actually very hard to watch by the end because this kid could not catch a single break.

The second male lead was one of my least favorite parts of the show. He crossed a lot of boundaries and made it impossible to root for him. As her boss, it was very uncomfortable that he asked her out knowing she didn’t like him and then reacted poorly when she rejected him.

The side storyline with Ma-ri was also one of the weakest parts of the show and it was confusing why they were giving her relationship with Yoo-taek so much screen time. I had to skip most of their scenes. Moon-soo’s friend and her romance also felt really distasteful because of how they’d met.

Just Between Lovers brought attention to the real-life tragedy and addressed the importance of honoring those lost but also the emotional and physical scars that survivors and families have forever. There were so many characters that all had different connections to the event and it was interesting to see not only their own reactions but also how they all interacted with each other.