Hometown Cha-cha-cha is the drama that made me fall in love with dramas. It wasn’t the first one I watched but it’s what turned me from someone who had only seen a couple to someone who couldn’t stop watching them. I’ve seen this show twice now and it’s quickly become such a comfort show.

HCCC is the perfect rom com. The first episode drew me in immediately, from their meet cute on the beach to the reveal that behind his aloof exterior, he was obsessed with her from the beginning. Many people hate on Hye-jin, but even though she does some cringey things in the beginning, I always liked her. Hye-jin is a woman who comes off as very cold and detached, often saying the wrong thing and offending people. However, she had a great heart and she would go to bat for the people she cared about; she had a strong sense of justice and wasn’t ever willing to compromise her morals. Chief Hong is pretty notorious for being the perfect boyfriend and that is very accurate. The man’s acts of service are legendary and all the clips that would show him spending his time doing little things to make her happy (the shoes!) were some of the best parts of the show. They had amazing chemistry and I wouldn’t necessarily call it enemies to lovers, but I loved their bickering at the beginning.

There is a love triangle but Lee Sang-yi was incredibly charming and formed a great friendship with Chief Hong, so it didn’t take away from the story. The second couple also had a very cute story arc. This show is the blueprint for a small town drama. All the townspeople are kind of kooky but all get developed personalities and I came to love almost all of them. Even though not a ton happens in this show, it never felt boring and part of it is that they devoted time to all of the characters, not just the leads. Other small town dramas never seem to compare to this one because I don’t feel the attachment to the town the way I do in this one.

The first time I watched this, I sobbed my way through the last few episodes with Chief Hong’s backstory. Kim Seon-ho had an amazing performance. It was quite a tone shift for this otherwise very sweet show but they had really built up the mystery of his backstory and it made me need to see what had happened.

HCCC had the perfect ending. It’s one of the things that makes this a great comfort drama. There is almost nothing that I don’t like about this show. I don’t know if it will ever get knocked out of my top 5 dramas. More of these types of shows please!