Bittersweet & Touching to the end

Wow…what a drama. It truly yanked on my heartstrings so many times, I am usually a “happy endings only” kdrama watcher but I couldn’t resist being drawn into this one, despite guessing it would not end well for the romantic relationship between Baek Yijin and Na Heedo.

The heartache and struggle they all go through to achieve their goals - be it love, success, helping family, supporting friends - it was all such a beautiful portrait of the transition between being a brand new young adult to the actual adult realities of responsibility, tragedy & incompatibility. Freedom and possibility are so exciting, so the crash down to earth when they had hard lessons and had to make sacrifices was just so hard to watch :’( I am only a bit younger than these characters, old enough to have watched 9/11 from a high school TV, all of us frozen in horror. The endless tragedy unfolding in the news for weeks and months after….I really felt Baek Yijin’s deep exhaustion and hopelessness. Nam Joo Hyuk did an amazing job.

I absolutely ADORED the relationship between Na Heedo and Ko Yurim, from beginning to end. It was the highlight of the show for me, even though I also loved Baek Yijin. Everyone’s growth as individuals was so real and satisfying, and I didn’t feel like the ending was out of place, despite it being very disappointing. Life is clearly as much full of nostalgia, regret, and moving through pain as it is about happiness and success.

The soundtrack was nice enough but not super memorable to me. The 90s aesthetic was perfect. I think the modern scenes were interesting since they actually showed COVID-era details with masks, but otherwise it was unnecessary and I found adult Heedo’s acting a little too subdued and depressing (and annoying, I guess she is that type of Mom). One of the most disappointing things about the ending was the daughter being SOOO invested in the story but decided not to read the last diary?? She just dropped it like that? I wanted her to be more disappointed, since she was like all the rest of us viewers, desperately rooting for Heedo and Yijin! At least admit that it was a crushing disappointment for us all! I’ll be moping about this drama for a while.

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Slow & Cheesy with surprisingly nice moments

From the start I wasn’t super hooked on this drama, but it had some very nice and touching moments, and some interesting and unexpected character development.

The cheesy comparisons to weather were mostly boring and too much of a stretch for me to enjoy. I get it, it’s a weather show, but it sometimes felt like the story was being shoehorned into the metaphor, vs. the metaphor complementing the story. I liked the moral complexity of the characters, everyone is trying their best even if that sometimes wasn’t “good enough” or “kind” or “right”. I was way more sympathetic to the second leads than I thought and grew to be rooting for them and their character growth. Their past horrible behaviour is never excused or forgotten but everyone moves on with their lives eventually.

Things that might annoy you:
- Indecisive leads
- Cheating characters portrayed sympathetically
- People making the same mistakes over and over
- Very annoying pushy Mom (not new in kdrama but UGH)
- Fast development of romance in the first couple episodes
- Manipulative Dad / addiction issues
- chemistry between main leads was so-so

Things you might like:
- Learning about weather forecasting
- Morally complex depiction of the second leads and other flawed characters
- Some very silly moments
- Fast development of romance in the first couple episodes
- Sister & Nerd (Jin Taekyung & Shin Seokho) romance was so cute & funny!
- Slower paced - easier to not get hooked and get no sleep
- Kind of hilarious how seriously everyone takes the weather forecast in that bureau

Possibly trigger warnings (SPOILERS!):
Cheating, gambling addiction, manipulation, suicide (flashback), parent death, child neglect, cancer, anaphylactic allergy, discussion of abortion.

Overall not the best, especially in comparison to other dramas being released at the same time, but it is heart warming and fairly easy to watch if you aren’t triggered by any of the character’s respective issues.

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