when I think of my favorite dramas of all time, nothing ever quite manages to knock this one off the top spot. where plenty of other shows would take a premise rife with illness and confronting death and funeral processions and turn it into a misery-fest (ML lies about terminal illness to escape loan sharks, turns out to actually be terminally ill without knowing? FL who grew up in a funeral home is desensitized to death and only cares about money, latches onto ML hoping he’ll leave his “fortune” to her when he dies, and instead genuinely falls in love with someone in debt and dying? a makjang writer’s dream!) Flowers for my Life stayed loyal to it’s title and took every small moment to celebrate family and friends and neighbors, honoring death but also life, time spent with the ones we love, grief, and the beauty in every part of it. there’s introspectiveness, and laughter, a cast of characters who truly care for one another and feel like humans trying their best with what they have instead of being caricatures (not an annoying second lead in sight, they’re perfect) and of course there’s sadness, because loss hurts us. grief is often thought of as love with nowhere to go, but this show knows death is part of life, and the pain and weight of a loss won’t always be such a heavy burden.