Who likes a healing show about a timid female lead who moves away from the toxic environment to end up in another toxic environment and receive close to no character development? Not me.

Like many other slice of life shows, this one also has little to no plot, which is completely fine. These are not supposed to give you thrills and excitement, they are supposed to be relaxing and warm. When I go into slice of life, I’m getting ready for a little bit of life lessons and characters I want to befriend, ones that make me want to root for them. Did this show deliver any of these? Not really.

Starting from Lee Yeo Reum - doormat, timid, no self love nor self respect. No issue with that. I wanted to go on that self improvement and self discovery journey with her. But damn this girl got on a merry-go-round and ended up in the same circle of self pity. The moment I thought she learned her lessons, she went back to the old ways - ready to blame herself, ready to take a step back, ready to run away. Trying to fix it all in the last episodes is not the way to go.

While An Dae Beom was better and for sure a stronger character, he also got easily manipulated by others, mostly by Ji Young. At some point I started to question myself - am I liking the character or am I just completely biased towards Yim Si Wan and I will just buy anything he sells?

Then we have all the other characters who either: started well and ended annoying, started annoying and miraculously became nice in between scenes, started annoying and ended annoying. There was honestly barely anyone to root for… Which is a true nightmare for a character driven slice of life drama.

To be perfectly honest though, I can deal with annoying characters, but I cannot stand conflicting messages. Yeo Reum tells herself to only think about what she wants and feels and not care for others, but also tells Bom to put her grandma and her family before her own emotions and well being. Protecting an alcoholic and abusive father is fine, but protecting your son with developmental issues makes you the top enemy. I am sorry, but what am I supposed to learn from this show? What is the message? What does the writer want to present and tell me? For me, it all made no sense.

Yes, the ending message was great - appreciate what you have, find happiness in little things, you don’t have to excel in everything, just being happy is enough of a reason to be alive and enjoy the moments. IT’s all great, but why did they fail so badly with all the other issues they talked about?

And I know how some people will scream “realism” as an excuse for some of the topics. Sorry, but you cannot explain some awful takes with it, while also ignoring the complete lack of realism in other aspects. You can’t have both.

Last, but not least plot wise - the “mystery”. When the characters have to explain EVERYTHING to me through the dialogues and flashbacks, it means the writer completely failed to set it up. I should be watching and connecting the dots myself, not get everything served with a narration.

From the acting and production side, it was great. Kim Seol Hyun improved greatly since her debut, and everyone knows Yim Si Wan is one of the best idol turned actors. The teens did an amazing job too, I especially liked a.mond’s performance - cheerful and hyped, but with hints of sadness and tons of loneliness.

Visually, Summer Strike is beautiful, I cannot deny it. They used the environment they were filming in to its full potential. What’s the point though, if the story is not on the same good level of execution? This year we had a holy trinity of dramas with amazing and beautiful moments, but also poorly executed overall plot and character’s development, and laughable villains - Today’s Webtoon, Cheer Up and Summer Strike.