There’s not really much to say about this drama. And at this point you probably wondering why then I’m writing this review? Well, the reason is simple. The fact that there’s not much to tell, is a review of its own. 18 again is just a concept that was seen before and there’s not much more to add.

We’ve seen this before. Zac Efron is a basketball star at his high school but for some reason his life does not go according to plan and he wakes up one day as a bitter 30 something year old and want some change. The chance appears when in by magic he get’s a second chance in life, he wakes up as a teenager. Simple? So now, let’s translate this idea to Korean and add another 15 hours of content to this idea that was born as a single movie.

I don’t really remember original movie that well, but I could’ve swear that I’ve seen some scenes from first episode so I guess it was pretty close to the movie.

But let’s just leave this issue. This drama is not original, we’ve seen it before, but does it defend itself on its own? Can we just watch it without thought of Zac Efron in shorts in our heads? Pretty much yes, and then what is left, it pretty good. You know, mostly because somebody tested this idea before.

Overall I like the idea of the fresh perspective, when we progressively see the same topic from various points of view just to know that our main character might not be entirely right in showing the reality of situation. We had similar idea in Familiar Wife, where we also progressively unveiled how things looked according to other character versus the main one. And obviously it changed how we seen the relationship between main characters. In 18 Again we have Hong Dae Young perspective, where he thinks that he’s done everything he could for his family, but when we hear what his wife thinks about it, the situation looks pretty different.

Honestly, I wasn’t too invested in main characters relationship. Hong Dae Young for me was moderately interesting, especially in his teenage version. By the way, when did we cross the thin line between Yoon Sang Hyun playing sexy rock start in Secret Garden and father figurer that got old pretty badly? Because that’s like eight years between those two dramas but I barely recognised him!

Anyway, back to the point. I like how this drama slowly changes from the story about guy who suddenly goes back to being teenager to a story of how other characters cope. Hong Dae Young is a centre of the plot, but not necessary its main focus point. And that’s good, because sometimes the background characters are much more interesting than what happens to the main ones. Secondary characters are truly building atmosphere here. Especially that romantic motive between Jung Da Jung and young Hong Dae Young is at some point pretty weird. I mean I know that in this body there’s almost 40 year old man, but Da Jung casually dating teenager just looks weird. This whole situation seems wrong. And if we’re already here, there’s around zero chemistry between those two.

To add to all of this, we have a bunch of unnecessary cliches. We have a white truck of death, we have people who know each other but don’t know it till the end. And then suddenly it’s a big of a deal.

On a plus side, we have good comedic relief motives. I have to admit, scenes where Hong Dae Young and Go Deok Jin argue as a son and father and are constantly overheard by the office staff is a comedy gold here. Especially with half of those dialogues being beeped out because of swear words.

Overall I kinda enjoyed this series, but more like a guilty pleasure. It’s not bad remake after all, so if you don’t mind watching very predictable series, then I guess go on.