Reply 1997, 1994 or 1988 ?

88 >>>>97>94

I watched both the 97 and 98.  I tried to watch reply 1994 but dropped it after a few eps.

As for me, my favorite is reply 1998. <3

i've watched both Reply 1997 and 1988. I love slice of life genre the most, so my favorite goes to 1988!

Both has different focus, R97 focus heavily on the romance between main leads..meanwhile R88 not only focusing on romance, but also each family relationships between this group of bestfriends. Make sure you don't read any spoilers about the ending.. so you can keep guessing while watching. That's the special thing about Reply series :)

I think you should start with 1997. It has the shortest episodes (16x 45 min) and introduces you the whole concept behind the reply series. It has a great comedy and acting (but be warned, first episode felt kinda off-putting/weird to me and i almost dropped the whole drama if it werent for my friend who literally forced me to watch this idk if i would have ever managed to start watching this masterpiece :D!). It has incredible binge-watchability and overall it is really great  fun/friendship/craziness-focused drama.

Then there is 1988, which is much more complex than 97. The 'problem' is that is is suuuper long (20x 90min) so it can be exhausting a little. It has more depth to it, more stories about other main characters, sometimes it is more 'serious' (but still really fun! I usually managed to cry and laugh during one episode, lmao). Ending (for some people, incl. me) was not the one we wanted to see but it actually was not problem for me because the overall quality of the drama outshines the (less satysfiying) ending :))

And then there is 1994 which i never finished. It has also long episodes but idk... something didnt fit right for me.  Once i realized that one of "the husband candidates" was a guy she sees as her brother i noped super-fast out of this drama :D

Anyways, no matter which season you gonna watch, dont read spoilers! If there is one drama you dont want to get spoiled, its this one :D!

1994 because I haven't seen 1988 yet (though my friends told me i would hate the ending).

Maybe I like 1994 compared to 1997 is because it's in a college setting and not heavily focused on idolship like 1997 was. The mentor student romance kind of irked me in 1997. I loved that the show really emphasized it was in the early 90s and had a lot of real life events that happened throughout the show. I really liked the relationships between the roommates and their parents. The 1994 characters had a lot of relatable issues compared 1997 (i barely remember 1997 though). I loved that even though there was main couple/main triangle each non main character had a significant story that had to be told. All of the roommates characters had character development/grown up a bit.

Also , I love the way certain scenes were shot like when Go Ara is singing N.ex.t with her walkman at night was scenic. Then my favorite scene in beginning of episode 10 when Chilbong is on the rooftop looking down at Go Ara eat a snack, while she is staring though glass door/window of Trash's room- Trash is studying....a photo of him and Go Ara together over his medical textbook...it's filmed like a music video with a song from 015b's Words I Wanted You to Hear playing (not the sha la la one). I thought that scene was perfect.

There were a little snippets that I could relate to like being frustrated with my friends over Magic Eye. We would spend hours on that.

Reply 1994 packed a bunch of nostalgic songs in each episode. I'm not even korean, but 90s music is always 90s music it was so nostalgic. (I grew up watching/sleeping through old kdramas/chinese/hk/tw dramas dubbed in viet with my relatives so like everything sounds familar)

Also I love characters like Yoo Jin and I thought it was amazing that she had a deaf mom, because that's not commonly shown in kdramas.

I liked that 1997 had a gay character though.

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I would say watch reply 1988.

Reply 1997, and reply 1994 are similar. you can compare them.. between these two i enjoyed reply 1994 more. but both weren't memorable for me  and lacked the most important element in this kind of series, that is the strong desire to go back to those wonderful days of youth. 

Reply 1988 is something different. it is not just my favorite drama among the reply series, but also my favorite drama of all time. 

Strong characters that you will get emotionally attached to, strong nostalgic feelings, perfect casting and everything about it was perfect. i cannot say that you will enjoy it like i did, because everyone has different taste. but i can say that it is not comparable with the other two (definitely).

reply 1997 was like any other RomCom drama. fun while you're watching, nothing very special about it. pace was fine, did not drag.

reply 1994 was good as well, but it did drag a little. PS. The reason why i liked this more than reply 1997 is because the characters are more likable. 

reply 1988 takes you to the past. you will feel like the characters are your family. and when you're done with the drama, this is when you will feel heartbroken because you will miss it.

 Ranisha Dutta:

So does that mean Reply 1988 don't have a satisfying ending?

Depending on which guy you are rooting for... Basically the story is about a girl who has 4 guys as childhood friends. One of them became her husband in the future.