So I’m not even gonna lie, I found out about this drama through tiktok edits titled as the most wholesome drama of the season and saw some scenes that literally blew me away with how cute they were. So naturally I pick up the show and start watching.

The first episode is awesome, it’s amazing, it’s everything I wanted and expected. Our FL, weighed down by the harsh daily life of the city decides to move to the country side. Great! Everything is settled and arrangements are made and there she was at the beach of Angok basking in the sun. Watching that scene was the most liberating thing ever and you could literally feel your stress being washed away as she runs towards the water and dives in.

Episode 2 rolls around. Now we’re being introduced to the town and the dynamics of the people living there adding dimensions and depth to the story. We love to see it.

The FL meets the ML and instantly they are hooked on one another. Their feelings slowly develop and in each and every scene between them I could literally feel the butterflies.

And so I was hooked. It didn’t require much and I didn’t expect more. Things are slowly unfolding as they should.

As the FL is staying there, she decides she’ll starts journaling so we are baited with this plot point of her developing an interest in writing and all things are going as expected in this tranquil country side. You got your usual nosy kids, angry locals and small town secrets but nothing that can’t be conquered by the power of love and friendship.

Only problem is, as the story progresses, they decide that complicating the plot is the way to go. First of, they introduce the ML’s “dark past” which is alright. Nothing out of the ordinary. But only they decide that no, that’s not enough we need a convoluted murder case and an unnecessary plot twist and that’s where the show completely lost me.

Dae Bum, the ML, had enough of a “layered” backstory and a lot on his plate in the right-now to worry about. But they decided to bring up the past in the most ridiculous, unnecessarily complicated manner. There was no need for a second murder to happen for the first one to be “solved”. In fact, the first plot they went with was more than good enough. Why keep on adding on more and more plot points?

Especially when they dismissed and quickly went over his current present problems. Glossing over everything and quickly resolving it.

As for Yeo Reum who ran away from the toxic city life only to be chucked into this mysterious village of horrors. People complained about how much of a doormat she was but I thought to myself nothing wrong with a meek FL. Not everyone in life is a fighter. But nothing developed at all.

Everything they prepared us for regarding her character “arc” never unfolded. She did a magazine interview and that went nowhere I don’t even know why they bothered adding that in. In the end they teased how she’ll start writing a webtoon. Like, why couldn’t this just be the plot? Why did she have to be this detective Conan all of a sudden?

Her morals were questionable at times, and while I tried giving her the benefit of the doubt, her inconsistency at times confused me. E.g. yelling at Kim Bom for not wanting to be associated with her abusive alcoholic father and then getting annoyed at that mom for wanting to protect her DISABLED son who was falsely convicted for murder?! Make it make sense. All whilst completely forgetting about her brother who was unreasonably villainized and then completely erased from existence never to be mentioned again.

I tried to brush some things off as being part of the “culture” and nature of a small town village but I couldn’t at times. Especially when she, as the main lead, was supposed to represent the opposite of those traditional expectations.

Many of the plot points were left undiscovered. Kim Bom’s childhood friend, her father and his alcoholism (and apparently gambling addiction, too now). Speaking of Kim Bom, she had the most tragic and dramatic plot out of everyone in that show which was poorly executed.

Whenever the writer was at loss on how to mobilize the plot, boom! they threw a tragedy at Kim Bom and that’s how it went. And DON’T get me started on how simply Jae Hun just went and came back from The States. Ridiculous!

Sung Min being a single dad. Like, where’s the mom? In this gossipy small town no mention of her at all?
Ji Young absolutely hating the country side only to decide on a whim that, no! She actually doesn’t. Like, what?

The billiards club and how Sung Min’s dad became the owner. Dae Bum’s family position in Angok and just Dae Bum in general. How he grew up without his parents and what actually happened between him and that professor. He remained an enigma to the very last moment.

And the god damn pacing. How much time went by? Between the multiple time leaps and Yeo Reum packing her bags to leave every other day it was impossible to discern. At times it felt like days other times it felt like months.

And the romance! Where did it go? We never went past the awkward infatuation stage which was cute until the show approached its end and I grew frustrated. The most we got was some hand holding UGH! On the other hand, Kim Bom got a dramatic passionate kiss under the rain. Absolute clownery.

And the beach! You’d think now that she lives by it she’ll be there every other day but, no! I mean, I can’t blame her she was too busy solving crimes.

I was never set up for this amount of disappointment in my life. The last thing I expected was for this to turn into a murder mystery show. Other than the cute moments between the two leads, their chemistry and endearing conversations, everything else seemed to go wrong. It was a shame to see this go to waste especially with how exceptional everyone’s performance was.

I’m convinced something went wrong with either the budget, ratings or writers because to have this easy of a plot then f’ it up this bad made zero sense.