Jaiuv
This review may contain spoilers
The time travel logic may be shaky, but you won't care
TL;DR at the end with no spoilers.
I actually started writing this review half a year ago. I don't like the idea of leaving it unfinished, but I've already forgotten too much about the show so what you'll read below is my attempt at piecing together whatever I can remember. Let's get into it.
Maybe it's just me, but each time I watch a show where time travel is a plot device I give up a little more on trying to make logical sense of it. Having time travel live up to our standards of how it should work just sends you into an endless pursuit of causality that may not even benefit the story. Don't get me wrong: if the point of the plot is to explore the internal logic of time travel, by all means go for it; I'm not advocating uncritical thinking or brushing off blatant plot holes. It's just...you know, sometimes you're better off not aiming for realism. Settling instead for convenient magic with just enough common sense sprinkled on top allows the writer to focus on the message. It may pain you if you like hard sci-fi like I do, but I'm willing to concede that people can very much enjoy a story that isn't 100% scientifically accurate. There's enough proof out there.
Why am I saying all this? Because I'm not rationally on board with the plot conveniences. Even the characters openly call out how arbitrary time travel is, both in the timing and in the way it works. If you think hard enough about how the events play out, the cracks in causality start to appear. However, attempting to patch them would only add unnecessary complexity while probably making the ending less satisfying. This show is trying to make you feel something, and to achieve that it has decided to make sacrifices. Now, I'd be upset if it wasted the chance, but the show is great at getting you invested in the main characters and how they evolve. The ultimate inevitability of the event the ML desperately tries to prevent with his actions in the past, though sad, wraps it up nicely for the sci-fi elitist in me. If my vague memories of watching this are anything to go by, I feel like I successfully brainwashed myself into enjoying this more.
On a related note, going back in time and changing the past meant that the ML didn't solve the problems he originally ran away from—his family being poor and his father not approving of his music career: he just wiped that timeline out of existence. I guess it's okay because the good guys ended up better off, but I just wanted to point that out.
To conclude this review, I'll mention the clinginess of the ML towards the younger version of his father. I get wanting to prevent an incident with irreversible consequences—his father becoming permanently deaf—but the constant overprotective nagging and imposing on him is kind of irritating at times. For me, anyway.
TL;DR:
Just go watch it if you like the premise. I binged it in three days.
I actually started writing this review half a year ago. I don't like the idea of leaving it unfinished, but I've already forgotten too much about the show so what you'll read below is my attempt at piecing together whatever I can remember. Let's get into it.
Maybe it's just me, but each time I watch a show where time travel is a plot device I give up a little more on trying to make logical sense of it. Having time travel live up to our standards of how it should work just sends you into an endless pursuit of causality that may not even benefit the story. Don't get me wrong: if the point of the plot is to explore the internal logic of time travel, by all means go for it; I'm not advocating uncritical thinking or brushing off blatant plot holes. It's just...you know, sometimes you're better off not aiming for realism. Settling instead for convenient magic with just enough common sense sprinkled on top allows the writer to focus on the message. It may pain you if you like hard sci-fi like I do, but I'm willing to concede that people can very much enjoy a story that isn't 100% scientifically accurate. There's enough proof out there.
Why am I saying all this? Because I'm not rationally on board with the plot conveniences. Even the characters openly call out how arbitrary time travel is, both in the timing and in the way it works. If you think hard enough about how the events play out, the cracks in causality start to appear. However, attempting to patch them would only add unnecessary complexity while probably making the ending less satisfying. This show is trying to make you feel something, and to achieve that it has decided to make sacrifices. Now, I'd be upset if it wasted the chance, but the show is great at getting you invested in the main characters and how they evolve. The ultimate inevitability of the event the ML desperately tries to prevent with his actions in the past, though sad, wraps it up nicely for the sci-fi elitist in me. If my vague memories of watching this are anything to go by, I feel like I successfully brainwashed myself into enjoying this more.
On a related note, going back in time and changing the past meant that the ML didn't solve the problems he originally ran away from—his family being poor and his father not approving of his music career: he just wiped that timeline out of existence. I guess it's okay because the good guys ended up better off, but I just wanted to point that out.
To conclude this review, I'll mention the clinginess of the ML towards the younger version of his father. I get wanting to prevent an incident with irreversible consequences—his father becoming permanently deaf—but the constant overprotective nagging and imposing on him is kind of irritating at times. For me, anyway.
TL;DR:
Just go watch it if you like the premise. I binged it in three days.
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