Honestly, this show had everything going for it. The cast was phenomenal and their chemistry was unmatched. The soundtrack is one for the record books. The story was simple but heartfelt and engaging- young people fighting for each other’s dreams despite ‘the times’ and the world seemingly all against them. There was a time jump involved in the storytelling with the daughter not having the same last name as the love interest from the main timeline, so there was also mystery involved, which was exciting. Despite the last name confusion, the style of storytelling was very hopeful, leaving you thinking that perhaps there was a clever trick played by the storyteller. The kind of trick that would make you go ‘aha!’ At the end and breathe a sigh of relief and joy because of course- of course! Na Hee Do and Back Ye Jin are still together, why wouldn’t they still be together when they fight for each other and support each other and love each other again and again and again, despite all odds. So so so despite the confusion, we watched this show with hope and excitement for the end but whoops we were fooled- the ending was not happy. Well, technically it was “happy.” Supposedly the characters are healthy and happy, but the viewers experienced the breakup just 20 minutes ago and so a ‘happy ending’ just isn’t sitting well when we haven’t had years of grieving and learning and growing and falling in love again with someone new like the characters have. We weren’t given any of that so the “happy ending” feels false and cruel. I’m left wondering why why why were they not able to work through the final problem like they have all the others? Why?? Yes, I understand that people break up and some people are in your life just for a season, but I don’t want to watch a show about relationships that are like ships passing in the night, there’s enough of that in real life. I want to watch a show about people who make it work and fight for each other and keep fighting for each other so I can see that it can happen and I can have hope.
Anyways, enough of my ranting and sobbing. I’m just really disappointed at the over-romanticization of youth that happened in this show and I wanted more of a romanticization of all of life. But i didn’t find it in this show and I’m disappointed.
Besides how it ended, this show is absolutely gorgeous. But now I don’t want to recommend it to anyone because that ending was a whole lot of . . . Bleh.