This series is truly special. It’s unlike the other kdramas I’ve watched and felt immersive in the time period. There were so many touches to the set design, soundtrack, and 1980s events written in that made it feel truly set in 1988-1989 (and beyond). The acting was wonderful, DS/SY is a wonderful female lead, and the chemistry between the cast was so great.

It’s extremely hard to get me invested in a romance in general, especially one between teenagers. So, I went into this knowing that was going to be the weakest aspect for me. I enjoyed the family and friend relationships most of all, and I do feel like that makes up enough of the show to interest even those like me that find a lot of those too trope-y and predictable.

I started to really feel the 1 hour+ runtimes around episode 16 or so. Once we start to get into the kids prepping for college fully and Bo-ra making choices about her future, it felt just a tiny bit aimless. If you’re looking for a slice of life-ish type story and you were actually alive during this time period, you may still enjoy sitting with the story as it builds to its ending. For me, I plan to finish it someday but eventually ended up looking up the ending and dropping it on episode 18.