Anjelle
The heart makes up for the plot, I swear.
Hello Me is the perfect example of a drama not necessarily needing a well-written plot in order to be memorable. During a season filled to the brim with suspense thrillers, murder mysteries and dark-themed dramas, this little romcom was my oasis. It re-energized me in the middle of weeks filled with murder, betrayal and frustration. Without it, I probably wouldn't have made it through the other shows that aired.
The story for this drama is actually pretty simplistic, and more than a bit convoluted. BHN is a woman who, after the death of her father, essentially gave up on life. Blaming herself for his death, she was never able to get her feet off the ground. She was a fixed point in time. While the world around her kept changing, she refused to change with it, and her inability to adapt found her living off of her sister's success in exchange for housekeeping, with a job that didn't give her much of an income. At 37-years-old she had nothing to show for herself. But on her worst day, she gets a second chance as her 17-year-old self appears from the past and gives her the push she needs to reinvent herself. This concept has been done before in many different ways and variations and isn't anything new. A lot of the drama's shortcomings stem from this premise as they try to think up ways to explain - or avoid - the time travel and the convoluted nature of how things ended up this way, and it only gets worse when they try to send 17-year-old BHN back to her time.
Despite the lacklustre plot, it's worth a watch. It makes up for its shortcomings with a powerful message, heartwarming moments and great characters. Hello Me tells a story of loving yourself and accepting who you are, no matter your faults, where you came from or how you got here. We follow BHN's journey as a sad, guilt-ridden woman at the end of her rope as she regains lost confidence and learns to stop blaming herself for the past. Through her own will, she finds a career and reconnects with friends and family with whom she had grown distant over her 20 years of grief.
I wouldn't be doing the drama justice if I ignored the supporting cast. HYH as the male lead was amazing. Following the theme of BHN herself, many of the other characters go through their own growth period throughout the story and the male lead is one of them. HYH begins his journey as an immature, indecisive young man with a good heart. He has no direction in life and no interest in the family business so he spends his days learning new skills and collecting very niche licenses that he says will be useful when working in the future, even though he's never had a job. After losing a bet against his father, he's kicked out of the house and has no choice but to try to make it on his own. The chemistry between HYH and BHN is amazing. They genuinely feel like they care about one another as they grow close and every interaction they have, while oftentimes silly and over-the-top, is natural and fluid. There's no sudden forced romance like you usually get with romcoms. Everything is slow and they go at their own pace, forming a close bond before anything more than HYH's crush is brought into the spotlight.
YCS is a former school-bully-turned-actor hiding his past behind his new name Anthony and a lot of plastic surgery. Pretty topical, given the past few months. I honestly hated his character in the early episodes, but at some point he did start to grow on me. We follow him as he struggles to regain his lost popularity and to make amends for his past wrongdoings, and the journey was better handled than I expected it to be, honestly. Even smaller characters are given their own personal journey's, whether it's BHN's family finally coming to accept her again after 20 years without support, HYH's father worrying that his son will never grow up or even the younger BHN maturing and coming to love her future self as her future self learns to accept her in turn. Everyone has a story and these are just a few.
So if you hate plot holes, maybe avoid this. There are plenty, especially towards the end. But if plot doesn't matter to you as much as the heart and soul of a drama does, give it a shot. There are some wonderfully written characters and a beautiful message in every one of them, and if that's not enough then the relationship between the leads is incredibly adorable. It's funny, it's sweet, and it holds a special place in my heart.
The story for this drama is actually pretty simplistic, and more than a bit convoluted. BHN is a woman who, after the death of her father, essentially gave up on life. Blaming herself for his death, she was never able to get her feet off the ground. She was a fixed point in time. While the world around her kept changing, she refused to change with it, and her inability to adapt found her living off of her sister's success in exchange for housekeeping, with a job that didn't give her much of an income. At 37-years-old she had nothing to show for herself. But on her worst day, she gets a second chance as her 17-year-old self appears from the past and gives her the push she needs to reinvent herself. This concept has been done before in many different ways and variations and isn't anything new. A lot of the drama's shortcomings stem from this premise as they try to think up ways to explain - or avoid - the time travel and the convoluted nature of how things ended up this way, and it only gets worse when they try to send 17-year-old BHN back to her time.
Despite the lacklustre plot, it's worth a watch. It makes up for its shortcomings with a powerful message, heartwarming moments and great characters. Hello Me tells a story of loving yourself and accepting who you are, no matter your faults, where you came from or how you got here. We follow BHN's journey as a sad, guilt-ridden woman at the end of her rope as she regains lost confidence and learns to stop blaming herself for the past. Through her own will, she finds a career and reconnects with friends and family with whom she had grown distant over her 20 years of grief.
I wouldn't be doing the drama justice if I ignored the supporting cast. HYH as the male lead was amazing. Following the theme of BHN herself, many of the other characters go through their own growth period throughout the story and the male lead is one of them. HYH begins his journey as an immature, indecisive young man with a good heart. He has no direction in life and no interest in the family business so he spends his days learning new skills and collecting very niche licenses that he says will be useful when working in the future, even though he's never had a job. After losing a bet against his father, he's kicked out of the house and has no choice but to try to make it on his own. The chemistry between HYH and BHN is amazing. They genuinely feel like they care about one another as they grow close and every interaction they have, while oftentimes silly and over-the-top, is natural and fluid. There's no sudden forced romance like you usually get with romcoms. Everything is slow and they go at their own pace, forming a close bond before anything more than HYH's crush is brought into the spotlight.
YCS is a former school-bully-turned-actor hiding his past behind his new name Anthony and a lot of plastic surgery. Pretty topical, given the past few months. I honestly hated his character in the early episodes, but at some point he did start to grow on me. We follow him as he struggles to regain his lost popularity and to make amends for his past wrongdoings, and the journey was better handled than I expected it to be, honestly. Even smaller characters are given their own personal journey's, whether it's BHN's family finally coming to accept her again after 20 years without support, HYH's father worrying that his son will never grow up or even the younger BHN maturing and coming to love her future self as her future self learns to accept her in turn. Everyone has a story and these are just a few.
So if you hate plot holes, maybe avoid this. There are plenty, especially towards the end. But if plot doesn't matter to you as much as the heart and soul of a drama does, give it a shot. There are some wonderfully written characters and a beautiful message in every one of them, and if that's not enough then the relationship between the leads is incredibly adorable. It's funny, it's sweet, and it holds a special place in my heart.
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