Overall: this is one of the rare series that I didn't watch at a faster speed because all of the pauses and silences carried weight. I was going to give it a 10/10 but I think the finale could have been better along with a few other things. The series was based on a Korean webtoon "Our Youth" which I read, but tried to review the series on its own merits. 10 episodes plus a special about 23 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/4914/our-youth-2024

Content Warnings: child abuse, beaten up, alcoholism, non/dub con kisses, death, theft

What I Liked
- tension and chemistry
- caring moments
- centered on the leads
- the intimacy in episode 7
- metaphor of water (waves bring things to you and take them away, water is ever-changing and difficult to hold onto, water is refreshing etc)
- production value (cinematography)

Room For Improvement
- ominous intro scenes/voice overs and then flashbacks to tell the story
- an open window led to something cliche in ep 4
- a character ignored when another character looked uncomfortable
- that the re-telling took half of episode 5
- some lackluster kissing (I forgave the earlier ones but episode 10 was a let-down, felt there should have been more passion)
- episode 10 tried to cover too much ground/time, it felt rushed and anticlimactic