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Way Back Love korean drama review
Completed
Way Back Love
0 people found this review helpful
by AyasKCorner
21 days ago
6 of 6 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 3.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 4.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

A six-episode journey that somehow managed to feel rushed and dragged out at the same time

A beautiful premise wasted on weak pacing, underdeveloped characters, and a finale that forgot to earn its own tears.

Disclaimer: This review is 100% my opinion — I’m not here to hate, just to share my thoughts! Also, SPOILERS AHEAD, so proceed with caution if you haven’t watched yet. Watch it, come back and let’s see if you agree. Let’s keep the discussion respectful and fun! 💕

The Good
A Strong, Twisted Premise
The core idea of this drama is actually really solid: the person whose death she’s never recovered from suddenly returns only to tell her she’s going to die in a week. Almost brilliant.

No Magical Resurrection Nonsense
As messed up as it sounds, I appreciated that they didn’t try to force a fairytale ending. Ram Woo stays dead and while it’s bittersweet, Hee Wan finds healing and chooses life. Sometimes, a beautiful ending is just one where someone chooses to keep going.


The Bad
Too Short For Its Own Good
I never thought I’d say this, but this drama was too short. There wasn’t enough time to flesh out the storyline or characters, making everything feel rushed. She supposedly isolated herself, pushed friends away, and even dated Hong Suk to cope, but where was that in the show? In moments like her reunion with Hong Suk or final days, it felt like she was closing a chapter the audience barely got to read. So when she said her goodbyes, I wasn’t emotionally invested. I barely knew the characters she was leaving behind.
Then we had Yeong Hyun, who was randomly thrown in with supernatural abilities where she could see ghosts, predict how people would die, and apparently pinpoint exact locations. How? Why? No explanation.
Too much was crammed into the story, with not enough time to develop it properly.

The Underwhelming Death
Okay but… was anyone else underwhelmed by how Ram Woo died? They built it up like the name-switching was going to be this massive, tragic twist. I genuinely thought he died because of some fatal name mix-up—like he was mistaken for Hee Wan, or died protecting her. But no. It was just a freak accident at an observatory after she gave him a ticket. And look—I get that guilt doesn’t have to be logical. People blame themselves for things all the time. But if Hee Wan’s been unable to move on for four years, you’d think there’d be a stronger link between her and his death. Even his mother managed to heal. Meanwhile, Hee Wan was stuck in this guilt-box she built for herself and the trigger was… giving him a gift that went sideways?

He Died… and Then Was Erased
This isn’t necessarily bad, but I wish Ram Woo hadn’t disappeared forever. The show establishes that if a Grim Reaper prevents a death, they cease to exist entirely… and yet somehow, Ram Woo was included in this rule. While I get that he helped Hee Wan realize she wanted to live, her choice to live was ultimately hers. A better ending? He doesn’t cease to exist, but instead, she can no longer see him. That way, the final scene could have shown him watching over her, quietly letting her go, before quitting his reaper job and moving on to the afterlife.

Storyline was meh.
This storyline had so much potential and it just didn’t deliver. It’s supposed to be about a girl who’s ready to die but finds reasons to live by checking off a bucket list with her first love, who’s now a grim reaper. Sounds poetic, right?
But we barely got that. Ram Woo’s list? Completed in like an episode and a half. Her list? Knocked out in half an episode. After that, it’s just her saying goodbye to people we barely got to know. The emotional beats fell flat because the buildup wasn’t there. Even the flashbacks dragged. I wanted more from the present, more growth, more tension. Not recycled memories that told us what we already knew.

I Wanted to Feel Her Pain… But Didn’t
This kinda ties into what I mentioned above as well as the pacing issues and the lack of depth, so I’ll keep it quick: I never truly felt her pain. She was supposedly trapped in guilt, haunted by his death, but aside from a few panic attacks, there wasn’t enough to showcase her emotional torment. Throughout the episodes, there was no gradual shift in her mindset—no subtle evolution from wanting to die to fighting to live.
Maybe it was because the pacing was off, but the transition just didn’t hit. Especially since, in the end, she was still ready to jump anyway. And to make matters worse, she literally says she’ll live for both of them in one scene, then heads to the roof the next. It undercuts everything the story tried to build.
The emotional impact would have landed better had we seen her initial relief that her time had come, slowly shifting into genuine devastation that it was actually over. The way a character’s subtle change in wanting to live makes the final moments so much heavier.

The description was wrong
I thought the story was about a girl who refuses to say her first love’s name three times, unable to let go. But… that never happened. Instead, he was the one who had to say her name three times. Then, the descriptions also made it sound like she writes a bucket list early on, and they carry it out together before she dies—which was only half true. She didn’t make a list until the final episode and for most of the story, Ram Woo was the one with unfinished wishes that they completed instead.
It’s not a huge deal, but when the actual plot strays from the advertised premise, it throws you off. Especially when the version we were expecting sounds way more compelling than what we got.


Final Thoughts
In the end, this show was boring. The description set it up to be a soul-crushing, gut-wrenching heartbreak—but instead, it delivered six episodes of nothing. The entire premise revolved around Ram Woo getting Hee Wan to want to live, and yet, in the final moments, she still wanted to die—effectively making the entire journey pointless. So while the concept had potential, the execution completely missed the mark.
The worst part is that there was a beautiful story buried in there somewhere… it just never made it to the screen. And it never will. So If you’re looking for a show to break your heart, don’t even bother. But if you’re looking for a show with drawn-out flashbacks that add little to the story, this is just the show for you.

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What did you think of this drama? I think my problem was that while I was watching it, I was actively thinking of what I’d do (ahead of the story), so when the scenes came, it wasn’t as good as my thoughts (she said as humbly as possible 🤭🤭).
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