ElBee

To think… I came here because Noh Min Woo and Kim Seul Gi were in the cast, Im Cheol Su, Park Jae Joon 애 끼, Cha Woo Min, Kim Hye Eun, and a couple others also drawing me in… thinking this was probably going to be on the shallow end, I just thought of it as a good way to get a dose of two Koreans I adore and have for ages!

It turned out to be so much better than I could have guessed going in blind. The premise immediately caught my attention, and ahhhh the sets were splendid, totally splendid! Minue was naturally ethereal in his role as a beautiful barista, brother, and Bigfoot’s benevolent blessing, but he was, as was that fantastic dog, an angel guiding souls to their heavenly spaces, that is, a small support cast. Kim Seul Gi again had my unconventional crush in full force. She made me flutter like Seon Ho did the two female students in the SF group.

I didn’t honestly care if romance happened in this at all. It was absolutely lovely and expected, sure, but not at all the reason this is valuable. What is precious about it is the coming of age story, finding oneself, finding one’s people, finding one’s place and purpose… and finding a way to stand against forces (in this case parents) who believe they know better than you ever can even as they are close to doing the psychological equivalent of throwing you down on your knees beside a bathtub full of water and flinging your head into that water and holding it there.

That is what the female lead is up against, and man, does this do a fantastic job showing her defense mechanisms against it/how she copes, that is, as well as her siblings (mostly the younger but we have a glance at the older, too, and see how it would’ve been were she better in school, something I found really wisely integrated since otherwise he would just be this mythical kid we have zero feelings for besides maybe resentment—somehow in just a few minutes, they gave us a clear context to the older brother who’d been talked about incesssssantly by the mother). The younger brother has more time, and at first, you just see this bratty child… then you see him soften with a bullied kid who likes him for reasons all his own, ones we don’t really share yet (kids do usually pick who they like as randomly seeming as throwing a coin into a machine and cranking a lever to get a cheap toy in a capsule!), but for a good while, he is still not particularly likable when with his sister.

Enter the sister’s new boyfriend, kind of boyfriend, at least, that kind of boyfriend in the high school way of hanging out a lot, liking each other, and so on but not actually seeming like people dating so much as a couple of kids in the same club who skipped a couple of steps, going from bullied girl and incredibly weird but nice guy who gives a kind of pep talk and is strange enough to have her not feel quite so nuts anymore… from a chance encounter to him somehow REALLY liking her immensely in the inexplicable way teen attraction just happens like a sneeze when one has a burst of sunlight strike their eyes… to them kind of flirting and her crush moving from mature guy who first brought her in and wholly accepted her and introduced her to all these other wholly accepting supportive people (truly the best people you could ever have, the kind of group, connected or separate, everyone should definitely have in their lives, people who have your back unconditionally but will tell you if you’re being an idiot, too, or need to wise up/are being uncool somehow, and I mean uncool in the sense of hurting other people because of your insecurities kind of uncool, actual uncool, not the poor labeling of people who aren’t prom queen and king candidates as uncool)…

In any case, their relationship was absolutely not grounded, not the slow simmering buildup that happens in typical “not my first crush but maybe first serious romance” 20-something relationships but the erratic, step-skipping, absolutely unstable sort that teens DO HAVE. I mean, I remember my teen era well despite having lived 4 birth to driver’s license spans so far… I had quite the mix, but insecurity was absolutely part of it even when it was the guy who was initially attracted which was kind of my normal situation (I rarely dated my crushes which is just as well lol… it would’ve broken a precious image of them that is a happy memory🤭). I usually went from same activity acquaintances to friends to mutual flutters eventually and then “dated” in that same kind of hanging out after school way with physical contact and injected words of affection of a different sort, at least emotionally, than those said to friends. Nothing was, save physical touch, different from how I spent time with friends-music, movies, books, passing notes, spontaneous art, meeting between classes and after school, phone calls, hanging out at each other’s homes.

Teen romance in this drama feels like real teen romance. What is really special, though, about how they handle it is that he gets involved in her family, specifically with the younger brother, and helps the little kid who is one of the tightest little balls of unnecessary stress, cruel levels of it, truly, unwind a bit, laugh a bit, see silliness and fun as important valuable things… and trust an adult which the adults in this sure made difficult for the child trying to be, at far too young an age and tiny a physical presence, a guardian to a sister twice his age and size. Seeing this kid’s rationale for being so cold and hostile-seeming and seeing a truly good human break a wall or several down and not give up on this kid or in turn his sister, of course, was truly heartwarming. It had to be one of the best details of the whole show.

My main gripe is probably that it was a bit hurried toward the end. The father just popped in so abruptly at the end that it felt like I didn’t really process what happened until long after the show was over. Say what? Wait, huh? Oh. I think my brain just threw the dad into some on-hold list (all by himself, mind you) WITHIN the drama. It would have been much more effective if they’d prepped us for it through the mom like we were prepped for the brief time with the older brother! I might have just been tired, of course, but it was steady and then suddenly flung together what should’ve, having seen the whole thing now, been fleshed out more and turned into 16 episodes or at least 14. I also would’ve enjoyed a bit more development of the ML, but he stayed steady (still could’ve had better relationship details shown and just more of his life beyond quick photoshoots and the FL/SF).

There are a couple of “colors” I would’ve loved getting to know better, another way they could’ve helped with those extra hours wanted, but even as it is not without shortcomings, I appreciate that at least for the characters, we get to see shortcomings stop being weaknesses at all and simply being part of the person. Coming of age stories absolutely need that factor. It isn’t that we stop being flawed but that being flawed stops being a flaw itself. This handled that beautifully.

Oh, I never pointed this out, but the cast did a FANTASTIC job! Amazing job, casting director team and director who no doubt helped cement their identities! They truly all BECAME their characters. I look forward to more of the young new faces met through this! (I couldn’t stop thinking the actress playing Se Ra reminded me of Kim Go Eun, so I hope she stays active as we need more faces like hers and KGE needs someone to play her little sis who actually resembles her)! I am glad this set of veterans were cast as they are well-known for being really warm, compassionate, savvy mentors who teach well, no doubt partly fro theatre keeping them on their toes for ones with that background… the mother mentoring the daughter as her character is ever increasingly impossible to love is always amusing to me. ☺️

In any case, I truly enjoyed this, and it wasn’t just for the handsome, gentle musician-actor and beautiful, sassy actress I came for! I recommend it to anyone who likes coming of age stories! It handled that so well I am still surprised!