Show is quite electric and fascinating in its front half, with its main focus on our female protagonist’s unconventional approach to achieving legitimacy, which had me completely absorbed.
However it does veer into rom-com territory in its second half — with a late splash of melodrama for good measure, which makes for an uneven watch.
Still potentially enjoyable if you’re happy to go with the flow.
It is not an exaggeration to say that this show is unlike any other drama I’ve personally watched in my 14 or so years of serious drama-watching.
It’s dark, unsettling, and strangely fascinating — a watch that kept me intellectually engaged even when it wasn’t emotionally generous.
The cast does strong work across the board, with Kim Yoo Jung delivering a particularly impressive performance — easily the best I’ve seen from her so far.
Lens adjustments are critical here, and I’ll talk more about that shortly, because this is not a show that behaves like a conventional drama, nor one that rewards being watched as such.
This show is basically Signal, but instead of walkie-talkies, make it letters, and instead of crime solving, make it love.
It sounds abstract, and there is a lot of ground to cover with two timelines co-existing in just 12 episodes of screen time, but Show’s writing and handling is so deft, so detailed and so confident, that it all works – and really well.
As a whole, our cast does an excellent job, but I have to say, Zhou Yi Ran and Wang Ying Lu truly stand out in their roles as our leads. Their deliveries are so natural and so raw, that I couldn’t help but feel like these characters were real, living, breathing people. 🥲
Highly, deeply, enthusiastically recommend. ❤️
Show works really well as an homage to the golden era rom-com; it’s got a light, frothy sort of vibe, where the main order of the day is joy in spite of the ridiculous, and logic is quite optional.
Modern tweaks like a male lead who only looks like a golden era tsundere but is really a very easily persuaded green flag, and OTP sizzle that’s allowed to be front-and-center, definitely add to the sense that the classic rom-com is getting an upgrade.
My favorite thing that Show does, though, is how it works to stay faithful to the emotional throughline of its characters; our OTP in particular.
Show does wobble in the final stretch, but not enough to be a deal-breaker, in my experience. Some lens adjustments definitely help – which I’ll talk more about, in a bit.
To my eyes, Show’s fatal flaw is that it worked hard — just not on the things that would’ve really made its story pop.
What we got: Show spending most of its time throwing obstacle after obstacle at our core underdogs (and those obstacles mostly coming from one single source — another fatal mistake, in my opinion), shoehorning in romantic beats so that the loveline often felt like some kind of non sequitur, and randomly showcasing Junho’s idol abilities.
What I would’ve liked: Show spending that time creating more meaningful character journeys, a deeper sense of found family, and giving the Typhoon team the chance to actually work together and grow together in the face of obstacles that felt organic to the times.
In the end, this was not the worst show ever — but it sure could’ve been better. SO, so much better. 😅
When Show is at its best, it’s easy, breezy, slurpy frothy fun, where I found it highly enjoyable to watch, even though it wasn’t doing anything spectacularly new.
Unfortunately, when Show isn’t at its best, it feels a lot more tired, like it’s just checking off boxes to get us to our requisite happy ending.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but either way, I think we’ll agree that Jung So Min and Choi Woo Sik as our OTP make up Show’s biggest bright spot.
Not bad, but could’ve been so much better.
In my opinion, this little show manages to do a lot, despite its very short run-time.
As a rom-com, it’s familiar yet fresh, managing to weave rom-com tropes that we recognize, into a Japanese-quirky narrative that I found difficult to predict.
And then, concurrently, we’ve got healing journeys for our main characters, which, at their core, feel relatable and meaningful, because don’t we all have some healing to do, yes? 🥲
Add on the facts that: 1, we get both Han Hyo Joo and Oguri Shun playing our OTP, 2, the chocolates in this show are lovingly filmed and look absolutely delicious, and 3, this is only 8 short episodes, and I don’t see how you’d want to say “No” to this one. 😉🥰
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The most important thing I feel I could say about this show, is, don’t let its somber premise put you off.
Show is thoughtfully written, tenderly directed and wonderfully delivered, so much so that I found myself feeling fully engaged, from beginning to end.
Our entire cast is excellent, but the standouts are our leads, Kim Go Eun and Park Ji Hyun, who both give us performances that feel wonderfully raw and real, so much so that I could fully buy that they just simply were these people.
An underrated gem that’s absolutely worth the investment of your drama hours – and your heart. 🥲
If you’re looking for something that goes down quite light, but still has a bit of substance to it, this little show could be worth putting on your list.
In a nutshell, this is basically kinda-sorta like Dr. Romantic – just make it law, rather than medicine.
So if you loved Dr. Romantic and Han Seok Kyu in it (Open Threads for Season 1 here!), then this show is pretty likely one that you’d be able to enjoy, coz it’s basically like getting Kim Sabu back, just in a different area of expertise. 😁
No, this is not brilliant, but it does scratch that Dr. Romantic sort of itch quite nicely.
Whether or not this show could work for you, really depends on your expectations.
If you’re looking for realism and logic, this show probably isn’t for you, because Show fundamentally expects you to be able to suspend disbelief – because in no world does Zhou Ye look like a tough fighter male general. 😁
However, if you’re able to roll with those logic stretches; if you enjoy stories about strong female characters; if you just like Cheng Lei’s scowling, smoldering intensity – then this one could be quite enjoyable for you.
Me? I was in it for Cheng Lei’s simmering smolder. 😁🔥