[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Our Beloved Summer" Episode 13

So Woong and Yeon-soo are back together again. In a cute sequence, quite representative of the kinds of things people without relationship experience will do, we see Yeon-soo consulting outside sources on how to avoid further drama with Woong. All of the advice is terrible, mainly because Yeon-soo doesn't understand what makes her attractive. She's prickly, assertive, and constantly challenging Woong, forcing him out of his natural shell. That quality is what has always drawn Woong to her.

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The ignorance is cute, but horribly misplaced. Yeon-soo may lack serial dating experience, but she was in a long-term committed relationship with Woong for five years. The only reason this relationship ended was because Yeon-soo was scared of drawing him into her personal family drama, since she thought that would make him miserable and resentful. Yeon-soo's reasoning wasn't necessarily awful- but five years later, with the family drama long-resolved, she really does owe him an explanation.

It's only at the end of this episode that Woong even repeats this request. I was frustrated Yeon-soo didn't just bring it up on her own- maintaining the secret is a much bigger strain on their relationship than the natural mutual teasing dynamic. But her inexplicable hesitation makes perfect sense in the context of this drama's larger problem of constantly just stalling for time. There simply isn't much plot left to even fill the remaining episodes with, because every possible conflict was so abruptly solved.

Remember when the documentary production was so laggard that they kidnapped Woong and Yeon-soo and dragged them out into the country, and then they managed to escape without the crew having acquired much usable footage? Well as far as I can tell Sol-i is the main star of the documentary now. We keep getting clips of her talking about Woong and Yeon-soo, with few indications as to what the overall structure even is.

"Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" also dropped its variety show subplot in a similarly inexplicable manner. But at least I understood what that show-in-a-show was about, even if we almost never saw it. The brief story we get about Eun-ho being grumpy over Sol-i going out on a date is cute, with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. That's such a low standard but "Our Beloved Summer" consistently fails to meet it. This show is just a collection of cute, out-of-context clips with little in the way of an overarching narrative or theme.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Our Beloved Summer" is directed by Kim Yoon-jin-I, written by Lee Na-eun-I, and features Choi Wooshik, Kim Da-mi, Kim Sung-cheol, Roh Jeong-eui, Ahn Dong-goo, Park Won-sang. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/12/06~Now airing, Mon, Tue 22:00 on SBS.

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