I will start with the cons first, because I like to end on a happy note.

Story:
What an interesting story! The idea of hypermnesia was very intriguing to me, although I will admit I came because of YSH who does a wonderful job here. Despite this, however, the things which draw us in (like the hypermnesia) get pushed to the side over and over again until they are suddenly brought back as a necessary plot device. Once more, the plot demands a ridiculous price from such a production, leaving the audience with little satisfaction throughout the journey.

Sub plots get recycled continuously at an exhausting rate. The writer does just enough to keep things interesting by, like I said, bringing back in the things that we are actually interested in like human relationships and Jin Woo’s memory. These are the things which kept me watching (even though I knew I was being conned) as well as the phenomenal performances by the rest of the main cast.

Cast/Acting:
After seeing Nam in Chief Kim, I was stunned to see him here as an opposite roll. He once again takes the job and completely immerses in it. He was perfect in every way.

I don’t have much to say about the chemistry between the actors. I saw them more as separate than playing off of each other as well because they all had such separate character arcs.

Park Min Young worked very well with the other actors. Though normally seen as a rom com actress, she shows some range here as more of a supporting character. As a character with less of a story than the others, she did a beautiful job of being there for other actors to play off of and reacting as a real person. Her expressions and body language were really wonderful.

Honestly, the wonderful acting of the main cast was the best part of this show and most worth watching for me. However, it was still not enough to make it a worthwhile story in the end.

Production:
The camera work and storytelling was uninteresting and disenchanting. I recognize that more care has since been taken into these things in recent years, but the lack of innovation has little to do with time and money.

The main example of this which I have seen others complain about is likely the drama being too long with the first four episodes being setup episodes. Just as easily we could have seen the back story with flash backs (not Come and Hug Me’s too many flashbacks, I mean) or set up more of the story before having a flashback episode to tell their story which could just as easily of been told in one episode as opposed to four.

Killing your darlings is a real thing, but I strongly believe that there was no reason we needed to spend so much time setting up the story. More time does not mean more effective as we see with “Tunnel” and its first setup episode (while it’s not a flashback, I think they can be reasonably compared).

Overall, this was an interesting drama that struggled with its pacing and plot. However, the characters and cast do a wonderful job to pull the audience in and keep us watching.

As always, I appreciate all the work that went into the making of this drama. So many hours went into this, and I am grateful that it was made so that I could see it and get to enjoy it!