Twinkling Watermelon (2023)

Light and Shadow

“An artist should recognize a metaphor” a character tells the show’s protagonist towards the end. And like Jin Soo Wan’s earlier shows, this one uses metaphor (in this case the trope of time travel) to explore how pain can become the garden in which art and joy grow, how parents can fail and save their children, and how it is not luck or fame or fortune but love that keeps us rooted in this broken world.

Most shows hesitate to mix comedy with serious themes, as if by merging the two, they’ll either destroy the lightness of the former or dilute the gravitas of the latter. Twinkling Watermelon explores child abuse, neglect, suicidal ideation, and discrimination against the deaf community, but it does so amidst a candy-colored swirl of music and unbridled teen exuberance. Its characters face real trauma, but they also laugh and flirt and rock out with their friends and wear their hearts on their sleeves for all to see. There are few dramas as unapologetic in their delight as this one, and even when plot points get messy or a random gang of thugs appears, the show’s warmth never falters. And in the end, it suggests that’s what truly matters both in art and life.

So to judge it by this criteria, does this show spark joy? Yes. So, so much. And its happy moments shine all the brighter for being set against the darkness.

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One of the best of 2023

There are so many dramas that get made with the intention of communicating some grand message about some societal problem or depict something particularly provoking in the hopes of making ground breaking commentary that sticks in viewers minds for years. I feel that in the hopes of achieving this goal a lot of dramas fail to tell a good story. I think that writers and directors often forget that in telling a great, entertaining and memorable story they will usually end up fulfilling the goal of sending a message that sticks in people's memories for years to come. Twinkling Watermelon is one of those dramas. This drama and My Dearest were the only two truly great Korean dramas I watched in 2023.

I HATE teen and music dramas. This was amazing enough to make me sit through a combo of both.

TW is a typical supernatural time travel, music drama that revels in many of the drama tropes that we are used to. At the same time it has a new and fresh energy from mixing genres, inspiring nostalgia, and introducing less well known actors to us. I usually can not stand to sit through music/band dramas but TW just grips you and does not let go. It's funny and heart breaking and joy inducing all at once. It does all of this while bringing awareness to the plight and strength of the hearing impaired, while tastefully depicting the ignorance and lack of consideration that they have to endure.

I think that the drama does a great job of showing a viewer how they can better themselves and their relationship with other people and easily be more considerate of the hearing impaired.

I love the ending. It's such an amazing surprise.

It's honestly almost perfect. That's it.

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