I guess this would count as a 'healing' drama, a term I see all over Mydramalist these days. There are some traumatic experiences in our male lead's past as well as some sad things in the female lead's past, and the drama addresses each of them thoroughly, but the over-arching story and the way it unfolds on screen is very much one of hope and restoration through a cozy, warm-hearted lens, hence making 'healing' an apropos descriptor. It's not necessarily a new story, but the over-all charm of the characters and the setting make it a pleasant watch.

That being said, I was personally impressed with the drama's focus on forgiveness and redemption. This is not a typical topic in Korean dramas, namely because of an aspect of Korean culture called Saving Face, but Hometown handles the subject with thoughtfulness and fairness. It never openly mentions Saving Face, but it treats the male lead and difficult past with graciousness.

Of course, it's sad that after portraying such a beautiful story of hope and redemption, the actor playing the male lead has found himself in a very real scandal of his own, and for behavior far more egregious than his character's. We've been seeing a lot of serious scandals recently in the Korean entertainment industry, and each time, there's the same conversation. Should we dump the person, should we dump the media they were part of, should we forgive them, should we believe in their innocence? For my part, I hope Hometown's male lead actor and his ex-girlfriend can work through what happened in their relationship and apologize honestly for the things that went wrong and then move into the future healthier and making better choices. It's a sad situation but not one that cannot be redeemed.

As far as whether you should watch this drama or not after this scandal, that will ultimately be up to you. I don't think it is something that should stop you if you've been eyeing this drama since it started, but you also do not have to watch it if you just can't. There are so many drama's out there. If you are aware of the scandal and are more concerned with whether Hometown will suit your particular drama tastes, then here are my thoughts: If you like 'healing' drama's, then this is a good drama to watch. It has a warm and cozy feeling with charming characters and a beautiful story of redemption and restoration and hope for the future. And if you're looking for a drama that has that perfect, gooey, romantic ending, then is definitely the drama for you. There's some straight cheese in the finale that will be right up your alley, lol.