charming premise that didn't deliver the romance i wanted

This show had a promising start with the quirky small town setting & loveable characters. I liked the casting a lot for the main leads as well as the rest of the town, and the characters in general were very charming and funny! unfortunately, it took only a few episodes for the early conflicts to run their course as "entertaining" and switch over to "grating"... I wanted to really like the FL but so much of the story early on is her screwing herself over by being insensitive and then refusing to back down from her position until the ML smooths things over for her. She does have her moments, but i got tired of this plot very fast. The romance was also lacking in a lot of genuine feeling imo. We get to see moments the two of them have together, but it was hard for me to envision the way their feelings for each other grew into what we see on screen. They flip over abruptly from getting along decently to ridiculously-corny-in-love once they get together, & it made them even less compelling as a relationship to me.

The best part of this show for me was the relationships between some of the side characters; i really liked the thoughtfulness with which each character's personal life was explored, even if briefly. The director was my favorite character, and every scene he was in with the main leads made me like them so much more.. he was so charming and he somehow had better relationships with each of them than they had with each other!! I did really like the ML for the first 3/4s of the show, but the twist in the final few eps didnt really do it for me. I disliked that the FL had a lot to work through wrt to her own biases about others and her outlook on life, but there wasnt so much for the ML to work through aside from.. recovering from the trauma of a situation that he wasn't at fault for at all. I wanted there to be more for them to learn for from each other, instead of just the FL. ultimately that was the core of my problem with this show, that the main relationship just didnt have much to offer to the audience.

overall, i kinda wish i didnt watch this show because i didnt really get much out of it, but i did like the small town cast & setting quite a bit, so it wasnt all bad!

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i watched this at the perfect time...... so it is beloved to me specifically

i feel like this show is the peak of YMMV for me... objectively i have to admit that it didnt quite deliver on a lot of aspects that it could have done very well, but at the same time that knowledge didnt diminish my enjoyment of it at all the first or second time i watched it. i watched this initially out of curiosity for the premise (and bc someone compared it to ships i liked. lol), and it delivered a catharsis i needed so badly at the time because of how evocative some of the scenes are, especially wrt the FL & her outlook on life.
The early half of the show smoothly builds the relationship between the main leads, and it does so in a way that balances their dislike for each other & the show's humor quite well. The shift from antagonism to the FL's acceptance of him is done in a way i liked especially, and in a scene with such a perfect atmosphere... which is another thing i feel this show does excellently- the moments between the main couple are always set with the perfect backdrop and ambience. it often works particularly well with the ML's role within the universe being that of someone who is meant to watch things as they disappear (one of my favorite aspects of his character). This is taken less literally, as there will be scenes where the two of them watch a ceremony thats long since fallen out of practice, or sit in a library full of words that have stopped being used. I felt this aspect of the ML's role as "doom" was a lot more poignant than the literal alternative of him simply being a bringer of death the way the premise brings you to expect. Its small things like this that made me feel that this show was close to being more than it ended up being, because ultimately, little is done with the premise. when you think a bit too hard about the restrictions laid out within the plot, it makes even less sense, but i feel like it had something very fun to work with here even if it only delivers the smallest amount.

The subplots & side characters in this cast are also very fun to me.. while completely at odds with the tone of the rest of the show, ji-na's love triangle subplot was really engaging and had a really satisfying build and conclusion to her own romance. It was a surprisingly thoughtful take on a love triangle and right person-wrong time romance, and it never felt disparaging for any of the characters involved. The relationship between the two men was also done justice, and i really liked the hopeful note their relationship left off on at the end. I felt like this subplot mixed well with the main plot when the two intersected, because the relationships between tak dong-kyung & those around her are fleshed out enough to be very charming. It was fun to see her dynamics with her best friend & her senior separately, as well as with all the others that she worked with. Her relationship to her brother and aunt was some of the best points in the show, because you can physically feel just how deeply she cherishes them while still wanting to push them away from her... i really like the push and pull of her relationships with just about everyone around her.
The side characters are another aspect this show could have utilized to their fullest potential, but didnt. Past the halfway mark of the show, it hits the typical kdrama pitfall of starting to invent unnecessary conflicts to fill out runtime. the first hurdle they pass after getting together is one i liked a lot, and it led to what is arguably my favorite scene in the show (what i call the "real" confession scene after he ghosts her and she draws him back to her through the broken bracelet). The sudden amnesia-reset plot that comes after it? incredibly unnecessary and offers so little to our understanding of their relationship & the plot of the show. I wasnt too pressed on this the first time i watched because i was so immersed in the show, but the flaws started to become more apparent the second time around. The very premise of the show feels flawed to me after we reach the midway point, because the terms of the contract state that either she ends the world, or the person she loves most dies. However, we seem to still spend the latter half of the show under the assumption that the FL is going to succumb to her illness, even though we know under the terms of their contract that this will not come to pass. It may just be that i missed an extra detail here (even after watching it 3 times...) but i do wish they had expanded the contract to either be more vague, or actually offer the third route that the show pretends exists. This in mind, i also wish we had gotten to see more from the character representing "god", because i just feel theres much more that could be done with the lore they had set up here, instead of spending so much time rehashing the misery that befalls our main couple. The supporting cast of writers that worked with the FL were also incredibly charming, and i wish they had spent time delving into the world around our main leads.

to conclude, i really think this show missed the mark even though it had the potential to be really good. but it is definitely still one of my favorite dramas because it just has this charm to me that i cant ignore!!!!!

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