I finally watched it. I finally had time to watch Reply 1988, the third installment of the Reply series. Considering how much I loved Reply 1997, I had pretty high expectations about Reply 1988 and thankfully, I was not disappointed. Reply 1988 was a much longer, more thoroughly fleshed story than its' 1997 counterpart. Therefore, it may take a bit more patience and time to go through the story. It is also not nearly as straight forward as 1997. For example, the husband of our main female lead does not get revealed until the pan-ultimate episode. There was a lot of controversy online about the revelation of the husband, which goes to show that it was not as straightforward as fans of this franchise may be used to.

Ultimately, I had little complaints about the ending of the show. I found the show to be very well written. All of the characters were thoroughly fleshed out with personalities, ambitions and weaknesses. I really enjoyed how much Reply 1988 focused on all of the families of the friends. It was not just main male and main female lead and their families, it was about the neighborhood and the people who lived in that neighborhood. With all of the focus on the group and location, it really brought together the feelings of nostalgia and youth that this franchise is all about. I was born in 1988, in a western country so there really was nothing about this story that I was able to immediately relate to yet, I was able to relate to the feelings of youth. It was really well done throughout this show. It goes to show that everyone, no matter what age, can relate to these characters.

Reply 1988 was a hit in more ways than one. I wholeheartedly recommend it.