As a serial dropper, I don’t have to think twice before dropping a drama. In fact, finishing shows have been a real struggle for me ever since the start of my drama-watching days. I can count the ones I have finished on one hand (without resorting to recaps I mean). The urge is easier to resist when I am live-watching because you get that whole break in between. But bingeing them is a whole other ball game altogether. That being said, sometimes a show comes around that makes me feel the same thing, but in a very different way. These are shows that I just can’t bear to finish because I don’t want to say goodbye. These are shows I don’t end because then it feels like the story is still continuous, which makes them feel more like real people whose lives don’t just end where I leave them.
Reply 1988 is just such a show. I have started & dropped this show 4-5 times already. Not because it’s bad. No no. Not at all. But because it was so good that I just wanted to keep all of them right where they were for eternity, untouched by time. I want Duksun, Taek, Junghwan, Dongryong & Sunwoo to continue watching movies together on VHS tapes as Dongryong farts under the covers & disgusts everyone, before being called away by by the shouts of their mothers from across the street. I want the moms to continue to gather on that little table on their street, preparing food for dinner as they gossip, bitch about their children & husbands, & crack dirty jokes. I want the dads to…continue to be themselves XD It’s sad that so many people get deterred from watching this show because of Reply 1997, when the two shows couldn’t have been more different. I am actually surprised that the same writer-director duo are behind both of them. Reply 1988 is a love letter to an era that has truly become extinct. A time when you didn’t have to share some DNA with each other to become family. A time of simplicity. A time when people cared for other people just because…they were people. This show isn’t just about the youth of our main leads. It focuses just as much on the youth of their parents, & their story especially gets me. Theirs is a story of growing up too, except they can’t cry & shout like their children any more. The world tells them they should have all the answers. Their children tell them they should have all the answers. And yet they never feel like they do. They are struggling to be an adult just as much as our teenagers, but they are stuck at an age & world where they are not allowed to make mistakes. They tug at my heartstrings & make me tear up every time, & that’s not an easy feat at all.
I also really do not mind the duration of the eps at all. I think it was a very good decision to make them that long. This show is not just a nostalgia trip, its a time machine, an experience. The longer duration gives them the time to not just flesh out the plot, but also make the world become real outside of just Plot Point A or Plot Point B. I actually feel like I am also living right there on that street with my five best friends & their families. I was there whenever Duksun fought with her sister over silly things. I was there when the parents got together to strategize how to build Jinjoo a snowman on Christmas so that she would continue to believe in Santa. I was there when Duksun’s family was stuck in Bora’s car because she thought she had hit something & she wouldn’t allow anyone to get down, & neither would she move the car. All of these may seem like unnecessary details, but it helped grind the show in the reality of its time. It made the characters, the houses, their relationships, their interactions, REAL. Which is why it connected so well with people. This isn’t just a show that happened to be set in 1988. This is a show ABOUT 1988. Which is also why I am having such a hard time finishing this show. I just cannot say goodbye to this world, to these characters, to that street. I don’t just love them, I have become a part of them. But this time, I have to, because I started it with my mom. And this dropping business does not work with her.
P.S. I have only reached ep 9. God I can’t finish this. I just can’t. It will break me.
P.P.S. I audibly gasped! OMG TAEK!!! ASDFGHJKL
P.P.P.S. Also, the cigarette O.M.G. But because I didn’t have that gif, because I found this while searching for it, because its PBG, & because he does…THAT, here
Are those fake subs? They seem like fake subs. Cause why the fuck else would he do all of THAT. The question seems to be something more dirty. Fight me on this.
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Kaleidoscopic
January 27, 2019 at 12:04 PM
As a serial dropper, I don’t have to think twice before dropping a drama. In fact, finishing shows have been a real struggle for me ever since the start of my drama-watching days. I can count the ones I have finished on one hand (without resorting to recaps I mean). The urge is easier to resist when I am live-watching because you get that whole break in between. But bingeing them is a whole other ball game altogether. That being said, sometimes a show comes around that makes me feel the same thing, but in a very different way. These are shows that I just can’t bear to finish because I don’t want to say goodbye. These are shows I don’t end because then it feels like the story is still continuous, which makes them feel more like real people whose lives don’t just end where I leave them.
Reply 1988 is just such a show. I have started & dropped this show 4-5 times already. Not because it’s bad. No no. Not at all. But because it was so good that I just wanted to keep all of them right where they were for eternity, untouched by time. I want Duksun, Taek, Junghwan, Dongryong & Sunwoo to continue watching movies together on VHS tapes as Dongryong farts under the covers & disgusts everyone, before being called away by by the shouts of their mothers from across the street. I want the moms to continue to gather on that little table on their street, preparing food for dinner as they gossip, bitch about their children & husbands, & crack dirty jokes. I want the dads to…continue to be themselves XD It’s sad that so many people get deterred from watching this show because of Reply 1997, when the two shows couldn’t have been more different. I am actually surprised that the same writer-director duo are behind both of them. Reply 1988 is a love letter to an era that has truly become extinct. A time when you didn’t have to share some DNA with each other to become family. A time of simplicity. A time when people cared for other people just because…they were people. This show isn’t just about the youth of our main leads. It focuses just as much on the youth of their parents, & their story especially gets me. Theirs is a story of growing up too, except they can’t cry & shout like their children any more. The world tells them they should have all the answers. Their children tell them they should have all the answers. And yet they never feel like they do. They are struggling to be an adult just as much as our teenagers, but they are stuck at an age & world where they are not allowed to make mistakes. They tug at my heartstrings & make me tear up every time, & that’s not an easy feat at all.
I also really do not mind the duration of the eps at all. I think it was a very good decision to make them that long. This show is not just a nostalgia trip, its a time machine, an experience. The longer duration gives them the time to not just flesh out the plot, but also make the world become real outside of just Plot Point A or Plot Point B. I actually feel like I am also living right there on that street with my five best friends & their families. I was there whenever Duksun fought with her sister over silly things. I was there when the parents got together to strategize how to build Jinjoo a snowman on Christmas so that she would continue to believe in Santa. I was there when Duksun’s family was stuck in Bora’s car because she thought she had hit something & she wouldn’t allow anyone to get down, & neither would she move the car. All of these may seem like unnecessary details, but it helped grind the show in the reality of its time. It made the characters, the houses, their relationships, their interactions, REAL. Which is why it connected so well with people. This isn’t just a show that happened to be set in 1988. This is a show ABOUT 1988. Which is also why I am having such a hard time finishing this show. I just cannot say goodbye to this world, to these characters, to that street. I don’t just love them, I have become a part of them. But this time, I have to, because I started it with my mom. And this dropping business does not work with her.
P.S. I have only reached ep 9. God I can’t finish this. I just can’t. It will break me.
P.P.S. I audibly gasped! OMG TAEK!!! ASDFGHJKL
P.P.P.S. Also, the cigarette O.M.G. But because I didn’t have that gif, because I found this while searching for it, because its PBG, & because he does…THAT, here
Are those fake subs? They seem like fake subs. Cause why the fuck else would he do all of THAT. The question seems to be something more dirty. Fight me on this.