Go Back Couple

My favourite shows of the season were the weekend drama, The Package and Go Back Couple. Expect a review for each, but for now, I want to talk about the best time-travel drama of the year. It never used to be a particularly mainstream genre, yet nowadays we're seeing more and more - this is definitely the only show to do it right this year.

Ma Jin-joo and Choi Ban-do have been married for thirteen years, and are now on the cusp of divorce. Although they love each other, they are tired and have stopped communicating with each other. Suddenly, the two are blasted back to 1999, just before they met, effectively given a chance to re-do their lives.

For starters, I love that this drama effectively flushed and filtered the mundane out of a fantastical premise. Our couple weren't heroes, they were ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. Many viewers found the marriage between the leads to be toxic, but I think differently - this drama was absolutely brutal in how they reveal that are our leads were genuinely good people, but prone to missteps and mistakes.
  The writer even added an attempt to explain the logic of the time-travel! Okay, logic is the wrong word, but their solution was funny and just clever enough to justify the story. Rooftop Prince and The Best Hit offered no explanation for why it happened. Basically, the show established a clear sense of where the story was going from day one and followed through. 

  The casting was ingenious. All of the main actors (who appear in both timelines) can pull off dual-ages, but Jang Nara was especially perfect for her role. The producer actually stated that it took more make-up to make her look old than to look young, since she's so beautifully baby-faced. She had all the little ajumma mannerisms down-pat, and whenever she cried, I cried with her. Son Ho-joon was equally awesome, and I have to say that a weaker actor wouldn't have been able to make his character quite so lovable.
  Something that sadly doesn't always happen that did here was that the supporting characters all felt like fully fleshed out people. When I heard the leads would be meeting their first loves again, I couldn't help but expect the usual - jealous ensues, everyone is heart-broken, someone gets possessive. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the second-leads were sweet people with actual personalities. Moreover, although they may not have got love, they left the experience with better understandings of themselves. 

  I expected a funny little time warp, but I got something so much better. Go Back Couple struck a dangerous balance between funny and heart-breaking, which usually had me crying once every few episodes because of how real and close-to-home it felt. Casting Kim Mi-kyung as Jin-joo's mother was the best decision they could have made - she's one of my favourite veteran actresses, and she's always guaranteed to sell her character to me. In short, it's a show that forces you to evaluate your own life, the choices you've made, and remember everything great that you're taking for granted. I wish it had been longer.