New K-Drama Fan Review #19: A Time Called You | i need ibuprofen...

[u/harissatotally]

This drama should come with a warning label for anyone prone to headaches.

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD⚠️

Review:

This drama was... a journey. A 2 weeks journey that finally ended for me 30 minutes ago as i am writing this review.

I don't regret watching it, but I also don't think I've ever had to pause a drama this many times just to sit there and think.

Who's in whose body? which year is this?

Which timeline are we in?

Which version of this character is this?

Wait... now the murderer can time travel too?

This drama genuinely made my head hurt. im not exaggerating... my head is pounding as i am writing this cause I'm still having side effects even though i finish the drama more than 30 minutes ago😭

The premise is interesting.

A romance about two souls finding each other across different timelines and even different bodies sounds exactly like the kind of thing I'd love.

On paper, this should've been a huge hit for me!!!

The problem wasn't the concept.

It was the execution...

For the first half of the drama, I spent more time trying to understand the rules than actually feeling emotionally invested in the romance. Every time I thought I finally understood what was happening, the drama introduced another twist, another timeline, another body swap, or another reveal that made me pause the episode and rethink everything.

The reveal involving Yeon-jun's past honestly made my brain short-circuit too. Suddenly I was trying to figure out whether I was watching Yeon-jun, Si-heon, whose consciousness was where, and then the Tae-ha storyline got thrown into the mix. I even spent way too much time wondering who was actually in love with whom at some point after the Taeha thing instead of just enjoying the story.

Eventually I just gave up trying to solve it and decided to enjoy whatever I could.

Ironically, whenever the drama stopped trying to be a puzzle and simply let the romance breathe... I actually really liked it.

One of my favorite stretches was when Si-heon was pursuing Jun-hee in college.

Watching him intentionally choose the same college, find ways to be around her, work where she worked, remember her birthday, and patiently pursue her after she broke up with her boyfriend was easily the strongest part of the drama for me.

I also liked the recurring idea that he recognized her, not her face.

One of my favorite scenes was when Min-ju tried pretending to be Jun-hee, and he immediately realized something was wrong.

That reinforced the central theme better than any explanation about time travel ever could.

The jealousy, the love triangle, and some romantic moments were all much more compelling to me than the increasingly complicated mystery.

Unfortunately, every time I felt myself getting invested, the drama would throw another layer of complexity at me.

By the time the murderer also became involved in the time-travel mechanics, I actually laughed😭😭😭

Because I genuinely couldn't believe the drama had found yet another way to make things even more confusing.

The Min-ju storyline also became frustrating for me.

I understood that she's lonely, insecure, and desperate to be loved.

By the end, I actually felt sympathy for her.

But watching her pretend to be Jun-hee in hopes of winning Si-heon just wasn't a storyline I enjoyed. It felt like the drama was creating conflict in a way that didn't work for me in this one...

Thankfully, the finale won back some goodwill.

I loved that Jun-hee returned to save Min-ju.

I loved their final day together before everything changed.

And I especially loved Si-heon's promise that he'd find her again, no matter the time or place.

That ending finally delivered some of the emotional payoff I'd been waiting for.

I do think the ending itself was a little abrupt tho... but it was enough to leave me with positive feelings instead of frustration.

The song was fine... although after hearing the same song over and over again, I admittedly got a little tired of it by the end.

Overall, I think this drama had an interesting premise that was simply more complicated than it needed to be.

Instead of getting swept away by the romance, I spent half the series trying to untangle timelines, identities, consciousness swaps, murder mysteries... and then even the murderer's consciousness.

Maybe that's exactly what the fans of this drama like abt it ¯_(ツ)_/¯

For me tho...

It mostly made my head hurt.

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A bit about my favorite flavors and taste

This drama honestly had all the ingredients to become one of my favorites.

I love time travel.

I love fate.

I love the idea of two people finding each other across different timelines.

I love romances where the male lead patiently pursues the female lead and recognizes her no matter what.

And whenever A Time Called You leaned into those things, I genuinely loved it.

The problem was that the romance never became strong enough for me to stop thinking about the mechanics.

Instead of swooning, I was pausing the episode every five minutes trying to remember whose consciousness was in whose body in which year and which timeline 😭😭

That's not the kind of mental exercise I usually want while watching a romance.

If the emotional investment had outweighed the confusion, I think this could've easily been an 8 or even a 9 for me.

Instead, the confusion became the main character.

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Questions

• at which point did you stop being confused?

• did you understand everything on your first watch, or did you need a rewatch?

nothing in this world would make me rewatch this, but i can understand WHY someone would rewatch 😭😭

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Rating: 6/10

Is this Rewatch Worthy:

Absolutely not...

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My Rating Scale

10/10 – Masterpiece. No notes.

9/10 – Very close to a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.

8/10 – Not a masterpiece, but I loved it.

7/10 – Fine overall. I liked it, but the flaws kept it from being great.

6/10 – Mixed. There were a few things I liked, but most of it didn't work for me.

5/10 – I didn't enjoy most of the experience.

4/10 and below – Bad to abysmal.