Our Beloved Summer Season 1

What BollyAI Thinks

Our Beloved Summer aired on SBS from December 6, 2021, to January 25, 2022, highlighting the gap between domestic cable performance and streaming reach: domestic ratings averaged 3.9 percent while the series ranked in Netflix's global Top 10 across multiple markets. Rotten Tomatoes scored it at 86 percent, with Kim Da-mi and Choi Woo-shik, previously paired off-screen during The Witch, bringing chemistry that feels earned rather than constructed. IMDb audiences settled at 8.2. The screenplay by Lee Na-eun uses a creative structure that weaves the documentary-within-the-drama device into the romance while keeping it from feeling contrived. The show received the Director's Award at the 2021 SBS Drama Awards. The craft supports it as a well-crafted romantic drama, lifted by lead performances above the genre's typical baseline.

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The Room

Standout Episodes

The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.

1. E1Episode 17.5

   The premiere establishes the split timeline with brisk efficiency: the documentary from five years ago, the present-tense awkwardness of a forced reunion, and the clear incompatibility the couple have built into their adult identities. The first episode works because both leads make their characters’ avoidance of each other fully legible without exposition.

   The moment: Yeon-su and Ung’s first encounter since the breakup - a scene that tells the audience everything about the cost of their split before any backstory is provided.

   Full review of E1 →
2. E16Episode 168.2

   The finale ties the documentary thread and the romantic resolution together through sustained character work. The show does not overstate the reunion and does not undercut it either, striking a tonal balance that stands out for the genre.

   The moment: The final scene with the documentary playing - the show using its central structural device one last time to make the emotional point directly.

   Full review of E16 →