Our Beloved Summer · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 6 December 2021
S1E1 Episode 1
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.
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.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
Our Beloved Summer Season 1 Episode 1 aired December 6, 2021 on SBS with simultaneous Netflix streaming as the premiere of a 16-episode romance that earned 86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an IMDb audience score of 8.2. The series ranked in Netflix’s global Top 10 across multiple markets despite a domestic SBS average of 3.9 percent. Kim Da-mi and Choi Woo-shik, previously paired off-screen during The Witch, bring chemistry that reads as earned rather than constructed. The premiere establishes the split timeline with brisk efficiency: the high-school documentary from five years ago sits against the present-tense awkwardness of a forced professional reunion. The screenplay by Lee Na-eun allows both leads to make their characters’ avoidance of each other fully legible through performance alone, without exposition or voiceover framing. The series received the Director’s Award at the 2021 SBS Drama Awards.