When the Camellia Blooms · Season 1 · KBS2
When the Camellia Blooms Season 1
When the Camellia Blooms Season 1 is a MUST-WATCH, BollyMeter 8.6/10. 20 episodes on KBS2 from 18 September 2019.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
When the Camellia Blooms aired September 18 to November 21, 2019, on KBS2 and became the second-highest rated Korean drama of the year with an all-episode average of 14.83 percent and a finale peak of 23.8 percent. The Rotten Tomatoes critic aggregate sits at 82 percent. What made the show distinct was its genre audacity: a warm small-town romance about a single mother facing social ostracism ran in parallel with a serial killer storyline targeting the same woman. Critics clustered on the show's warmth and Gong Hyo-jin's performance, which earned her the Grand Prize at the KBS Drama Awards. Kang Ha-neul's guileless police officer became a benchmark for earnest male leads. Jae-Ha Kim, reviewing for Rotten Tomatoes, noted the series' generous treatment of unwed motherhood as one of its defining achievements. The 2019 Baeksang Arts Awards handed the show four prizes, including Grand Prize for Television.
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The Room
“At its core, Camellia is a story of love - not just between a man and a woman, but between parents and their children.”
Jae-Ha Kim
Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1The Woman with the Germanium Bracelet8.0
The premiere establishes Oh Dong-baek's world with precision: the small town's social hierarchy, the bar, the son, and the low-grade menace surrounding her. Gong Hyo-jin makes the character's guarded warmth legible from the first scene, and the arrival of Hwang Yong-sik announces the tonal blend - absurdist lightness over simmering threat.
The moment: The first glimpse of the town's collective disapproval of Dong-baek, and the way Yong-sik refuses to join it.
- E20Do Miracles Happen?9.2
The finale resolved both the serial killer thread and the romance with a clarity the series had earned over twenty hours. The 23.8 percent peak rating for this episode made it one of 2019's most-watched single broadcast units in Korean television. Reviewers found the ending true to the show's emotional register - a genuine payoff rather than a tidy bow.
The moment: The identity reveal of the killer bringing the thriller thread to a close, leaving the romantic resolution to breathe in the final minutes.
“Each episode found its focus and finished with a satisfying finale that felt true.” - Jae-Ha Kim