Okay, we'll get the least satisfying part of this drama out of the way first.

Which was the fact that I'm very much disappointed by the revelation of the killer's motive. Yes, the technicalities of Yeon-woo being the serial killer was explained in a way that actually made sense and also made use of small town's tendency to conceal its affair among their own, which was excellent. But emotionally, it didn't make any sense to me. I didn't really like the reason Yeon-woo sprouted off, which left me feeling like something was missing still. It was such a leap from him desperately wanting a maternal love to him killing every women he encountered who love to read books. That was too much of a stretch and it's hard to buy into that. I need a tipping point for that to be believable, a moment that hurled him completely into the dark side, but unfortunately the drama gave us none of that.

The only saving grace of this whole motive business was the deliberate similarities between Yeon-woo's backstory and Hae-joon's. History repeated itself, but apparently the two men made a decidedly different choice based on their similarly wretched situation. I think I like the juxtaposition enough to accept that half-baked motive at face value.

Now on to the emotional front, which this drama always excelled at.

I love the sense of closure that happened around Hae-joon's and Yoon-young's families. Like the slow acceptance of the murder among Soon-ae's family, Hae-joon rebuilding a new dynamic with his grandpa and letting go of his old hatred towards his mother, Yoon-young confronting Mi-sook for the last time and finally letting that grudge go, even Soon-ae deciding to start anew with the bullies in her class.

It wasn't anything near perfect. Everything felt bittersweet even, but it was apt for a story that revolved around family and various tragedies that might befell them. I even love the last montages of Yoon-young and Hae-joon making new memories with their respective family. There was something wistful in witnessing that preview of a better life for all of those people. How they've earned that after all the heartaches, how the mundanity of our leads' new present life felt like a soothing balm for the heart.

I like the sense of the final week that while the title (both the English and the Korean one) could simply describe what happened between the two leads, it could also just as easily be translated as something befitted every person Yoon-young and Hae-joon met during their time travel. They've changed a lot more than just their immediate family's lives after all.

As for the ending, I could probably hate it more if this was the type of drama that concerned itself with the technicalities of its time travel. (That sense of them being addicted to continue meddling with the past in search of the perfect future is not one that sit well with me, not to mention the contradiction it created with the previous time-travel that past...

I would call the drama underrated and one of the most exciting dramas of the year. Still, it would been better with a less episode count and hyping up the pace a bit. It needed a more solid build-up for the main romance as well. Actually the high schoolers stole the show for me and if I return back it will be for their scened especially those including Yoon-young and Hee-seob. I found the son sending his parents to the past to be abrupt as if added last minute. Cliche and not interesting. If the question about the car origin got tossed sooner or if we saw soneone lurking and watching our leads, it might have been better. Over all, it is a good drama that might have turned out great with a few changes.

The ending was adorable. I realize I have been so used to seeing Kim Dong Wook's sourpuss/deadpan face, that when he smiled, I was legitimately shocked. The drama was fine and our leads were cute.

Thank you for the recaps, @quirkycase - I've enjoyed reading them! I dropped this drama after ep. 8 because of the violence in ep. 9. However, I think I'm going to jump back in at ep. 10, because what sold me in the first place was the exploration of family relationships and the FL's journey to understanding her parents. Time travel plots always mean the viewer needs to be willing to accept paradox. But I think here, the drama's "reasons" and "conclusions" were always built around emotions rather than logical mechanics, so the paradox is more internally acceptable for the plot here, than it would be if used in other dramas. Plus, the young parents are adorable, the retro vibe is fun, and the instrumental OST is great 😊

I thought the mystery was interesting and kept me engaged throughout, so the weak motivation for Yeon-woo was something of a letdown. I get that they were going for the juxtaposition between Yeon-woo and Hae-joon being in parallel situations but making very different choices, and I do think that worked. It's those emotional beats that this drama does best. The personal relationships, and reconnecting with people that were so important in their lives, and seeing them as people with lives and stories of their own, and developing a deeper understanding of them. I thought the drama excelled at this, so I find it odd that there's such a disconnect with the leads romance. It definitely needed more build up, especially because it ended up being such a major plot point.
Overall, I enjoyed the drama, but I didn't rush to watch each weeks episodes, and it probably won't be one I rewatch either.

Adorable ending, the cynic in me argues it was waaay to "neat and tidy" but i don't care.

Also wholesome romances are so underrated

Like @quirkycase, @gadis, and @bunny, I'm willing to cut this drama some slack, because the time travel/murder mystery/family reconciliation combination worked very well at times. I did not mind the continuous red-herrings, because it really did keep the mystery going until the near end. The psychotic Dad as the culprit was an okay solution, that did not require any sort of absurd plot twist, and the son as the provider of the time-travel car was very clever and fit with the family theme. I agree that it went on maybe a couple of episodes too long.

Of course, the changing of the present was absurd and slightly bothersome, in that the ML and FL childhoods would have been transformed, and wouldn't therefore they be transformed, or at least have different memories? I thought that's where Yoon-Young's recurring dream was taking her. And wouldn't the mother have told Yoon-Young who she was named after well before she reached her early 30s, so in telling the story, wouldn't it be prefaced by something like "as we've said many times..." That would have been an easy fix.

The other thing I regretted is the loss of the 1980s theme were "strangers" were readily assumed to be communists or at least anti-government protestors. I thought that was a pretty strong thread--that the Dad and the Uncle in the previous timeline were messed up by that legacy; and perhaps that part of history could be revised in a way more sympathetic to the protests.

As far as the romance, I blame that ENTIRELY on Kim Dong-wook. Whatever his strengths as an actor, he cannot play a romantic lead. The reason there was no chemistry, is that, in terms of romance, as an actor he has NONE. A different actor would have jibed much better with the charming and beautiful Jin Ki-joo, and not left you wondering why she was so devoted to him, or why they were destined to be together regardless of the changing timeline.

Finally, if the romantic chemistry had been better, I would have much preferred a kiss at the end rather than an attempt to go back once more and perfect the outcome, which is just stupid, given they saved one girl but caused another student to die. Why mess around with time if you don't have to? But I realize in order to get a kiss at the end, they would have still had to go back to the 1980s, because in this timeline, kisses are as rare as hens teeth in 2023 kdramas.

Large chunks of the mystery made very little sense in the show. Did Yeon-woo come back early (and hide it) purely with the intention of murdering some unknown woman-who-reads - coz he definitely couldn't have known Joon-young?? Why was Hae-kyung among the original victims? Why was FL's mom murdered?? How was the ML saved?? No wonder the writer devoted very little time to explaining this because it'd make less sense the more they tried to explain.

Ep. 16, however, was lovely and I was so relieved to see things going well in the future. Hee-seob was my favourite part of the show so I'm glad he had a good future. The son being the time-traveler was surprising but cute. The broad message of contending with the past in order to improve the present/future was generally well-done esp. in Hae-joon's conversation with his mother.

I have to say the forced relationship was so bad. When they were talking about being stuck in 1987 and Haejoon said "of course I don't want to be here" I could feel that KDW really meant it. The fake smiles and laughter they gave each other afterwards didn't help either...

I liked this drama and would certainly recommend it to others because it kept the suspense going until the penultimate episode and ended on a note which did not leave me wanting more or less.

I have often heard of people writing the central plot first and then having the introductions and conclusions written around them and this drama is a case of that because the suspect and the motive for the murder were lacking and the time travel aspect of the drama was used as a plot device to set and wrap things in motion. However, these minor disappointments do not entirely erase the journey that had been great.

@quirkycase Thanks for the recaps.

I’m a bit tired today and y’all have already said it better, so I will summarize my thoughts:

Parental/family arcs: excellent
Romance arc: poor

Mystery unraveling: good
Mystery motivation/logic: not so much

Time travel plot device: good
Time travel mechanics and everything else: bad

Drama overall: good but coulda been great

ok so ill share one (or two) thing that made no sense to me
1. Hae Joon when to 2037 and found himself to be dead in 2022 and hence he started all going to past to find the murderer.
BUT
his son says "he wasnt dead but recovered after the murder attempt"
now can anyone explain how did it work like how he figured out that he had died when actually he was alive after the attack ?
thats my biggest issue with this drama.

2. And cause of first point am even angrier as it leads to my 2nd pont... the motive, the reason Hae Jun decided to go on this expedition to past to catch the culprit before it could kill him in future... became just a clickbait.
and i HATE clickbaits in real life... like how its altogether a different thing but tricks people into it....
if only we could have ended it in a logical way i would have LOVED IT 1000% cause now i am at 70% and those 70% are solely for Emotional pull this drama had.
More abt it in next post.

I really enjoyed this drama and definitely cut it some slack on the time travel mechanics (if Jinyoung gave me a car I wouldn’t ask a lot questions either) and the lack of exploration of the killer’s motive (assume going to a library must really send him over the edge.)

This show was about healing, forgiveness, and gaining perspective on yourself and your family members. Wouldn’t many of us like the opportunity to undo or at least better understand some aspects of our family history. The real fantasy element of this show wasn’t the time travel, but the chance for Yoon-young and Hae-joon to really know their family members in a deeper way and reset those relationships for the positive.

As the romance, I wasn’t bothered by the slow burn (more of a slow simmer) given that they meet when she’s grieving her murdered mother and he’s trying to prevent his murder. Romance is not top of mind for either character and, for me, that makes their slow walk to wanting a future together more meaningful.

It was a nice drama about family, it was a less nice drama about time travel, the mystery was very interesting until we got the killer after it was pretty disapointing.

The identity of the killer was quite disapointing because they didn't explain anything about his choice of victims (why them, how did he know about them, etc.), why the red wool, why did he want to let a message? For the village? Every women? Etc. The way didn't really suit this character. I wondered why we saw his father but not his mother, so the fact she left wasn't a big surprise but they could introduce this before.

The time travel part was not completely explained, so I guess we can imagine what we want.

The drama was really good when it was about Yoon-Young and Hae-Joon learning to know about their parents. For Yoon-Young she learned to respect her mother and to understand her father and uncle. It was touching and funny. For Hae-Joon, he could connect with his grandfather and learn the idendity of his mother and her reasons to abandon him.

I like how the leads support each other through the whole story. For the romance, I think the writer missed her chance to make the couple more intimate and then it became more natural to let it like this. 😅

I like both actors in their role. The PD did a great job, they were very beautiful sceneries.

That was a fairly satisfying ending, with the family relationships resolved and the 2021 effects both gratifying and reasonable in context (except for the mismatched memories). Mending frayed family ties - and cutting a couple that were strangling - turned out to be the main theme and the show handled that beautifully. The cameo by Jinyoung at the end was fun but Hae-joon's son showing up was foreseeable, as returning fathers/sons was a main theme and there was no other explanation left for the time machine car. How did Son travel back to 1987, though? Did he build a second time machine? My nitpicks are pretty small: the killer’s motivation seemed flimsy and his savagery at odds with his supposed geeeenius at planning and covering his tracks, and I never bought the romance glued on like a false mustache, although it seemed less forced by the last episode. I agree that LDW and JKJ both undersold their roles emotionally. Lee Won-jung as 1987 Hee-seob and Hong Na-hyun as Kyung-ae were unexpected pleasures, and it’s nice to see Lee Kyu-hoe (2021 Hee-seob) getting to play a good guy for once, even if only at the very end.

Still wondering why the car was covered in slime after that trip to the far future.

It's finally over and I can only say I have enjoyed this drama so, so much. Was it perfect? No. Did it give me all the answers I wanted? Neither. But I really enjoyed it, and it's a lot coming for a time traveler lover like me. But I have to agree that here the time travel was just the excuse to show us the real travel: get to know the strangers that are your family and you've always taken for granted and make some family out of strangers.

Even if I didn't bought the romance, as I find both KDW and JKJ adorable, I will just buy it, but obviously the real OTP in this drama were SoonAe and HeeSeob.

lol ok
*places drama in Patented Minority Opinions folder*

I was bothered when I read @kdramaswimmer 's fanwall about the ending. Like what must have possibly happened for this kind of reaction. Thankfully, it wasn't something out of this world.

Hae-joon missed a loophole in 2022. A time fracture created the loophole where Hae-joon's son existed but they had to go correct/repair/sort out the original timeline for the fracture to become a part of the original timeline.
That's the explanation I cooked up for myself.

I think it was really full circle to see Yoon-young's dream sequence play out again, and in full this time. Thier house is gorgeous by the way.

Even if Soon-ae and Hee-seob didn't recognize Yoon-young and Hae-joon from the past, I'm betting that Ko Mi-sook did. Mi-sook is too smart to not smell something and I trust her to place a name to it, correctly. I thought I'd get some dialogue from Kim Hye-eun though. I'm okay with that intimidating stare/standoff though. She delivered it just like her style.

Should I start chanting Kim Dong-wook's praises. I don't think I'll come to a finish once I begin. I most definitely enjoyed his immersion here as I have in his projects that I've seen. I knew he would deliver and deliver he did.

This is scoring itself into one of my best pieces of the year.

And yes, the whodunnit was tedious and long, and may I add exciting. What wasn't exciting about it was me reeling in shock alongside Hae-joon as it was revealed that Yeon-woo was the culprit. I kept my comments to myself on this matter in the penultimate week cause I was hoping it was a red herring and there's a voila moment waiting this week. Alas! Everything was confirmed 10 minutes into ep 15 and I just resigned myself to watching the aftermath unfold. I'm surprised Hae-joon revealed his identity to his father (I actually loved it. That's the best torture if you ask me) but withheld it from his mom. I wanted Chung-ah to not just know, I wanted her to see, in flesh and blood, that the son she bore grew up to be a good man, that her son wrote the wrong that scarred her, and that she should not regret giving him up to Chairman Yoon, and that he forgives her. I didn't want something hypothetical, I wanted the real deal for Chung-ah.

I think My Perfect Stranger was a tad too modest with the romance though. They are 30+ year-olds by calculations. Did Yoon-young and Hae-joon even share a kiss? All I remember is hugs and hugs. Even if they couldn't share a proper kiss in 1987, what happened to 2021. And if Hae-joon as a son as old as that, why haven't he and Yoon-young gotten together properly a year later cause it seems like almost a year has now passed. Don't tell me they're still surfing the waters😩.

My Perfect Stranger was a perfect wrap. This will be another time when I looked forward to Mondays like TGIM. What's filling up the spot?

The family connections & healed relationships were the best part and main focus of this drama. The time travel element was a fun lure, just wasn't developed fully.

Tears in my eyes when Hae Joon met his son. It was a typical move, but I hadn't thought of it so I enjoyed it. Maybe because I wasn't questioning the time traveling part much throughout the show. Not until the end when the leads finally questioned it too lol.

I liked that the mystery behind the killer managed to stay mysterious til the near end.

I really, really, enjoyed this drama so i dont want to analyse it too closely. Everyone else has already pointed out the inconsistencies and sure there were many. But strangely the one thing that i kept tripping over was how - in a village where a father wont let his daughter speak up for an innocent man in prison for fear that people will talk - nobody was talking about the single man living with a young woman who werent trying very hard to look like the guardian and ward they were pretending to be.
Yoon Yong and Hee Seob's relationship was wonderful. Young Hee Seob stole the show for me.

I've watched this for several weeks; just I didn't have time to comment on the weekly recaps (yes I watched these when on treadmill at the gym, lol)

Overall I loved the mystery aspects of this drama. It is actually one of the better mystery-serial killer murder plot of recent years, HOWEVER I do think the direction of the drama could be better. Contrary to other forumers here I feel like the colourful, dreamlike setting of the 80s is a bit mishmash with the murderous, thriller-y tone of the drama. Also, there's too many talking scene and too few thrilling scene, some parts could be a bit cut-out and felt slower-paced compared to others (both leads are not revealing their motives in the first few episodes which dragged the story quite a lot).

The beating scene is quite harsh, for KBS standards (a very mild standard), so it is not as brutal as TVN, OCN, or worst, Netflix ones.
Loved Yoon Young's dig into her past family and the story's spin to understand the familial bond and trauma, intertwined with the tragic Korean history in the 1980s - for me I think this is the best part of the story.
So overall it is good enough, not great. Could have been better but I feel it is ok.

I absolutely adored this drama!

I haven’t really been moved by kbs dramas as of late, as they tend to lose steam by episode 6-8 but this drama kept making me come back for more. It was very reminiscent of Link which was an underrated gem as well. The drama could have done with more romance with the leads but i still found the chemistry beautiful and kim dong wook’s gazes extra special.

We could nitpick on the small stuff but I appreciate the writer trying to tie everything together, including the origin of the time machine, so i have no complaints.

All in all it was an engaging drama, with great emotional pay off and good directing. Ill definitely keep an eye out for this writer as they know how to keep the audience engaged which is a plus in my books 😊

i really like how they wrap this drama with perfect ending.
Haejun and yoonyoung relationship is so natural with their slow burn romance. I never thought i will like this couple so much.
They only had each other in strange place and they naturally drawn to each other and that why i like when yoonyoung said, she want future with haejun there.
KDW acting has minimal expression but still details. I like when he use his facial muscle to convey his feelings. JKJ is such a sweatheart. She soo lovely especially when she smile.
Thriller , romance and family blend together very well in this drama. MPS become my favourite drama for 2023.

Honestly, right now there are a lot of romance kdramas that have all of the adorable tropes and cinematic scenes between the leads, but don't establish the emotional connection at all. I feel like in this drama the emotional connection was really established as two people who worked towards a common goal together and grew closer over time. It wasn't swoony, but it was nice and felt more grounded and organic than some relationships in romance kdramas that I've seen lately (stay tuned for my comment on this week's King the Land recap for more on this, lol).

I also still don't quite get what happened with their son. I thought it was well established that Hae-joon died in the alternate timeline, isn't there a scene with his father and grandfather after his death? Idk. Time travel hurts my head in general.

I agree that the murderer's motive was not well established. Like, did he think his girlfriend was gonna leave him? That's the only thing that would have made sense to me.

I hated the ending with them deciding to go back to "perfect" it though. Time travel is way too risky for that. I'm just gonna tell myself that they changed their mind at the last second.

I liked the resolution of My Perfect Stranger.

I was surprised about the identity of the serial killer.

Only thing I would liked to have seen different is the ending to Chung-ah's story line. I would have liked for her to come back to the fold and be part of Hae-joon's life.