Letter #49: Summer Strike

Good morning, Erin.
 
So…watching tons of clips of Singles Inferno 2 on YouTube doesn’t count as, like, watching Singles Inferno 2, right? It’s…it’s totally different, right?
 
Wait, Erin, where are you going? We have to talk about Summer Strike!
 
1. So, I’m not going to beat around the bush with this one: I really liked the first half…but the second half all but lost me. The shift in focus from character stuff to “Who killed the sister???” stuff was (among other things) jarring and way less interesting than…than…oh heavens—I never came up with a name for the female lead. And I don’t remember what her actual name was. Um…okay, we’ll call her City Girl (‘cus she’s from Seoul). Now, where was…oh yes: the shift away from City Girl and her little group of misfits finding some solid ground under their feet to trying to unravel the mystery of who killed Un-Silent Protagonist’s older sister just sucked the fun out of the show, for me. But, even so, the first half was a lot of fun, and the second wasn’t a total loss (even if it was bonkers).
 
1A. Interesting that two shows in a row sort of needlessly devolve into a murder mystery in their second halves, no?
 
2. So, the good stuff in the first half reminded me very much of Cha-Cha-Cha crossed with Camellia, which is not at all a bad thing. And I know it’s a little cheaty, since these are three shows about an outsider in a small town, but…even so, that’s how it felt, to me. (Which, again, is not a bad thing.) It had a nice, lazy pace, in the first half, and it was so easy to watch, in the same way that the best parts of the other two shows absolutely were, as well. 
 
3. I only recognized one member of the cast, and that was Madam Librarian, who (fittingly) was the writer who accompanied Director-senpai in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. And my favorite character. 
 
4. …unless you count Bom (the girl with all the family troubles), who was undoubtedly both the best character and #BestGirl. 
 
4A. “But Daryl, Bom was great and, as you said, #BestGirl, so why would you like Madam Librarian more? She was so mean t—never mind. Sigh.”
 
4B. Seriously, though, Bom was easily the most interesting character with the most to do and the most to deal with. And, honestly, I wouldn’t have been upset if the show had drifted away from the main leads and focused just on what she was doing. She was so easy to care about, while the main duo were…um, less so. 
 
4C. And, I mean, she’s got to be pretty special if she can make Boy (which is what I called the boy from her class who likes her) seem less like a useless intruder into the established cast and more like a worthwhile addition to the story. 
 
5. On the other hand, I don’t care one whit about Bom’s friend who just got out of juvie. And, if we’re being honest, neither does the show. He’s just there to make Boy jealous for an episode or two, to make Bom sad (in between bouts of being sad), and then…get forgotten immediately. I mean, the dude is arrested—wrongly!—and then we never think about him again because we have a murder to solve!
 
6. I was laughing at City Girl wearing (of all things) a Red Hot Chili Peppers sweatshirt…until I realized she was probably wearing it for the same reason kids wore Pink Floyd shirts when I was in school: ‘cus it’s vintage-y! And then I ate all the leftover Christmas pastry because this fact made me sad. 
 
7. I don’t know if this show’s opting to remove the h so that Landlord Guy’s truck would say YUNDAI on the back is better or worse than covering all the Hyundai logos…but it was different. I’ll give it that. 
 
8. Something I definitely loved about the main duo’s romance was that Un-Silent Protagonist kept all the little notes and things City Girl would leave. Not just because I do that, too, but because it’s adorable. So very sweet. Me gusta. Me very much gusta. 
 
9. I really liked how immediately obvious it was that Landlord Guy was crazy about Madam Librarian. And, yes, I am very happy that they end up together, in the end. (I even liked how presumptuous she was being with him, by the end. (And I especially liked how the guy’s son was basically like, “Get a room already!”))
 
9A. Also, the lesson there: sometimes persistence—when paired with a level-headed lack of expectation—pays off. 
 
10. Speaking of Landlord Guy, though: he promised Un-Silent Protagonist that he knew “lots of girls” and would be able to find him “an IU.” There is no follow-up on this. Which disappoints me greatly.
 
11. Much like with May I Help You?, I think the original title translation “I Don’t Want to Do Anything” is better…though, again, not really fitting to the overall story. That said, Summer Strike isn’t much more accurate—at least, in that neither title extends its relevance much past the first few episodes, which are much more focused on City Girl taking a totally self-indulgent break from the oppressions of adulthood. 
 
12. I’ve already said that Bom was the best part of the show and that I really liked the first half’s focus on all the character connection stuff, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that City Girl moving in with Bom by the end of the show made me very happy. I think that was probably the real love story, if I’m honest (in much the same way Start-Up’s real love story was between Good Boy and Grandma). 
 
13. …
 
13A. Sorry, just took a moment to really groove out to the track that came up on this synthwave playlist I’m listening to as I write this.
 
14. Speaking of romance, though: in the scene where Bom and Boy kiss in the rain, if you pay attention, you can tell that neither of them is getting rained on. The actors are either standing under something to keep them out of the rain, or they are standing just out of range of the rain machine.
 
15. It didn’t take me being the world’s greatest detective to figure out Bom’s grandmother was going to die, after that ominous, too-long scene of her cooking in the kitchen. 
 
16. But (obviously) knowing that Un-Silent Protagonist was the one who paid Bom’s hospital bill certainly did have everything to do with me being the world’s greatest detective. 
 
16A. …well, technically, I said it about the incident where City Girl lost her money during her alcohol-induced blackout night. That is, I said that the bag of money that Un-Silent Protagonist gave her was not the real bag but thrown together with his own cash (because his “I totally forgot you gave it to me!” was so transparently untrue), which turned out not to be the case—but I totally sussed out that he was going to secretly use his own money for something at some point, I’d argue, so…I think it counts as me being right. In fact, I’d say it’s probably even more impressive that I figured it out so far in advance of there being anything to actually figure out.
 
16B. Regardless, I totally figured out the realtor was the killer. Well, the one who killed Bom’s grandmother. 
 
16C. And I’d have totally figured out the cop was the sister’s killer if I’d remembered he was the realtor’s son. But I didn’t. Because, um, leftover Christmas pastry haze. Yes. That. 
 
16D. …wait, the local cop was the one who accidentally killed the male protagonist’s sibling? Again?!
 
17. I am shocked to see cops interrogating a small child A) without any kind of advocate there on his behalf and B) as though he was some hardened mafioso giving them the runaround. 
 
18. I am equally as shocked to see the cops not at all concerned about Bom’s dad slapping City Girl in the face at his mother’s “wake.” Like, they look as aghast as everyone else in the room, but neither of the two officers in the room makes even a little bit of a move to restrain him, even gently. It takes Bom’s brother, the bodega lady (I think), and Landlord Guy working in combination to sort of lightly insist he stop hitting her. And they don’t step in anywhere close to right away. I’m sure the timing part of this is for drama’s sake, but everything else about it just…did not sit right with me. 
 
19. The show starts off with City Girl talking about how she’s always running in her dreams, and then we see her running to and from work and Un-Silent Protagonist starting his day off with a run and, of course, she runs away after her mother’s death—so, we get it, running is a theme. BUT…I would submit to the discussion that there’s another layer on top of the running that matters. You see, the show does a lot of shots of City Girl’s feet (as she gets off the bus, as she stands at a crosswalk, that kind of thing), which is normal artsy cinematography influenced by a bit of the running theme. But did you notice that City Girl’s choice of footwear at any given moment reflects her mood or state of mind? She’s got the cheap black dress shoes when she’s faking her way through life in the city, the sandals when she gets to the country and is sort of playing at being free of her troubles, and she’s always barefoot when she’s being her truest self (with her mom, with Bom, at the beach). And I think it mostly holds up throughout the show. But you’re not going to go back and check, so let’s just say I’m right and add this to the list of things I’ve impressed you with, this go-round. 
 
And that’s all I’ve got on that, believe it or not. Not a lot of notes. I mean, it was spare to begin with, but the second half is mostly just “what is this murder mystery nonsense?!” over and over again. 
 
What’d you think of this one? Did it live up to your expectations (assuming you had expectations)? 
 
I can’t wait until you’re back—though I do very much enjoy working off of a list you’ve prepared for me, so it’s kind of both fun and sad that this is where I find myself. But patience is a virtue and all that. 
 
But who cares about that? I just hope you’re having a wonderful time and enjoying every second you don’t have to worry about this place. 
 
EDIT: Oh! You’re…you’re back! Which is great! For me! Less so for, you, but…yay! (For me!)
 
—Daryl