“My First First Love” (첫사랑은 처음이라서): Season 2

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
August 21, 2019

☆☆☆☆
Yoon Tae-Oh (played by Ji Soo)
Han Song-Yi (played by Jung Chae-Yeon)
Seo Do-Hyun (played by Jung Jin-Young)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

Though enjoyable, this second season of “My First First Love” left me a little disappointed for many reasons.

To refresh your memory, Tae-oh and Song-yi are childhood besties, who at various times in their friendship had crushes on each other. It wasn’t until their college years that Tae-Oh allowed himself to be honest about his love for her. But by the time he finally works up the nerve to confess to Song-Yi, she has already started a relationship with his best friend, Do-Hyun.

As much as I love Ji Soo — the actor who plays Tae-Oh — I thought that Do-Hyun was a better match for Song-Yi. Due to the financial and familial hardships both faced growing up, the latter two were mature beyond their years, because they had to grow up fast in order to take care of themselves.

I knew going into this series who she would end up with (and so will you, because you’re not stupid). I have no problem with that. But what I thought was a cheap cop-out was the way Do-Hyun went from being an upstanding, fun and thoughtful young man in the first season, into a suspicious and jealous boyfriend in this second season.

There were several elements of this series that I really liked. Though Tae-Oh’s friend, Hoon, was presented almost as a cartoon character (lots of loud overacting), 5urprise’s Kang Tae-Oh got to really show off his acting chops. Defying his father, who wants him to pursue a respectable career, rather than pursue his love of acting and singing, Hoon finally stands up to his dad. After multiple beatings from his father, Hoon learns to love and respect himself, and demands that of his dad, too.

Though Tae-Oh’s rich girlfriend Se-Hyu (played by Hong Ji-Yoon) comes off as a Class A witch — complete with a possible cheating subplot that is presented, but never explored — she is spot on when she tells Tae-Oh and Song-Yi that they are both lying to themselves about their feelings for the other. Though she wasn’t a character that I liked, I completely understood her discomfort of having her boyfriend living with a woman he has feelings for.

There was another subplot involving Song-Yi and a creepy older former student who wants to force a relationship with her. Though she has no interest in him and he is obnoxious and pushy, she takes care not to insult him. After one group get-together, he secretly takes her phone and pretends that their phones got switched by mistake. He tells her to come to a place where they can exchange their phones. Though she had been warned by Tae-Oh that he’s a sketchy character, it didn’t occur to her that this man is a potential rapist.

At their meeting spot, which is secluded, he guilts her into getting into his car and then makes it clear that he wants her.

Before her phone battery died (I’m not even going to call this a trope, because my battery has gone dead at many inopportune moments, too), she texted both Do-Hyun and Tae-Oh. Do-Hyun didn’t see her message, because he was too busy working at his dad’s restaurant. Not sure what was going on, Tae-Oh got there just in the nick of time before an assault actually occurred.

As much as I enjoyed this jerk getting beat up, it was also upsetting that things like this happen all too often in real life…but rarely is there a Tae-Oh to come to the rescue. Girls and women are conditioned to not upset people. And frankly, even if Song-Yi had refused to get into the car, she was still in a desolate location where it would’ve been impossible for her to out-run an angry and entitled man driving a car.

Airdates: 

Netflix released eight hour-long episodes for the first season on April 18, 2019. On July 26, 2019, the streaming service released eight more hour-long episodes.

Spoiler Alert:

I almost laughed out loud at how the scriptwriters got rid of Tae-Oh and Song-Yi’s significant others. Se-Hyu was sent to Tanzania (or was it Tunisia?) and Do-Hyun left Seoul to move to the countryside with his father. (About the latter — Do Hyun’s stupid dad did a horrible job of managing money and allowed himself to be manipulated by his horrible relatives. There was no money left to pay for Do-Hyun’s tuition. So, the pair were going to work for Do-Hyun’s uncle, earn some money and hopefully get back on track.)

I’m not sure if you remember, but in my review of the first season, I mentioned that there must have been a good reason why Song-Yi’s mother abandoned her to fend for herself in Seoul. I assumed there would be a good backstory. Nope. She met a man, wanted to be with him, didn’t know how to tell her daughter and left the teenager alone with no money to support herself. What in the fuc*ing hell?! I get that parenting is hard and that there are times when you want to be more than just someone’s mother. But once you become a parent, it should be a no-brainer that YOU TAKE CARE OF YOUR CHILD first. As for the man she married, fuc* him, too. He knew he was marrying someone with a teenage child. If you don’t want the child to be part of your family, then at least make sure she has a home to live in and money to pay her bills. Honestly, I hate how they try to manipulate the viewers into thinking these people are actually nice. Yes, the mom said she was selfish. Admitting that and not rectifying your actions makes you not only selfish, but also an arsehole.

As for the reason why Tae-Oh’s mother relinquished her parental rights, the whole thing was convoluted. She apparently had relatives who wanted more and more money from her husband. They were aggressive and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So to get them off their backs, she made the decision — which her husband didn’t want — to get a divorce and pretend that she was dead. Her reasoning was that if she didn’t do that, her siblings would return repeatedly to ask for more financial favors. She didn’t want her husband or son (when he grew up) to be beholden to her family.

I’m not sure I bought any of that, but it was a better storyline than that of Song-Yi and her mom.

© 2019 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved