Whew.

Whew. So glad that wasn't a trainwreck. Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo ended fairly well and I enjoyed the show overall. I wouldn't say the ending was as satisfying as the show as a whole, but it was solid and I can't really complain. Well. Okay, I will. Because I can't help it.

The 15th episode was split into two different points of angst: the return of Joon-Hyung's mother and Bok-Joo making the national team and her worry about having to leave to do that. To be honest, while I am (on the one hand) grateful that they didn't prolong Joon-Hyung's pain, at the same time, they really didn't spend enough focus on that whole arc with the mother. And she got off too easy while he didn't really get enough support. He's excited at first that she's come back and happy, but then he finds out the real reason she came back had nothing to do with him. She needs money for an operation for her new kid -- a half-sister he didn't even know he had.

He confronts his family and there's a big scene and he admits that he's known all along that the postcards and gifts weren't from his mom. He runs away, spending the night at the beach. Bok-Joo does finally find him and there's a good scene in the swimming pool...BUT...eh...I dunno. I know she's not the type of girl to know how to be gentle but FFS there's really no excuse for his mom and I don't know why they had her take that stance--it's as if she was minimising his pain. I don't know why anyone has any sympathy for the mom. They aren't even her blood family and she's ignored all of them for 10 years and suddenly shows up asking for thousands of dollars for surgery for her daughter. In Canada. Which doesn't make sense because they have national healthcare. That, I imagine, is an oversight by the writer who probably didn't realise that wouldn't make sense (should've made her be in the US, where people are dying because they can't afford their insulin prices). Anyway, Bok-Joo was there for Joon-Hyung but not nearly as much as I'd like to have seen. He's carried her the whole show and it was her turn and I kinda felt like she fell a bit short and they all expected him to just buck up and carry on. And they didn't even give that whole thing an entire episode...with the last part being taken up by Joon-Hyung trying to get a place on the national team as well. He does overcome his starting problem but finished second by just a fraction.

It kind of felt rushed and it didn't give his character enough emotional space, but I imagine it was them running out of time. They were nearing the end of the show. And perhaps it's because Bok-Joo is the title character? Perhaps they felt the time was better spent on her? It just seems a shame because the Joon-Hyung character is the one that carried the show.

So Bok-Joo is off on her own in the last episode. Then my next kinda quibble...the whole first part of it is taken up with Bok-Joo getting jealous and listening to her new sunbae's and thinking Joon-Hyung is going to cheat on her and break up with her. When he's never been (impossibly) less than perfect. The only secret he's hiding is that he's helping her dad keep his secret that he's about to get surgery (dad stupidly doesn't want to tell Bok-Joo before her next competition). So it's basically manufactured angst. I get why Bok-Joo would be jealous -- she still feels "lesser" in many ways, but I don't know that that's what I wanted to see in the final episode. She wasn't her best. It does finally get sorted out and she finally realises that it's her at fault.

The very end is two years later when they are graduating. The "in laws" finally meet (though they've been sending chicken and medicine back and forth). We see that Joon-Hyung also made the national team. We see that the one friend has made it onto a pro team. The other is pursuing a different dream. Jae-yi has finally proposed to Dr. Go. Dad looks healthy. Uncle has a better haircut (possibly due to that girlfriend he finally got). The coaches have couple rings. And Joon-Hyung proposes that they get married after he wins gold. They chase each other around a field.

So...okay, I did really like this one. I would 100% watch it again some day. I am glad I watched it. The story and character arcs were all pretty good, with just some relatively small quibbles. I liked that there wasn't too much manufactured crazy drama and it was really a slice of life type of show (no gangsters! no robot arms! no wonky world building!).

I've read/heard from a number of sources that Nam Joo Hyuk is rather terrible in his other roles. I don't know. I just know he was really good in this one. It does make me worry if I want to see him again because I so enjoyed him in this and I don't want to ruin that. He held up in the romantic moments, but also the quiet ones and definitely in the tearjerking ones. He really did an excellent job and it makes me wish I'd had a Joon-Hyung. I mean, I had my husband (then boyfriend) back then but he's just not that type of guy. Ha. No guy is. He's like the Giving Tree of boyfriends.

I liked Lee Sung Kyung more in this one than in About Time (in fact, it made me like that one even less...but that could also be time because that's one of the shows that the more you think about it, the less it works) but she's got some acting tics that do bug me a bit and they are more obvious now that I've seen her in more things. I did really enjoy seeing Kang Ki Young again. I love his comedic timing.

So...am I happy? Yeah. It was good. And I needed that this week especially when so many other things have gone completely off the deep end and life is sideways and pear-shaped. So, thank you, Nam Joo Hyuk and writer Yang Hee-Seung.