[Drama Recap] "Because It's the First Time" Episode 6

Tae-oh somehow manages to be both completely logical and completely illogical at the same time. First he spells out to Song-yi all sorts of rational reasons how she relies on him way too much considering this is a platonic friendship and they both have significant others now. Then Tae-oh immediately does the selfless noble thing again, for no good reason. No wonder Song-yi takes advantage of him all the time. Tae-oh practically begs her to.
By and large though, these three episodes (we're at fifteen-seventeen now) actually end up focusing on something completely different- a picnic. Obviously this isn't just any ordinary picnic, but the element of surprise is a big part of what makes the entire scene so sweet. Choi-hoon and Ga-rin are obviously the lowest tier of friends in the group, but at the same time they both bring a spirited important element in their abiltiy to bring the group together. And also take it apart.
I like how grumpy Tae-oh is, in part because it should be really obvious why no one wants to go bike-riding with him and yet Tae-oh completely and obliviously fails to catch on to the reason for this until it's literally staring him in the face. Tae-oh is at his cutest when he's just acting kind of dumb, because Tae-oh is not the kind of person who's very good at figuring out why people act the way they do.
This includes his own behavior, which takes us up to the cliffhanger. And at that point I started feeling more ambiguous. It's one thing for Tae-oh to act clueless and stupid in a harmless context. It's quite another for him to start literally acting dangerous for reasons he doesn't even understand, and about the worst possible time for that is in the car. It's like Tae-oh forgot why they were at the picnic in the first place- to appreciate life while they still have it.
The preview, with its promise of further serious drama to come, also makes me uneasy. Although the last preview took events out of context to make this episode look more serious than it really was, so I don't really know. The hints we get at secret character backstory are, for me, not really enough to justify Tae-oh and Song-yi getting together. It's perfectly possible for men and women to be platonic friends. I mean, that's kind of an important part of the premise here. Even if peaking is an inevitable temptation.
Review by William Schwartz
"Because It's the First Time" is directed by Lee Jeong-hyo, written by Jeong Hyeon-jeong and features Minho, Park So-dam, Kim Min-jae-I, Jo Hye-jeong, Lee I-kyeong, Eugene Jung, Yoona and more.

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