Early Access: 18 Again E1

E1. Okay, I like this one, a lot, and right away too. Dare I hope for Show to continue being this engaging, all the way through to the end?

The set-up is efficiently done, and pretty relatable, I think. I'm guessing that many of us have regrets in life, and wonder what we would do differently, if we had the chance. And here, Dae Young has that chance. We don't understand the magic of it, exactly, except that it likely has something to do with the old wise man who'd served him tea (was there something in the tea?), and possibly also something to do with the wish that Dae Young made, on that last basketball toss, and maybe something about the moon at the time. Whatever it is, I'm willing to just accept the magic, because just one episode in, I'm completely invested in Dae Young's second go-around in high school.

I do feel bad for Dae Young; he's insulted by both customers and his supervisor at work, and his marriage relationship has somehow deteriorated to the point where his wife spontaneously considers suffocating him with a pillow because of his snoring. He means well, but his kids are alienated from him. I completely understand his desire for a do-over, so that he can fix his life.

Da Jung doesn't come across as a witch, thankfully. The way she, 1, tried to be considerate to Dae Young about his big game, when she first found out she was pregnant, and 2, fought so hard to keep her babies, really won me over. We still don't know the intricacies of what went wrong in her marriage with Dae Young, that she'd insist on a divorce, but I'm guessing that at least part of the picture has to do with resentment and regrets that have to do with her missed opportunities in life due to her early pregnancy. But I could be wrong. Let's see.

Show's tone is a touch farcical, especially when it comes to Deok Jin and his toy mansion, and how he basically has a shoot-out with Dae Young, when he thinks newly young Dae Young is an intruder. But, I do rather enjoy Kim Kang Hyun, and so I'm adjusting my lens to embrace the farcical and ridiculous.

I love-love-love Lee Do Hyun as newly young Dae Young. He's fantastic at channeling adult Dae Young, and I can totally believe that it's Yoon Sang Hyun in his body, controlling his body language and speech patterns. Also, there is a difference between young Dae Young, and go-around-for-a-second-youth Dae Young. Newly young Dae Young feels like an adult at heart, whereas original young Dae Young feels like a teenager. That's really well done, and even though I've seen Lee Do Hyun do very nicely in Hotel Del Luna, I'm still pretty blown away.

I love how fiercely Dae Young cares for his kids. I was completely sucked into his fatherly outburst at the convenience store, when he realized that his daughter was working part-time without permission, but more than that, my heart surged with emotion, when he firmly stepped in and stood up for his son, who's being bullied at school.

Dae Young - or should I say Woo Young? - is new at school, and hasn't even fully remembered what it's like to be a student, and he's still making mistakes, but nothing stops him from standing up for his son, and - MY GOODNESS - I loves it. There's a fierceness (and a deep sense of badassery!) in the way he catches the hard-tossed basketball so effortlessly with just one hand, and yet, at the same time, there's a steady groundedness about him, that speaks of adult maturity, rather than youthful impulsiveness. I'm finding this quite a heady combination, and I am looking forward to more measured fierceness from Woo Young, very soon.