When Time Stops: A Drama with a Great Message

 I've been watching several kdramas at once, as mentioned. The most recent that I started was Marriage Contract, which seemed like it would be very melodramatic but engaging. It was super engaging and I cranked through 10 episodes over two days. 

But then... they had their inevitable breakup, which is boring. I'm not in the mood, plus they had barely established the love first, so it felt like an ill-timed arch. 

I'm not too bummed though because it got me back to a very quirky little drama that I backburnered a while ago: When Time Stopped.

When Time Stopped - Unique Concept

The premise is quite cute. The male lead (played by Kim Hyun Joong) can stop time and lives as a loner, stealing artifacts and art of historical or cultural significance and making sure it doesn't end up in the black market or exported. ML snaps his fingers and the whole world stops. Rain stops. Computers stop functioning. Everything pauses...

...except for the FL. 

Cute, right? Well, there is also some boring stuff about "reapers" who try to remove people with nonhuman powers from the Earth because they shouldn't be here. To be honest, I've been skipping lots of those scenes because I don't care. I got the gist.

When Time Stopped - Unique Theme

Why am I so into it though? For the past several episodes, he has been using his power to save people, with the help of the FL. Strangely, it seemed that she found the first one or two, but now he is finding them and starting the process of helping without her. Very sweet.

Who are they helping? One neighbor was an ex-gangster with a big price on his head over a misunderstanding. Another neighbor had a sexually assaulted daughter who was extremely agoraphobic. There was an orphan brother and telepathic sister who were being terribly bullied at school. And the female lead herself, with an impossible debt to a loan shark.

When Time Stopped - Not the Cliché Cold Characters

He helped them all. His character seemed like he'd be a stoic, cold, jerk kind of dude like so many others. But he wasn't. It seems now that he was more of a matter-of-fact guy who avoided people because of his power which made him question whether he was even human.

He showed an interest in the FL very quickly too. No super long, drawn out, annoying game of playing it cool and gruff with her. I appreciate the little differences. Mostly though, it is sweet that the overall theme is helping others for no reason other than helping. 

Even the neighbors get involved. When the FL needed to do off jobs to pay her loan debts, everyone chipped in sometime during the night, before he finally froze time and finished the rest. They also met the aforementioned orphans when all the building residents went to the orphanage to volunteer. Together, they washed 100 blankets and hung them out to dry as well as bringing toys to hand out.

As someone who believes everyone should donate their time and/or money to charity (because almost everyone has extra time or money), I appreciated it very much. Even one of the guys who was hurt and fighting with the FL showed up to volunteer. It's that type of drama. Help everyone... because it is what good humans do.

 화이팅!