I  feel somewhat confused by what I just finished watching.

On a basic level this drama has it all, friendship, family, romance, character development, time travel, humour, music, it really has it all. But this isn't necessarily a good thing. With all of that come the responsibility to maintain all these and sadly, Hit the Top fails at this. I am unsure if this is because it is a 30min episodic drama, which gives the element of moving onto something new in the next episode, or how the story is shared. To me, there is too much focus on some characters at times that are not propelling the story forward, or not enough focus on the relevant parts of the story.

This is very evident with the time travel factor. Yoon Shi Yoon's character in the beginning is led through some physically challenging tasks to return to the past. However, once they don't work, it's like this old rerun of a saying "go back to where you belong" is said, but no work is achieved. This also relates to his lost money and again there is no true emphasis on either after awhile.. it's just left until towards the end where SO MUCH wrapping up occurs. Speaking of, when Yoo Hyun Jae is finally able to return to his past, it makes little sense. What makes him suddenly feel the need to make this a mission? How does he know he needs to return, and what happens to old Hyun Jae? So many questions that are simply flicked off in the present as "I don't know what happened." That doesn't sit with me and puts a huge dent in this being an enjoyable, believable experience of time travelling that any of the other characters seem to accept.

The romance is shaky, and very up and down. I am a huge Yoon Shi Yoon fan, and when it comes to romance, he usually knows what he's doing given any role he's undertaken in the past. For some reason this doesn't occur as naturally as it has in other dramas. Again, Lee Se Young has also proven herself as a formidable actress to me in Introverted Boss/Age of Youth, and was expecting her to shine as Da Bong's lover. But it just seemed forced. Again much like other 30min dramas, I feel they skip over many steps in their relationship once it's occurred. I guess I like to be led down the path with the characters as they fall in love, not told it's happened.

This drama has a lot of actors who I normally expect a lot from, and so perhaps that is why it failed in my eyes when their performances weren't as strong. I put this down to the busy nature of this drama, the multiple lives we are following about, and the lack of growth in several areas. I honestly found my interest in some of the stories shared to drop around episode 12, and never return. I didn't care for some of the characters, no matter how vital they were made to be to the story. Others could have been more utilised as well, but they weren't and it made it rather messy.

If you are looking for something uncomplicated that is great to watch whilst doing something else, then this might be enjoyable for you. For me, I feel like even though it wrapped up the lives of all with a nicely tied off ribbon, many loose threads leave me questioning what went wrong in this, and how it could have been executed better.