A few minutes of the first episode are enough to make you realize that a veil of mystery covers this small rural town. This mystery is going to stick up until the very end and that’s what makes Hometown special.


Watching Hometown is like walking in a fog, you walk around the Hometown without seeing anything. You’re searching and trying to understand your surroundings, the truth behind everything, only by touching and hearing. After feeling parts of the truth, you think you have understood what’s going on, but you haven’t. You can’t see the whole picture, because everything is blurred. Even the area between supernatural and realistic is grey. Before you realize it, you find yourself lost wandering through the episodes like the residents are wandering around like lost souls in Hometown.


You have to be patient; the fog can’t be dissolved right away. Hometown is a slow-burn drama and it takes time for the story to build up. Many things happen in the episodes but the main plot does not escalate quickly. The storytelling consists of many timelines that in due course of time meet and become one. It can be a little confusing at first so you have to pay attention, but the moment all the timelines are joined you will feel a sense of satisfaction and everything will be more understandable.


Watching Hometown while it was ongoing helped a lot to process the events, make theories and, of course, to not get bored because of its slow-paced rhythm. Thus, I don’t really recommend binge-watching this drama, take your time.


As the story leaves many things in the dark until the end, the main concern is whether the story will lead somewhere eventually or not. All I can say without spoilers is that Hometown has a decent closure but not the grand finale I personally expected it to have. My feelings are mixed towards its ending so I believe everyone will have different impressions about it depending on what they expect to see.


The production

What makes this drama glow is the production. The directing is meticulous with almost excellent shots, beautiful scenery and on point scene transitions. The color palette that has been used in the drama consists of mainly dark and moody colors that fit perfectly with the mysterious vibes of the drama. The music is remarkable and definitely gives the right atmosphere and tension to the drama.


The acting of this drama made me feel something very rare, almost unprecedented. The character portrayal from all the actors was so convincing that during the episodes, I didn’t see actors on the screen, I only saw characters. Even the younger selves of the main characters didn’t seem to be different actors, but the same person. This left me actually pretty impressed and was one of the reasons I really enjoyed this drama.


Overall, Hometown is a very well executed drama from all the perspectives. The only thing that lags a little, is the story towards the ending. For someone who likes thrillers and mysteries, Hometown is going to be a thrilling but weird ride at the same time.