Up until now I have been reasonably outspoken in praising Growing Season for its practical usefulness in its frank discussion of sexual health and safety in the context of realistically drawn college aged relationships. It is with regret that I must withdraw this endorsement, as Growing Season concludes with a rather critical plot point left entirely unresolved. I am referring, of course, to the chlamydia infection sustained by Ha-yeong despite her being in a monogamous four year relationship.
As episode five opens up, Growing Season signals pretty clearly that we re about to get to the part of the story where our heroines learn that men can t be trusted. But obviously foreshadowed as this was, there were more twists than I was expecting. Most obviously there are degrees of bad men, and I liked how the guy who starts out being the obvious villain here is soon shown to not necessarily be monstrous, just kind of clueless, albeit in an obviously self-interested way.
Ah-in (played by Park Su-a) is a young woman with an enthusiasm for sex that can only be described as virginal. Ji-yoo (played by Park Ji-won-III) is a slightly older woman with an enthusiasm for sex only in the context of proper vaginal maintenance. Ha-yeong (played by Kim Chae-eun) is another slightly older woman with an enthusiasm for sex only with her boyfriend. Together they.try to present a class report on sexual health.