This review may contain spoilers
a lot of good ingredients but the predatory romance ruins everything
God what an aggravating experience. But let's start w the positives bc the positives are really really strong. There are a lot of really poignant moments relating to death — the entire sequence of 9 year old Euntak arriving at home and slowly realizing she's talking w her mom's ghost and then immediately running into Reaper... goosebumps! Reaper as a character is just so well-crafted and intricately written and Lee Dong Wook's performance is breathtaking. I love the lore/worldbuilding for Goblin and the Reapers. Goblin's backstory is fascinating and the way it is entangled with the present is so so so cool — I cannot count how many times the editing had me gasping w the way it showed the past paralleling the present. Reaper/Sunny was so beautiful and heartbreaking and I love their dynamic so much.There are some really, *really* excellent impactful scenes... but it's so hard to enjoy this show for more than 5 minutes at a time before remembering the revolting predatory romance that is at the center of this whole thing. And I think I get what the writers were going for bc in order for Goblin to reevaluate his life and want to continue living, Euntak had to be Goblin's complete opposite — bright personality/optimist, in need of a protector, naive due to her lack of experience and youth. But, like… she can be these things and an adult. Yet the writers chose to have her be a 19 year old — a girl who is still in high school! — while he's 900+ years old. Why the hell is he falling for her? We can't use the excuse that she's mature and he(/the narrative) forgets that she's only 19 bc she truly acts like a teenager — the inciting incident of the whole show (Goblin and Euntak meeting) happens because she makes a birthday wish for a job, to get away from her abusive family, and to get her first boyfriend. When he helps grant those first two wishes, she becomes fixated on him granting the third. She becomes infatuated with Goblin within moments of meeting him — when she follows him through his magic door and finds herself in Canada she's telling him she loves him and asking him to marry her????? GRIL WHAT????????? YOU'VE KNOWN HIM FOR 10 MINUTES!!!! Later she reunites with a childhood friend — who I guess she had a crush on when they were growing up? — and then starts obsessing over him because she feels rejected by Goblin. She constantly makes stupid, impulsive decisions with no thought to her safety. Practically everything about her behavior screams teenager. So, again, why the f*ck is Goblin falling for her??????? At 900+ years old, he's falling in love with a girl who has no solid sense of who she is (because she has barely had the chance to live her life!) and the show is trying to gaslight me into finding this cute???????? And for the first half of the show he honestly treats Euntak like shit bc he's trying to keep emotional distance since he wants the Goblin bride to pull the sword out and if he lets himself get attached to her, then he will want to live and hesitate. Like he is so petty and immature, it's insane to me that this man has been around 900 years and still acts like this. As I already mentioned, Euntak reunites with a childhood friend and Goblin straight up threatens this teenager to stay away from her. When he's upset with Euntak, he will do passive aggressive bullshit — there's one sequence where he forces her to do all of the household chores (under the implied threat that she will become homeless if she doesn't) and it's just like..... Wow, you're really telling me that this man is treating her exactly like her abusive aunt but now I'm supposed to find it funny and cute bc he's jealous and wants her attention? These writers can go to hell.
And honestly the show is confused about their dynamic too! Goblin and Reaper regularly refer to Euntak as a child. Like Goblin will quite literally be referring to her as a child and then the next scene he's talking about his romantic feelings for her or he's smiling and blushing about her expressing her feelings for him or they're kissing. Also as someone who LOVESSSSSS a pairing w a size difference, I have gotta say that this is the first time size difference has made me want to vomit from discomfort. Bc he truly acts like a paternal figure half the time. There's a scene where it's her birthday (so she just turned 20) and she wants to celebrate so she pleads for Goblin to buy her alcohol and this somehow leads to their first mutual kiss 😵💫😵💫 There's another scene where she graduates from high school and everyone's parents come to celebrate their kids and I was sitting here like "please don't blur the line anymore, please don't have him show up." But then he does 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢 He thankfully doesn't claim to be a parental figure but still... It's just so f*cking weird and awful and I can't believe how many people are either seemingly shipping this or are unbothered by it.
And the romance is just so enraging bc there are two really simple ways this could be fixed!
1. Just make Euntak an adult! Her characterization would have to be majorly tweaked but literally nothing else would have to change
2. Make Goblin/Reaper the romance! This would require a lot more alterations (removing the Reaper/Sunny romance for one) but I honestly think this would have been stronger narratively bc the angst of falling for the person who betrayed you and doomed you to this horrible existence in his past life and then choosing to forgive and still loving that person just..... whew! It would hit so hard!!!
And lastly... let's talk about the ending, bc IMO the ending should've been ep13 with the time jump showing that Euntak and Sunny are okay and happy. To get more into this let me talk spoilers. Typically I do not do talk spoilers for the last ~third of a show in my reviews, but the finale pissed me the f*ck off and made me rage cry for 30 minutes, so... yeah. Do not read beyond this if you don't want the entire show spoiled lol.
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Okay, so I get it. I get that a major theme of the show is that certain things are fated to happen and cannot be stopped. I GET IT!!!! Euntak was never supposed to be born, she was supposed to die when her mother was in the hit and run while pregnant, so it narratively makes sense that she would die at the end of this since she only exists bc Goblin meddled in human affairs. BUT! The entire premise of the first 13 episodes is that Euntak is the only person who can pull Goblin's sword out so he can finally die and be at peace and yet the writers found a way to work around that ending and bring him back after his "death." So why the f*ck does the 900+ year old predator get to live and mourn her, while Euntak — she's only 29 at this point btw — is forced to sacrifice herself??????? And then in an attempt to soothe the viewers with the final scene, we see a reincarnated Euntak — WHO IS A TEENAGER AGAIN!!!!!! Goblin is told that students are on a trip before he leaves his residence and then we see Euntak wearing a school uniform while Goblin is now nearing 1000 years old! Oh my god I'm going to hurl!!!! — stumble upon Goblin and they recognize each other. Just.... what the hell is wrong with these writers GOOD GOD.
Anyway where's my Goblin x Reaper remake I want it so bad 😭😭
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The plot is so creative
The songs are to love even to put in itunes!
The actors are amazing!!! ;-; grim reaper is so handsome
The quality of the serie is very good!
Gotta love it gotta rewatch over and over again!!!
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just 8 years late...
After 8 years, I finally sat down to watch Goblin, one of the most popular k-dramas ever. Did it live up to the hype? did it fall flat? Down below I break down what I liked about the show and what I liked less.What I liked
- Lee Dong Wook with his slutty trenchcoat and funny hat 10/10.
- The show probably has the most recognizable soundtrack around. Hits different.
- All of the friendships in the show, probably the best part of the show tbh. Specially the dynamic between the goblin & grim reaper.
- I loved the character of Sunny, kinda obsessed.
- Loved the themes of death, god, immortality etc. Genuinely interesting
- The overall pacing is slow, but at least it's even which is the most important thing for me.
What I couldn't wrap my head around
- Ok, let's just get it over with and talk about the main romantic couple...it just didn't work for me at all. I normally don't mind age gapes that much, however, the main female lead acts more like a 12 year old than a 19 year old. I like Kim Go eun as an actor and she does a good job here as well, but it's more about how the character is written. I don't get why they didn't just age her up? Go Eun was like 24-25 during filming, there was no reason for her to be 19. They could just have made her a university student and written her in a more mature way and the plot would still make sense. Because of this, the main couple just have 0 chemistry, they act more like very fond siblings.
- Some of the editing and camerawork was a bit iffy at times, not a huge issue for me though.
- The ending seemed a bit rushed.
To be honest, this was a pretty difficult show for me to score, so I settled for an 8/10, even though I was planning on giving it a 7.5/10 first. Goblin for me is a show with a lot of great aspects that do a lot of heavy lifting for the show, but also some critical downsides. I did enjoy this show overall and felt emotionally invested in the characters. Do I get why this is one of the most popular k-dramas ever? yeah I can see it. Is it one of the best k-dramas in terms of entertainment and quality? No, absolutely not. Does it live up to the hype for me? Unfortunately, I can't say that it does, but it's still a steller k-drama.
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Despite the episodes being very long (which it didn't feel like), it really was enjoyable.
The low rewatch value is due to the fact that the episodes are 1hr and 30mins long, but this should not refrain you from watching it. I think it is a must-see.
I would rate the cast as 12/10... but you know it doesn't work like that.
It was really fun to recognise the references made about actual kdrama actors and even some kpop groups ^_^
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Definate Re watch.
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It did start out a little slow, but by episode 3 there were so many twists and turns and it just makes you want more....
I enjoyed every single bit of it, and is quite different from your typical dramas, maybe cus there's a magical kind of element to it?
I would definitely recommend and watch again!
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Unlike other vampire/immortal concepts, Kim Shin looks 40, acts 40 and he has the power and wealth of someone who is 40. Meanwhile, Ji Eun Tak looks 17, acts 17 and she has no power or wealth at all to her name.
The fact that Ji Eun Tak is world-weary due to a traumatic life, and Kim Shin is currently on a playful/mid-life crisis streak does not solve this fundamental problem. All the cinematography and production budget in the world couldn't solve this problem.
I really liked the character of Wang Yeo (the grim reaper), and his scenes somewhat redeemed the show for me. . . but not by enough.
I grade on other criteria as well:
Complex Themes - 3
In fairness to the show, I didn't watch far enough to see any complex themes. But, in the first five episodes it is your typical vampire/immortal romance (except more highly morally problematic than normal). There were hints of complexity developing.
Character Growth -3
Not up to the point I watched.
Nuanced Women -7
Ji Eun Tak is competent in her wise beyond her years but still has bursts of childishness. (The burst of childishness did NOT help with the romance hinted aspects).
Cinematography/Production Values - 10
It's really really gorgeous, with lots of real life sets and large production values.
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Hit or Miss
ive seen so many rating of 10's for this drama, it was misleading or just wrong. im fine with the age difference in the drama but it didnt feel like there wasn't any chemistry between the two leads. someone pointed out that the relationship was more of a father and daughter relationship, and i can completely agree on that one.the story is indeed intriguing, but it went nowhere from the episodes i have watched. its like someone thought of a great idea but it kinda fell flat from the true vision that "Goblin" could have been. along with that, the episodes SHOULD not have been an hour long. it felt fluffed up or dragging out the slow pace that the drama didn't really start off with. the first two episodes are the highlight of the 6 episodes i watched, but after that the pace started to begin slow and i just couldnt take it anymore.
after the first few episodes. i sticked it out to see if it would change my mind, but unfortunately it havent and will end up in the drop pile >: but thank you Goblin for ur OST.
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