My Demon

Lot of potential, but comes crashing to a halt in the final episodes

TL;DR - Worth a watch, but don't get overly invested.

If there is one way to sum up My Demon, it would be "wasted potential". It had a phenomenal cast, a plot that initially seems gripping, and a promising OST. But it then proceeds to spend 16 episodes doing nothing with each of those elements.

Starting with the OST, it immediately grips you episode one with TRUE - YOARI. But aside from True and Whenever Wherever, many of the songs quickly wear out their welcome due to repetition. It feels like the producers found a song for each emotion they wanted to evoke, and then just played that song to invoke a feeling, with no real diversity or writing to back it up. Perfect example - using the main song TRUE when Jung Gu Won returns to save Do Do Hee. Theoretically, a great scene, if we hadn't heard the song over and over, in addition to the scene just not really landing right due to improper build up.

Which brings us to the next issue - the writing team squandered a phenomenal hook with the plot by trying to shoehorn in every single kdrama trope you can imagine. Secret God hiding behind the scenes as a beggar? Check. Protagonist losing their OP powers to force tension? Check. Extremely forced break-up in the final act? Check. Weird trauma connecting the ML to FL to force said break up, without any proper explanation or payoff? Check. If they had just kept the plot focused on the murder of Chairwoman Joo and properly hidden the true killer better, it would have been a vastly more interesting show. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that Jung Gu Won will simply snap his fingers to get Do Do Hee out of any situation, but then oddly not actually see it through immediately, because then we'd have no show. This becomes increasingly apparent when they keep randomly mentioning Jung Gu Won's need to fill contracts as a demon, but only when they need to manufacture a time crunch to remind the audience they should actually be caring about the demon vs god plotline instead of the murder mystery part.

The only thing that saves the show from being totally bland and average is the chemistry between the cast. Both the ML/FL and the SML/SFL make adorable couples with tons of great moments. it feels like they were written by an entire separate team of writers compared to the rest of the plot. Watching Jung Gu Won awkwardly try to play homemaker with Do Do Hee was some of the best moments of the show. It's just a shame that it comes grinding to a halt when they decide to shoehorn in the weird connection of Jung Gu Won actually having signed a deal with Do Do Hee's father and being there on the day of his death. It's clear they were trying to force a confrontation by trying to make Jung Gu Won responsible for Do Do Hee's parents' death, but it isn't written well enough to make sense. He never actually does anything to her parents, but then basically dumps her and runs away out of shame, only to come back and then they never really address it as a couple? It is entirely overshadowed by the fact that she dies to save him, and then he resurrects her and dies himself for breaking one of God's rules. It felt incredibly hamfisted, like the writing team needed to hit a set number of cliches per episode so they forced it in there to be more like Goblin King or Tale of the Nine Tailed. After all, what good is a fantasy kdrama without the MC "dying" in the penultimate episode?

So overall, it is a perfectly serviceable show, just not very unique. Each thing it does is simply done better, in another show. Want ill-fated romance and tragedy? Goblin King. MC with cool superpowers that chooses to give it up to be with FL? Tale of the Nine-Tailed. Tragic past-lives connection? Destined with You. Burning chemistry between the leads with a romance that will both make you laugh and sob at the same time? Crash Landing on You. My Demon is basically an amalgamation of a bunch of different shows, and it does each thing just slightly worse than the show it's copying.

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Park Jae Eon was more of a Demon

This drama solidifies the notion I had that Korean people have a very skewed idea about Catholicism. Either their Catholicism is VERY different from actual Catholicism or they have a very wrong idea about what it actually is.

Every time I watch a drama that somehow references Catholicism, I feel like I'm watching a version of a fairy tale, instead of referencing a religion. That probably isn't that inaccurate, since the Bible is a fictional book, but it is certainly not used as a feelgood story like a fairy tale.

I'm an atheist but I was raised Catholic and I couldn't get into the story because it made absolutely no sense to me. I still don't know if Jung Koo Won was a demon or the devil. If he was a demon there should be more of them and they should work for the devil and not for god. Here we see a demon who is slave to the clock, working to reach objectives in signing contracts, just like every salary person under capitalism. Even he is no match to capitalism in terms of evil.

I do like that they subverted the image of god from the western one. The powers and abilities of this god don't match the original ones, they make absolutely no sense. One of the things I like the most about mainly Korean and Japanese stories is that there is no definite line between good and evil, people can be and are both. Catholicism, as it's was adopted as a way to control the people, does draw that line. It's basically the story of good vs evil and evil being used as a deterrent to make people good. The devil being friends with and working with god doesn't make absolutely no sense. In this drama, the devil is pitiful and god shows no mercy, except for a random miracle. In terms of Catholicism, this drama makes no sense. Still, people converting and using Catholicism as a way to demand and get their will and salvation is on brand with western Catholicism.

The story is underwhelming, nonsensical, predictable, full of patriarchal tropes and annoying. I don't really have any remarks about it. Just another money grabber disguised as a drama. You know greed is one of the seven deadly sins, right?

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Waste of KYJ and SK's chemistry and acting skills

It had potential and some moments/dialogues/ideas that stood out but the execution was downright blasphemous because I simply cannot believe someone would actually pay for a story/plot that is so paper thin it may not even exist.
Side characters except probably for Ju cheon seok were downright caricatures which is sad because those characters had potential. The chemistry and the tension between the leads carried it until a certain point but after that...yeah.
I cannot even call it tropey because that would mean they have done a good job about the tropes because they had the right leads who could have done justice to a solid, tight storyline with tropes done right. They tried to do many different themes and ended up a mess. A shame honestly.

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Worth a watch, but not a rewatch

Despite My Demon being exactly the kind of drama I would usually enjoy, it ultimately didn’t meet my expectations. On paper, it has everything I like in a romance: a fantasy element, an interesting premise, and a visually appealing setup. A demon entangled with a human in a contract-based relationship has all the ingredients for something emotionally intense and engaging. And yet, while the drama works in theory, it struggles in execution. The main issue for me was the lack of emotional connection.

The female lead, Do Do-hee, feels underdeveloped, which makes it difficult to fully engage with her character. While she is presented as strong and independent, her emotional depth isn’t explored enough to make her feel real or relatable. Even though the romance is clearly meant to be the emotional core, I found it hard to become attached to it. The moments that are supposed to feel meaningful or moving don’t fully land, because the characters themselves don’t feel fleshed out enough to support that emotional weight. So the drama looks like a compelling romance, but it doesn’t fully feel like one to me. As much as I was excited for the show, in the end it just did not resonate with me much.

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Doesn't deliver on the deal

The best of the series is that Song Kang plays the part of an ethereal being (Gu Won) who can convince people in desperation to sign demon's bargain very well and handles both the emotional and humorous parts of the story compellingly and delightfully, whereas his co-lead Kim You Jung does not play a convincing 28 to 32 year old age range CEO (Do Hee) at any point in the story, with no gravitas, charisma, or authoritative aura. She is pretty miscast, the role would have been better served by an actor that's actually around that age or can play up that age. The writing for Do Hee and the show as a whole is not that much better, with her being morally repelled on things based on the needs of the writer in that moment rather than as anything that she particularly stands for consistently or confronts to change her mind. Part of the reason for this is probably because the show itself doesn't want to examine too closely how Gu Won enables a lot of evil doing in the span of a decade in exchange for taking the soul as well as damning desperate kind people to hell. It seems that he may have a choice, but that's a dangling plot thread never fully addressed. There's so many and I'll touch on some in a bit. Both the actress and writing does better for Wolshim, which would have made sense if she could have brought in a bit more of that character's strength of will into her modern day incarnation being as they are the same soul, but it doesn't happen.

There is also a lack of chemistry between Gu Won and Do Hee, which could be overcome if the characters had connection, but the writing doesn't develop that nor does it define the rules of it's supernatural world and it's stakes very well. People go to hell, but what that entails isn't explained. What was Gu Won's experience of hell? How did fisherman guy get out to reincarnate to make the same deal again and how did he become Gu Won's butler? Is the sentence in hell temporary or does it depend on the crime? Do people of all faiths go to the same hell? Or does it only apply to people in the Catholic faith? The reasoning between how the transfer of Gu Won's power to and from Do Hee occurred is also ill defined and then also did nothing with the premise of him dealing with life without his powers. It's merely an inconvenience as he still has access to it through Do Hee and he's also very financially secure with his art foundation where he also lives and also really just so the character would hold hands, but nothing more that affects Gu Won on a deeper level.

At this point, every kdrama has a serial killer plot and so does this one. I thought the ambiguity between the actual mastermind being son Do Kyung or the father Seok Min at first to be a good way to keep the sense of mystery, but they reveal who it was way too soon and Seok Min is just the stock over the top villain afterwards. It was weird how at the end of the drama they show a scene remembered by the mom Se Ra about Do Kyung and her like they were a relationship the show cared about all along, but they weren't. There were extremely extraneous sub plots that did nothing to service the story as well like the sister Soo An being extremely jealous and obsessed with Do Hee and the entire mafia that is obsessed with Gu Won. The weren't even useful in finding the other killer's identity as the police did that just fine. Ga Young's obsession with Gu Won was also really annoying more than anything. There is also nothing to build on her current relationship with Gu Won aside from being his actual stalker that even the show called out. They aren't even shown as friends but at the end it's supposed to be touching that he says goodbye to her. She tried to get his wife to take poison pills. If all these subplots weren't used to develop or parallel the main characters as people then everything is so mind numbingly surface level and wasted screentime and storytelling potential.

The ending is so frustratingly lazy. There is zero reason for Do Hee to block the shots for Gu Won. The show didn't even try to make it work by making them magic bullets that can kill a demon or something. It's just something to force Gu Won to make a decision that causes his combustion. The way he's brought back is also extremely anti-climactic. So it was because he won a deal with God, but why didn't that just immediately kick in? Why three years? Why did god have the wait three years? Everything is so arbitrary and meaningless. I initially had a slightly higher rating for this drama, but the more I think about it, the worse it really is. To end on a positive, there is one storyline that the drama actually did good on and it is Chun Sook, Do Hee's adoptive mother. The actress played the conflicting love and guilt toward Do Hee so well and the mystery of what she did had a full circle connection back to Gu Won. Her memory of seeing Gu Won collect on Do Hee's dad's deal was a great reveal. The timing of withholding and revealing this information was good too. She felt like a full person despite the shorter amount of screen time compared to the other characters. Again potential for the drama to be better is always there, but they always kept going in the opposite direction.

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light & entertaining but lacklustre finish

Song Kang, the "Netflix King" for having so many shows exclusively on this network, shows his comic talents in this story of a demon, Jeoung GuWon, who takes advantage of despair & suffering to make deals with humans willing to trade their souls for relief. A master in the human world who is used to having absolute power, he meets by chance Do Do Hee, a workaholic CEO who proves to be his nemesis. DDH is played by Kim Yoo Jung (a veteran at age 24) who gives her character a refreshing hard nosed edge, with enough depth to reveal a lost & vulnerable soul within without turning her into a caricature.

This show is infused with funny moments in spite of its very dark undertones. And although all the usual romance tropes are in play, somehow they're not annoying when you have SK to look at, & whose dramatic acting is actually decent. The storyline follows a largely predictable path but with smaller twists that aren't so obvious & keep things interesting. There's also the past lifetimes theme which is very popular in fantasy genres, showing how demons are born from pain & resentment, & tying the lead characters together over centuries. And, of course, no demon is complete without a demon hunter, but the character who I thought would be that, didn't become that. Questions of who or what constitutes evilness, whether the devil is in humanity or exists separately, are ever present. And, God is a woman, also of course, & one whom this demon serves.

In spite of the questions, Demon is not a deeply philosophical journey, but is entertaining and very binge-able until the rather lacklustre final episodes where innocents are redeemed & bad guys get their due.

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This kdrama is not a waste of time no matter what genre u like!!!

There is undoubtedly an insane amount of visual chemistry between the main leads which is a must when watching a show i mean i have seen plently where a man looks about 40 years old with a 20 year old love interest vice versa but this is not a problem here if you dont count the second ml...

the story was entertaining but not remarkable; another chaebol fight for the thrown which imo never gets old but if it isnt your thing i still say you watch it because it definitely isnt a boring one!

the romance was to die for!! my favourite k drama actress never disappoints honestly and id say he did well too but i have seen people say they have no chemistry which i strongly disagree i saw sparks flying but whatever...

if you want a romance kdrama with an abundance of plot and dramatic chaebol conflict with a lot of supernatural elements and a sprinkle of comedy? this is the one for you!!!

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Good drama

in my side of the story it's really good but idk bout others if u watch it's not a waste of time your just curious it includes romance and mystery and

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Honestly shocked by the bad reviews, this show is amazing

I watched this a long time ago and have rewatched it three times since, but I hadn't gotten around to writing a review until now. This was one of my very first Korean dramas, and it opened up a whole new world for me to explore. I am really shocked by the number of bad reviews this show has on MyDramaList because I loved everything about it. Even after watching many other K-dramas now, this is still my absolute favorite.

Song Kang (as Jung Gu-won) plays a demon who despises humans—though you find out the reason for this later on—and has been making deals with people for their souls for a very long time. He meets Do Do-hee, played by Kim Yoo-jung, the successor of the Mirae Group. Because of her position in that family, she is mostly met with envy, hatred, manipulation, and scheming plots by the other members to prevent her from taking any real power. Her relationship with Joo Cheon-sook, the leader of the Mirae Group (played by Kim Hae-sook), is the only warm connection she has.

As events unfold, Jung Gu-won and Do Do-hee become deeply entangled with each other. The story itself is refreshing; even though there are other shows about demons or the devil, like the American series Lucifer, the plot and lore behind My Demon feel brand new and well thought out. There are no senseless or wasted moments in this drama; the story makes perfect sense all the way through its 16 episodes. It is also unpredictable, unlike some other dramas where you can see the twists and plot points coming from a mile away.

The acting is brilliant. Song Kang plays a very convincing demon and brings so much emotional depth to the role. The cold, arrogant demon we meet at the start changes a little more with every episode. As a viewer, the more you learn about his past, the more you start to understand him. The fact that Song Kang can take the viewer along on this emotional journey proves he has brilliant acting skills. I have seen him in other K-dramas, and I think he is amazing.

Kim Yoo-jung also plays her role as the Mirae Group successor perfectly. She makes for a very convincing hardened, strong-minded, and battle-ready Do Do-hee. Her emotions are perfectly executed in every scene, allowing you to fully understand how she became this person and how she changes as the story unfolds.

The chemistry between Jung Gu-won and Do Do-hee is amazing, and we definitely have the lead actors to thank for that. Many actors fail to deliver this level of connection even when the scripts are well-written, but Song Kang and Kim Yoo-jung truly make it work. As a viewer, you end up rooting so hard for this couple. Lastly, the rest of the cast did a great job, the visuals are beautiful, and the music was incredibly well-chosen.

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