Spooky in Love

they forgot about the ghosts ….

Writing


Review
I really enjoyed the show until episode 5. After that, I don’t know what happened to the writers, but I think they completely forgot the whole point of the show!! The story went from mystery, ghosts and fun to some poor drama that felt super cliché and unoriginal.
I got really sad because it had SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!! The actors were really good too! This was 100% bad writing in my opinion. Such a shame because it started with a lot of promise and could have been so much better.

Oh well… definitely not watching again, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody.

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Spooky in Love was a show I was really enjoying in the early episodes. I was drawn in by the whole ghost aspect and thought that was a fun part of the show, then it felt like they just completely dropped it about half way through. Which was a shame. It was interesting... the ghosts.

I was still really enjoying it for the most part even without it, but that episode 10-11 patch was rough. Not only was everything a semi-boring hotel power struggle plot, but it had the terrible fake breakup trope, and like 5 very blatant ad reads. I was loving this show toward the middle of the season, then it just kind of fizzled out really hard for me. I think it came back with a decent finale, but it went from a show that I thought could be something special to something that was just pretty good, I guess.

Park Eun-bin still rules, though, and she was the reason I watched this, and the best part about this.

Favorite Episodes: 4, 6, 8

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Easy binge but I have my issues

This was actually a pretty easy binge, the leads are good at their job, have nice chemistry and most characters are pretty okay to watch.

However the plot makes very little sense to me, how is wanting to marry a murder suspect less dramatic than maybe seeing ghosts? So whoever touches her sees ghosts for a month and then what? Its lite the trail period is over? And the heart transplant. Love that they made a male lead to be a transplantee without making him week, o making a too big of a deal of it but dude has no scare? has a cardiac arrest and just gets up? and meds? food restrictions? its like oh he had a heart transplant and then all was fixed... I also hate that they know who gave him the heart. But that said they delt with those parts okay towards the end.

And then comes granny, who is so obsessed with superstition I wanted to scream...

But then agin if you can look beyond all this its a decent romance with some moments of suspanc, cliches and highly predictability.

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weirdly charming, a little spooky, and actually pretty fun

spooky in love has a really fun setup with ghosts, romance and comedy, but what made it work for me was how naturally the characters reacted to the ridiculous situations around them. yeo-ri's life isn't exactly easy when she can see ghosts, and gang-wook getting pulled into that mess leads to some genuinely funny moments. it has a nice balance between the supernatural stuff and the more normal, everyday parts of their lives.

the relationship between the leads was probably my favorite part. they don't suddenly become perfect for each other, and i liked watching them slowly get more comfortable and protective of one another. there are also some surprisingly emotional moments underneath all the comedy, which gave the story more heart.
pros:
-fun mix of romance, comedy and supernatural elements.
-the leads' relationship develops naturally.
-good balance between funny and emotional moments.
-yeo-ri's character has more depth than you'd expect.
-entertaining supporting characters.

cons:
-the ghost stories slowly take a backseat to the chaebol drama.
-the plot starts feeling a little stale and predictable.
-the past is revealed in frustrating little pieces.
-the present storyline gets messy and loses focus.
-some supernatural moments feel more like a setup than a real storyline.

overall, i still had a really good time with it because the leads are just so easy to root for, but i can't ignore how much the story started losing focus. the romance kept me watching, but i really wish the ghost storyline had been given the same attention as the chaebol drama.

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Ma Gang Uk is GREEN GREEN

I went into this series blind and did not expect much, but it had been quite a long time since I last watched a drama starring Park Eun Bin or Yang Se Jong, so I thought, why not give it a try? I am glad I did! It was much more fun than I expected.

Both main characters were very likable. Park Eun Bin is so very versatile, and her acting is undeniable. Yang Se Jong can also portray an unserious character really well. His previous works were mostly serious, so this felt fresh and different. Ma Gang Uk's subordinates were also entertaining. Their acting felt very natural, and they were funny.

The relationship between the two main characters was also something I really supported. Their relationship feels very mature, especially on Ma Gang Uk's side. I liked the way he was very understanding towards Cheon Yeo Ri and did not push himself on her when she needed space. At the same time, Cheon Yeo Ri became more easygoing and trusting towards the people close to her after spending so much time with Ma Gang Uk.

The downsides for me were:
1/ Although the ghosts were the "center" of the story and what brought the two main characters together, they suddenly became almost completely absent and forgotten in the later episodes.
2/ I forgot which episode it was, but when Ma Gang Uk was taken to the hospital after being hit by a car, he suddenly appeared in front of Cheon Yeo Ri, and she thought he was a spirit and had died. Only when she hugged him did she realize that he was actually real. It was super weird to me because he had a cardiac arrest just minutes before. There is noooo way the hospital would allow him to just walk around already.

Other than that, it was fine. The antagonists were all annoying, so that's good, I guess. Happy to see Ong Seong Wu in a drama again.

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A spooky love that isn't even a little bit scary.

Spooky in Love, based on the 2011 film Chilling Romance, introduces us to Cheon Yeo-ri, the heiress of a chaebol family (owners of a business conglomerate) and CEO of a hotel, who has the ability to see ghosts and is tormented every night by the spirits of people who died unjustly. Ma Gang-uk is a prosecutor investigating cold cases. After joining forces to solve paranormal cases, they develop romantic feelings for each other.

This drama presents a fun and chaotic couple with a ghost story; it's so addictive, and I like that it's something new and not like the rest. The chaotic and comical situations are the best part, although some of the ghost situations feel a bit superficial since they aren't explored in depth. It may seem perfect, but it has some minor flaws, such as some episodes becoming a little boring because they focus too much on Yeo-ri's family feud and leave the ghost plot aside, which has been dragging on in these last few episodes. Our main couple has amazing chemistry, and they make a very adorable pair. I must say that Park Eun-bin never disappoints in a drama; she manages to pull off that role of a chebol woman, and her outfits are so beautiful. Yang Se-jeong also manages to act well as a prosecutor and as a clumsy protagonist. The OST has good songs; among the best for me are Tunnel, Stay With Me, Promise Rings, and LOVE & GHOST. They made a Beautiful work with them!

Thanks for reading!

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You had all the right cards, WHY DID YOU NOT PUT THEM DOWN!

I usually love watching an on-going drama, especially counting down the hours for an episode to be released, but it was honestly a miracle I was hooked until the end of this drama. Like srsly, THEY PLAYED IN OUR FACES!!!! They had all the elements to make a hit rom com: An interesting premise, great costuming, lovely soundtrack, and most importantly A KILLER CAST (pun intended). But god, did it fall short towards the end. I mean, they had Park Eunbin and Yang Se-jong for gods sake, acting power houses within their own rights, who had the most freaking amazing chemistry EVER. When they were in a scene together, it just felt easy and believable, and my god were they lovely behind the scenes too. They are single handedly the ONLY reason I stayed on watching this drama, because despite an incredibly shitty last 5 episodes, their acting was so gripping, I sat through some horrible plot lines and directing.

Before I get onto all the things I disliked, I'll start with my praises. Obviously I've gone on my rant about the acting, but once again Eunbin and Sejong- it was absolutely wonderful you were cast together, and god I beg and pray that you will reunite in another project with a much better script. I also really enjoyed the ensemble. Both Grandmas were believable and frustrating in their own way, and it was so interesting having them be dichotomies of each other: The traditionalist vs the progressive chairwoman. Also, I think the prosecutors office was lovely, Gang-uk's colleagues were funny and their scenes together were a nice breath of fresh air. Yeori's family were funny at times but had WAY TOO MUCH screen time towards the end of the drama. I mean come on, that scene of them at the prison with the aunt went on for too long, I was screaming at my screen to MOVE ON. I think Hari's brother was an entirely unnecessary character that did not serve any purpose, at least Hari was directly butting heads and causing trouble for Yeori, I wish they'd explored their relationship as strained cousins much more. I also think Seong wu did a great job as the main antagonist, especially at the start when his obsession and possesiveness over Yeori was first show-cased. Moving on, I think the costuming was fabulous in the show and it had some of the best pieces I've seen Eunbin in- the tailoring of her suits were gorgeous and her dark burgundy hair was sooo pretty. I also thing Sejong got some lovely suits and great styling, so again the costume department were great. I also really liked 'Love + Ghost' in the soundtrack, it immediately put a smile on my face, and 'Tunnel' by Liz was hauntingly beautiful as well.

Now onto dislikes. WHAT THE HELL WAS UP WITH THE DIRECTING???? So many poor poor choices. An excessive number of zooms out, weird angles, and slo mos. So much wasted potential, especially when Eunbin and Sejong were acting their asses off. The kiss scenes were so disappointing, especially considering the chemistry of the duo, like what was up with the weirdly long kiss during the engagement and the strange drone shot (I mean, in the behind the scenes video, Sejong literally ran out of air for a FISH KISS). And what started off as an interesting script with complex characters, just fell into disarray as we got to the end which was so disappointing. There should of been much more focus on the ghosts and solving cases, rather than the silly company takeover plot line that lasted SO MANY EPISODES. It really felt like the writers room had loads of ideas that they needed to shove into 12 episodes and so the drama lost focus and more interesting plot lines were kept at bay. Every Kdrama cliche was thrown into the show at the end, i was surprised we didn't get a meeting as children plot line! This was such a let down, especially with the set up of the show. At the start I found Yeori's character so interesting, because I thought with the outfits and the demeanour, Yeori would be a character more akin to Man-wol from HDL or Moon-young from IOTNBO, but instead Eunbin brought a charm and a restrain to her character that really highlighted her loneliness and self-sacrificing nature. Gang-uk was also such a well written character of this equally self-sacrificing character, willing to do things for the greater good whilst also being deeply empathetic. I saw a lot of commentary where people could not understand why Gang-uk fell in love with Yeori, and once again-entirely the directing's FAULT! All of their romantic progression was over that one montage of their facetime calls, besides the few very lovely scenes of them teasing each other. They had so much to work with and clearly just gave up towards the end and just wanted to messily tie everything up together. The issues within the show also resolved themselves far too easily and often did not make sense with previous scenes or characterisation. I understand they didn't want to delve into the legal side too much, but it would have been so interesting to see Gang-uk working on the aftermath of cases more deeply. Also, a lot of people thought the break up was unnecessary but honeslty it felt very justified in the grand scheme of things and the way Yeori has always been cautious and witholding, especially before the couple got together. They sacrificed exploring interesting reactions to certain situations (like Gang-uk catching Yeori sneaking out to investigate) and underutilised the strength of their actors to instead prioritise a shit ton of useless story lines.

Despite all of this, I'm glad I tuned it because I am now more endeared towards Eunbin and Sejong and desparately am hoping for a reunion in another BETTER project. This drama barely classifies as a rom-com, but it's def a com- that they did well. I wished they'd given the audience more of the romance we had been promised but this also calls to a bigger issue current kdramas, where writers are recycling ludicrous cliche plots to move the story along whilst putting the romance on the back burner. The one thing I will end with is is at least everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun. The behind the scenes videos were delightful and clearly a great work environment was fostered. I just wish this wasn't at the expense of what could of been a phenomenal rom-com. Sigh.

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Fluffy, weird, full of non-sequiturs but still fab ML and FL

Though the series got less and less spooky as it went on, I still enjoyed it all until the last episode which was OTT dripping with sentimentality, even for me. The script did not do justice to the FL's potential but she was excellent performing what she got. The ML had more opportunities to shine and that he did! A pleasure to watch just him in fact. Other members of the cast were fine too even though none of them really had a chance to develop some kind of arc.

A trip to Singapore in the middle for some strange reason had me wondering about how the film was funded, but there you go, the film industry worldwide, and K is no exception, take their handouts wherever and whenever.

There were some good truly suspenseful episode endings till about halfway through. My imagination ran riot wondering how things would resolve. I'm sure other viewers felt the same. A shame KDramas no longer get made as they are viewed, I think we could all help out the poor beleaguered writers.

In the end, it's the writing, not the directing, acting or photography, that prevents what ends up as a good series from being a great one. I get that KDramas are having to churn out a lot of content these days and I have no idea how the writers manage to do what they do. But something needs to be done to help them bring their work to fuller fruition.

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with all that potential? wasted

Some dramas disappoint you because they were never that good to begin with. Spooky in Love disappoints me because it had absolutely no business being this messy with THAT cast. Park Eun Bin and Yang Se Jong??? A Baeksang-winning actress with an insane filmography + an actor whose microexpressions deserve their own supporting award, and THIS is what we got??? Be serious. The beginning was actually promising. Cheon Yeo Ri can see ghosts, Ma Gang Uk is a prosecutor, and they’re supposed to solve cold cases together. Ghosts + murder cases + romance? Say less, I was seated. But then the second half happened and apparently the drama decided it had other plans. Suddenly we’re dealing with business rivalry, family drama, superstition clashes with grandma, and approximately 749 filler plots nobody asked for. The ghost cases that made this drama interesting were basically sent to the basement while the business plot took over the entire house. The drama lost its own plot somewhere along the way, and unfortunately I lost the will to follow it.

And the romance… I genuinely don’t know what happened there. Sometimes their chemistry was cute enough to make me smile, and other times I was sitting there like, “okay… do you guys actually know each other?” The jump from “I have a little crush on you” to “you are the love of my life” happened so fast I almost needed a loading screen. Maybe the short episodes are partly to blame, maybe the pacing just wasn't pacing. Either way, the emotional progression never really landed for me. After seeing spoilers for the final two episodes and realizing we were still serving this level of cliché in 2026, I decided to clock out before the drama could disappoint me any further. Dropped. And honestly, that rumor about the actors only receiving the script for the first few episodes before filming suddenly makes way too much sense. I don't know if it's actually true, but if it is… oh, I finally understand how everyone ended up trapped in this mess. Because why does the drama feel like it was written with a perfectly normal beginning and then someone remembered there were only a few episodes left and decided to throw every possible conflict into the pit before the finale?

Such a waste of potential, honestly.

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Spooky, not so much, but extremely fun

Obviously the show is ongoing, so my review may change later, but I'm enjoying it so much I wanted to comment in the meantime.

There are a lot of great series involving ghosts, and I wouldn't say that Spooky in Love is groundbreaking from the supernatural perspective. But what really makes it work is the chemistry, especially between Park Eun-bin and Yang Se-jong, but also the excellent supporting cast. You can tell this was a fun show to work on.

I just finished episode 6, and while I guessed how it was going to conclude, that actually made me much happier than if it had gone a different direction. It was perfect.

Highly recommended.

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