Reviews

a hidden gem, when viewed with the right lens

What got me the most about this show is the arc we got for our main character Baek-ho. The story is as much about him and his struggles and development as it is about the romance that is central to his journey. It's beautiful and honestly, it's more than worth the watch for him and Yoo Seung Ho's perfomance alone. The other actors were brilliant too. Just a really good drama overall.

spoiler:

The scene in Ep15, where he meets the 'conductor' again after finding out that the man had been his father all along.. my heart, omg. There were a lot of emotionally charged moments in the show, but none tugged at my heart the way this one did— father and son reunited beyond the absolute separation of death. Beautifully bittersweet.

Read More

Can finally check it off my list, Mission Accomplished!

For Goblin fans, no need to read the review below.

I tried watching Goblin back when it was the latest hit, but dropped it midway, and never looked back. But since then the internet world has been raving non-stop and making it out to be the greatest K-drama of all time, but only when my scant memory of the reasons why I dropped it at ep12 faded, was I able to give it another go, more than anything just to check the rite of passage that is this drama off my list. Unfortunately as I expected, completing it felt like a mission, nothing more.

I will start with the positives:
This drama boasts awesome cinematography, Great Production and Overall good performances by all. It can be watched at any time in the future and I believe in terms of production quality it will never feel old. As for Kim Go Eun, having enjoyed her later works and appreciated her great performance, although I was annoyed at the beginning by her over-the-top childish behavior, I cannot be sure if that was her own acting that was to blame. The more the story progressed that more I could feel her acting improve midway through the drama and resemble her performance in later works.

Now moving to the negatives, after having managed to push myself past all the blasphemous storylines, I will try to mention some of the main things that annoyed me with this drama.

1- Drama Length: Whoever decided to produce a drama with 16 episodes each running an average of 1 hour 15~20 minutes made a mistake. Even the writers of an epic Sageuk drama with a complicated saga for a story would still choose to extend the episode count keeping the running time of each episode at a normal length. And honestly speaking, the story here by no means required such a long running time, yes it had its lore and it had two romantic couples with a story each worthy of a separate drama, but I feel the drama could have easily fit into 12 or 14 episodes with normal 1 hour runtime, there were a lot of unnecessary scenes or needlessly long shots of people brooding that could have been edited out of cut short, half way through the drama I was watching with 1.25 or 1.5 playback speed for crying out loud. The ironic thing with such a long-run is that for me their romance somehow felt it was never given enough time to properly mature, because she was so young, overly immature and trusting to cohabitate with two fantastical being, and he was so oddly head-over-heels with a 19 year old just by suspecting she was his destined bride.

2- The Comedy: I generally love mix genre dramas, and the comedic parts I believe were needed in this drama to keep things from feeling too heavy or angsty, but sometimes said comedic parts were so over the top and full of eye-roll and cringe-inducing moments, also the characters were acting so unbelievably immature and childlike for their fantastically long age span. I mean I can understand that he lived for 900+ years and had zero romantic involvement but still that doesn't mean that he acts like a mid-school boy going through his first crush, and the grim reaper would sometimes be acting like a 12 year old and other times be all wise and know-it-all. Sometimes the shift mid scene between heavy angst or thriller to comedy was made nicely, but sometimes the shift was too sudden and extreme it felt like being struck in the face with a bucket of icy cold water.

3- The Romance: I know it is an unpopular opinion, but I thought the romance between the main couple felt off from start to finish.

Even if as a viewer we are able to look past the age gap between a mortal human and a 900+ year-old goblin, it was totally unnecessary to choose to make said human a high-school girl, they could have easily made her an adult since the beginning with the exact same circumstances (he having saved her life as an unborn child thus having created his own bride), so even if she was in her twenties and his physical appearance was mid-40s it would have been less icky to watch. And then we would have been spared from watching a high-schooler acting all clingy blurting out “I love you” to a middle age ajusshi she barely even knew, just cause she sees in him her card-out of a difficult life and having been told my numerous ghosts that she was the goblin-bride.

I always thought watching her act more like a 12 year old all giddy and childlike around him, and him giving her swoony eyes or patting her hair, that it all just felt rather predatory, and I believe the writers opted to tone down their romantic scenes early on in fear of giving off pedophilia-like vibes (there was this scene where they were playing in the arcade and he was all dressed up and she was in her school uniforms and as she was calling him ajusshi as usual, I just thought to myself how on earth any onlooker would not be rightfully thinking that he must be her sugar daddy). I wasn’t blaming her classmate who was spreading rumors that she was dating a middle-aged dude because factually speaking she was.

4- The ending (the most frustrating) ####MAJOR DETAILED SPOILER AHEAD###

So, he chose to perish in order to save her, good……He was finally free of his eternal punishment but still chose to remain in a limbo-like existence to keep a promise he made to her, fine……She has forgotten about him but still suffer from strong feelings of depression and bouts of melancholic emotions which she has no explanation for. Then thanks to her heartfelt wishes and their previous contract, we see that he has been given the opportunity to return to the living world once more, okeeeeeey (reluctantly accept the hard to swallow premise). Also bear in mind, he is still back as an undying Goblin in love with a mortal; in other words the main issue with the story is still unresolved. Then in order to sort out the issue with her being a missing soul who was never meant to be born, the writers chose to make her die an honorable death where she sacrificed herself to save others which I thought was very noble and heartfelt.

Now at this point I would say the writers had the opportunity to choose 1 of two options; make her return as a different un-dying entity such as an angel or whatever (may sound a bit laughable I know but bear with me), and then they both would have had their HEA living a human-like life with just the inconveniency of having to constantly move and change identity to hide their immortality.

If that was too much or too tragic from Ji-Eun-Tak’s perspective, then the second option would have been to have both of their “Lives” end in one way or the another and then to reincarnate in their exact same form and preferably have both of them be in the same age group this time around. If they thought writing a script where he was reborn as a human wouldn’t make sense, did anything else make much sense in this heavy-on-the-fantasy story to begin with? And why was it so simple to write it in that exact same way for the second lead couple and not the main lead couple? Considering the fact that a grim reaper; who is supposed to be a dead soul of a sinner, can get to finish his atonement term and cease to exist, then by the same rule shouldn’t Kim Shin who had been spared of his eternal punishment as a Goblin after having his sword removed be given the same chance?

Honestly just want to rant, but what was the writers insistence to keep him as an undying goblin right till the end, and even worse to have his bride be reincarnated and reunited with him while she is still a highschooler! Is there some reason why the writers were so fixated on keeping the starting point of their star-crossed romance between an almost 1-millennium-old undying being and a 19 year old mortal human?

The Bromance was nice and cute, but many times it was too corny for my taste, and still cannot salvage the show for me.

The OST, had some memorable tracks, but there were annoying instrumental tracks that sounded like old SAGA game BGM, and also a couple of tracks had corny English lyrics that tempted me always to fast forward the scenes they played in.

Read More

Flower boy: A poorly thought out story

The concept of flower boy was quite promising. I was greatly intrigued by the plot and posters before I decided to give it a try. From the very first episode, I realised that not much thought out writing went into this.

The story reads like a first draft with space for tons of improvement. The villain story was too weak, the main leads together did absolutely nothing.

It doesn't really make sense why gaysorn immediately started releasing his fragrance the moment he saw Scent because how was he in love the moment he first laid his eyes on Scent? Also, how did you let the heir of your tribe just leave for the city with a strange man? The very strange man you were suspicious from the beginning, at that. Scent's ex—whys he helping gaysorn out for no reason whatsoever? Gaysorn also seems to adapt living in the city way too fast for my liking. These are few of the reasons why I think the writers didn't really spend much time editing this one.

The fact that the whole series is just 8 eps long doesn't work in their favour either, however, many 8 eps series have performed really great so I wouldn't really blame the poor writing on less showtime.

Overall, I feel like I wasted my time watching this. I don't recommend unless you like the couple or just prefer mindless series to watch in your free time.

Read More

Great plot, very realistic, minus the soul swap lmao Great acting

The plot here is fantastic and something that every business owner dreams of - auditing his own company.
The actors are all great actors and have amazing great scripts, but they are so creative in their roles and really make it fantastically fun to watch. The villains are great. The daughter and the Chairman in young body are great.

The young actor who does the Chairman in young body is SO HILARIOUS, he really nailed down his role, acting like an old geezer.

The actress doing his youngest daughter is also an amazing actress and it is totally refreshing to see a more balanced and complete female role, complex and smart capable female, and an actress who is given a red light to ACT and to be complex and creative in her acting. That is one of the great accomplishments of this drama.

The nasty boy twin actor is an amazing actor, he really nailed down the role of a rather dumb greedy entitled brat - that actor is a master actor

And the villain girl twin actress is convincing too....

The only criticism of this drama is that by ep 6, there is not much character growth of the Chairman in the young body, he is pretty much the same old callous geezer. The drama is about business deals and Chairman and his daughter working together to outdo the evil twins and grab the company.

The Chairman is a brilliant business wheeler and dealer, but he is cold and cruel to people, and by ep 6 does not get much more compassionate while in the young body. At least he paid medical bills of the young guy's grandma.

Hopefully in later episodes, the Chairman becomes a better human being.

FYI for all those sillies who are making up romance accusations:
*** There is NO romance. in this drama. NOWHERE in sight. ****

The young lady sees in front of her a young handsome guy winking at her and taking care of her, so she is smitten, but the young handsome guy is her father and he has NO romantic interests whatsoever, he is 10000% behaving like a good father to his daughter, taking care of his daughter.
And the Chairman and his secretary are just two men who closely work together and are great friends too.

THERE IS NO ROMANCE ANYWHERE

So let's see how it gets resolved at the end. Maybe the young guy will wake up and the Chairman's daughter can then go after him, or maybe the Chairman in young body will have to tell her who he is.

In any case, this drama is fun.

Music is good too.

Read More

Generic drama and hated FL characterization.

I watched this since i was curious about Zhang Junya after watching his drama with Lin Qiting and his acting was quite okay despite being typecast for Mafia-CEO like with tend of loving his wife. The plot was generic acceptable and the chemistry seems too forced. I quite like He Tian Tian's wardobe in here her red dress is beautiful. Personally i really don't like FL characterization in this drama she is supposed to be strong and smart but somehow He Tian Tian acting was kind of subpar and have no charm. They dragged the mistaken identity until 57 episode and somehow ML has no dignity while FL mocks him.

Only stays for Zhang Junya though and his secretary was quite interesting character.

Read More

If I could give this series a score of 1000, I would. It’s simply perfect. The show nailed the balance between romance, crime investigation, and social drama, delivering a story that felt more mature and intense than most BLs, all wrapped up in a plot so engaging I was literally counting down the days for each new episode. It’s a top-tier production with stunning sets, gorgeous costumes, and a beautiful soundtrack. You can really tell how much care went into making it, even down to the way the language shifts over time, a detail that’s almost always overlooked in time-travel stories, so I was pleasantly surprised. Huge props to the whole team for that.

The cast was fantastic across the board, but JJ especially stood out. The chemistry between Net and JJ was spot-on. Their interactions felt natural, sincere, and believable. JJ, though, completely blew me away. He gave way more than I expected, and I can’t wait to see what project he and Net take on next. The final episode wrapped everything up perfectly, leaving us with a beautiful message. Highly recommended!

Read More

A real gem, amazing star actors, great plot, fanstastically matching music

This is so fun
The star studded cast, amazing rich detailed creative fun acting, amazing plot, acting, and music. So great.
There is comedy and there is depth
it is realistic, it is paradoxical,...
the acting is sooooo detailed masterful

One of my fav actors is the ex N Korean spy and then an amnesiac meekling in this drama lnao just watching him act his role in so much detail is worth watching the drama

I can't help it but laugh bc I cannot remember Bulgae name and so I keep grabbing for similar words, and I keep calling him BULGOGI lmao bc that is the word that comes to my mind first that sounds the closest lmao

The music is totally hilariously matching the scenes

================
I love how the smooth handsome charismatic socially suave and popular Han is the main villain, cruel and 100% evil well camouflaged sociopath/psychopath liar swindler murderer thief

An EVIL MONSTER, a well camouflaged polite suave handsome EVIL MONSTER

yet LOOKING so acceptable and dignified, and commanding respect from the public. LOOKING like a perfect leader

That role is one of the major contributions of this drama, bc it debunks sociopaths, gaslighters, chronic liars and swindlers and thieves

============
Many women in this drama are amazing. The home-brewn neighborhood team is so synced up and so effective, and led by an old man and women - and then finally that super cool female prosecutor
while the "professionals" are fighting like cats and dogs, so full of pride lmao

I love how the motley team of "professionals" are not together then sleezing up together and coming off as a team lmao
and the insistence on old life by the thugs is understandable and realistic and it is super fun to see how it is challenged and melting - and to wonder IF it is really going to melt?

And I love how the small neighborhood team is so together and synced up and women-led

Also, I like the balance in portraying women - policewoman, persecutor, wife, are very smart and capable women and they take no sh.t from their husbands but also do not make stupid decisions. Then we have the Kim politician's wife who is super dumb esp during a political campaign and she harassed her husband to give in to her - and caused major falling

I love how the music totally perfectly matches the scenes in this drama lmao

I love all the paradoxes and twists in this drama lmao
Like the nephew - bc he was so off the cuff, he accepted the washed out stranger as an uncle - but then - he is still like that at the age of 20 and basically a criminal
The uncle has a loving caring side and he instantly took to .. well ... how to explain it in one word.... dedicated admiration and care - clearly he is smitten too - caring for the prosecutor, yet he is the ex-spy from N Korea. I totally love the acting of that actor, it is masterful, small details that are just wow very rich creative acting.
The prosecutor is so smart and tough fighting woman but she fell for the ex-spy almost instantly bc of his caring for her.... And ON THE OTHER hand, she was never fooled by him, she carefully investigated him. Same for policewoman and older thug.
The NIS agent's wife has interrogation skills worthy of NIS lmao

So all pairs/relationships are perfectly matched

All our fighters fell for women, and women reeled them into "ordinary proper life"
I am soooo waiting to see what will reel in Ma Bok into proper life bc he is such a die hard thug out of conviction lmao :( It is comical and also tragic that he is so delusional

===============
This is so fun
The star studded cast, amazing plot, acting, and music. So great.

The hilarious part is that the older thug and policewoman chasing that gang fell in love, and the N Korean ex-spy and the prosecutor investigating him fall in love lmao and the wife of NIS agent is already of a caliber of NIS agent lmao and their kid is already wired for that kind of family :)

====
Imo the young thug actor is so cute, because he EXPRESSES - his face, his body, he smiles, he moves, and he has piercing clear eyes, he has a personality, interests, he is active, and he has energy. It is so cute to see someone VIBRANTLY ALIVE AND ENERGETIC AND ACTIVE and yeah a guy who looks like he has been eating

In this role, he is young, immature, impatient and just bouncing around and yapping like a little doggie lmao but he is super cute :) Still that role is the kind of guy "look, dont touch" but the ACTOR is so fun to watch in that role

The recent trend is some super skinny and super tired lifeless male and female actors with poker faces who look and behave as if they are half dead and just about to collapse if they move away from the couch where they just sit all day long. Women's legs look like chopsticks in a mini skirt, like clunking bones on a skeleton. And guys have muscles but they are so .... thin, clearly just for a show, that kind of dude would die if they had to move a sofa or something.
Those fashion-models impersonating actors, i.e. FAKE actors, are B O R I N G to death, it is like watching the modeling agency list of photographs, faces frozen in time. When those act, they have personality of cardboard. I would just quickly get rid of them all asap, and I would FEED all actors and make them act like real life, moving, expressing, smiling. LIKE KDRAMA ACTORS USED TO BE. Watching an older drama is so much more fun bc actors are so much more alive and energetic and expressive and so much more fun.

That Kim politician is NOT suitable for a leader when he gives up major issues just so that his wife will not nag him around the dinner table ...

and his wife is 1000% unsuitable for a leader's wife when she does such stupid things and won't listen even when she is clearly explained how dangerous her actions are... THEN she acts even more stupid and goes to kill herself

Read More

Good drama, with a few flaws

I liked this drama, the story was good, though there were some flaws. For one example, the past Tharn was a woman, and in the visions she was a woman, but in other he was the male verson with long hair in a dress.
The special effects were amazing! The visuals great and the music was ok, but not great.

The overall acting was good, but there were some actors who didn't deliver.
Billy and Babe are amazing and their chemistry is undiniable. Thier kiss and NC scenes are so good.

This was my second time watching and i might watch it again in the future.

Read More

A comedy-focused K-drama with a subtle romance in the background and a few loose ends here and there. In the end, the production made the right call by keeping the focus on the main character and his journey of resilience in the countryside. A simple story, yet very well-presented and perfect for anyone looking for a "dopamine detox" with good laughs.
The Lead and Rural Life: The family's forced relocation from the big city to the chaos of the countryside (Yeonri-ri) brings hilarious moments. Watching a proud corporate expert try to grow the "perfect cabbage" carries the entire show.
Low-key Romance: The subtle romance between the supporting characters (like Ji-cheon and Bo-mi) never steals the spotlight, serving as a nice breather for the main plot.
Loose Ends: The script leaves a few corporate conflicts and minor subplots unresolved in the final stretch, without much explanation. While it doesn't reinvent the wheel, it delivers exactly what it promises: a cozy, pollution-free comedy that is genuinely fun to watch.

Read More

NOT A BL, but a fun watch for the fans of the actors

NOT A REAL BL, but rather a BL-flavoured episodic exorcist series. The ending exposes a major but avoidable misunderstanding, which is a lame plot vehicle.

Reminds me of countless manga, anime, cartoons, TV shows of this genre, even a couple of widely popular mystery GMMTV series from the late 2010s.

But this one is made pretty good and fun. And if you are a fun or the actor, it is totally worth to watch.

It is also interesting that the leading couple took the roles that would naturally fit them more versus their pairing, famous for its unusual setup where the smaller lad is meant to be “top”.

Production values are great. Make up is mostly good, costumes, props and set designs, music etc.

A WARNING: never substitute peas or any other legumes with fake ones made of just some protein powder because those powders most often are made of legumes. They often put legumes even in powders that are labelled whey or other proteins. Only use powders with zero legumes and a guarantee they do not use legumes for other batches on the same production line so they would be no trace amounts.

A REALITY check: see a post with spoilers tags below.

THE NARRATIVE is also typical for GMMTV: about how rich and powerful elites — that actually rob common man — are somehow good and kind, even though it almost never reality, including young heirs. They just had a series like this in 2022: Never Let Me Go, where Phu was playing too-good-to-be-true heir.

Read More

The pair deserved better storyline

Flower Boy is a case of strong visual execution paired with weak narrative depth,despite the interesting concept, it suffers from inconsistent character writing, rushed emotional arcs, and underdeveloped storytelling, resulting in a drama that looks better than it feels
Mudan people were giving me a cult instead of special people with special scent

My biggest issue with is Gaysorn himself. While the series clearly wants viewers to see him as an innocent, kind hearted, and sheltered character, his writing is so inconsistent that I often found him more frustrating than sympathetic.
At first, his naivety is understandable,he comes from a excluded area and has little experience with the modern world,however, as the story progresses, his innocence starts to feel less like a character trait and more like a plot device,Gaysorn repeatedly ignores obvious warning signs, trusts people far too easily, and makes decisions that stretch believability,Instead of rooting for him, I often found myself questioning how he could be so oblivious, also the whole saint father/uncle situation… i genuinely don’t get how the story expects me to just move on from them being the killers of gaysorn’s parents, and accept scent with gaysorn, which btw scent lost his importance by ep 4, idk why they made character such weak and unlikable.

Read More

a let down after the first two seasons

while the running plot was nice, the individual cases this season were very weak — all the deduction and voting happened on how someone “behaved” instead of actual clues and evidence.

i like solving alongside the crew for such shows, but here i felt bored instead because there were never any sufficient clues to *actually* solve and reach a result. it was all just "oh he is behaving weird today" - which is fun for banter and debate throughout the episode but when that is the ONLY reason one is voted, it takes the fun of mysterysolving away.

S1 and S2 (but S1 especially) gave actual evidence against people that they had to defend against and try to spin in a way where they dont look as guilty; in s3 if you passed off as acting innocent, youre good to go honestly.

Read More

Teach you a lesson leaves you feeling angry, uncomfortable, and deeply reflective long after the credits roll.

At first glance, it may seem like an exaggerated revenge-action drama where bad students are punished by adults who refuse to tolerate bullying. But as the story unfolds, you realize that the most shocking thing about Teach You a Lesson isn't its action scenes or its ruthless methods, it's how frighteningly real parts of it feel.

School violence has been a long-standing issue in South Korea. Over the years, countless real-life cases have surfaced involving physical abuse, cyberbullying, extortion, social isolation, and relentless harassment that pushed victims into depression and, in some tragic cases, even suicide. While Teach You a Lesson dramatizes these situations for television, the emotions behind them, the fear, helplessness, and silence are very real. That's what makes many episodes so difficult to watch. You aren't simply watching fictional victims; you're constantly reminded that stories like these exist beyond the screen.

What makes the drama so compelling is that it taps into a frustration many viewers have felt while watching news reports or reading about bullying cases. What happens when the people who are supposed to protect students fail them? What happens when schools prioritize reputation over justice? What happens when victims are told to endure while perpetrators walk away with little consequence? Teach You a Lesson builds its entire premise around those questions.

What I appreciated most was that beneath all the action and confrontations lies a story about protection. Every case reminds us that children and teenagers are still learning how to navigate the world, and when adults fail them, the consequences can last a lifetime. The drama doesn't just expose bullies, it exposes the systems, parents, teachers, and bystanders who enable them.

Watching this drama often felt uncomfortable, not because it was poorly made, but because it touched on realities that many would rather ignore. The bullying is cruel. The victims' pain feels genuine. And the anger you feel while watching is exactly what the drama wants you to feel.

Teach You a Lesson is not a subtle drama, nor does it try to be. It is bold, provocative, and unapologetic in its message. Some viewers may disagree with its methods, but it's impossible to deny the conversations it sparks. More than an action drama, it is a reminder of how much damage can be done when injustice is allowed to continue unchecked.

By the end, you're left with a simple but powerful question: how many lives could be changed if people chose to act instead of look away?

Read More