Goblin (2016)

J’ai fini goblin , est j’avoue que , je suis un peu déçu que ça ce termine . Mais bon, sinon on se lasserait non ?
Goblin est une super série , pour plein de raisons .
Tout d’abord ,les jeux d’acteurs.
Les personnages principaux : gong Yoo ( kim shin ) à très bien joué le goblin , je trouve , car on sens les émotions, ce que ça fait d’être « emprisonné  » depuis si longtemps sans pouvoir rien faire , de voir tout les gens que l’on aime mourir etc ... Ensuite, Kim Go Eun ( ji eun tak ) on a très bien compris et vécu avec elle les moments durs, avec la famille ( tante ) le goblin ... ce que j’aime , on voit évoluer, le goblin, et Eun Tak , l’un grâce à l’autre . L’un qui n’a plus envie de mourir, et l’autre qui reprend goût à la vie. Maintenant, Lee Dong Wook .(qui sera tooouujoouurs mon préféré) (le faucheur) je ne suis pas très objective sur lui car c’est mon chouchou et je défendrais toujours,mais je tiens à dire que Lee Dong Wook à très bien joué le faucheur, sans émotion, rien qui passe sur son visage . Très bien joué. ( tant dit que dans Touch your heart il jouait l’avocat timide , dans Stranger from hell le méchant qui donne la chair de poule , dans tale of the nine tailed , le ghumio imposant etc ... )
Ensuite l’histoire. Pas trop de romance , et ça c’est bien car : trop de romance tue la romance .
Je comprends que cette série peut ne pas plaire , en tout cas , moi j’ai adoré 🤗

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L'éternité c'est long... surtout vers la fin...

Donc, j’ai fini Gobelin (oui je l’écris à la française ^^)et j’ai vraiment bien aimé.
Alors, j’avoue que sans l’aura magique de Gong Yoo, sa grâce, son élégance, sa voix vibrante, son talent riche et varié,  je ne sais pas si j’aurais tenu jusqu’au bout, le début était vraiment broussailleux et labyrinthique et il a bien fallu tout le drama pour finir par comprendre les tenants aboutissants de tout ce petit monde magique !
Bref, une fois franchis ces buissons épineux la suite m’a vraiment plu ! Toute une bonne partie du drama est tressée de tragique et de comique, avec la relation excellente et tordante du Gobelin et de l’Ange de la Mort jusqu’au moment où les réincarnations se révèlent et où la tragédie prend le pas sur la comédie, sans pour autant qu’elle disparaisse complètement : (les adieux de Wang Yeo, si bouleversants, qui se terminent sur le conseil de ne pas oublier d’étendre la lessive...)
L’histoire de l’Âme perdue, épouse du Gobelin m’a vraiment touchée, de sa naissance à sa mort, sa capacité à assumer un destin implacable, sa force et sa clarté d’âme, j’ai trouvé que c’était un très beau personnage et une belle idée scénaristique.
Mais l’actrice m’a souvent tapé sur les nerfs par son ton pleurnichard ou « petite fille », parlant toujours comme si elle était enrhumée… enfin, je suis très difficile avec les actrices coréennes, je l’avoue !
L’idée de la punition divine changeant les pêcheurs (graves, hein, pas les voleurs de poule ! )en Ange de la Mort, qui doit exister dans la mythologie coréenne parce que déjà vue, jumelée avec la problématique de la réincarnation, ça m’a aussi énormément plu ! Un bon point pour Lee Dong Wokqui est beaucoup remonté dans mon estime, surtout après l’avoir vu dans Life !
Il faut dire que je baigne dans la mythologie japonaise, et que chez eux aussi les yokaï  et autres monstres peuplent le quotidien et les fantômes ne sont jamais loin ! Donc ça aide !
Je n’ai donc pas eu de mal à suivre tout ça et particulièrement le tout dernier épisode, où, je pense qu’il s’est passé bien plus de trente ans quand reviennent Sunny et Wang Yeo, enfin réunis grâce aux nombreuses lanternes magiques envoyées par Kim Shin ! On sent bien que le temps passe, dure, s’éternise pour Kim Shin, qui erre et traine sa solitude douloureuse, puis apaisée.
Et bien sûr que la nouvelle Eun Tak le reconnaît ! N’a-t-elle pas refusé le thé de l’oubli ? Ne le cherche-t-elle pas ? ça c’est une idée qui me plaît, et qui est bien consolante ! (cependant ça ne durera qu’une vie, ou même 3, et ensuite, la solitude éternelle pour Kim Shin… ça c’est moins drôle, mais peut-être remplira-t-il son éternité de bonnes actions ! ) 
J’aime beaucoup le personnage de Sunny,bien dans la ligne de Kim Sun, qui refuse l’oubli salvateur, mais qui maintient la punition de Wang Yeo jusqu’au bout, bien que Kim Shin ait fini par lui pardonner.
Toujours dans les compliments, la musique, vraiment belle, les chansons très supportables et même belles pour certaines, la beauté des images, l’élégance des effets spéciaux, … et la magnifique garde-robe de Gong Yoo, d’une classe et d’une élégance peu courante dans les dramas (d’ailleurs il doit avoir un costumier attitré, depuis longtemps, je m’étais fait la même remarque déjà pour Coffee Prince !)

Bon, les défauts :  la longueur des épisodes, avec des review longs et inutiles, des pauses-regards, des ralentis excessifs (surtout dans les deux premiers épisodes), l’usage du bruit sonore des pas trop répété, une prise de son qui ne laisse rien passer des bruits secondaires (papier froissé par exemple) mais tout ça n’est pas grand chose, et surtout une fin un peu décevante après la magnifique, flamboyante et déchirante fin de l’épisode 13 !
Il fallait pourtant régler des questions, mais là il y avait un choix à faire :
retour ou pas pour Kim Shin ? moi, je suis radicale,ma fin :
il ne revient pas, la vie continue pour les autres, qui ont tout oublié (sauf L’Ange) le dernier départ de l’Ange aurait été celui de Eun Tak très longtemps après…. pour terminer sur la rencontre d’une autre Eun Tak, d’un autre Kim Shin, qui bien que ne se connaissant pas et n’ayant aucun souvenir l’un de l’autre, ne peuvent s’empêcher de tomber amoureux au premier regard…ce qui évite au malheureux Gong Yoo une éternité de solitude inéluctable, ce qui est long, surtout vers la fin, comme chacun sait !


La fin, je lai trouvée mollassonne jusqu’au départ de l’Ange et de Sunny, très réussi et touchant, alors que  celui de Eun Tak ne m’a pas convaincue, trop long et surtout l’air de ravie de la crèche permanent de l’actrice me gênait, malgré le talent de Gong Yoo dont le chagrin était déchirant et  profond.
Pourquoi fallait-il la faire mourir à ce moment-là ? je n’en vois pas trop la raison ! ça leur fait perdre 50 ans sans raison !

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Dans la lignée des dramas à voir.

Quand on aime l'univers des dramas, et ceux des coréens en particulier, Goblin fait partie de ceux à voir.
L'histoire est très belle, bien romancée, et écrite.
Les 4 acteurs principaux sont magnifiques : Gong Yoo, qu'on ne présente plus, Lee Dong Wook, égal à lui même, un de ses meilleurs rôles à mon sens. Et chez les femmes : KimGo Eum, très juste et touchante, et Yoo In Na, qu'on ne présente plus, non plus.
Ils forment à eux 4, un quatuor irrésistible et touchant.
De plus, ce drama est plein d'humour simple, mais rafraichissant, et pas "bebête" comme cela peut l'être parfois dans certains dramas.
Enfin, je tire mon chapeau pour la OST : MAGNIFIQUE. On ne se lasse pas de l'écouter, une fois le drama fini d'être vu.

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If you are hesitating to watch this at all, please....just throw out your reservations and watch this. Goblin has just made my favorites list. Even my husband got sucked in and loves this show. The cinematography was gorgeous, the music was amazing, the actors were perfect (Hello, Gong Yoo!), the story was heartbreakingly beautiful.

This is the first time I've watched any of the main actors except Yoo In Na. I have now officially developed a Gong Yoo crush and understand why drama fans are enamored of him. Gong Yoo as Kim Shin/ Goblin was mesmerizing. I could listen to his voice for days. Every scene he was in was a treat. Every emotion that his character had was palpable, and his smiles could light up the sky.
And Kim Go Eun as Ji Eun Tak was super cute. She had a lot of detractors and the writer got a lot of flak for making her so young. But the character and her age were perfect for this story and how it unfolded.
Lee Dong Wook as the Grim Reaper had the perfect deadpan (heh) delivery. And he may be the best male "crier" I've seen yet.

The story will make you laugh and make you cry. Not only is the love story epic, but so is the bromance between Goblin and Reaper. I've found that I'm quite fond of this fantasy genre and this has been done so well. I have hardly any criticisms of this show at all because even the flaws faded into nothing noticeable for me. It's sweet, funny, romantic, sad, tragic, beautiful...

The music was perfect and perfectly lovely. I don't always pay much attention to the music, but this show utilized it so well and chose the perfect songs. So many people loved even the intro song that they made a special recording of it to make it a full length song (Round and Round, but may also be found under Never Far Away). Beautiful by Crush was the best song in my opinion, and I believe that it was the theme song for our main couple. And Stay With Me by Chanyeol and Punch was another favorite.

Rewatch value is high - if not everything, then there are many, many favorite scenes that I'll go back to and relive the feels. :)

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Every moment of it indeed shined!
Goblin is a great drama. I went into it with low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised, or more accurately, I was blown away. You can recognize a good drama by the way it makes you feel exactly what the characters in the drama are feeling. That's the way Goblin was for me, with each character, I laughed and I cried.

I'll TRY to keep the review sweet and short, so here are the reasons I enjoyed Goblin:
-The premise is unique. It's one of a kind. I haven't seen any other Kdramas with a similar plot-line to Goblin, so that was a plus point.
-The actors do a superb job. I could feel their emotions from across the screen. then again, nothing less to be expected from such a spectacular cast.
-The drama has everything, ranging from bromance, romance to mystery and suspense.
-The bromance is spectacular. One of the most epic bromance I've ever seen in a Kdrama. It made me laugh a lot, but it also had its heartwarming and heart-wrenching moments. Goblin and Grim Reaper's relationship is one of the best reasons to pick this up.
-The two couples- Goblin & Eun Tak and Grim Reaper & Sunny. Both couples had their own story. The sweet and cute moments of the Goblin couple & the sizzling chemistry between Grim Reaper and Sunny was enough to keep the 'romance' meter of the drama pretty high. You won't be able to get enough of the cuteness of Goblin & Eun Tak.
-The mystery of the characters. From 'the lady in red' to the king and queen, each episode just gave enough glimpse into their lives to keep us engrossed. It'll drive you crazy in a good way.
-Each minute of every episode was enjoyable. I didn't skip a single moment of any episode.
-The unexpectedness of the drama was really great. Just when you'd think you had something figured out, some twist would come along and surprise you. The writer sure did a tremendous job.
BONUS: Beautiful and addictive OST

I personally didn't find anything even remotely bad about it, but that's not to say other people won't, so here's a few things you should keep in mind before venturing into it.
-The age difference between Goblin [ (~939) he was 39 when he died and then immortal for 900 years] and Eun Tak (19).
-Comparatively less screen time for Sunny and Grim Reaper couple. But I suppose that's to be expected specially since the title alone indicates that Kim Shin (Goblin) is the main lead, so it's no wonder they get the most screen time.
-Worst product placement you'll ever see in a Kdrama. You might think I'm kidding but sometimes even the smallest thing can annoy you. I personally found those scenes amusing though.

So, to sum up- I LOVED this drama! Do give this one a chance, you won't be disappointed. Once you start it, chances are, you'll end up loving it. Happy Watching!

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Overrated

I feel compelled to write a review for Goblin because I'm finding all the perfect 10s to be misleading and, if I can be honest, completely confounding. Let me first say the best thing about Goblin is the acting. The cast is fantastic. The worst is the age gap. I know most people talk about the age of the actors; however, the issue to those of us that have a problem with the age isn't the actors, it's the characters. The lead female character is a 19 year old girl. The lead male (taking out the fantasy of his living 938 years) is a grown man who appears almost 40. Personally, I find that the Korean's have been dancing too close to the line in the young girls with adult men in dramas for at least a year now and I'm not a fan. They're more daddy issue characters.

There are many times when the relationship between the 2 leads are most like Father & daughter. She speaks to him like a father figure. And he speaks to her as a child. It's off putting when it becomes clear that he has fallen for this high school girl. Part of me believes the part of Kim Shin (the Goblin) was written for a younger man. Considering the life expectancy of the period and his postion, in his late 30s he should have had a wife (and concubines I would guess) and children. I think the character should have been at least 10 years younger (again the 900 years undead aside). The romance of the leads just did not work for me on any level. Conversely, the romance between the supports is a completely different story. It was endearing and very moving. I rooted for them.

The writing was inconsistent. It was great in some parts and just passable in others. Toward the end it almost turned into melodramatic schlock. Goblin works best as a bromance. The scenes between Goblin, Reaper(s), and the male humans were precious golden nuggets to hold onto until the next time 2 or 3 of them were in a scene together. Had the writers held on to that chemistry and nourished it, Goblin would have been much better.

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I was going to give it a 7 but there were too many things that bothered me, too many plot holes.

I enjoyed watching this drama more times than not. It was relaxing to look at, with the great cinematography and breathtaking sceneries. Music was great and very fitting. The actors were more or less very fitting in their roles and felt natural. The chemistry between the male cast was flawless.

I guess my main and only issue here is the writing. There are two types of supernatural dramas: the one that explores human emotions through the supernatural; and the ones that use it to tell your usual story. I think Goblin was somewhere in between.

I still appreciate some points of the writing. What I dislike is the plot as a whole. I liked the overall idea but not the execution. I like the idea of supernatural and powerful beings, like ghosts, goblins, grim reapers and gods, are living normally among humans without being noticed. I liked the story of the little boy we meet early in the drama to see his fate and effect on the Goblin (and vice versa). I loved the heartfelt story of Eun Tak's ghost friend, and enjoyed the company of the group of Ahjuma ghosts.

What I greatly disliked is the way the main story arc was handled. At first it felt overly dramatic, but later it felt so underwhelming that it removes and intensity felt before. When it ended the way it did, I felt there was no point to the whole story. Essentially were back to point zero.

I think the writer has some original ideas, but no guts to go deeper. As a result interesting topics were touched lightly, but never went beyond, hence felt shallow. I wish more time was spend in exploring the world, getting more concrete information on how demons are created and how to deal with them. Instead you just follow the characters' daily life of not doing much, and supernatural elements were just used as a convenience.

When it comes to romance, I didn't care much about the age difference due to the supernatural part of it, but I just didn't enjoy it, I didn't feel it. I don't know when it happened. Also Goblin was beyond childish. He was too moody and unbearable at times. While I was more invested into the secondary couple, I still felt the same, as in a missing episode of them going out and truly falling in love with each other was missing. I didn't like the way both couples went.

The non-romance relationships were great. The bromance, there was more than plenty. It was perfect. The focus and the growing relationship felt authentic and real. I also loved the relationship between Grim Reaper and Eun Tak. I did enjoy Deok Hwa's presence, but man was he so underused!

Other things that bothered me but not necessarily cause any deduction to the rating is over the top product placement. At one point it looked like subway was about to save the world, one sandwich at a time. And the wardrobe of poor little female lead, I just wonder how she manages to fit all those clothes in such little luggages and how she can afford them. I love how they presented Quebec at first, but I got mad that they didn't try to be accurate as to how the city looked at this time of the year. Worst of all is the episode length. It was needlessly long.

I don't regret watching this drama. I still had a great time watching. Although the last three episodes felt too draggy and less enjoyable, but it still had some good moments. Well all moments with GR for me are great lol. Enjoy! And don't hate me too much for the rating :P

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It must be said that Goblin is very much a somewhat cliché rom-com disguising itself as something else, but ultimately, what appears to be an interesting premise is cast aside for a romantic plot that I'm going to be honest is a little creepy and at times feels very fatherly to me. This makes it very hard to love the romance especially when the female lead is a bubble of cutesy energy and also she borderline looks twelve. There were moments I wanted to run into the scene and tell Gong Yoo, you get the hell away from her and date someone your own age. Yes, that, 782 age gap was at times hard to swallow.

What makes Goblin good is it's featuring. It stars longing looks, teary-eyed longing looks, bromance, ignoring that he is 800 years old, trying to pretend you are not watching this because of the bromance and good looking leads and KES's obligatory three good episodes towards the end that makes you think this is so good. It also stars a very good performance by Lee Dong Wook. I'd like to say the rest of the cast were just as good, but I'd be lying. Gong Yoo is someone, I watch because he is in good movies (The Crucible/Silenced, etc) but not because he gives an actual good performance. He's like a Brad Pitt type in that regard. I was quite surprised by LDW as I find him heavily attractive and have for a long time but I've admitted he's a terrible actor. Suddenly he is Matthew McConaughaying me. The female lead is literally a copy paste of all rom-coms. Especially from this writer.

The intro of this drama is unique and creates what has the potential to be a very good plot, but ultimately this is a meandering slow stream of a journey that I heavily recommend you skip some episodes. Yes, skip from ep 5 to 13 and you'll miss very little. The juicy parts of the plot are thrown aside for a slew of teary-eyed longing looks and cliché romantic scenes that at ep 4, I started to wonder when they were actually going to focus on the juicy premise.

Character wise, the bromance sells this stale plot as personally, the romance between the male and female lead just looks awkward. I should be gushing at romantic scenes but they look as uncomfortable as I do and when Gong Yoo pats her head, he at times feels like her father. The drama has a lot of potential but the writer didn't seem to know what to do with it and I feel like a traitor who deserves to be hanged for saying this, but as a huge lover of bromance, dare I say it, I actually got bored of the bromance. I started tuning in to cast longing looks at Lee Dong Wook. My obsession made me run out into the street and jump in front of a car, but I heavily recommend you don't do that as the Grim Reaper never appeared and now I'm writing this in the afterlife.

The writer here also inserts her I suckered you into thinking this was good by having her obligatory three good episodes that make me think, Oh this has potential. It's always towards the end too. Melancholic episodes with good editing that make me wonder where was this for the previous ten episodes? I feel the drama is a seven at best as in, I would be very generous to give it a 7. It has its good melancholic and humorous scenes but it ultimately never quite gets its pacing right and never seems to know what to focus on making this really not as good as it could be.

PS. I also urge you to cast aside any logical questions you might have especially towards the end. They will not be answered.

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Somewhere inside Goblin, buried under a mound of PPL and tears, is a good show trying to get out. The first two episodes suggest what might have been, deftly mixing intense action and off-beat humor in a dark world filled with ominous reapers, wounded goblins, ghost-seeing teenagers and cabbage-wielding grannies. The stage seems set for a life and death clash of epic proportions. Alas, it soon becomes apparent that the writer forgot to include an antagonist. The goblin-reaper face-off devolves into a chummy bromance, leaving “fate” to play the role of spoiler. Unfortunately, it’s hard to fight disembodied destiny. Whole episodes are spent weeping in pretty scenery and eating Subway sandwiches. The talented cast tries to up the urgency, but with nothing tangible to battle, the pacing slows to a crawl. The extended episode lengths and the director’s tendency to linger a little too long on every moment exacerbate the problem. Even the romance falters on the uncomfortable age gap between the protagonists.

Every so often. interesting ideas pop up about guilt, redemption, and the role of kindness in a cosmos more random than rewarding. Alas, the fickle gods that rule this universe stay above the fray. A drama that actually allowed its characters to take them on rather than simply lamenting their cruelty could have been powerful indeed.

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My review will be short and sweet with a link to my very extend review at the bottom if you wish to do some extra curricular reading!

The Good:
1) Reaper and Goblin's Bromance
2) Soni and Reaper's Relationship
3) The theme song
4) The cinematography
5) The locations shot in

And that is ALL!

The UGLY:

1) 60% of the episodes are completely plotless.
2) The last 5 or so episodes are completely rushed with about 6 major plot points in each of them
3) The cringey, over-obvious product placement
4) EunDak is the worst character ever. She's so selfish and so stupid and she gets so lazy once the boys take her in.
5) Eun Dak and Goblin's relationship should NOT be romantic. It would've been much better as a Father/Daughter realtionship
6) The editing was rough in a lot of parts
7) Deok Hwa's character was so undeveloped and so underused. he deserved better!
8) The lack of relationship and character development for all of them actually
9) The ending is an absolute mess. Why did the not all die so they could start over again?!
10) So many scenes felt half done. I feel like so much was either not filmed or just simply edited out and I feel like I was missing whole chunks of scenes that were needed.
11) The over the top ridiculousness such as the SnowBoard accident, and the Goblin pushing EunDak and causing massive problems in the car park scene. Those scenes were so stupid. Those scenes were far beyond being able to suspend disbelief.
12) Completely ruining Soni and Reaper's personality and all their charm in their new life in the final episode.
13) Rushing through the final. Those last 15 or so minutes DESERVED and entire episode. Not the rush through that it got.

The excessive overhype this show gets. It's really not that good.
If you really want my Essay-long review of this show, check it out here: http://sambart93.tumblr.com/post/179925136539/dokkaebi-goblin-its-not-bad-but-its-not-good

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This drama is extremely overrated. It's boring. From the premise, it seems original, but its just a generic k-drama romance full of cliches. The main girl is extremely immature and I find the age gap quite worrying. I did not find her too annoying as some people have said, she could be the kind of girl found in high school (still though her immaturity is exaggerated). It is the relationship between her character and the Goblin I disliked- it just didn't work. The romance does not feel real or believable. It feels like a father and daughter, but we are supposed to believe they are in love.
It seemed like I would especially enjoy it because of the historical/fantasy aspects, which are genres I love, but these are only very small parts of the drama. Although I did expect these to be only small parts, I didn't enjoy the rest of the drama anyway. I found myself wanting to skip lots or sometimes felt like I was falling asleep. The plot skips ahead often and feels a bit all over the place, as if the writers didn't really know what they were doing. I constantly found myself frustrated and bored with the story.
In saying that I loved the parts involving the Grim Reaper, and his relationship with the Goblin and Sunny, and when the fantasy/historical elements did appear I enjoyed them. The acting was also very good. However, overall I did not enjoy this drama and would not recommend it unless you like watching generic, boring romances with poor writing (or watch it and skip all of the main romance- lmao).

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So far, a lot of Korean dramas I've watched follow what I call the 90-10 rule. 90 percent of the plot will be a romantic comedy filled with light and fluffy moments while the other 10 percent will be focused on the theme that gives the drama its identity. Goblin follows this rule to a tee where most of the story involves the characters acting funny or cute with each other. The rest involves dealing with their lives as supernatural beings, coupled with occasional flashbacks of a previous life hundreds of years ago.

I'm not sure if I can call this a flaw. I know a lot of viewers love this sort of thing and there's nothing wrong with preferring the lighthearted and none-too-heavy in terms of plot. I know it can be a great stress reliever as well. I prefer my dramas more on the plot heavy side though; even the most romantic stories I like have about '50 percent of something-else-going-on-other-than-the-romance.' But for what it's worth, Goblin is extremely successful as a rom-com. I just happen to be more interested in the supernatural or dramatic parts of it. For me, the most interesting scenes where when Eun Tak had to deal with the ghosts she could see, when Grim Reaper had to transport the dead one drama at a time and when a deity or god would pop up in the story to mess with the characters. Overall, Goblin was an adorable little show but it could have been much bigger.

I loved the world that it introduced me to. A world where Grim Reapers would meet and convene on their deadly assignments, where Goblins could make gold out of nothing and where special people (like Eun Tak) could help the dead get over their unfinished business. I wish there could have been more of that. Was the Goblin (the main character) the only Goblin in the world? Were there others like him? There were moments where I wanted to see more of what made a Goblin special (and how they were able to tie this Korean fantasy creature to a modern day adaptation) and what he could do to make people's lives more magical. While his telekinetic fight scenes with Reaper were adorable, I kind of wished to see his powers put to better use. I wanted his 'Goblin persona' to make the story more interesting. This drama offers a tantalizing glimpse of a supernatural world in the modern age but there is so very little of it :(

Now the chemistry between the OTP was fine. I felt that they had their best moments in the last two episodes (where the drama really made it worthwhile and where I finally got the Gong Yu hype!) but the earlier episodes (all 14 to be exact) were somewhat boring for me because the development of their relationship consisted mostly of:

Goblin: 'Oh can she see the sword in my chest?', 'Will she pull it out?' 'Oh, I need her to get it out of me', 'Oh, I don't want her to pull it out now!'
Eun Tak; 'Am I the Goblin's Bride?' 'Oh, I won't pull the sword out for some reason' 'Oh, I want to pull it out but he won't let me', 'Oh, now I know what will happen if it gets pulled out I'm never going to do it- how could he ask me to!'

That's basically what their relationship dynamic was like for most of the show. I much preferred Grim Reaper and Sunny's dynamic because it touched on the difficulties of a Reaper/human relationship better. The Reaper's past was also more intriguing because it explained why he was doomed to such a fate. In the Goblin's (aka Kim Shin) case, the immortal life he was given was meant to be a reward but it played out more like a punishment. This made no sense to me because in the very first* episode, his past life as a noble warlord was established. He was betrayed, he committed no crime whatsoever...so every time the gods would make things difficult for him...every time the story would make him suffer...these consequences didn't really fit in with the logic of reward-punishment the story was trying to make. The character was blameless so the suffering he went through had no basis and felt hollow to me.

Other Things I Took Note Off:
Gong Yu wasn't the best actor but his charisma as a leading man was appealing. I didn't get it until the very last episodes (this is where the romantic angle finally worked out for me and the OTP moments became squee worthy); I just wish it happened sooner ;0

I liked the actress playing Eun Tak. But the problem I had was that the director told her to act too childlike. I get that the whole 'naive and innocent' candy girl is a staple in these dramas...but her version was too exaggerated and went way beyond the trope. I've watched (and appreciated) plenty of other candy girls before but Eun Tak was a little too much for me at times. She was a 19/20 year old woman and she played it like she was 13, squealing over a bag she got as a present, jumping up and down the bed and hugging her stuffed toys, crying in the bed while it rained outside...the last time I saw this peculiar behavior was in the Hollywood action movie Taken, where Liam Neeson's daughter "Kimmy" acted like a 7 year old kid instead of as a teenager/young woman. In hindsight, perhaps it was a good thing that the OTP moments came at the later episodes, as it was only then that Eun Tak started acting normally -_-

Lee Dong Wok may be the best actor here. He was definitely the best crier. He brought so much depth to the flawed but intriguing Reaper, who easily became my favorite character. The way he expressed emotions seemed extremely heartfelt.

Now, I don't have that much familiarity with Yoo In Na; the only other time I've seen her was in My Love From the Stars where she played a similar supporting character. But her Sunny is very likable -the no-nonsense types female leads usually are.

One thing Goblin excels in is that it had some of the best special effects I've seen in any drama. Viewers can feast their eyes on some of the most beautiful landscapes abroad and in Korea. The fight scenes, exploding cars, etc., all were great to look at. The historical parts were done well, too.

The OST is nice to hear but like plenty of other Korean dramas, when you pause to really listen to the English parts in the lyrics- they don't make much sense. "Never go my way...never quite some day..." what?! XD

Overall, Goblin was a good show but it wasn't great. I think viewers who don't mind extremely light (as in, 'hardly nothing ever happens but we are all so cute anyway!') plots would appreciate this the most. I'm glad I watched this; I feel like I can understand the hype more although I can't participate in it as much as I would like.

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