Goblin (2016)

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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The most overrated drama ... (pls read the whole review)
The female lead made me cringe. there were moments that had to make her look mature but failed... The writers probably wanted her seem like strong person- bullied and neglected by a lot of people, but even with such a hard life she keeps being super kind and joyfull, tries her best in school and ect... ok, that is good... but the writer forgot about her behavior. They trully over did it. She acted like a 8 year old girl, she way too cozy in a strangers house . I dont know if the actress (she is good) is in the wrong or the writers. I really tried to force myself to watch this till the very end ... Maybe the drama should have been about the grim reaper, cause I always saw the goblin more as a father figure to the female lead. Its seems creepy and she doesnt help with acting kind of spoiled sometimes. The goblin legit acted like a creep sometime tho, how is that sweet or romantic? I hope that those that liked the drama wont feel bad if they read this~ XD
I just wanna add, that I have seen similar type of "relationship" in real life to the one in the drama. Thats why maybe I am a little triggered. He legit can get registered as an offender (done something or not), cause she is a minor in the start. So ya, think about that and other unwise things Eun Tak did though the drama. Then you will understand maybe why I kind of dislike it :(

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I am sorry but I think this drama is overrated. I know most of people are giving 10, so I thought it was importante that I post a more critical review. Please don't hate me!

Yes the actors are good, the cinematography is great and the music also. There is clearly a big budget and the special effects are awesome fo a tv drama.

But despite all of that, even if the main plot is interesting, the rythme is extremely slow and all of each episodes are flashback scenes over and over again. I found myself nearly sleeping while watching this.

And I do not like the main couple (the 2nd one is really touching on the other hand). Why? Well in my opinion the age cap is too much (not the actors but the characters in the way they are written), she is speaking to Gong Yoo like he is her father and she is acting really like a teenager, I found this disturbing.

Conclusion, yes it is a good drama but for me the lack of action and the slowness of it is not compensated by the rest of the positive points.

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My reason for watching this show was a) because of all the hype and b) because of Kim Go Eun who I liked in Cheese in the trap. Unfortunately it turned out to be a great disappointment.

There is not much depth to the story and to be honest I didn’t care much for any of the characters. For a man who has lived for 900+ years, Kim Shin has about as much maturity as a 16 year old boy. Moreover, the lead pair is terribly mismatched. A younger looking actor might’ve been better suited. If this were real life, I would go so far as to think that Ji Eun Tak was a vulnerable girl who loves goblin only because he is someone that pays attention to her and takes care of her. Not exactly the best reasons to love someone.

That said, not all is bad with the show. I enjoyed watching the second pair as well as Deok Hwa. I was never a fan of Yoo In Na in her previous work but I think she did a good job here. As did Lee Dong Wook and Sung Jae.

Music was pleasant to listen to. I especially like “Stay with Me”.

The best part of the show was the cinematography. Maybe I have a bit of a soft corner since Quebec is my home province. But I must say, they did a wonderful job shooting around the Chateau Frontenac and surroundings. The Goryeo scenes were good too.

Rewatch value is none since the first watch was painful enough. For such thin plot line, what was the need to have 1.5 hour episodes? Tighter editing or fewer episodes might have made the show a bit more bearable.

Watch if you’re curious like I was, because of the hype. But I would not recommend it.

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Story:
The idea as a theme of the story is good, unique and different. But it's actually a spider web to trap me to go inside and watch it. I personally dislike the relationship between male and female lead after episode 3. It's damn annoying to see this girl. I have 0 patience with this kind of girl. Matrealistic, selfish and demanding. All of characteristics that I don't like. The bromance is sweet and funny so it has saved the story in general. Some scenes are still questionable, even the male lead character changed so abruptly from a great war general to a silly childish guy after meeting a teenage girl for a few days.
The beginning of the plot is so slow with so many flashbacks and unnecessary scenes. Second lead female is redundant (which is a pity) from eps 1-10, like she got so little scenes in the drama besides those flashbacks and sitting in the empty shop. I would say this drama will be very good if its only about 6 - 8 episodes. There are too many fillers in the drama (which is understandable) probably to get more money from advertisements to cover big budget.

Music ????
Music is good. I admit it. I like all the songs in this drama. It's very catchy and refreshing.

Cinematography
It is good. Editing team is expert in this. It has cinematography like movie. The color is solid, the background, houses, shooting venue, fashion style, everything is nice. I can tell that it has a big production budget.

Acting is okay. I can relate. It's not making me feel weird. Just some characters written by the writer that makes me feel strange.

Overall, i know this is a good drama, i mean most of the aspects are good. But sadly, i appreciate movie and drama based on the story and character development. Since the story is not good enough for me, the drama has big flaw in my eyes. Sorry, i had higher expectation after i watched 1st episode that i became so disappointed with the rest of the episodes. Especially the middle ones.

But i would recommend this drama for u to watch if u don't mind of the strange romance that feels forceful for me, this is a drama for u.

ohh i need to mention it again, i hate the female lead character, ok.

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I'm considering wether or not i should finish this drama.

I personally love dramas about supernatural creatures in our time. I love seeing how different creatures live and how they use their powers (if they have any)in our everyday life etc. but to me, this drama doesn't live up to its hype.

I think the acting, the senaries, the music and the overall plot is great, but i feel like this drama is very dragged. There's a lot of repetitive scenes and other unnecessary scenes where i find myself being so bored that i almost fall asleep, at one point i actually fell asleep watching this drama. I usually like dramas that are more on the shorter side and although this drama is 16 (or technically 16,5) episodes long, each episode is around 1 hour and 20 minutes and i'm sorry for saying this, but that is toooo long. The thing is, the episodes are just very unnecessarily long. They could've easily told the same story in 16 episodes where each episode were 1 hour long, without all the unnecessary scenes. If they had done that, i think this drama would've been right up my alley, but unfortunately they didn't.

I'll probably finish this drama at some point soon (i'm currently on episode 13, it's taking me a long time to watch this) but i can already tell that it's not a drama i'll rewatch.

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TLDR: I'm giving this a 7/10 for the fabulous cinematography and the excellent bromance.

Why I liked it:
1. The cinematography is LOVE LOVE LOVE. I want to go visit Canada now.
2. The bromance.
3. Grim Reaper's deadpan sense of humor. So my thing.
4. Gong Yoo has never looked hotter. (Okay, that's not quite true. He's ALWAYS hot.)
5. Goblin's pettiness.
6. Sunny's character. I like her lots.

What I disliked about it:
1. TOO. DAMN. LONG. Too many scenes linger on unnecessary beats and they stretch scenes that aren't at all integral to the plot. The premise had so much promise but it wasn't used to its full potential.
2. Kim Go-eun's cutesy act. I like her as an actress and she's fab in the dramatic scenes but she tends to overdo the aegyo. It doesn't help that her character is...confusing. She's supposed to be intelligent and quite mature, and the next she does absolutely imbecilic things. SMH.
3. I didn't quite buy the romance between the millenia-old dokkaebi and his high schooler bride.
4. That ending. I'm ambivalent about it.

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Please learn to write female characters

I have to admit by the end I was emotionally invested to the point of crying over the secondary couple. But just because I enjoyed it at some points or I cried doesn't mean I can't be critical of it.

First things first, the female lead was such a generic female character in a romantic film/show. We've seen her a hundred times over, please get rid of this overused rom com dynamic. Her selfishness and her absolute self importance made me continuously pissed off during the entire show.
Second. Let us never overlook the age gap. From the second the 2 leads met I automatically assumed we would watch her grow up and have the romance at a more reasonable age. But that didn't happen. We got a very creepy romance between a man in his 40's (900's) and a 19 year old girl. Her absolute infatuation with him was impossible to get past. How she begged to marry him and demanded love from such an older man made my guts twist.
Truly the show would have been better with the secondary couple as the main. Sunny and Grim Reaper were a more believable pair and ultimately a more tragic story. Sunny was a much better female character. More interesting and overall kept me watching to see it to the end.
The bromance was funny at times and as separate moments they were good but in the context of the scenes they seemed really random and misplaced.

Overall very melodramatic and inconsistent. Inconsistent writing, characters and pacing. It definitely wasn't terrible and certain moments had me go back to rewatch because there were really good individual moments but in the end it seems to be a very cheesy and overhyped due to the handsome actors.

But that's just my opinion

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Great premise - disappointing execution

For the sake of reaching (and saving) as many people as possible - this review will be spoiler-free, and shouldn't contain anything that isn't already in the above summary of this drama.

I was told this drama was very good. I was under the impression it could easily be a "staple" drama that you need to watch if you wanna be "in the know" about all the good K-dramas out there. Sadly, this is far from the truth.

Starting with the good (because the amount of 'bad' is far greater) - the PREMISE of the story is very, very good. The set-up had a lot of potential, and you can see pieces of a good storyline scattered throughout the badly-executed series. I found myself wanting to know more about how life and death worked in this universe, about the mysteries of the world and the mysteries of the characters' pasts. The framework is there, very solidly - it's just a shame they didn't put it to good use.
I will also say, the character dynamics (save for the negatives which I will mention in a moment) can be very heartwarming and funny, and the casting certainly wasn't bad.

But now we move to the bad.

To begin - I know most people mention the age gap, but if I am to be honest, the ages themselves would've been somewhat forgivable if it weren't for the writing making that gap seem even larger. She addresses him as "mister" (or "ahjussi") throughout the series, she never stands up to him no matter how he treats her (feeling similar to a daughter respecting her father), and while she's giggling and wrinkling her nose and running around like an innocent child, he's either standing by like an obligatory parental guardian who's watching over an excited kid - or he's admiring her innocence, which on its own isn't bad, but when compounded with everything else becomes creepy. Their relationship feels much more father-daughter than romantic.

And something I'm not hearing many people talk about - for a good while, their relationship begins as something very unhealthy. He's selfish, he treats her with disrespect, and she lets him do so. At first it felt like something that would go away - but instead, they just eventually get cuter out of the blue. It's like the writer wanted to write some kind of "slowly developing relationship" thing - but it didn't work out, and instead it's just hard to watch and a little confusing. I wasn't able to root for them for a majority of the series.

On the other hand, the supporting roles have a MUCH better, deeper relationship, and they themselves are deeper characters. In fact, the side characters themselves are more interesting in general. They undergo more character development throughout the series and have a lot more depth than the main characters do - and one character who should have played a more important role, certainly never did.

The list of "negatives" does keep going: The pacing becomes extremely slow after the first five-or-so episodes, there are many inconsistencies (some very blatant especially toward the end), important plot points end up feeling unimportant, there are unanswered questions that probably should've been answered, there's a point where a character makes such an obviously bad choice that it's practically unbelievable, and in spite of being 900, the Goblin tends to feel more dense than a 20-year-old. (Seriously, at the age of 900 can't he at LEAST be given the intelligence of an 80-year-old?)... and I can go on. In detail.

I wanted this to be good. It has SUCH an interesting setup, but it just isn't. Even if half of these flaws didn't exist - with slow pacing and a semi-repetitive nature, it still gets very bland. When you root for the side characters and stop caring about the main characters, I'd say that's when a drama has ultimately failed.

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I decided to watch Goblin after many of my friends recommended it to me, to say the least i was disappointed.

The story was full of plot holes, and in a conversation I had, no one could explain the plot holes, and said I should just enjoy it for what it is. But how am I suppose to enjoy a drama that could have explain everything in 3 episodes but dragged out?
This is a drama that stirs up my intellect more than anything else.

The music for this drama was kind of blah, with all the hype, I thought they would have more than 1 piece I like. For majority dramas I watch, the music would be so good that I would replay the parts with the music I like, but for this drama I only like 1 song they had, and it wasn't good enough for a replay

The main couple were awkward and boring, maybe for people who likes extremely slow dramas. The chemistry between them is a little and awkward, like a woman falling in love with a stalker because she has psychological problems which hasn't been solved, and will love anyone who gives them any kind of attention. Or like a man who needs a needy woman to feel better about himself. Within a few episodes in, I could already predict the majority of the story line for the main couple.
Overall, their relationship can be summarize by a daughter-father relationship with romance.

The only redeeming thing about this drama is the supporting characters, they had a lot more chemistry, and their story line is more interesting with unpredictable outcome.

I would never re-watch this drama for the main couple, maybe for the side couple but probably not.
I wouldn't recommend anyone to watch this, but if someone really wants to, than skip the parts with the main couple, their relationship is really repetitive and can be explain by a girl having a daddy problem, while the man having relationship problems with women.

The most disappointing drama i watch in 2017, way over hyped. I think people who enjoy this probably just enjoy watching a dramatic fantasy romance and not like me, who tend to overthink and find plot holes.

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Okay, here's the thing: Goblin was a drama sooooooo many people loved. It was said to be such a great drama. It took me really long to watch it, simply because I am an anti-hype girl. I never read or watch things while they are being hyped, as I don't want my view to be somehow clouded.
But then at some point, I'll probably watch or read it nevertheless. That's how it was with Goblin. And I honestly looked forward to it because it was supposed to be such a great drama. Boy, was I wrong. Here's why.

Story:
The story is basically a great idea! A Goblin who needs his bride to be redeemed. His bride being a High School girl, that he once saved, who sees ghosts. Wait, what?! An ancient guy and a High School girl? Oooooookay....I thought, well, maybe they just meet once while she's in High School and then they meet years later to fall in love. Well, no. That's not what happens. The story is reaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy slow paced and with that at some point it was just dragging on and on and on and on and I thought  "MOVE! FORWARD!" But that did not happen until the last two or so episodes. Meeh -.-  
The only thing that made this slow story better is the story line between the Grim Reaper and Sunny. I would have loved to have THEM as the main couple and tell THEIR story rather than the Goblin's story.

Acting/Cast:
I haven't watched any drama with Gong Yoo or Lee Dong Wook before, wo I was open to anything that might come along the way. They both acted fantastically but I was just SO IRRITATED with Gong Yoo's role. He was constantly going on my nerves acting like a spoiled little child. Some scenes, especially in the beginning were really funny and I got some weird glances from my husband because I burst out in laughter several times. But after some time the Goblin became really annoying.
The Grim Reaper on the other hand had a lot of depth and he was a fascinating character through and through.
Now on to the girls, I watched Kim Go Eun in "Cheese in the Trap" and Yoo In Na in "My love from another star" and I liked both of them. Here they also did a pretty alright job. But due to this slow paced story I couldn't enjoy there acting much.
A huge praise goes to Yook Sung Jae, he was hilarious and so damn cute!
Also, I would have loved to see more scenes with Kim So Hyun and Kim Min Jae - THEY LOOK SO FREAKING GOOD TOGETHER! Can they please get a drama where they are the OTP!?!?

Music:
Now that's the amazing part of the drama - the music. Alsways spot on and so so beautiful! Together with the scenery - WOW!

Rewatch Value:
I would give a 0 if I could. Will never rewatch this.

Overall:
It could have been amazing! Unfortunately it wasn't. Not at all.

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