Other people have expressed very eloquently the utter heartfelt perfection of this drama. You have not one but THREE sets of utterly perfect chemistry. You have a gorgeous, killer OST, You have the most charming moments of beautiful poetry balanced by some genuinely funny moments, all of which, rather than via some contrivance, come from the characters and your investment in them. At times this drama has so much hurt it feels difficult and you wonder "can I get through this pain"? If you ever want a drama with which to introduce friends to K-dramas, this is it. It goes to such emotional depths that to label it a "rom-com" is entirely laughable.
And... did I mention it has the best Ailee OST since her wondrous inclusion on the Goblin OST?

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I don't write many reviews, but I cut and pasted this from my own comments on a YouTube video of the Ailee song. I started writing just a brief comment but got a little emotional as my love for this drama came pouring out.

When watching K dramas without knowing their year of release, you can often sense if a drama comes before/after Goblin. This masterpiece ushered in new standards of storytelling scope, production values and cinematography to Korean dramas and everyone else scrambled to keep up. From the first frame to last it feels like you're watching a top-drawer movie with every scene perfectly composed, framed and lit. The Goblin's house itself (a character all in it's own right) is a masterpiece of endlessly interesting set-design and dressing, but the exteriors also, whether they be the many fantasy/historical sequences or more mundane Seoul streets are all realised with loving care and attention to detail. And don't get me started on the Canadian scenes...
The casting too is utterly perfect; Kim Go Eun is the ultimate girl-next-door type (옆집 소녀 ha!), Gong Yoo with his masterful ability to go from hard-as-nails-hero to tender suitor, right down to Yook Sung Jae's fragile naivety. And that's before we get to Lee Dong Wook and Yoo In Na's perfect "second couple" - so successful they spawned a spin-off industry that's been going ever since.
The OSTs are easily a match for the high standard of the visuals. I own the double-CD pack of this and still play it nearly every day 2 years after first watching. Everyone has their favourite OST song from Goblin, but the Ailee classic remains one of the absolute high water marks of Korean drama OSTs.

Goblin remains an utter game changer in K-drama and the first few seconds of this video (Kim Go Eun's crying scene) are part of the reason why. I stumbled upon this video in a bored moment and the emotions instantly came flooding back and I welled up with tears, not just from the raw moment shown here (a Kim Go Eun acting masterclass), but from the lifelong memories given to me by this wonderful wonderful drama.

I know it will sound ridiculously over the top, but for me at least, television was never the same again.

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