Kdrama Review: Guardian: The Lonely and Great God 쓸쓸하고 찬란하神 – 도깨비



Goblin

No. of episodes: 16
Date Aired: Dec 02 2016 - 21 Jan 2017
Date Watched: Sometime in early 2019

Cast
Gong Yoo as Kim Shin
Kim Go Eun as Ji Eun Tak
Lee Dong-wook as Wang Yeo
Yoo In-na as Sunny
Yook Sung-jae as Yoo Deok-hwa

Summary
 Kim Shin (Gong Yoo),  who had been around the earth for 900 years , wanders around the corners of the earth to search for his someone who can put him out of his misery and to finally die. One fine day, he meets Ji Eun Tak (Kim Go Eun), a girl who can see ghosts. Ji Eun Tak who had been maltreated by her aunt and her family, runs away from home on her birthday. She stumbles upon a pier, bringing a cake with her, she celebrates her birthday. With a cake at tow, she blows the candles and . and managed to call upon the goblin. The goblin appears.  The goblin takes her in thinking she might be the person he was looking for. 

Why I decided to watch it
Because it was one of the most-watched series of 2017, and I wanted to see with my very own eyes if this series is worth its title. I should not readily believe in figures.

What I like about the series
The cast
Although I still feel that they really don't share a chemistry. It was the story that drive the scenes.

The love story between a king and his queen. ( The second love story in the series)
The riveting tale of the love of the traitor's sister and the king was not a bad love story. Had the king not believed in his advisers who were poisoning him (literally).  Although I was still hoping that at the very end, we could have caught a glimpse of their life together after them being reincarnated sometime in the future (well, there's another kdrama for it).

The background music and scenery
It made me want to go to Quebec, Canada and find the places where they shot the drama.

What I don't like about the series
Slow pacing. It only picked up towards episode 13 - 15, and then it was slow pacing again even at the very last episode. Can they spare us the long MV and get on with what really happened to them afterwards? It would have been a perfect time to wrap up some unanswered things.

Long MV scenes
It was just too much that I had to skip. I don't want to see the same scenes over and over again.

Whatever happen to Deok Hwa!!
At least they could have also given him some side story and not just for comic relief.

The cast
They don't share any chemistry at all. The past reincarnations of themselves have better chemistry than them.

Overall
One of a very controversial series that talks about death (with a Grim Reaper as one of the lead, you wouldn't wander)  and afterlife. One thing I lament about is the very slow pacing of the episodes. It took me sometime to finish the series because it did not pique my interest. I was only watching for the sake of Gong Yoo and Dong Wook.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (.5 goes out to Wookie).



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