Goblin (2016)

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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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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