My Demon (2023)

bog-standard story

I don’t feel very strongly about this drama. It’s average, it’s okay. Nevertheless, ;) here are a few points I want to say…

What I liked:
- Intriguing start -> The first few episodes were interesting. They grabbed my attention. After watching the teasers, it was clear, that I was interested and would definitely start this show. Mmh I was especially intriguing were the episodes from 1-6.
- I was in the mood for romance and loved how they slowly started to catch feelings for each other. It felt like Do Do Hee was always very in tune with her own feelings, which leads me to the next point
- The FL-> Do Do Hee. A very confident FL. Confident, yet very aware of her status and aware of her position in the world. She knew she was alone and stood up for herself. Her choices were understandable, and it was very easy to connect to her. I just really liked her character. At least for the first episodes. I mean they didn't really use the potential and kept her developing static.
- The Music -> Another drama with an OST that suits my taste. The music stood out and pushed the drama’s quality. Nice sounds and songs that flowed nicely with the story.
- Expensive production. The set and everything did not feel cheap. Everything looked expensive and well produced. I liked the costume design and everything.
- My Demon couple has breathtaking good visuals.
- Kim Yoo Jung!!!

What I disliked:
- The story progression after ep 6/7 -> the story progression after the main leads get together is always critical. For me personally the lovey-dovey scenes were too much. Maybe I can conclude from this, that I was not feeling the couple to begin with. If I love two characters, I love their together time as well. They’ve had so many of the dating-scenes in this drama, which were a bit boring to me. Or maybe it just sometimes feels like the writer/producers check these scenes of a checklist… Like for example: We now need two to three episodes of staring into each other’s eyes, cuddling, eating cake etc. to make the viewers happy and after that we are going to make them suffer. This is a formular for many kdramas. I’m not critiquing this formular. I know that many people like it and that it brings familiarity to the plate. But it was very bog-standard in this one and it felt like I was watching points being checked off a checklist. Not very nicely integrated into a flowing storyline. Doesn’t help that I wasn’t a fan of the chemistry. In german we would call it 0815.
- Murder/Killer Plotline:-> didn’t care for it. Was a bit boring.
- Past-Lovers Plotline: -> didn't care for it either. I don’t need lukewarm past-lover plotlines to deepen the relationship, if writers are not confident that the main storyline of their romance is enough to keep the viewers invested. If they include past-lovers, please do it in a new way or fully fleshed out.
- The recycling of scenes -> Rescuing and saving again and again
- The most standardized SML ever -> Just unnecessary love-triangle since he didn’t stand a chance anyway. Useless and boring as hell.
- Song Kang -> I feel like I need to be very careful with voicing my opinion on this matter since he has a lot of fans… but without any prejudice… I was not a 100% sold on his acting in this one. Especially his comedic timing was questionable. He had some comedic scenes that were supposed to be funny. But I just did not feel it. It all felt the same through the whole drama. But it’s not like I can’t stand his acting or anything. Just a sidenote: Song Kang is undeniably an incredible handsome man.
- The comedy -> This point goes in hand with the one before. I was just not a fan of the comedy. The way they edited it or maybe even produced it felt off. Humor is subjective and, in this drama, it wasn’t my taste. With Song Kang it seems like it was partly his comedic timing and partly how they staged it in general
- The Side-characters -> None were intriguing to me. Mostly boring and sometimes even… dare I say tacky? Looking at Park Bok Kyu and Shin Da Jeong. I’m not criticizing the actors and actresses. I think they are all very talented. Especially Seo Jung Yeon. It was just hard for me to connect to any of these characters.

In some cases, I don’t even mind over the top or tacky comedy. But it’s very subjective and hard for me to pinpoint why I like it in one drama and not the other. Maybe I just have a complicated and complex relationship to humor in TV series and Movies…
Lastly, I want to say that I am not searching for perfection in a drama. Not at all. I even know my favorite Dramas have flaws, but I am willing to accept and embrace them. In the end I need to be able to at least either connect with the characters or the plot must intrigue me. Sadly, this drama didn’t do that for me. My review is not supposed to be hateful in any way. I’m just trying to give reasoning for my rating. If you are wondering where this rating stands in my rating system:
9, 9.5, 10 : Personal Favourite / 8, 8.5: Great / 7, 7.5: Really Good/ 6, 6.5 Good/ 4.5, 5, 5.5: OK / 3, 3.5, 4: Bad/ 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 : Horrible

The drama is not horrible but it isn’t very good either. Just OK in my opinion.

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A fate that renews their faith and a love that reunites them—again

‘My Demon’ follows the life of Dodohee as she navigates through fantastical mysteries and personal struggles that lead to the defeat of an already lie-ridden and lust-driven chaebol family. A suspenseful feud over the nomination of the mystery heir that would come to inherit the role of CEO for Mirae Group arises, and the adopted daughter of the family is left with tough decisions to take in order to survive. Regardless of the classic business magnate trope of which deems itself recurrent in modern day Korean dramas, ‘My Demon’ uses its commonality in a way that brings structure to the complicated fantasy themes brought to scene. The series excels with its stellar performance that depicts the hardships and fear that accompanies the role of being the country’s top influencer.

Its entirety—from outfitting and cinematography to script-writing and character complexities—exudes a sense of superiority that reigns it above all other releases of its genre. Additionally, its high viewership rating and audience response indisputably succeeds it as one of the top dramas of 2023. Though the esteemed actors visibly play a pivotal role in its popularity and emerging fanbase, the series’ comedious usage of demons is unique and attractive to devotees of diverse genres, notably romance, fantasy, sci-fi, and thrillers.

The summoning of love rather than your typical demon serves a lesson that what is stronger than fear is weaker than the human complexion. This means that the essentialness of being human and experiencing love can transcend even the strongest of emotions like being fearful. “What’s best for you is what’s best for me…” All that is needed in the face of challenges is each other and when Dodohee and Jeong Guwon open their eyes to this truth amidst all else, it’ll represent the true testimony of love which promises the show with its build-up of tension, rivalry and romance.

Their existences throughout the timelines presented intertwine in a fateful clash of values in forthcoming to the eventual turn of events that leads the series into its mysticality. Their connection grows stronger through the difficult circumstances in which they find themselves, unveiling a healthy face to their relationship as they put in favor trust, responsibility and understanding. With Kim Yoojung personating a rich celebrity through Dodohee and Song Kang a handsome immortal as Jeong Guwon, together, the main leads journey to find meaning in their successful lives—but not without being at high stakes of losing the traditional values that hold together their individual mindsets.

They attempt to grapple onto their old selves and struggle to accept any change from the past, something that causes them both to get farther away from their reason to live; getting them farther away from what makes the insignificance of being human hold value....something of which viewers will get to piece together with the answers hidden throughout the sixteen episodes of the series.

The demonic antagonist has diverse contradicting personality traits that make for the quirky authenticity his character brings to ‘My Demon’ and Song Kang’s not-so-flawless portrayal of Jeong Guwon contributes a decent portion to the show’s overall wittiness. Rather it be unintentional or not, his serious attire, inexpressive face and monotone line-delivery was a laughable distraction to the certain scenes that can especially make one wonder whether those particular moments were even acted out in synchronization to the script, or completely out of character. Taking in consideration the actor’s mediocre embodiment of Jae-eon from one of his most recent previous lead roles in ‘Nevertheless’, it could either be lackluster performance from his part or a mere penchant towards taking on cold-hearted and stoic roles. Nonetheless, this characteristic aspect of Jeong Guwon itself took on a new face to the character, coming off as yet another comedic appeal to the romcom.

As for Kim Yoojung, her role as Dodohee provides a strong consistency to the show’s romantic appeal amidst its outwordly ambience. The renowned actress has proven to have the remarkable talent of turning lines on a script to a whirlwind of emotions.

Overall, in the emotional aspect of the series, Dodohee’s rather structured and consistent persona paired with the male lead’s tendency to be random and impulsive highlighted the polarity of styles between both actors. These stark differences in personality enabled a certain duality to their connection and especially made for a compelling watch.

Kim Tae-hoon's exceptional acting and execution of Noh Seok-min was undeniably the highlight of 'My Demon' as he provided the series with its much-needed thrill and action. He succeeded in bringing to life a goose-bump-raising villain and, in my opinion, carried the entirety of the series in the acting aspect.

The seamless harmonization between the fun storytelling of emerging secrets and the enigmatic anticipation of who would come to take on the country’s most reputed company amidst a gripping murder-spree was remarkably conducted into the exuberant romcom drama ‘My Demon’ deems itself to be. Its perfect execution of mystery and romance furthermore made for the extravagant dance of passion it ignited within viewers with its additionally enthralling take on the forbidden love between a fate-intertwined demonic power and a reputed influencer.

As expected, the couple’s fans are left in awe once more as their passionate characters grapple a hold on international k-drama viewers, bringing rise to the success of both acting careers.

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Full of clichés and the looks of a rich style magazine

This show is for some reason very overhyped.
This drama was a chore to finish for me, but I'm the completitionist type and so I endured. Otherwise I would have dropped it around episode 4 or 5.

The plot in this show is laughable. It had potential as a premise if they had gone on a different direction but as it is, it's just pointless and it doesn't even bother in explaining how things work in the fantasy of this world. One of the main things that annoyed me so much is how they decided to include once again the super cliché of main leads knowing one another from previous life (hers that is) while completely ignoring the core christian believe that the whole series wants to portray. Nothing is really that explained anyway, even his powers as a demon are mentioned superficially. Actually, the fact he's a demon is just overall brushed over and it's a background prop to be used in some scenes. It could have been cool and more explored but it wasn't.

Both main characters did have a bit of personality at the start, something that made them more individual, but this is dropped very early on as soon as they start being together, they become baseline neutral with nothing unique. Their quirks are completely dropped . Rich girl meets rich boy and they fall in love, how refreshing. She also becomes damsel in distress and he's your average "bad boy" that is actually not bad but that it gives him the edge to be appealing to viewers. Whether he was bad or not it's not really explored, because except for a couple of grey area situations the show always wants to portray him as good.
In other clichés we also have here, we include two forgettable side characters that are interested in the main two (and mid show they were almost unbearable, especially Jin Ga Young).

All scenes and environments are very fabricated as if taken from a photo-shoot of the actors for a fashion magazine, and so it happens in outdoors scenes too, the little magical details are very on the face put there purposely, some little fireflies, some bubbles, some water droplets...etc.
This also brings me to the fashion. The whole show is basically a catwalk for upper fashion trends and their hair and makeup is always ˖⁺‧₊˚✦perfect˖⁺‧₊˚✦ Not even when they are in bed there is a hair out of place nor they stain the bed sheets despite having a cake of makeup on.

Continuing with the clichés we also have the funny side character couple that while it made me chuckle a couple of occasions and overall I think they were better than the main couple, some others it crossed the line too much into second-hand-embarrassment territory.
Side characters are just very superficial and add nothing to the story nor we learn much from them either despite sometimes having longer scenes than they should for that amount of pointless dialogue. This is the case of all office workers for example as well as some of the family members of FL.
The villains here are very cliché and their motives are just plain bad, and they all had itchy rashes because... they're sooo *evil*. There is a bit of a motive for their actions but then towards the end it crosses the line of absurdity. The cherry on top was main villain falling from that tower and surviving, eyes rolling I saw stars✧˖°

Some of the moments with more tension, like for example that moment between the end of episode 15 and beginning of 16 are solved in such an anticlimatic and fast way that you wonder why they even bothered. Clearly the whole idea of this drama was creating those ˖⁺‧₊˚✦perfect˖⁺‧₊˚✦ moments where they hug, kiss or look at each other and they filled the rest of the episodes with things in-between so it looked like something. But it seems they didn't even manage enough fillers to do this since after the beginning of episode 16 when they already solved the main issue they still had so many minutes to fill the episode with little bits of secondary characters that no one cares about because the plot didn't care for them before anyway. Also, Jin Ga Young spent half the series saying she was going but didn't lol and then when actually something interesting happens to her in the last episode that could have been explored as a small side plot and it's just left there. What the actual hell is this writing lol

There is not really a discussion on anything obviously, like morality for example. At one point FL is taken aback by the reality of the ML's work as a demon, but then it's brushed off because the script said so and because they have the lame excuse he saved her mother when she was pregnant with FL. It was as weak of a plot point as expected.
The most interesting character in this show is God, but obviously is a background character just so she could save him in the end. I liked the detail of her hat.

Overall I think that while there are shows that can be entertaining and use some clichés, this one almost was playing a bingo to see how many of them they could include in this show. For me personally what makes this one worse than some other shows that also use clichés is that overuse of very crafted scenes, fashion and hair/makeup that make everything look so much more fake rather than fantastical. Even their more intimate moments are just so on the face "we're doing this now" that it was taking me out of it and I didn't find it cute. This is paired with the fact I didn't think the main actors had that much chemistry and specifically ML actor was so stiff at times.

Something else that I found extremely annoying in this show are the recap scenes. Sometimes you would have a recap of scenes two minutes after some of the scenes in that recap had happened. This was so overused that I started skipping them. As I said, they simply didn't have enough material for this show and they reused as many scenes as they could as recaps of cute moments between characters or to reminisce about some character.
Product placement is also quite on the face many times.

Music is also very annoying, they reuse the same couple of songs continuously to no end. Also the song that one of the bad guys in the beginning was using and that becomes a trigger for FL, who in their right mind would say to their partner "now it's our song". Like, excuse me sir? just because you say now it's our song it doesn't mean the trauma is going to disappear. But here it does because script said so. I didn't suffer what FL had and yet every time that song appeared again it was irksome to me as a viewer so imagine someone that has nearly died and associates that song with a psycho. I would knock my boyfriend's head with a saucepan if he told me that song is "our" song now. No thanks!!


If you want to watch because of the ML, or you don't mind extremely thin plot and very fabricated everything then you might enjoy this. If you care about plot AVOID this, it's not worth the time I assure you. If you care about certain level of realisticness even in fantastical settings then avoid this too, there are no explanations for almost anything and the main focus is put in the main leads intimate moments and them walking from one place to another in ˖⁺‧₊˚✦perfect˖⁺‧₊˚✦ fashion.

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EXTREMELY overrated

The appraisal of this drama is excessively inflated. So in other words, all of these reviews literally don't make sense. It has a boring plot, always the "met in past life" trope, jokes are extremely overused and boring. I'm so sure that the only reason people even watch this drama is due to it being Korean, having popular and pretty actors, and it just keeps making middle finger/f**k you jokes and I don't care about swearing but at some point all the jokes are way too used. I seriously don't understand what people see in this show.
P.S: The female lead is actually so annoying, the way they tried to make her cool, independent but also kind, and soft inside I cannot emphasize how overused this trope is. Same with the male lead, but instead his character is new and unique but unique isn't always the good thing. The only good character in this show was the grandma, and of course the writer had to kill her off the bat.

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Overhyped

My friend's recommendation led me to this kdrama featuring Song Kang and Yoojung. Positive reviews fueled my anticipation.

Intro: Encountered the intro on TikTok multiple times—it's catchy but carries similar fantasy vibes as Goblin. Yet, nothing beats the Goblin intro.

Story: The plot feels oddly familiar, reminiscent of dramas like Goblin and Doom at Your Service. Prior exposure to the ending on Facebook, with Guwon's body disappearing, raised suspicions of replication from Goblin. The parallels between Kim Shin and Guwon's journeys are hard to ignore—the past lives' connections, saving people from accidents, beggar as the Diety/God and even the disappearing bodies.

The plot lacks coherence, leaving me puzzled about the inexplicable transfer of Guwon's tattoo to Dohee. No discernible meaning emerged. Guwon's indecisiveness about Dohee's marriage proposal felt erratic. It's an easy watch, suitable for newcomers. The final episodes seem hurried, rushing Guwon's return for a swift happy ending. Seuk-hoon's ascent to chairman pleased me, overcoming initial doubts from my Vincenzo-induced skepticism of brown permed guys.

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My Demon is everything i WANT and LOVE in a drama!!!

After more than 2 decades of watching dramas ( esp. Kdrama) this is the first and only drama that i haven't skipped even a second, for real.
I watched, tried all different genres out there, and i can sometimes finish 5 or more dramas(i skipped a lot) per day, and dropped a lot as well. But this one caught my attention and has a very special place in my heart (moving on from My Demon is the hardest yet).

Why i love My Demon???
** funny, light hearted, beautiful OST, and the parallels in the story..just wow
**Happy couple ( every sweet scenes in the story made sense)
**Chemistry is the best i've ever seen and you'll fall inlove with their BTS.
** pure, selfless, and sweet love between ML & FL ( past life story is necessary here, and it was Beautiful, trust me).
**their love story is beautiful yet tragic ( i'm soft for #DoWon)
**you'll feel diff emo in each episode, i think i'm a bit crazy now..lol
** the episode endings are chef's kiss, first time i'm inlove with endings.
**both rich and gorgeous leads, gosh...i watched hundreds of dramas if not a thousand, this one is my top visual couple.
**i never thought of Song Kang can be so adorably cute here, i mean he's "PERFECT" for this role.
**Kim Yoo Jung always slay ( she cry, i cry harder) , i can feel her pain and always beautiful.
**Da*g, their fits here are incredibly beautiful, most fashionable couple ever.
**i like it that the Demon itself is seriously unserious here ( he's more like a puppy..haha)
**cinematography is amazing, i'm in love
**i love the comedy here, esp The Demon and his minions..haha
**it was the highlight of my 2023 and a good welcome of my 2024.
** it's highly addictive, now i cannot watch any other drama after this, i'm seriously in my My Demon Loop. Rewatching this everyday just to calm myself.

** the best thing this drama did was, my husband watching it with me and he loved it. It's our first kdrama together and our weekly kdrama date. So this drama is really special in my heart, moving on from this is hard and i dunno when.
**this drama made me the happiest these past few months, really happy and excited. I'm obsessed with it, beyond i guess. I love it so much that it hurts when it ends. I cried and now i feel something is missing.
** have a happy day everyone, spread love, positivity and enjoy watching.

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Not worth it unless you're bored

This drama starts pretty well. The story is not very original, it's one of those classic 'damsel in distress' plot with a touch of fantasy. Nothing wrong with that.
My problem is with the main's character lines... It's like writer's believed that Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang physical appearance's where enough to fill the plot. Instead of exploring the relationship on a deeper level, we're sitting through several minutes of empty stares, futile discussions or Jeong Gu-won chaging outfits like it's a fashion show. Don't get me wrong, I like playful scenes but this was painful to finish. Kim Yoo-jung and Song Kang may not be the greatest actors but this was an absolute disservice to their career (even though the ratings will say otherwise), specially Song Kang who already struggles with facial expression.
I wanted to stop after episode 10 but I pushed through. I do not recommend unless you have nothing else to do.

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seriously lacks

The next paragraph completely spoils this entire series. stop reading now If you haven't finished.

It's entire series is killed by the penultimate episode. The main villain is pinned with over several thousands of pounds of concrete but in the span of 15 seconds despite literally on the verge of being crushed to death he's able to completely unpin himself, find a shotgun, and shoot the FL... Of all the things I've ever seen in a k-drama this is the thing that makes the least sense of anything I've ever seen.

It completely ruined the entire series and any enjoyment I got out of it. There's still over an hour left of this series and I don't want to watch it now because of the god awfully bad writing that I just witnessed.

you'll miss absolutely nothing if you skip this series, and frankly it's simply not worth it.

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Popular does not necessarily mean good or quality drama

It seems it is a trend nowadays to have good cast/actors but not a good drama. In MD, the FL seems to be the reason it is popular. She is popular and indeed she acted good. The acting (of the rest of the cast including the ML) is less than satisfactory. The comedy part is wanting.
One area that noticeable in dramas (K or C drama) is directors have difficulty in the love story part. It is more often at best cliche; at worst stupid. Only a few dramas where directors got it right.
Just like the earlier commenter, it started good. Then it went astray...
But if you like the FL (like me) - then its ok to finish the drama.

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Disappointing

Another series that is disappointing and stupid especially in the last few eps.

I was enjoying the show for the most part b/c the story was interesting to me. It's not my typical genre, but I thought the synopsis was good. The series ended up being nothing like I thought the synopsis would be. What I wanted was a love story between a demon and human but what I got was a story about bickering chaebols; one of which was extremely awful who brutalized ***********. Also, got some past life story that was completely unnecessary.

What I did like was the cast; Very good and I like Kim You Jung and this was my first series with Song Kang. I like him in this plus anyone who reads my reviews know pretty boys are my jam. I thought he and the FL looked great togther. I loved the character of Ms. Shin. Actress Seo Jung Yeon nailed the role as FL secretary.

The only character I sympathized with was Noh Do Kyung. The character broke my heart. Actor Kang Seung Ho was brilliant as someone slowly losing his mind and being tormented by someone who should have loved him.

3/4/24

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A very overrated drama

Many people are going to hate me because they have mostly good grades.

But I really don't think this is good at all. Bringing out the chemistry and acting of the actors.

There really is no story here. He's like a complete copy of Goblin, even when he disappears from the from the human world lol

Why, if he is a demon, and even though he has lost his powers, does he not use them at crucial moments? I don't understand it, honestly. He just had to take Dohee's wrist to use them.

And when he got them back, why couldn't he take on a simple human? lol

The cinematography is okay, I wouldn't say it's spectacular but it's decent. The office looks nothing like an office of a rich company. You can see the difference between the office they used in Marry My Husband with this and you'll see what I mean.

The OST was decent but it's not something you would never forget in your life. It's actually pretty forgettable.

I think I understand why people like this drama, because of the actors and the chemistry. But you know even though their chemistry was good and their acting too, you can't just save a drama when there is no story itself.

It seems like a compilation of several dramas, not united, and with a lot of cliché.

I really tried to like it but if there is no story and it is just a set of dramas and scenes from popular dramas of this style, there is no way I will like it.

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