The Midnight Studio (2024)

Get ready for a rollercoaster ride...

This drama was definitely a rollercoaster ride, for sure.

The first few episodes were boring, I did a lot of fast forwarding. This drama reminded me a lot of Hotel del Luna and a few others with similar story lines, and I had really high hopes for the drama, but like I said, a rollercoaster.

After I believe episode 9 or so is when it got better. I really did enjoyed the later episodes and how they developed the plot. I also enjoyed watching them resolve the mystery of his uncle, even though, it was already known that he had died, but it did explained how he died and how it was related to Han Bom.

I also like how he started to embrace the curse after meeting Bom instead of just going day to day without a purpose. She really did helped him see the bright side of things, even though, it was the hardest for him at the time.

The ending was not a disappointment, but it wasn't the best as well. The entire episode focused on Ji Won and Assistant Manager Go, giving us a little glimpse of happiness to our main leads.

As for Ji Won and Assistant Manger Go's relationship, I think they should have allowed him to possess someone so that she can either have a human partner or have her die so she can be with him that way. If I remember correctly, in Hotel del Luna, one of the ghost was able to possess the bully and stayed in her body, so I feel like they should have allowed that instead. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do like the idea of her being with him and pulling a Beauty Inside plot line, but I feel like they should have just made it perm for those two.

Overall, I feel like it was missing Mr. Baek. I wish he didn't turn into an evil spirit and dying. He was part of the team.

I am giving this an 8.5 just because the earlier episodes were boring and disappointing and Mr. Baek had to die, but the later episodes made up for the earlier ones.

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Romance lacked chemistry, lost interest about half way and struggled to finish it

6.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2024 South Korean Supernatural romance series with 16, 68-73 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review

Synopsis

Seo Ki Joo (Joo won) is the 7th owner of a photo studio whose purpose is to allow the recently deceased one last opportunity to interact with their loved ones and capture the moment photographically. But he did not come by this supernatural skill amicably, his ancestor struck a deal with reapers that they would perform this duty in exchange for saving the male child who would otherwise have died in childbirth. But it comes at the additional cost that all heirs from that point onward will be tormented by ghosts and die during their 35th year. Ki joo performs his photographer services with the help of Assistant Manager Go (Yoo In Soo) and Baek Nam Gu (Eum Moon suk) who run the office and help with each ghostly case. As his 35th year approaches, things become more chaotic and Kijoo notices that the granddaughter of his landlord serves as a ghost deterrant. The granddaughter, Han Bom (Kwon Nara), is a lawyer who is between jobs because her inability to look the other way in unjust situations doe not sit well with her superiors. Kijoo, eager to keep her near as a ghost repellant, asks Han bom to work with him on the legal issues tied up in recently departed client’s last wishes.

Review

With relatively fewer offerings in the supernatural genre in terms of Korean dramas, I would say that alone would be a reason to watch it if you are a fan of the genre.  The premise is unusual with the whole last photo of the recently deceased angle.  It is interesting that the camera offers a way for those with regrets to have that last interaction with those they care about and resolve things before they depart.  But, if you’re considering watching this one for the romance, there are better romances out there.  I am a bit biased simply because I have watched over 300 Korean dramas now and have seen all the best ones.  So, it makes me really picky with the content.  I share the impression other reviewers that the chemistry with the leads was off.  It was like they went through the motions, the first kiss, the longing stares, all the elements but it just did not add up with the two characters. May have been more palatable if there were strong 2nd or 3rd romances but there weren’t.  The second romance was just not very believable. So, you have one romance with little to no chemistry and the other one that is not believable.  So, in terms of recommending it to anyone I would only recommend to those like the very niche supernatural genre but for those looking for anything else, like a good romance,  I would not recommend it. Those that are fans of any of the actors might like it as the actors did an excellent job with their roles.  The lack of chemistry and other issues were issues with the writing not the actors.  I will not watch it again as I had a hard time getting through it the first time.  I found it boring after about half-way just because I wasn’t all that interested in most of the characters. 

Spoilers

The lack of chemistry between the leads for me began when she wasn’t very nice to him in the beginning of the series. She tried to get him kicked out of the apartment and told some untruths simply because of something her grandmother did.  Her grandmother kicked her out because she wasn’t paying the rent, which I thought was odd given the character of the grandmother. They did not fully explain why the grandmother kicked the main girl out, if it was to give her incentive to get back into practicing law or if it was simply because she needed the income from the rent.  But generally, the main girl’s misplaced anger made me not like her very well. I know that is a common trope, where the leads at first do not like each other at first.  And that is often used as comedic moments.  But there was nothing funny in her behavior, it just seemed mean.  I think they sometimes have the main leads gaze at each other too long before kissing but this is a good example of how too short is not a good thing either.  The kisses were just awkward in a way.  Like two strangers kissing because there weren’t the looks of love and longing gazes around it.  It just felt like, okay time to kiss now.  Same with holding hands.  There wasn’t this huge build up and anticipation.  

I thought the whole mystique around the camera was not very well-developed (pun intended). I understood that the camera allowed recently deceased people an opportunity to see their loved ones, one last time, resolve issues and capture last memories.  And they showed it was only those ghosts who were willing to go through the hardship of navigating back through the netherworld and finding the door that got the opportunity.  But why did that camera even exist?  Why did the supernatural beings feel the need to provide a camera for that purpose?  Who had the camera before main guy’s family got it? How did main guy’s ancestor even know to go to the afterlife and steal the camera?  The Grim Reaper in this one was all dark and spooky looking with like black smoke and stuff around in like an evil spirit.  In other dramas the Grim Reapers are attractive individuals, and the only difference is their skin may be a bit paler and they have supernatural powers. Interpreting Grim Reapers in a different way wasn’t the problem the show should have at least explain why that Grim Reaper looks like he did. Why the spooky black, evil spirit looking, smoke? 

I found the bromance aspects of the series more compelling than the romance. The lead guy and his two ghost assistants and their friendship was more interesting than the relationship between the male and female lead.  However, I didn’t understand how those two ghosts, out of all the ghosts that were moving through his studio, became his helpers. I mean ghosts were coming and going all the time and his goal was to help them resolve whatever they needed to and then take the photos quickly to move them on to the afterlife.  So why did the two ghosts that assisted him get to stay and why did they not only stay but become his assistants? It was emphasized several times that lingering too long could cause the ghost to become an evil spirit.  So, how were they able to stay so long without becoming evil spirits?  I also don’t know why they had to make the main guy like a bad boss.  They made jokes several times about him being cheap and working them too much.  Given the one guy died from overwork, why did he stay with main guy?  And how did main guy even have money?  It wasn’t like he was getting paid for his role photographing ghosts for the netherworld. 

I wasn’t sure why they put the grandma character in there only to have her leave. And it seemed out of character for her, not to want to say bye to her granddaughter.  The grandmother gave some lame excuse for leaving without that final moment and photo but it was out of character of her to leave her granddaughter that way.  I was glad main guy got the main girl to see her grandmother anyway.  But the whole grandma dying seemed pointless.  A big deal was made out of how that was her last family and how devastated she would be without the grandmother but then, once that final photo opportunity happened, they never focused on her again.  It was odd.

 

Hands down what I liked least about the story was the police officers’ situation. They tried to make his wife a sympathetic character because she was lonely, but she never told him that she was lonely so that he had a chance to be there more.  Basically, she pretended to be understanding and told him it was okay when it wasn’t okay to her at all.  She was lying and deceiving him into thinking everything was okay and then she was supposedly noble for doing it.  So, she has this “affair” with the florist guy, and it is spun so that it is his fault for making her lonely.  I wasn’t even clear on what type of affair it was.  Was it emotional cheating or did she have a physical relationship or both?  We didn’t get enough of a glimpse into that relationship to understand any of that nor what was so great about the floral guy that she would cheat on her husband.  I thought the whole pity party around her was ridiculous as she knew she was marrying a police officer and that his job kept him away a lot. In fact, they showed, during wedding preparations, where he did not have time to participate in the arrangements much and she was basically like it’s okay just do this one thing. Many people, early in their careers, work long hours to establish themselves. Given they were a new couple just starting their life as a married couple, and she was a stay at home, you would expect he would need to work long hours to support them in this new venture of a married life. I found her whining and playing the victim annoying.  So, I was very disappointed his story ended that he disappeared forever. He was one of my favorite characters in the show and that was a horrible and unnecessary ending for him.  I wanted him to confront his wife and maybe apologize for not being there but say you should have told me you were lonely.  And she would say something like I know, I was wrong too, and apologize for the affair. Maybe he would have had words with the guy who was such a slime to cheat with a cop’s wife. I didn’t like that guy at all, here he has an affair with the wife of a hero in uniform, then turns around, after the police officer dies in the line of duty and says bad things about him. He deserved some heated words.  But instead, they made cheater florist guy out to be a good guy for easing the cop’s wife’s loneliness.  What?   Even main guy was like I thought you were going to bop him.  And then he doesn’t go to the afterlife in the kind, peaceful manner where you capture a beautiful last photograph and he dissipates, nope he goes down with the evil spirit and since he went all evil spirit briefly himself, he is now going to be gone forever?  I extremely disliked how they played that story out. 

What could have saved the romantic aspect a bit was if the second romance was cute or heartwarming but it wasn’t.  It made no sense.  Their romance would have been cute if he wasn’t a ghost.  But the fact that she never physically saw him and just carried on this relationship with a ghost who possessed other people to have a physical presence, was weird.  I thought, given how many times the story emphasized the ghosts had to leave or would turn evil, there would be that final goodbye with the camera and the emotions like there were for all other visitors.  I thought main girl’s friend would get to physically see the ghost one time and then he would leave and they would agree to be in each other life in another another life or something like that. Oddly though he stayed and basically broke all the “rules” we had been taught leading up to this part.  He is able to somehow stay without turning evil.  And what about her brain tumor?  What was the miraculous cure? And why did it seem, when she passed out and all that, maybe her brain tumor was coming back?  I thought perhaps she was going to die and main guy’s ghost buddy and her would depart to the afterlife together or something like that.  But instead, her brain tumor issue just disappears, they break all the rules on having a ghost stay and they have some weird ghost human relationship.  That was weird enough.  But then him jumping in and out of people seemed very rape like.  Spirit rape or something like that.  And she is just okay with him possessing people even when he is a woman, a really old person, or young.  And she interacts with the person he possessed in a very rapey way, kissing them and other such physical contact.  Eww.  Usually it is the ghost asks someone if it would be okay to possess them to interact with someone so they are a willing partner, but not in this one.  It just made it creepy.   

I felt like it could have ended after episode 14 when the curse was lifted from him and he was no longer going to die.  Having the curse transfer to her and opening up this whole new thread of the story with her as the photographer was awkward so late in the series.  And then his power goes away and he cannot even help his two ghost friends go on to the afterlife?  Weird.  I think they only did that to stretch it two more episodes to make it to 16. 

So of course, they had to have the year separation trope for some odd reason. Let’s get him stuck in the netherworld trying to lift her curse.  Again, it felt like a way to extend the story for the last two episodes.  And then, when he comes back, I am reminded why I did not like her in the first place.  After he lifts the curse to safe her life and is stuck in the Netherworld, he miraculously returns, and rather than her being like “oh thank you so much you saved my life” she’s mad at him because he was gone longer than he said he was going to be.  Yeah, yeah, she didn’t want him to go and was upset he didn’t listen to her on that. But he went with her, albeit reluctant, permission.  I mean, come on, it’s the Netherworld, obviously he would have absolutely no control over when or even if he could come back.  So, her being angry, on any level, toward someone that risked his life to save hers was not a very nice way to be.  It was just a return to her self-centered pettiness that made me not like her in the first place.  And then not root for them as a couple.  But he had his issues too.  There was the one part where he was awkwardly like complaining about a public display of affection.  You’re embarrassing me.  And they weren’t a cuddly couple.  It was like just two people hanging out then bam, a kiss.  Just hanging out, bam holding hands.  I don’t know, hard to describe, just not a lot of lead up.  It was what made the chemistry off the fact they had so little interaction outside of what felt, to me, like random bouts of skinship.  Just not very well scripted.

#MidnightStudio  #MoonJunWon #JooWon #KwonNara #YooInSoo #EunMoonSuk

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A pleasant surprise

After watching several fantasy k-dramas that were totally disappointing, this was a pleasant surprise. At first, the story centers around lighthearted ghost stories. Then, the plot makes a connection between the supernatural and police corruption involving a 20 year old hit and run accident and focuses on uncovering the mystery behind the accident and a string of murders surrounding it.

The story moves at a very good pace. There is a nice balance between comedy, horror, and romance. Some ghosts are very scary and have compelling stories. The main couple has cute and funny moments without both acting like infantile nincompoops. Their chemistry is excellent making them convincing as a couple. There are a lot of genuine interactions involving kissing, flirting, and touching resulting in very believable romance.

I liked that the side characters had their own stories giving them some depth, however, they were also the weakest point of the drama. While I appreciate that the writers gave Baek Nam Goo and Go Seong Ho backstories and made them more than just goofy sidekicks, their arcs took an obnoxious amount of screentime slowing down the plot and dragging the story for more episodes than necessary. The main plot reached its conclusion in episode 14 when the good guys won. That's when the story should've ended. But, because of the side arcs, we had to sit through two more episodes of boring secondary plotlines watching Baek's wife being sad and Seong Ho's ridiculous ghost romance with Bom's friend. Moreover, the writers had to invent more plot with the netherworld to make it seem like the story was still ongoing.

But, I would still recommend this drama because the pacing is mostly good for about 14 episodes, the plot is engaging, and there is plenty of romantic chemistry.

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A Ghost of a Good Time

I placed a potential spoiler at the end of this review.

I am a sucker for supernatural storylines and this was really up my ally. This is one of those series that has a great script that successfully connects multiple storylines and characters together. They did a great job in the beginning of the series with introducing the characters. It also had a few twists that I didn’t see coming through out. I enjoyed watching this but admit some of the sections felt rushed and the last episode was a little off. The actors were great and did an incredible job with their characters. The special effects and cinematography were awesome.



******Potential Spoiler Alert******

Although the ending was mostly happy with most of the characters, the set up was not the greatest. There is a time jump forward, then backwards, and then back to the jump forward. I know they wanted to create suspense with this but wished they did a better job with it.

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WHAT IF WE COULD SEE OUR DEAD LOVED ONES ONCE AGAIN?

This drama was an emotional rollercoaster. The story is about Seo Ki Joo, who runs a photo studio for ghosts, and Han Bom, a lawyer.

I'll just go straight into what I liked and didn’t like about the drama:

What I Liked:

1. The drama had powerful emotional scenes. The goodbyes between the visitors at the studio and their loved ones were really touching and I'm not going to lie, I cried each time.

2. The concept of a photo studio for ghosts to capture one last memory was unique and interesting. It was a fresh twist to the supernatural genre and kept me hooked.

3. The characters were well-developed with complex backstories. Ki Joo’s struggle with his family’s curse and Bom’s journey as well were compelling and added depth to the story.

4. The chemistry between Ki Joo and Bom was strong. There were cute and sweet moments. There were heart wrenching sacrificial moments. The romantic tension before they started dating was well-handled too.

5. The soundtrack was perfect for the story - for both the emotional and whimsical moments.

What I Disliked:

1. There were a few inconsistencies. For example, Ki Joo couldn't drive well on his first date with Bom. He was driving quite alright every other time. Bom couldn't see or hear ghosts when her gran died but she could hear her gran's ghost quite alright. There was no explanation for that.

2. I was confused as to what happened to Lee Seon Oh. Yeah, I saw him in prison but what exactly was his sentence? Did he die after getting beat up by other inmates or did he keep getting tortured like that? Chief Kim too. Was he fired from the company? Did he quit? Did he keep working there? What happened?

3. Ki Joo's expressions were sometimes off to me. Just sometimes.

4. Ji Won dating Seong Ho, a ghost, raised a lot of practical questions about their future. The idea of maintaining a relationship with a ghost felt a bit unrealistic and left me wondering about the long-term implications. Marriage, physical intimacy? What if he one day possesses someone who is in a relationship and their partner sees them on a date with a different lady?

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Extra Ordinary by both leads in just 1st episode

Beautiful
i shouldn't judge a drama by just 1st episode
but to this i am giving 10/10 for good starting
Stunning Kwon Na Ra
amazing start of a story that has fantasy element

Both leads act like real people , there interaction with each other is look real and Normal
JOO WON and Kwon Na Ra both give adult Character vibes not
a adult behaving like child in most of dramas

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