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Dec. 31st, 2025 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsFor my last post of 2025 I feel it is incumbent upon me to talk about the wildest television show I watched in 2025, the kdrama Genie, Make A Wish.
The high-level premise of this show: a GENIE, who is also SATAN, has been IMPRISONED for ONE THOUSAND YEARS because he's supposed to seduce humans into CORRUPTING THEMSELVES and instead he met a PURE SOUL who used her WISHES FOR GOOD and caused him to LOSE his BARGAIN with GOD.
Now! he has met her REINCARNATION! however! instead of being a PURE INGENUE WAIF! the reincarnation is an ETHICAL SOCIOPATH who has been STRICTLY TRAINED in NOT MURDERING PEOPLE by her BELOVED GRANDMOTHER! and whose first reaction on meeting a magical immortal genie is 'at last! someone I can ethically shove off a building!!'
(This meeting happens in Dubai, btw. The show is very obviously at least in part sponsored by the Tourism Board of Dubai and the cast are frequently hopping back and forth there to Shop Our Beautiful Bazaars and speak in variably competent Arabic; however, as a result, this means the backstory involves historical trade routes! the last time I saw that was in Queen Seondeok!)
ANYWAY, now, the challenge is on: will ethical sociopath Ki Ka-young be CORRUPTED by SATAN the GENIE? or will she once again make SELFLESS WISHES and condemn the genie to have his THROAT SLIT by an ANGRY ANGEL OF DEATH?
There are also some side characters! People in Ki Ka-young's orbit include her SAINTLY GRANDMOTHER and her BEST FRIEND, a LESBIAN DENTIST. People in the genie's orbit include his GIANT PANTHER MINION, the ANGRY ANGEL OF DEATH, and a SMALL BOY who consistently beats him in Mortal Kombat. There are also some LOCAL COTTAGECORE YOUTUBERS, a circle of ADDITIONAL JUDGMENTAL GRANNIES, a RELATIVELY UNIMPORTANT SERIAL KILLER, an EVIL IMMORTAL CHILD, and DANIEL HENNEY, in a role that is perhaps the pinnacle of his career: he is playing a LOYAL ABANDONED DOG, who, granted three genie wishes, not only transforms himself into Daniel Henney but also acquires wealth and a textbook devoted bodyguard. After this happens, at least once an episode we cut to Human Dog Daniel Henney sniffing at lamp-posts looking for his lost family, while his bodyguard trails behind him with a voiceover monologue that runs 'boss .... boss, you deserve the world .... what's your tragic backstory that causes you to be like this ... I'D DIE FOR YOU, BOSS.' Second best plotline in the show.
Let me be clear: is this drama good? no, I do not think so. Do I have arguments with its determinations about what does and does not count as a selfless wish? sure. Did I enjoy it? TREMENDOUSLY. Did I at any point have any idea what was going to happen next in this absolute mad libs of a plot? NEVER ONCE.
however, the thing that made me shriek most about the drama is a major mid-show spoiler about the heroine's Beloved Grandma: so roundabout episode four or so, our ethical sociopathic heroine decides to use one of her wishes to turn her beloved but elderly grandma into a hot young grandma. Why? Because she's worried that if grandma dies she will no longer have an externalized moral code and will instead start murdering people, but if grandma is young then they'll live the same amount of time and she can go on being Ethical. Great. No problems here. The actress playing Old Grandma is Kim Mi-Kyung, one of the all-time greats, but Young Grandma's actress Ah Eun-jin absolutely nails it.
ANYWAY, then Young Grandma of course gets a romantic meet-cute ...
WITH KI-YOUNG'S BEST FRIEND! THE LESBIAN DENTIST!!!
The minute we saw this starting to happen we lost it and kept on losing it every episode going forward. The smooth pickup lines! The romantic trip to Dubai! The poignancy when the lesbian dentist finally compares Young Grandma's dental records with Old Grandma's and realizes that she's been low-key dating her best friend's beloved only relative!
Well, okay, we said to ourselves. This is clearly happening but they're not going to let it happen happen. And that was partly right but partly wrong ... what we expected was for Grandma to eventually end up re-aged and they'd have to say a bittersweet farewell.
Instead, YOUNG GRANDMA TOOK A BULLET FOR THE LESBIAN DENTIST LIKE SHE WAS ON A CW SHOW CIRCA 2015.
Obviously, requesting a happy ending for Grandma and the lesbian dentist is my number one priority for Yuletide 2026. Still, nobody can say she didn't go out in the gayest way possible!
The high-level premise of this show: a GENIE, who is also SATAN, has been IMPRISONED for ONE THOUSAND YEARS because he's supposed to seduce humans into CORRUPTING THEMSELVES and instead he met a PURE SOUL who used her WISHES FOR GOOD and caused him to LOSE his BARGAIN with GOD.
Now! he has met her REINCARNATION! however! instead of being a PURE INGENUE WAIF! the reincarnation is an ETHICAL SOCIOPATH who has been STRICTLY TRAINED in NOT MURDERING PEOPLE by her BELOVED GRANDMOTHER! and whose first reaction on meeting a magical immortal genie is 'at last! someone I can ethically shove off a building!!'
(This meeting happens in Dubai, btw. The show is very obviously at least in part sponsored by the Tourism Board of Dubai and the cast are frequently hopping back and forth there to Shop Our Beautiful Bazaars and speak in variably competent Arabic; however, as a result, this means the backstory involves historical trade routes! the last time I saw that was in Queen Seondeok!)
ANYWAY, now, the challenge is on: will ethical sociopath Ki Ka-young be CORRUPTED by SATAN the GENIE? or will she once again make SELFLESS WISHES and condemn the genie to have his THROAT SLIT by an ANGRY ANGEL OF DEATH?
There are also some side characters! People in Ki Ka-young's orbit include her SAINTLY GRANDMOTHER and her BEST FRIEND, a LESBIAN DENTIST. People in the genie's orbit include his GIANT PANTHER MINION, the ANGRY ANGEL OF DEATH, and a SMALL BOY who consistently beats him in Mortal Kombat. There are also some LOCAL COTTAGECORE YOUTUBERS, a circle of ADDITIONAL JUDGMENTAL GRANNIES, a RELATIVELY UNIMPORTANT SERIAL KILLER, an EVIL IMMORTAL CHILD, and DANIEL HENNEY, in a role that is perhaps the pinnacle of his career: he is playing a LOYAL ABANDONED DOG, who, granted three genie wishes, not only transforms himself into Daniel Henney but also acquires wealth and a textbook devoted bodyguard. After this happens, at least once an episode we cut to Human Dog Daniel Henney sniffing at lamp-posts looking for his lost family, while his bodyguard trails behind him with a voiceover monologue that runs 'boss .... boss, you deserve the world .... what's your tragic backstory that causes you to be like this ... I'D DIE FOR YOU, BOSS.' Second best plotline in the show.
Let me be clear: is this drama good? no, I do not think so. Do I have arguments with its determinations about what does and does not count as a selfless wish? sure. Did I enjoy it? TREMENDOUSLY. Did I at any point have any idea what was going to happen next in this absolute mad libs of a plot? NEVER ONCE.
however, the thing that made me shriek most about the drama is a major mid-show spoiler about the heroine's Beloved Grandma: so roundabout episode four or so, our ethical sociopathic heroine decides to use one of her wishes to turn her beloved but elderly grandma into a hot young grandma. Why? Because she's worried that if grandma dies she will no longer have an externalized moral code and will instead start murdering people, but if grandma is young then they'll live the same amount of time and she can go on being Ethical. Great. No problems here. The actress playing Old Grandma is Kim Mi-Kyung, one of the all-time greats, but Young Grandma's actress Ah Eun-jin absolutely nails it.
ANYWAY, then Young Grandma of course gets a romantic meet-cute ...
WITH KI-YOUNG'S BEST FRIEND! THE LESBIAN DENTIST!!!
The minute we saw this starting to happen we lost it and kept on losing it every episode going forward. The smooth pickup lines! The romantic trip to Dubai! The poignancy when the lesbian dentist finally compares Young Grandma's dental records with Old Grandma's and realizes that she's been low-key dating her best friend's beloved only relative!
Well, okay, we said to ourselves. This is clearly happening but they're not going to let it happen happen. And that was partly right but partly wrong ... what we expected was for Grandma to eventually end up re-aged and they'd have to say a bittersweet farewell.
Instead, YOUNG GRANDMA TOOK A BULLET FOR THE LESBIAN DENTIST LIKE SHE WAS ON A CW SHOW CIRCA 2015.
Obviously, requesting a happy ending for Grandma and the lesbian dentist is my number one priority for Yuletide 2026. Still, nobody can say she didn't go out in the gayest way possible!
Henney
Date: 2025-12-31 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 12:46 am (UTC)—holy shit, he's Lan in the WoT show? This is a collision of two nostalgia things I was not expecting. BRB recalibrating.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 01:21 am (UTC)This is incredible. I love this.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 01:57 am (UTC)Re: Henney
Date: 2026-01-01 03:12 am (UTC)I do think I'm going to have to watch this, though, he'd make a fantastic dog-man.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-01 04:09 am (UTC)