An eccentric genie returns after a thousand years, and is bound to an emotionless woman. Can he teach her to feel – and love?
Ki Ka-young stumbles upon an ancient lamp in a Dubai dessert and inadvertently frees Iblis, a millennia-old genie tasked to grant her three wishes. It turns out Ka-young was actually the reason why Iblis was trapped in this lamp for over nine-hundred years in her previous life, and he’s been waiting for her soul to reincarnate and seek vengeance. This time, however, she is reincarnated as an emotionally detached psychopath. Convinced that all humans are easily tempted and corrupt, Iblis finds out that getting those three wishes from Ka-young won’t be too easy.
This will be a short review as I have already dropped this by the first episode.
To be honest, even getting past that one episode was a challenge. [EDIT] Well, I did try to watch more until episode 2 and things somehow started to get better or make sense. Unfortunately, it just couldn’t hold my interest. So, I still ended up dropping it. 🙁
Genie, Make a Wish is a reunion project of Bae Suzy and Kim Woo-bin from previously pairing up in Uncontrollably Fond. Actually, I also dropped Uncontrollably Fond after 3 or 4 episodes as I just couldn’t feel anything from the drama (and I can’t stand Suzy’s shouting voice in one of her drunk scenes). So having to drop another one of their projects was yet another disappointment.
High budget production but poor overall execution
Suzy has always been criticized for her acting and many viewers blame the show’s poor rating on Suzy’s emotionless performance. But for me, it’s not really the acting (I love her in While You Were Sleeping and Start Up), but more on the direction, storytelling and pacing. In my opinion, the drama did poorly in piecing together these elements. I’d give it credit for the visual effects, but even then, it failed to make me feel that “wow” factor.
And it’s even harder to stay watching when the last show I watched, Bon Appetit, Your Majesty, set the bar too high for me.
Uneven humor
The lopsided comedic scenes between expressionless Ka-young and overdramatic Iblis come off as unfunny and at times, cringey. If we’re only talking about acting, Suzy actually wasn’t bad, but the way her emotionless character was presented made watching the show less enjoyable – boring even. Because of this, it’s hard to feel the chemistry. I even feel bad for Kim Woo-bin because it looked like he was doing double the work just to make the scene funny.
CONCLUSION
I think Genie, Make A Wish had a good premise – a genie who is also the devil himself, and a psychopath who just doesn’t care – however, its parts and elements weren’t pieced together flawlessly which made it hard to watch. The more I tried, the more I felt like I was wasting my time. I’m sorry, but even Song Hye Kyo’s cameo couldn’t make me watch further. 🙁
Maybe in the future I might try to watch this again. But for now, I’m leaving it.
RATING: 2/10
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