Sigh, honestly after this aired, the meme/picture of the horse drawn so beautifully deteriorating into a child's drawing came to mind (even though that's not 100% accurate since this was never beautifully detailed but I digress).

Once again, I felt like did the writer not know what to do with characters and that's how we ended up with these conclusions. While it was cute and appreciated, the way Ki Joo was saved seemed oh so contrived.

Thank you so much for all the insightful recaps. It has been such a good journey to share with you. While we may (technically) be watching dramas alone but this sharing of thoughts, feelings and emotions that the dramas evoke in us is very cathartic. Especially when led by such thoughtfully written recaps which set the tone for our discussion.

I liked the opening scene. While it was expected that Ki-joo may not necessarily be able to return by sunrise, the one year gap seemed unexpected. But at least it was better than the brief goodbye after 20 years of radio silence by Samchon. I think we can have a whole drama about what Ki-won was up to for all these years and how (and if) he was able to help Ki-joo take over the mantle and run the family business. Also how did Ki-joo run his Studio before he got the ghostly assistants. Did he have other assistants before.

I really liked that his unfailing kindness "earned" him the chance to come back from the netherworld. Many Beans have raised valid points - why couldn't the Grim Reaper just take back the camera and why did it have to be Ki-joo who returned it.

While the Bom - Ki-joo love story shines, despite their smiles the Ji-won and Seung-ho story left me somewhat quizzical. One way to deal with it was to have no pat resolution and just maintain status-quo. So unsatisfying to the audience but it made sense in-drama. Although his teaching class and book *can ghosts publish books!?* left me more than a little wary.

I missed Nam Goo. Again his story made sense in-drama but was overall unsatisfying. In retrospect his relationship (or lack thereof) with Na-rae seemed tacked on in the drama. As expressed so beautifully in the recap last week, the couple "missed the chance to either reconcile or part amicably".

Overall I was happy with a peaceful (if you look past the premise 😂) kind of drama with not many surprises and a happy ending with the K-drama mandated year long leap. I'm not going to question why.

While falling short of being perfect (also somewhat impacted by the disturbed airing schedule) it was a drama that warmed my heart. Again as so astutely stated the Studio offered "comfort of seeing people get the kind of closure that’s too often denied in reality". I really like how the recap expresses these insights so evocatively. Kudos for the brilliantly written and empathetic recaps, in harmony with the overall tone and vibe of the drama. 🙏

"It may be time to say goodbye, but every ending is really just a new beginning.".

Let's see and enjoy another drama together!! Hwaiting!!! 👏 ♥️ 😍

Arf a one year jump... why? What did it bring to the story? Nothing...

The story didn't really make sense, he could say to the grimp reaper to take back the camera, why did have to take it in the netherworld himself? The Grimpreaper wanted the camera, Ki-Joo didn't want it anymore, it was perfect and easy!

The worst plot was the love story between Ji-won and Sung-Jo. I hated every second of it. It's not romantic to fall in love with someone you can't see, you can't hear, you can't touch. You can't build anything, a home or a family. The girl deserved way better. Sung-Ho was childish, he should have go too.

The best part was the love story between Ki-Joo and Bom. They were really cute together. And it was nice to see a normal couple.

In general, I don't think I rewatch this drama. I didn't really care about the characters.

As always, the main couple got me through this. They were so adorable and I loved how they seemed so comfortable and affectionate with each other. The rest just really fell apart for me, and there were large swaths where I couldn't bring myself to pay a lot of attention.

I didn't like the secondary romance. Maybe if she could at least see and talk to him, but she can't! Even Holo in My Holo Love would have been a more practical boyfriend. I thought that, the longer a ghost stays, the more likely it is they will turn into an evil spirit? Did the drama forget that rule? It seemed to forget a lot of its own rules...

If they wanted the camera back so darn badly, and he wanted to give it back to them, why make him go through all that to return it? I was like: seriously, what do you want from him?? It's not his fault his ancestor stole the camera!

When they showed the cop ghost's ex in the airport, I had this initial reaction of: who's this person and why are they showing her? I literally forgot all about her. That is how important she and her former affair partner were to me and, imo, this story.

Of the ENA dramas I've seen, they should've had 2 episodes more or 4 episodes more. Or more accurately, a lot of kdramas start out great and become very muddled at the end. These last few episodes felt like a slog tbh, but at least we got happily-ever-afters for everyone and a lot of cuteness along the way.

Speaking of cuteness, I loved the couples. All of them were adorable and had great chemistry imo. the friendships were sweet too. I could watch a few specials of just Bom and Ki-joo flirting, with the ghost gang ribbing them about it (rip Baek). Ji-won and Deputy Go were also adorable, though I'm not sure about the viability of their relationship... but who am I to judge as long as they're happy?

And of course, all the cases of the week always had me moved and at the verge of tears. Seo Ji-hoon was the most tragic to me, but Yoon-cheol's gotta be up there (hope you're smiling in the netherworld about finally getting justice, buddy). It was also nice to see the kid Kijoo helped earlier on come back to help him :)

All in all, I had a great time for most of the drama's run. maybe 8 or 8.5 from me?

I couldn't bring myself to watch the last 3 episodes, so I can't comment on them--the show for me was always a rehash of every other kdrama ghost show I've seen, and I stuck with it as long as I did only because I liked Nara and her character. I had really liked Joo-won in Stealer, but I was disappointed in his performance here. Maybe he can't act with an orange perm--understandable--there are very few actors who can carry that off.

But I didn't come as an evil spirit to haunt everyone's aftershow life celebration. Instead I wanted to praise the show's OST. Of course it had the opening theme by Elaine- who remains my favorite OST singer-composer, based on Search WWW, Its Okay to Not be Okay, I'm Not a Robot and many others--but the repeated song which stuck with me, and which I've actually listened to outside the show, and probably will again from time to time, was the English lyric song "Superstitions" sung by Korean American singer Lee Sungeon. (Don't know who composed it.)
Anyway, it fits with how I'm sometimes haunted by weak kdramas even after they've ended!

Nam Goo's character was treated poorly from start to end...a cheating wife, many regrets, and then sent to nothingness. He was a sincere and good character who deserved better.

anks for all of your recaps @mistyisles. 😊😊😊I'm not a fan of ghost stories (always too sad for me) but started the drama because of Yoo In Soo, my favorite of all. I lost track during all of the delays and then was side-tracked by Queen of Tears, but I continued to read the re-caps.

Your recaps will provide a roadmap for the time I will invest in watching certain scenes involving Dae Ri. And I will try to catch some of the romance because Joo Won is also a favorite. But there's nothing overall in the plot(s) to entice me to watch for the sake of watching - not even a beannie. As I said, there wasn't much to entice me to begin with. 😊

I liked this drama best when it was doing episodic ghost-of-the-week stories. Those should inevitably yield eventually to some resolution of the curse for our leads, but I wish they had done at least one more - I think it would have been more balanced that way. It was also kind of strange that in this world of extreme interconnectedness, that the last episodes felt a bit... disconnected from the earlier ones. Or was that because I waited to watch the last three together? Unclear.

Dramaland remains more comfortable than me with "happily for now" endings (rather than "happily ever after") and so I mostly feel sort of sad about Sung-ho and Ji-won's relationship. This whole time it seemed like we were building to the kinds of sad but beautiful goodbyes we got at the end of Hotel del Luna, so I was fully expecting them to fall in love and "date" for a little while, but then for him to realize he needed to leave so she could move on with her life. In my imagination they had some happy weeks, he helped her get rid of the awful boss who killed him, and then they would meet in person for the first and last time at the studio where they would affirm their love and he would tell her to find someone else when he left. I'd be over here, happily crying into my hot chocolate. What we got was cute, but felt incredibly incomplete to me. There is no way she isn't lonely (or will be eventually) and he is not really doing the thing he should be, the thing that all ghosts are supposed to do, which is pass on into the next stage. All he's doing right now is ignoring the fact that he's dead, which doesn't feel sustainable to me. Ah well.

In the end I liked that Ki-joo had to return the camera to save Bom. I'm not sure he would have done it if it had been to save himself, and I think it's right that he be the one to go to resolve his family legacy. And I loved that it was the little boy who came to get him and lead him out (this was a role I was actually hoping would go to our uncle, but I'm happy with this outcome also) - it made me feel the connection to the earlier episodes again, which I appreciated.

At the beginning of THE MIDNIGHT STUDIO as we approached half way with the ghost of the week format still in play I thought it would go on my 2024 list of favorites. Unfortunately the second half determined that it will not. (So right now on my 2024 favorites list I have the two flowers: SAND and KNIGHT).
TMS was my first Joo Won drama and I enjoyed his performance. I look forward to his future projects. I have always liked Kwon Nara. They were a nice couple Lol the three male leads ALL had ‘bad’ hair. The production company skimped there.
I contrasted TMS with a drama that became a totally unexpected favorite OCN’s MISSING:THE OTHER SIDE (2020) (Viki US) (one of those dramas that helped me get through that pandemic year). I was hoping to have the same satisfaction but it didn’t happen.
I agree with this who thought Samchon(Park Ki-woong) got short changed.