reading

For 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 ( I will not spoil except under a cut )

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 ( regarding Beloved Grandma )