Kokdu: Season of Deity

Took a while to warm up

Characters in 1st half were not very likeable, too abrasive or too pathetic. Don’t give up, they and the plot become better in the 2nd half.
My pet peeve: Terrible wardrobes of both FL and ML. Maybe, Kim Jung Hyun wrote a clause that he would only wear loose comfortable clothes. He was still very handsome but poor Im Soo Hyang is left wearing rejects from thrift stores, most ill fitted. I guess it did reflect Gye Jeol’s personality but for me, she was portrayed as little too ditsy. Did she really pass medical school?
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*spoilers
Confusing background story from writers since the past lives shown was not the origination of the “curse”. Too bad, they didn’t dramatized that story rather than just have it talked about. It seemed more interesting.
I am conflicted on the ending. Sometimes I think I liked it, then I don’t. Felt same for my all-time favorites: Crash Landing and Goblin. Oh, well- I think I’ll just rewatch “Mr. Queen”, Jung Hyun and the series was fantastic, the ending, too!

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Death, Romance, and a Whole Lot of Cotton Candy

There’s something incredibly frustrating about a drama that almost works. Kokdu: Season of Deity is one of those shows that flirts with being something bold — a quirky fusion of myth, romance, and moral reckoning — but it never quite commits to anything long enough to hit you where it counts. It's like getting charmed by a magician who forgets the second half of every trick.

The setup is promising: a grim reaper cursed to roam the human world, doling out judgment and — bafflingly — also trying to fulfill romantic duties. There's a whiff of Goblin-meets-Dali & Cocky Prince energy here, the kind of supernatural rom-com blend that could have been weird and wonderful. But instead of digging into the weight of its mythos or fully embracing its absurdity, it kind of wobbles in between, unsure of what it wants to be. The result? A story that looks delightful in screenshots but dissolves on contact.

The leads — Kim Jung-hyun and Im Soo-hyang — are game, and that’s important. They’re trying. You can see it in the way they push through the tonal whiplash with expressions that say, “We know this is silly, but maybe we can sell it.” There are flickers of chemistry, moments where something warm tries to break through the script’s clutter — but the writing never stays still long enough to let it grow. Scenes cut away just as the emotions are starting to breathe, replaced by another tonal swerve: now it’s wacky, now it’s tragic, now it’s flirty, now it’s revenge. The pacing doesn’t trust the audience to sit in a feeling.

And the whimsy — oh, there’s so much whimsy. But it’s the kind that feels studio-manufactured. Pretty sets, pastel palettes, feather-light music cues. It’s all sugar and no substance. The comedic side characters overplay their hands, the magical rules shift whenever convenient, and the whole thing starts to feel like a drama made out of marshmallows: cute to look at, occasionally amusing, but completely incapable of leaving any lasting impression.

There are moments, I’ll admit, where the humor actually works. A well-timed line, a visual gag that lands just right — those small, glimmering moments that remind you the premise isn’t the problem. The bones could have supported something great. But by the end, you're left watching actors treading water in a sparkling pool of ideas that never get deep enough to swim in.

Kokdu isn't awful. It’s just insubstantial. It’s a soft breeze of a show, more interested in being quirky than meaningful. And while I appreciate a good fantastical romance as much as anyone, this one felt like a dream I forgot five minutes after waking up. Pretty. Fleeting. Empty.

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"Kokdu" is a drama about an immortal being named Kokdu. When he descends to Earth this time, Kokdu enters the body of Jin Woo, a doctor, when he dies. Gye Jeol is also a doctor, she knew Jin Woo, he was the one who got her fired from her job, but when Gye Jeol comes to meet him again, Jin Woo is like a different person. Kokdu strangely does everything Gye Jeol tells her to do, so he thinks she is Seol Hui, his former lover and the reason for his curse. Kokdu hires her as a doctor in his hospital, with the purpose of making Gye Jeol fall in love with him and break the curse, allowing him to finally die.

The romance between Gye Jeol and Kokdu is very cute, the two have great scenes together, but it lacked more development in their relationship, in the characters' past, in all the tragedy that brought them together and how the curse began. I wish we could have seen more of Seol Hui and Oh Hyun, seeing them get to know each other, falling in love, not just flashbacks of what happened. But still, they have great scenes together, like the one in the church, where Gye Jeol finally tells Kokdu that he loves her, it's impossible not to get emotional, it's one of the best scenes in the drama!

There's clearly a strong inspiration from "Goblin", both in the story, the characters and the romance. Kokdu is an amazing character, his fun, unpretentious and childish way is what captivates you, what keeps you hooked on the story.
What was that when they were explaining to him about multiple personality and using the characters from "Kill Me, Heal Me" as an example?! I loved it HAHA'
And Kokdu's completely over-the-top reaction to being rejected?! But also, he's been rejected so many times that I lost count. kkkkk

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The season of terrible writing/acting for one of the two leads

The show is dragged out way too long at 16 episodes, especially with all the interesting plot points that are wasted and goes nowhere and terrible ones that go on for ever. Kim Jung Hyun is doing a herculean job trying his best to act his way through this atrocious writing for Kokdu the character who has grown petty whims and tantrums during his long supernatural punishment after losing his memory or original personality to time. The worst part of his character is still anything to do with the forced romance between him and Gye Joel, both before and after they fall for each other. There's no spark between these two characters, it's just double the annoying scenes. There is no proper communication for most of the series either, with important information force revealed to one or both of them. His curse/promise to do literally anything she asks being used for comedic effect falls extremely flat to say the least and it cuts short the fascinating aspect of the other curse from the deity for him to hear the cries of victims to kill a specific person. He's shown to kill the scum of the earth that evade legal persecution, but he's also shown to hear the calls for the death of someone that's just based on made up hearsay by Gye Joel who he may more may not have killed if it wasn't the body he was currently occupying. He really is a serial killer with voices in his head telling him to kill and the plot where Gye Jeol's brother detective Han Chul tracks him down is way more interesting than romance storyline. There's also the storyline point where Kokdu's power was on the fritz and suddenly that's forgotten about and it was just fine. The part where he found the reincarnation of his younger brother who turns out to be ex-boyfriend Yi Deun who brutally dumped Gye Jeol albeit with a reason, was more exciting than anything with her. I wanted to see their new brotherly relationship explored more. More of Kokdu's original personality is scene in from the past with their reunion. It was actually sad seeing Kokdu's pain at being unable to protect Yi Deun from getting shanked whereas there is no feeling or stakes with anything between Kokdu and Gye Jeol. Unlike her Kokdu actually has his sentient moments and sees through people and makes interesting plans. It was clever of him to use his own end time in the mortal realm to set up his enemy as a murderer. Again it was a frustratingly dumb moment to see Gye Jeol just crying instead of using any of her ER doctor skills to even attempt to help him. She suddenly just wants to kill the guy like she's possessed by her past life instead of sticking to her morals about not killing.

Do Jin Woo's character feels like a wasted opportunity. He was trying to expose corruption and the killing of his birth mom before he was surreptitiously murdered and his corpse possessed by a supernatural entity. He's really sharp and immediately figured out the supernatural situation he's in and wants to live. Exploring the dichotomy between doing what's right and playing it safe to live longer while going against both the earthly forces pursuing him as well as Kokdu could have been interesting, but the show dropped it like a hot potato. It's such a relief to see his level headedness shut down and not enable Gye Jeol's ridiculously childish behavior. It would have been fascinating to see his story play out, but instead he just dies again at the end of his 49 days after death.

The biggest weak point is both the writing and acting for the female lead character Gye Joel who pretty unsufferable the entire time. There was a moment of hope when she stood up for herself to block one hit from an unreasonable patient, the first and last point I wanted to root for her, but then it's just a series of her being a clumsy, man obsessed, childish, whiny, immature overreactions to everything, literally tripping over her own feet charicature. She literally trips down the stairs multiple times. The worst part is the drama points this out as a point of pride, she's intentionally made this way because they think it's cute. It's not. The worst is that she can never advocate for herself or for her patients. There is no point to her as a doctor characer. She does use her status as a doctor to threaten her brother to sabotage the witness's testimony if he ever brings witness who saw her boyfriend murder someone to trial. She's always the fool. Again the drama does it on purpose like they are doing something great. The acting doesn't do anything to elevate this kind of grating character. She's comparatively fine as Seol Hui who for the most part is allowed to act like a human being, actively taking agency for herself her entire life , but as the reincarnation of the character she drags down the story every time she appears and she half of the lead pairing. She's a pretty awful doctor too, not questioning how Do Jin Woo who is severely injured by falling off a whole highrise onto a car is just fine with some amnesia, taking advantage of an amnesiac to lie for her in a hearing, telling people she's his accomplished doctor boyfriend, the extremely irresponsible way she treats Do Jin Woo even though she thought Kokdu personality was a result of a disorder, etc. She doesn't notice all the weird powers he has, even when it's shown to her face while she believes things she has no proof for. She doesn't figure it out for TWELVE out of the 16 episodes when he literally had to teleport her and heal in front of her face. She some how managed to become a doctor, but her brother detective Han Chul got the brains of the family even though he supposedly has double digit IQ. Her forcing him to not take bigger cases is pretty selfish too, it's his job to investigate. Ahn Woo Yeon as Han Chul carries all the sibling scenes they have together and Han Chul can be professional at his job, but she can't handle it. Gye Jeol's must be in the negatives. His romance storyline is leagues better and more mature than hers as well, the difference better acting and strangely better writing as well. The writing lampshades her terrible traits, but that's not the same as breaking through them.

The costuming is also very garish for all the characters from lead to supporting. They literally give Han Chul a leather jacket with spikes during the scene he first meets Kokdu as his sister's boyfriend. It would be fine if it looked cool, how did they manage to find the worst cheap looking one. There are so many lower budget productions that do better in dressing the characters both for the story and just aesthetic wise. All of the jewlery looks so fake like toys except for the bog laurel ring and hair stick. The pink jeweled tiara and the matching necklace are the worst after the big ruby ring. It makes no sense because Ok Shin chaebol underling is filthy rich and could afford real jewels for her.

There is one thing the series surprisingly does right and that's actually planting the seeds for a plausible reason for the disappeared forever character to reappear again. Kokdu had his contract with Gye Jeol and also the prayers from her kokdu cult of patients that she makes pray for him in lieu of payment. Kokdu remains a entity with his underworld job and Gye Jeol continues her cycle of death and rebirth without the tragic death in this timeline like she has in every life. They just dropped that nugget last second without having established that info anytime in the 16 episodes. It's also a bummer there's no final reunion between Yi Deun who survived the stabbings but no line about whether he's in remission or not which he hopefully is after five years.

If you skipped to the end here, just skip this whole drama. There's better ones out there.

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A little gem, don't mis it !!

Story of the Kokdu (god of death more or less Reaper) who comes to earth every 99 years, and finds his doctor (after reincarnation) lover, embroiled in a plot of corruption/medical shenanigans.

The story is remarkably well-written, played by very talented actors (Kim Jun Hyun is absolutely fantastic ❤❤❤), the special effects are TOP and the direction smart.

A little gem!!
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Histoire du Kokdu (dieu de la mort +/- Faucheur) qui vient sur terre tous les 99 ans, et retrouve sa lover (après réincarnation) médecin, embrouillée dans un complot de corruption-magouilles médicales.

L'histoire est remarquablement bien écrite, jouée par des acteurs très talentueux (Kim Jun Hyun est absolument fantastique ❤❤❤), les effets spéciaux sont TOP et la réalisation intelligente.

Un petit bijou !!

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Has the potential to become a hit drama

Omg, the first episode is the most chaotic one that I ever witnessed in a kdrama not gonna lie😂😂😂
BUT I had a lot of trust in the main lead kim jung hyun. He is a fantastic actor who impressed with all his roles so far (Mr. Queen, Cloy, Welcome to waikiki,...) and I was so curious what he would do with this character. What can I say? He's nailing his role again! It's been only 4 episodes but I had so much fun watching it. The chemistry between kim jung-hyun and im soo-hyang is so lovely and fun and I loved every scene between them. Dialogues, cinematography and story is worth watching👌❤
Really curious in which direction the storyline will go in the following episodes😊

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It's one of those..

Let's take an awesome story, spend lots of money on production, cast perfectly decent actors, add second-rate scriptwriters, and make sure the directors force the actors to be as annoying as possible on screen so we can do the opposite of entertaining viewers. We're not here to entertain, we're here to annoy.
Yes, it's one of those. Although predictable, you already know the story will be good so hope everything else will make up for its predictability. The only parts worth watching are Kokdu and his group. Is it Han Gye Jeol or Im Soo Hyang who ruins it? Or both? Didn't watch enough to determine which. Mainly because I threw everything within reach at a year-old 60-inch 4K television starting with the remote control due to being so annoyed and embarrassed for the character/actress. Please delete this show from the internet

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