Genie, Make a Wish

Disappointing and disrepsectful

Although I like the main cast, when the trailer first came out and saw many in the Muslim community found the use of Iblis as one of the main characters as disrespectful, I started to lose interest. But when it dropped today and I had time I decided to try. Never mind the storyline being very cliche and uninteresting, the writing lacking, the timeline confusing, unfortunately the acting of the ML and FL is truly terrible. They are unable to inhabit the characters nor make them believable, and lack chemistry. Huge disappointment not worth the watch. Although if you give it a try you will notice all I've mentioned in the first episode.

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The origin of the Genie is explained in the beginning.

I watched this rom com series between 18 and 21 February 2026. All of us know the famous Arabian Nights story of Aladdin from childhood, either through books, movies, or animation. This series feels inspired by that core idea, but it creates a completely different romantic story.

The origin of the Genie is explained in the beginning. You see how he came into existence, why there are only three wishes, and how he got trapped inside the lamp. It is not very similar to Aladdin, but it will remind you of it.

The first one or two episodes feel slow and slightly confusing. The plot takes some time to settle.

My personal opinion: The finale has mixed reactions. Some people call it a sweet reunion, while others think it feels messy and rushed. Even though the ending is happy, I personally felt it was a bit weak in writing. It could have been done better. I was planning to give it 6, but because the concept is creative, I give it 7 out of 10.

Content Type: Web Series, K-drama
Genre: Romantic Comedy, Fantasy, Drama
Writer/Director: Written by Kim Eun-sook. Directed by Lee Sang-yeob. Produced for Netflix.

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Dropped!

the initial narrative is really misleading. Are they just combining several beliefs with the pop culture story of a thousand and one nights? What is certain is that the use of the name 'iblis' is specific to only one belief, considering that other beliefs don't use that name. If this is fiction, then the author has the opportunity to find another, more secular name, like 'ifreet' perhaps or 'Bael' something sound bit mideast. it would really help the overall development of the narrative for this romance.

What makes this drama really annoying is the naming of the main characters which is too stiff and monotonous, so I decided not to continue watching this drama.

I understand why some communities object the narrative of the drama and it should be a consideration for other script writers, in the future; to write fantasy scripts neatly.

even lies should be carefully considered, that's fantasy is

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Extremely disrespectful and disappointing drama!

“Genie: Make a Wish” is a completely disappointing drama. In this series, they have portrayed the devil (Iblis) as a hero and shown angels in a lower position — which is totally unacceptable. The whole concept insults Islam and tries to glorify evil in a positive light.

The story is meaningless, the message is offensive, and it clearly disrespects faith. Korean writers and directors often try to turn negative things into something admirable, but this time they have crossed all limits. Such concepts should never be promoted.

I strongly condemn this drama and hope that no one ever creates something so disrespectful in the future.

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Progressive potential muddled by Orientalism and lack of follow through

The show is definitely making use of the Netflix platform to showcase a kdrama romcom that contain a lot edgier topics and portrayals than it usually can on it's mainstream broadcast and streaming platforms, but it's adherence to the false equivocation of being childish to being cute makes the moments eye rolling rather than it's intended effect. Both the actresses who played young and elder Mi Ju were fantastic. Both were standouts in their own way. Some of the dark physical humor is quite funny, like when Ejlael breaks through the windows to fly away and Irem horrifically cutting her tongue and her other senses in order to not give away information to Iblis since she cannot lie. The drama has a lot going on with portraying psychopathy, utilizing Islamic Arabian mythology, and also featuring a lesbian character.

From what I understand of psychopathy wise, there's actually a lot of people that have it, especially in high level leader positions. The condition can be managed in a positive familial environment like shown with Ka Yeong. The show also shows the typical kdrama murder psychopath with another character that also grew up in the same village. He seemed to be undiagnosed, so never received treatment or care from the village that Ka Yeong got. It feels icky that the show made her unable to mask emotions when the other person was able to do so, just for comedic effect and so that she's "healed" with magic at the end when she is turned into a Jinniya. It seemed like they were were also veering into neurodivergence outside of psycopathy that they never address and she's completely changed. She might as well have been reincarnated as a fifth time rather than turning into a Jinniya out of nowhere.

The better way for the drama to have involved the Islamic Arabian mythology was to have actually featured a Arab actor to play Iblis for the entire story and have Arab consultants. Korea may be an ethnostate, but it's been intentionally exporting it's soft culture and interacting with other cultures for so many decades now, but it seems to fall into the same pitfalls again and again. There needs to be some sense of respect or otherwise it's just cultural appropriation and using another culture to be exotic. It's also frustrating that the show has Ka Yeong's past life say that Joseon also has genies. If that's true, that's what this show should have been about in the first place. There are graphic violent scenes where Arab people who are portrayed as enslaving two Korean children are beheaded and some visceral violence towards Korean characters as well, but they are at the hands of an Arab character that forcibly took over the body of a Korean child. The hero Iblis is only ever shown in Korean form. There's a weird undercurrent of Islamaphobia.

I don't agree with the MDL spoiler tag of the show having an LGBT character. The show doesn't hide it, Min Ji is not closeted. The show is cowardly though for not following through on the meet cute scenes that she has with both Irem and Mi Ju. Her scenes with the women are full kdrama romance tropes and she's seen dramatically locking eyes with her Korean TSA girlfriend. It's all one sided, Mi Ju never shows or expresses any attraction to her and Mi Ju doesn't even get a partner into old age, she's at the sand dune tour alone, watching her best friend being wind with her lover. It would not have cost them more for Mi Ju to have had a woman standing romantically next to her. They show that the reason her girlfriend broke up with her is because she point blank chose Ka Yeong over her. In the end lesbian Mi Ju was just devoted to her straight friend her whole life and even after the friend's death.

The dark humor storyline that worked the most was the little dog that wished for a human form and then wished for money and a human assistant, before tracking down his previous owners who he thinks of as family. He coughs out blood and it's implied that the owners had intentionally abandoned him because he was ill. His last wish was to turn back into a dog so he can reunite with his family as himself. Tragically the last we see is of the little doggy waiting next to the bus stop with the implication that he probably passed away without meeting them again. He had willed all his wish money to his assistant who has no memory of how it happened, but retains a sense of needing to devote himself to caring for stray dogs. It's so sweet and Daniel Henny absolutely went all out to play a dog in a human body and Kim Ji Hoon who I think may have been filming the american show Butterfly at the same time since he had the exact same styling was really funny as well as the stoic ex-military helper trying his best to help his boss.

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If you're looking for light comedy

Flash review--

So the reception on this one is pretty mixed, and I will try to summarize why I think that is, as well as what I personally cared about.

*NOTE: I only watched 3 eps

OVERALL

If you like silly comedy and aren't going to take things too seriously, you may have a lot of fun.

Personally, I am not a big comedy person and have a hard time turning my brain off, so this was not for me. The rest of this review is about what I personally liked/disliked. So like, don't just take my opinion man, there is nothing wrong with liking what you like. Go have fun, hopefully the above review can help you make the decision as to whether its a good fit for you

THE GOOD

Suzy is pretty much good in this, maybe some things could be a bit better but I don't think she is a problem in this.

Her grandmother and the surrounding community are great. Both in being interesting to watch and what the writing does with their setup is interesting and potentially really important portrayal related to mental health and diversity.

The ML is hot. His acting is probably fine but, for me, the writing made him the focus of my problems with this show (See below)

THE BAD

The writing is just sloppy and half-hearted. Especially when it comes to the ML's motivations and behavior as well as the fundamentals of how magic works and what it means for the characters in the story. I had to turn my brain off and then turn my brain off again. And I still dropped it, because it was that pervasive.

The comedy is very ...well, I struggled (and failed) to think of an accurate way to describe it that wasn't mean. I don't want to bully people who like this type of comedy, but my eyes have limits to how much they can roll.

This show doesn't handle any topic with care. The flippant use of cultural stuff around genies is a pretty obvious issue that many people are accepting. But perhaps less talked about is the cartoonish portrayal of an actual mental health condition. It barely reflects the actual Antisocial Personality Disorder, and (as far as I watched) constantly plays it for laughs about the "psychopath". I am still a little hopeful that the rest of the show at least does SOMETHING good with the topic, which may actually be the case from what I saw about the community accepting her and raising her, but the comedy seems to mostly just play it for laughs.

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