Heavenly Ever After (2025)

Strong Start, Dipped Toward Ending

I am a big fan of stories that delve between life, death and the in-between, or beyond in this case. So there were no second-guesses when I saw the trailer, read the summary and saw the comedic scenes - that I just HAD to start the drama. And I loved every bit of it - until the last 4 episodes. While the whole journey is fun but with some heavy, emotional commentary - I feel too much of anything can spoil the broth. And that is what happened in the last 4 episodes which was frankly unfortunate, a dip to what otherwise could have been a perfect drama. Let me break it down:

Pros:
➥ Inventive World-Building – The depiction of Heaven and Hell, their functions, and the backstories of those who ended up there was fascinating.
➥ Emotional Depth – Each character’s backstory carried a poignant message, making their struggles deeply relatable.
➥ Compelling Mystery – The suspense surrounding Som-i’s origins, Hae-Sook’s age dilemma, and Nak Jun’s accident kept me hooked.
➥ Heartfelt Moments – The pet/parent narratives and their life-and-death messages were undeniably moving, inspiring gratitude for relationships we often take for granted.
➥ Outstanding Performances – Every cast member shined—whether delivering emotional depth or embracing the drama’s exaggerated comedic style.
➥ Stunning Visuals – Solid CGI and effects enriched the storytelling, bringing the supernatural elements to life.

Cons:
➥ Repetitive Storytelling – Certain elements, like the pet-related arcs, followed a predictable formula, gradually losing their impact
➥ Underwhelming Resolution – Again predictable & unsatisfactory: Som-i’s existence, while emotional, felt rushed—more like a convenient wrap-up than a thoughtfully executed conclusion. Logical gaps left lingering questions, making the reveal feel unsatisfactory.
➥ Lost Focus on Love Story – Given its early emphasis on Hae-Sook’s relationship with her husband—an eternal love, transcending even death—the way this love storyline fizzled out in the second half felt abrupt and incomplete. It deserved more weight and screen-time.

Overall:
➥ Recommended? MAYBE - Watch it with Caution
Despite my frustrations with the ending, I acknowledge that this is a personal gripe rather than a universal flaw. Others might find merit in what I found lacking. And, truthfully, the drama’s initial episodes were so gripping that they make up for the missteps in its latter half. With that in mind, I’d still recommend to watch it—just with the awareness that the final stretch might not land as strongly as the beginning.

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A Soulful Meditation On Love, Guilt, and Afterlife

Heavenly Ever After enters the scene with an oddball premise: the recently deceased navigating the bureaucracy of the afterlife, tangled relationships, karmic payback, and even talking pets. On paper, it promises quirky charm and philosophical depth. In execution, however, it spends much of its runtime stumbling through tonal confusion, sluggish pacing, and scattered storytelling before finally finding its footing far too late.

The show begins on a shaky note, taking too long to even reach its premise. While themes of redemption and love are present from the start, the show struggles to settle on a tone. One moment it’s playing out as a tender human drama, the next it's filled with surreal pet politics or slapstick comedy in the heavenly realm. The result is disorienting rather than dynamic.

As the story progresses, the emotional core slowly takes shape. Characters like Hae-suk and Nak-jun are given time to breathe, and actors Kim Hye-ja and Son Suk-ku inject warmth and vulnerability into their otherwise clumsily written roles. Still, subplots often feel disconnected or half-formed, especially the reincarnation arcs involving pets or the vague romantic entanglements that appear and disappear with little warning. The show has big ideas but doesn’t quite know how to thread them into a compelling throughline.

The world-building, especially of Heaven and Hell, is visually inventive in places but undercut by budgetary limitations and repetitive exposition. Even the show’s more daring creative decisions, like the stylized punishments of Hell or Som-I’s identity crisis, are often presented twice or bloated with filler scenes that undercut their impact.

It’s not until the final stretch that the narrative gains real momentum. Connections between characters begin to reveal deeper karmic ties, past lives are reframed with emotional weight, and the mystery of Som-I finally takes center stage. Her reveal is the series’ most poignant twist. It’s clever and thematically rich. Unfortunately, by this point, the show has already damaged its emotional pacing, and the revelation doesn’t fully land due to earlier inconsistencies.

At its best, Heavenly Ever After is a soulful meditation on love, guilt, and the afterlife. At its worst, it’s a messy patchwork of half-developed ideas and filler content that squanders its unique premise. The show wants to be heartfelt, whimsical, profound, and funny, but rarely achieves more than one at a time.

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