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Alchemy of Souls korean drama review
Completed
Alchemy of Souls
1 people found this review helpful
by Sinasina
Feb 25, 2025
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.5
Story 2.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers
This drama is doing many things right, the leads have good chemistry with each other & their endless bickering is plenty amusing. Some annoying saeguk things are absent (awful hats for example) & in many ways this is closer to a Chinese xianhuan show than a saeguk. Instead of clans like the fox clan, fairy clan etc we have mage clans, but their interactions with each other are pretty similar to what we see in those Chinese shows. Overall it's a really well produced drama with a decently interesting premise & world building.

So then why is my rating so low? To summarize I just don't like the plot, there is so much I don't like about it really. Sure the final 2-3 episodes were incredibly bad, quite possibly due to the team scrambling to deal with their actress switching shenanigans, but it's more than that. I don't like the plot device that is the "alchemy of souls", I don't like how the FL does not much else for 19 episodes other than being a maid doing chores and I don't like the love triangle, though admittedly I've seen far worse triangles. I already implied that the lead actors were great fit for their roles, however their romance is flowing rather strangely. Live filming is not great when it comes to consistency & the writers were really not on top of their game here, despite a couple rather epic scenes in the show, the buildup often failed in my eyes. Almost forgot the main point I wanted to make, excuse my ramblings! What I think is the worst here is that this is supposed to be power fantasy. A master who lost their powers meets a disciple who is unable to cultivate powers & then at the very least one of them is supposed to grow strong, right? Despite all the time spent on training, not in this show, no! Our hero born under the king's star remains a weakling throughout the entire time and then the crappy final episodes come ruining everything even more.

Could have given a lower score, but decided not to, since at least the comedy is pretty good most of the time..
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