Profile:
Drama: From Now On Showtime! (지금부터 쇼타임!)
Network: MBC
Episodes: 16
Release Date: April 23 – June 12, 2022
Runtime: Saturday & Sunday 20:40
Country: South Korea
Plot: A magician and policewoman reluctantly work together to solve crimes.
Main Cast
Park Hae Jin – Cha Cha Woong
Jin Ki Joo – Go Seul Hae
Jung Junho – Choi Geom
Lee Dong Ha – Hae Chun Moo
Jung Suk Yong – Nam Sang Goon
Ko Kyu Pil – Ma Dong Chul
Park Seo Yeon – Kang Areum
Review:
This drama had everything I love in a Kdrama – romcom, comedy, ghosts, murder, creepy killer, new found family, magic, and they managed to squeeze in a little sageuk in the story too. Whew! Too many things happening but I loved the seamless transition of each scene. The sageuk went for 2.5 episodes if i remember correctly, it was like watching a drama within a drama. 2.5 episodes were too long though, they could have kept the past life story at 2 episodes max and more time for the last episode.
Great ensemble cast, from the grumpy ML, charming FL, funny ghost gang and fanboy spirit. I loved their interactions and team work. Esp when they were showing how they did their magic tricks. The drama also showed the background story of the 3 ghosts and I was crying when they finally had to leave and enter Nirvana. I was also surprised at Choi Geom’s story – didn’t expect it all and Cha Woong was just right to get angry at his betrayal and secrecy!
I also loved the romance between Cha Woong and Seulhae, I guess sharing the past, they just knew they were meant to be together. I actually sometimes like their past selves more than their current selves because their love was just so tragic. and Princess Chunhwa was so pretty, no wonder Hae Chunmoo felt in love and couldn’t let go even after 2,000 years!
The episodic cases were light while the initial villain (Ahn Chang Hwan) was so creepy and scary. I mostly ignored Hee Soo, i think he wasn’t a good SML as he could have been. He was just there but didn’t really do much.
Yeji was mostly irritating for being too money hungry but she made up for it by helping Cha Woong in the end. Wished her character was given more chance to shine as a great shaman in the making rather than showing her being petty. I thought the boyfriend deserved a nicer girl than Yeji but Yeji also turned out to be super nice when she dropped her money hungry act.
The final episode wasn’t as much fun as I was hoping it to be since it felt rushed. The evil spirit was so annoying at this point with his obsession for Chunhwa when she was never his. And him jumping from one body to another was too much. But I got it — it made sense he jumped to Heesoo (SML turned bad), to Heesoo’s dad (he finally got the what he deserved for lying all these years), then to Seulhae (to test Cha Woong).
Rating: 8.75/10 (9 minus 0.25 for the bad guy)
KDrama Dreaming 