‘Genie, Make a Wish,’ directed by Lee Byeong-heon, began streaming on Netflix from 3rd October and stars Kim Woo-bin, Bae Suzy, Kim Mi-kyung, and Steve Sanghyun Noh.
Magic and melancholy
Every now and then, a K-drama surfaces that pairs the shimmer of fantasy with the sting of heartbreak. ‘Genie, Make a Wish’ does exactly that—a strange, shimmering blend of romance, morality, and mysticism. It’s about Iblis, a genie bound by celestial rules, and Ka-young, a woman so emotionally numb she seems almost sculpted out of stillness.
When their worlds collide, the story toys with questions about what humans truly want—and whether getting it makes them better or worse. It’s intriguing, occasionally frustrating, and a little bit haunted. There’s a certain quiet sadness beneath its glossy surface, as if the show itself is aware that every wish carries a price.
Wishes with strings attached
Iblis (Kim Woo-bin) wakes after a thousand years, doomed to grant three wishes to mortals as part of some divine bargain. Each wish tests the limits of human selflessness; if he ever meets someone truly pure, his own existence ends.
Then comes Ka-young (Bae Suzy), who frees him from his lamp in the middle of a sun-bleached Dubai desert—and sets off a chain of wishes that spiral into something much darker. Their story flickers between comedy and despair, often in the same breath. The show even pulls in a mystical thread that ties their fates together across centuries—a bond stretching back nearly a millennium.
By the time that connection unfolds, the series feels less like a fantasy and more like a puzzle about fate and redemption.
A fantasy that wobbles
Visually, ‘Genie, Make a Wish’ is gorgeous—the kind of production where every aspect has been taken care of. But the storytelling keeps tripping over its own ambition. One moment it’s playful, the next it dives into existential gloom, never quite finding its rhythm. You sense flashes of brilliance—an idea about how desire corrupts or how love can’t exist without choice—but they fade before landing.
Some episodes work beautifully; others feel like fragments from another show entirely. It’s less a smooth ride and more a scattered collection of moments, some dazzling, some baffling. You end up admiring its imagination while wishing it had just slowed down to let its emotions breathe.
Woo-bin and Suzy hold it together
What keeps the series alive is the chemistry between Kim Woo-bin and Bae Suzy. Woo-bin plays Iblis like a trickster who’s seen too much of humanity to be surprised anymore, yet can’t help being moved by it. Suzy, in contrast, gives Ka-young a delicate stillness—you can see her fighting to remember what feeling even looks like.
Together, they create something unexpectedly tender, even when the script loses its way. The supporting cast pops in and out, but few make a lasting impression—the focus is firmly, and rightly, on this odd pair. Their connection anchors the chaos, giving the story a fragile but beating heart.
A beautiful mess of a fable
‘Genie, Make a Wish’ is the kind of show that almost works. Its heart is in the right place, its visuals are seductive, and its leads do their best to hold the chaos together. But it keeps slipping between tones, never fully embracing its melancholy or its magic.
Still, there’s something oddly affecting about it—the way it asks what happens when love and morality collide, or how a wish can reveal more about who we are than what we want. Imperfect as it is, it lingers. Like a wish that didn’t turn out as expected, it leaves behind a faint ache that’s hard to shake off.
It’s a show that looks magical on the surface yet leaves you oddly hollow once the wishes are over.
Rating: 3/5
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