Hospice melodrama If You Wish Upon Me has spent a lot of time showing us the end of life’s journey – admittedly through rose-tinted glasses. Beginning and ending by the ocean, If You Wish Upon Me reminds us that it is not merely an end-of-life drama, it is a cycle-of-life one, too.

The  show had more surprises in store – we realised that not only had we witnessed the start of Gyeo-rye’s redemption story, we had joined Tae-sik midway through his own. Tae-sik is the beating heart of Team Genie, always eager to lend a hand or an ear. But behind his crinkly smile was a long story of woe, filled with tragedy and bad decisions.

All of this may be fitting, but the drama is not perfect and had problems. There was no character depth except Geo-Rye and Tae-Sik. The other side characters were merely a helping hand to the show, without exposing their backstory to the audience. The character of Yeon-Jeo felt like that she only mattered in so far as how she affected the male lead. The pacing was very slow and at times the story felt dragged at some moments. The contrived plot and sentimental send-offs made for a series that occasionally lacked the sincerity to convey the story it set out to tell.

My Rating : 6/10