Wish-granting storylines aren’t anything new to fiction, and certainly not to K-dramas. However, screenwriter Lee Young Sook’s adaptation of the eponymous novel (by writer Go Sang Hee )attempts to whisk away the audience to the magical diner of wish-granting witch Jo Hee -Ra ( Song Ji -Hyo) and her human business co-owner Jeong Jin ( Nam Ji -Hyun), as they deliver a dish of revenge best served cold…

There’s a lot to say and critique about ‘ The Witch’s Diner’. Appraisingly actress Song Ji Hyo was really good here. Starting off on a note which was hard to take seriously with her patchy red hair-dye job, Ji-Hyo undeniably has a charisma which allows you to easily become attached to her as the drama unfolds. This performance was equally rivalled by Chae Jong Hyeop’s sweet ambience onscreen as side character and teen high-schooler Gil-yong. Whilst the drama seemed to sometimes struggle with “ sticking out” in comparison to fantasy predecessors, it did have some surprisingly profundity scenarios in weekly episodes ( as well as tasty-looking food)- Gil Young painfully finds himself unable to help a classmate who is being mercilessly bullied , a customer at the diner makes a shocking sacrifice in order to escape his status of being a “ cowardly loser”, a young woman suffers heartbreak and throws away her own talent in order to be with him again

On a more critical note ‘ The Witch’s Diner’ doesn’t quite have the same charm in order to make it as memorable from previous fantasy drama predecessors due to the poor build-up of screenwriting at times. Ji Hyo’s onscreen persona Hee-Ra is a case and point of this problem; a character who the screenwriters want to keep you in the dark about for as long as possible, but rarely arising strong emotions for viewers with her recondite past, as there was little dramatic buildup or unseen twists which haven’t been “seen and done before” here.

Costar Nam Ji Hyun wasn’t bad per say here as Jeong Jin, but her performance didn’t quite resonate as much as it should’ve done either. Admittedly this isn’t entirely the actress’ fault. It was evident to see the goal here with her character ; a relatable and normal female lead with a mysterious past, but the ideology behind this type of FL is usually built upon emotional investment and sentimentality . Jin instead was nearly always unfazed and apathetic. Whilst it didn’t seem to be intentional, Ji Hyun’s facial expressions just seemed to radiated stoic expressions half the time , as though seeing a magical wish come to life is just another daily occurrence in the life of a mundane heroine.

If this matter couldn’t be worse, there was also Jin’s complicated co-partnership with Hee-Ra. It should’ve been interesting, but the gradual development was just poorly-tackled. Hee-Ra initially acts upon Jin’s wish for revenge in a more lethal form. Jin was seemingly disgusted to the core by the actions of the witch only to happily sign a a better business deal with Hee-Ra( who Jin now considers to effectively be a contract killer). It is understandable how the drama wanted to build this relationship up from “ resentment to solidarity” but the quick excuse that Jin was seemingly “ too emotionally inflicted by her own troubles ” only to happily going along with someone she deemed as merciless felt an odd and unsatisfactory leap in development.

Then there’s the “ potentially romantic “setup between Jin and Gil-Young onscreen. Whilst respectfully in real-life we shouldn’t forget these actors are nearly the same age and do have really good onscreen chemistry , the age gap between their onscreen personas was fairly significant . The result being that Gil-yong's obvious crush on Jin feels like it should be a more plausible romance than it really should. This might or might not relate to his “ secretive” wish, but then most of the problems of this drama seemed to manifest by tense build-ups, and then unsatisfactory results.

“ The Witch’s Diner” is a fairly mediocre fantasy drama-not bad with solid performances by most of the cast and intriguing subplots, but just lacking the grandeur and originality of its fantasy predecessors. The series could’ve easily done with more division even in this short space of time to build upon the characters ( who often felt one-dimensional), or at least have commissioned more episodes in order to divide time between storyline and character development more interchangeably.