I went into this drama with mostly high expectations, especially given the amount of praise the comments and fans were giving for Kim Seon Ho, and the fact that the FL also appeared to have an impressive acting career. The biggest letdown of this show wasn't the acting at all. I think both leads did a great job of delivering.

--> The biggest fault of this show is the story.

The pacing started off well, but for me at least, up to ep 8 or 9 I began skipping. It was definitely around the halfway mark of this series. Everything gets dragged out, and episode 15 has to be one of the most painful eps to watch. I skipped every 5 seconds or so, and only stopped for crucial scenes, because they just dragged this out so much.

If they dragged everything out all the way up until ep 15, what became of ep 16, you may ask?

Episode 16 was anticlimactic. The romance between the leads, who had perfectly good chemistry leading up to this, just felt like that moment had been missed. The scene in episode 2 with the water (as much as I'll say) really gave many fans hope for the romance to come...! But all of that was dragged out, and so many little, unnecessary...contrived things got in the way.

For me, once I start skipping through more than 5 episodes of a drama, i've mostly lost that passion I had for it at the start.

And this seems to be a common thing with kdramas. They always start out good, but they always have to drag out things, and for episodes that are 60 minutes at a time, it gets exhausting. Drama watching shouldnt be a chore for me :(

I always start out with the negatives tho, cause I usually write these right after i'm done watching and im disappointed :^( but! The positives to this show are:

PROS
--->The acting is great. Besides the second male lead, who imo i think was kinda........unnecessary..? OOP that sounds mean. But the entire ensemble is pretty solid. Especially the main leads, the actresses for the mothers, the subway ghost, and even a few of the actresses they got to play the victims for side stories. I actually cried during one of the stories :"( that's how moving it was, so I totally salute both the writers, and especially the actors on their deliveries for such heartwrenching scenes.

--> the comedy is pretty good when it actually tries.like in the beginning episodes, i never laughed as much as a I did at some of the scenes xD

--> The male lead
Was Ko Ji Suk a saint in his past life or something? He's been wronged by the FL so much, but he is still so selfless and, really sweet :O Also, he's cool, but he doesn't know it, and when he IS cool, he gets nervous right after cause he mustered all his courage to do it. like damn where do u find such a healthy ML character in dramaland? Also, respects women? This sounds kinda sad now XD I was half-joking there, but Chief Ko is an all-rounder male lead. 5/5 stars.

--->The chemistry
It's not so palpable that ur feeling it through your screen, but you can tell the characters had mutual respect and...admiration for the other :D it was honstly so warm. It's a shame that their romance had to be so rushed in ep 16 since the screenwriters wasted so much time trying to make twists and turns with their choppy plotline ;-;

--> the message
overall i appreciate the message this show has. It has multiple, but the ones I got were along the lines of everyone carries their own pain, sometimes people become losers (xD) and that, im not sure, there's really no black or white to things. The one thing this show DOES go a job of subverting, is the whole black or white hero mentality. Each character, even the villain, had their own motivations. You can't agree with them, but you can see why they did it. And, that depth should really be a given in film, but still i appreicate the fact that this show also highlighted different themes like family, justice, and, really, you can leave a few episodes feeling good about yourself--even though you did nothing--because there's a lot of moral fulfilment you get from watching certain scenes. :"D


----------------------CLOSING THOUGHTS------------------------


SO, THATS WHY, OVERALL, DESPITE THE CRAPPY ENDING (>:D) this show still gets a high enough rating in my book.
Even though the ending was rushed, I'm used to unsatisfying drama endings by now. They can never seem to really wrap up things that well.

Even so, this Catch the Ghost is still a show I'd recommend to friends, and to you, whoever you are reading this :D I'm a stickler for romance, but if that's not your focus, and you just want a heartwarming story, (with a tiny bit weird ending, but a charming cast nonetheless) give Catch the Ghost a try :D Make ur own judgement. I'm just being bitter abt the romance smh xD