after consuming the entire series in one sitting, i wasn't left highly disappointed. the acting was decent and esp noting the fact that half of the cast are idols turned actors, i will give props for that. i was especially impressed with choi bomin's acting, seeing him go from A-TEEN to this is honestly very intriguing and i look forward to seeing him in more unique and interesting roles in the near future. and ofc shim dal gi, she was incredible and gave sm life to her character. will def be checking out her other projects :) nagyung, for her first role as a rookie, it was pretty good. i think that def with more practise, she will be an amazing actress one day. hongseok, i don't really have much to say because he wasn't in most of the eps but there were moments where i felt his acting was a little stiff but that's maybe because this role is jus a boring role in general.

[SPOILERS from this point on]
however with the positives, come the negatives. please don't take this seriously, this is merely my opinion and it's your decision as to whether or not you want to take it to heart. with that being said, let's move on with the characters. starting with ho in, honestly I'm kinda confused about him because, on one hand, he's this psychopath who knows abt ae jin's secret and has a tormentful past but then he treats his gf like crap and you want me to be fine with that? i jus felt so bad for ha neul because yes he's a psychopath and isn't able to feel emotion but that doesn't mean u have to be a douchebag. ok moving on to ha neul, actually, i think that her character was pretty well developed. since her backstory was introduced rather early on so we were able to actually see that in fact, she is just a person who wants to be loved. i think this decision was great because you were able to see the actual growth and development of the character. ae jin, I'm also a bit conflicted with this one. honestly, the only thing I have a major problem with is her and her mom's relationship. throughout the 12 episodes, we constantly c ae jin shoving, yelling, belittling, degrading her mother, and then in ep 13 when we find out that her mom has a sickness, we get like maybe one scene of them actually talking and having a healthy relationship. how r we meant to feel emotional and sympathetic for ae jin if all this time she was treating her mom like crap and because of this one scene, we're gonna forget all the shit she did?? yeah no. ok next, jin sung. he was fine, pretty boring and he was gone for like half the eps so...next. sun mi jin, i jus think she's dum lol. she could've jus said she wasn't genie and everyone would've been like wHat and then everyone will eventually find goo ae jin to be genie and then she would be victimized and she would get all the attention she wants. she was a good villain ig, but that crying scene made me cringe. I would like to emphasize this again this is my opinion and if you think shadow beauty is an excellent masterpiece then I will prob give less than two fucks but you do you ig. ok bye