The Witch, K-Drama review: Park Jin-young, Roh Jeong-ui's show is a slow burn that barely sparks

There’s something undeniably enchanting about K-drama fantasy and supernatural shows. They immerse you in rich lore, weave in folktales, or craft entirely new worlds with stunning originality. So, when you hear a title like The Witch, you expect something as gripping as the legendary soul-swapping twists of Alchemy of Souls or the undying love of The Tale of the Nine Tailed—where, let’s be honest, the plot may have lost you after Episode 6, but you stayed anyway, because, well… Lee Dong-wook and Ji Bo-ah’s chemistry could power the entire show.

Well, sit down and drink some water, folks. The Witch follows a woman whose life is riddled with misfortune—so much so that nearly everyone she interacts with meets a gruesome end. Electrocution, lightning strikes… you get the picture. But what’s even more unsettling than the show’s slow, laboured pace is that its supposedly haunted protagonist, Mi-jeong (played by Roh Jeong-eui), often feels like a background character in her own story.

Instead, the focus seems to shift toward Lee Dong-jin (Park Jin-young), a steely-willed data expert and former schoolmate of Mi-jeong, whose fascination with her teeters on obsession. On the other hand, Mi-jeong barely knows he exists. She just mournfully mopes around, while we have little or no access to any other emotion sans any nuance.

The slow burn has never been so incredibly slow. It’s not quite a love story, nor was it ever a proper school romance. Instead, it’s a man watching a woman from a distance, collecting data, hesitating to approach her—because what if the witchy rumors are true? Her life is reduced to statistics, and rather than a love interest, she’s more of a research subject to him. Unlike the other boys who actually had the courage to speak to her, Dong-jin is paralysed by his own cowardice and voyeuristic tendencies, making it nearly impossible to root for him.

Halfway through the show, and it’s a blur of past and present that never quite adds up. The structure is all over the place—though, admittedly, it’s beautifully shot, which might be the drama’s only saving grace. With just a few episodes left, the question remains: Can The Witch pull off a redemption arc, or is this spell already broken?