The Scholar Who Walks the Night

This show does every thing a little better than the normal costume k-drama. The essential revenge-plot while obvious, holds suspense throughout thanks to a truly magical villain and title character. If you like a supernatural drama, it does not get better. This thanks to a production that holds a loving attention to detail that simply does not occur in increasingly vapid western vampire dramas. The melodrama is strong and unabashed and truly gothic, even though dressed as it is in delicious hanbok. The music is very strong and underscores the drama perfectly throughout. A little too weak/innocent/optimistic female lead is perhaps the only tiny scratch in the otherwise perfect show but there are other female characters that are deeper and more interesting so in the end it's all so very satisfying and a true feast for the eyes, ears and feels. A true sign of its quality is that it is equally delectable on second viewing. (Normally one is quite worn out by the slow build and obvious feel-stalling of a k-drama by the time it ends...) When it ended I immediately started over.