Dramas like
Hotel del Luna

Same writers, eighteen months earlier, same bargain at the centre. The Hong sisters rewriting Journey to the West as a contract between a demon and a woman who sees ghosts, with the best mythology they have built and Lee Seung Gi and Cha Seung Won having an enormous amount of fun. Difference: the production was famously troubled, the effects are rough in places you will notice, and it takes five episodes to become watchable.

Slow start Episode 5, once the contract between them is actually binding.

The same writers at the height of their powers. A sprawling fantasy with a soul-swap premise, an ensemble that clicks immediately, and the wit and world-building doing the work rather than the melodrama. Same pleasure of rules, curses and a debt that has to be paid. Difference: the romance is an adventure rather than a sentence, and the stakes reset between arcs, so it is far less melancholy.

Slow start Episode 3, once the training arc starts and the ensemble locks in.

Immortal, mortal, and an old debt. A gumiho who has been waiting centuries, plus a brother rivalry that is more interesting than the love story and drives the whole run. Same episodic supernatural cases inside one long romance. Difference: it is a thriller with proper action, the visual design is nowhere near as good, and the sacrifice it stages is cheaper than this one's.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the two brothers share a scene. Their rivalry is the engine.

A six-hundred-year curse, played as comedy. A civil servant, an inherited book of spells and a lawyer who has been cursed since Joseon, committed to completely by both leads. Same structure of a supernatural obligation forcing two people together. Difference: it is silly on purpose and the curse is never allowed to cost anybody much.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the spell book is actually opened and the show commits to being a comedy about a curse.

The same writers, no fantasy at all. The Hong sisters on an interpreter whose job is to be invisible and the star whose public voice he has been quietly rewriting, which is their sharpest premise in years. Same dialogue signature and the same interest in a person whose whole role is service. Difference: there is nothing supernatural in it, and the register is contemporary and restrained.

Hooks early Episode 1. The meet cute in Kamakura is the whole pitch and it is the best hour in the run, so if it does not land nothing later will.

The nearest thing to the same silhouette. A demon without his powers, a cynical heiress as the human battery he needs, a contract signed, and four genuinely fun opening hours with Kim You Jung very good in the middle of it. Difference: it runs out of plot at the midpoint and the hook does not arrive until episode seven, where this one is confident from the first hour.

Slow start Episode 7, where the contract stops being a gag and the demon actually has something to lose.