Expectation is often the enemy of satisfaction, when we think too highly of something before sampling it then it tends to seem less than stellar simply because it could not match up to our hopes. I had zero expectation of tvN drama Hotel Del Luna especially after how much the Hong Sisters burned me with their last fantasy drama Hwayugi (A Korean Odyssey), yet I still want to watch it because of some long embedded fondness for their prior works. Without that expectation, Hotel Del Luna is everything and more than I could hope for. Each episode with its own self-contained ghost story(ies) are satisfying and the gradual reveal of IU‘s past and the growing connection with modern day white knight Yeo Jin Gu is fabulously engaging. His onscreen presence grows in each episode and now he’s almost as commanding as IU is onscreen in each their roles. watching these two young actors come into their own has been such a pleasure.