I’m sure if I had time I could do a drama case study on Alchemy of Souls – the great start, the petering out, the frustrating lack of clarity and answers in the massive world building, and the headdesk inducing ending. The case study now extends to the second truncated season of Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow which is getting close to the halfway mark of airing and I find myself enjoying it wholly devoid of any effort made to try and make sense of anything. Like Maverick says “Don’t Think, Just Do” and in brain dead watching episodes 3-4 were actually quite entertaining. Watching Bu Yeon/Naksu be the dim bimbo longing for agency and freedom while confounding people around her is cute, Wook is brooding enough for ten lifetimes so it’s a relief he starts to feel like a normal caring human around her, and there are random little vignettes (Crown Prince and his new turtle bestie!) that remind me of why AoS works when it…..works, which unfortunately is intermittent and the non-working parts so teeth gnashing. Here Jin Mu continues to plot still and this time the returned real Queen is as evil (in a different way) as the soul swapped fake Queen so those two remain potato v. po-ta-toe. This weekend’s episodes had a lovely capper moment (ohhh lalala kissing in bed) complete with swirling new OST, good stuff worth FF-ing to get to.