Mystic Pop-Up Bar recounts the mystery behind our most unlikely hero Kang Bae ( Yook Sungjae) , who by chance, ends up meeting the eccentric owner of a “ Pop- Up” Bar called Wol-Joo ( Hwang Jung- eum). Together alongside her coworker Gwi ( Choi Won- Young), the duo are representatives of the other side, tasked with solving the numerous desires of their customers through wandering through their dreams. When Kang Bae ends up indebted to Wol- Joo after a certain incident, he soon finds himself stumbling into new worlds and strange revelations as well.

As dramas go, Mystic Pop- Up was a surprisingly enjoyable and fun show at times. It wasn’t groundbreaking upon the traditional concept of the oblivious protagonist stumbling into the world unknown, however, there were a lot of intriguing aspects of Korean culture ( modern and traditional) , mythology ( particularly deities) and a strangely sweet romance between Kang Bae and a most unlikely love interest in security guard Kang Yeo- Rin ( Jung Da- Eun) .Nonetheless, it was a bit of a conundrum from a watching perspective.

The biggest problem with this lay upon stealing too many cliches and tropes into the storyline. Whilst this in itself is not a crime and Mystic Pop-Bar did have a fairly intriguing premise , the drama just did not expand upon many of the later intriguing aspects as well ( particularly with the shocking twists near the finale).

This also caused and created too many loose ties in the entire show ( particularly later plot-holes). It’s understandable that the drama tried to balance comedy and melodrama to appeal to audiences , however, the biggest problem for Mystic Pop Up Bar was relying too heavily upon comedy for a major proportion of the drama than allowing the later melodrama to be just as impactful in later storylines.

On the other hand, whilst most watchers seem to criticise Hwang Jung-eum from her past experiences of acting and applying it to the show after the beginning of the drama , Jeung-eum was actually quite good in Mystic Pop Ip Bar. That’s not to say that she didn’t overact at times ( similarly with both her co- stars Young Choi and Sungjae), but, Jeung- Eum seemed to challenge a level of a profound edge towards her performance and character’s backstory , parallel to fellow costar Sungjae during the more tear jerking moments of the drama .

The delivered ending was fairly bittersweet. Perhaps not the “ perfect” ending to the show, but this just added to the fact that although Mystic Pop- Up Bar follows the generic scenarios and tropes of most fantasy and comedy dramas, it was still enjoyable and entertaining to watch.