Jinxed at First: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)

by mistyisles

Jinxed at First sweeps us up in a fairy tale of mystical power, childlike innocence kept locked away from the world, and fish-out-of-water antics. I really didn’t know what to expect from this one, but if the rest of the show continues in this same vein, I am here for it!

Editor’s note: Continued drama coverage is pending based on Beanie feedback.

EPISODES 1-2 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I went into Jinxed at First pretty much blind, vaguely expecting something cute and fun, with some whimsical superpowers thrown in. And, for the most part, whimsical is exactly the word I’d use to describe it, though things do at times veer into somewhat dark and dramatic territory.

The show opens with some quick backstory to set the stage. Our heroine, LEE SEUL-BI (Seohyun), comes from a long line of female shamans. These women are gifted with the ability to see the future when they touch another person, and for centuries they’ve used their powers to assist kings and other men of influence in amassing wealth and avoiding disaster.

Now, Seul-bi and her mother, MI-SOO (Yoon Ji-hye) live in a secret area of a hotel owned by SUN SAM-JOONG ( Jeon Gwang-ryul), Chairman of the powerful Geumhwa Group, who hides them away from the world as his personal talismans. Evil Chairman is evil, and explicitly refers to Seul-bi and her mother as non-human objects.

They’re kept sedated for significant chunks of time, forced to wear gloves when not giving the Chairman predictions, and Seul-bi isn’t allowed any books that would teach her about society or, well, people in general. So she knows the scientific names of all manner of sea creatures, but has literally no concept of how people interact with each other in the real world.

Thanks to her mother, she also knows the story of The Little Mermaid, and identifies with it on a personal level – though, in my opinion, Rapunzel might be a more accurate comparison.

But though Seul-bi expects to one day meet a prince of her own, she’s not just sitting around waiting for him to materialize. One afternoon, she spits out her daily sleeping pill and sneaks out when no one is watching.

That’s how she first meets our hero, GONG SU-KWANG (Na In-woo), and she immediately designates him as her prince, following him around and exclaiming with wonder at every new glimpse of the wide, wide world.

The Chairman, needless to say, is not pleased. When Su-kwang brings her back to the hotel, he not only slaps Su-kwang and fires him from his new job at the company, but he also has his people engineer a Truck of Doom to take out Su-kwang’s mom and orders Su-kwang killed, framing it as suicide.

Then he makes a point of “giving” Seul-bi to his son, SUN MIN-JOON (Ki Do-hoon), and ordering him to make sure no one else ever touches her. (Did we get the point that he’s evil?)

To be fair, Min-joon doesn’t appear to be nearly as bad as his father, at least for now. He seems genuinely fond of Seul-bi (and not just because of her powers), and gives in to her request for an afternoon outside when his father is away on business. Then, when Seul-bi finally gets her big chance to run away, he spots her leaving and breaks into a tiny smile as he stands there and watches her go.

While there’s always the possibility that Min-joon could take the jealous, possessive route later on, I hope he doesn’t, because I really want to like him. His friendship with Su-kwang could make him an ally for both Su-kwang and Seul-bi against the Chairman – if he doesn’t decide that Seul-bi belongs solely to him, after all.

Meanwhile, Su-kwang isn’t actually dead. He’s saved by a fisherman, who immediately pegs this as an attempted murder and gives Su-kwang the identity of his dead son, Go Myung-sung. Then we jump forward a few years to the beginning of our story proper, where Su-kwang now owns a fish shop in a local market and has a reputation for bringing bad luck wherever he goes, which he mostly takes in stride.

The market is populated by colorful characters, who constantly nag at Su-kwang to leave and take his bad luck away with him. Frankly, most of their scenes drag on a bit too long, and it’s hard to find them funny when they go so far as to take advantage of Seul-bi’s naivety – for example, encouraging her to buy things with a stranger’s credit card that she found on the ground.

With her mother’s help, Seul-bi finally escapes her prison and runs away to find Su-kwang. Given everything that happened last time he saw her, he wants nothing to do with her, but getting rid of her isn’t exactly easy when she’s determined to stick by him (and literally has nowhere else to go). And he’s too kind to look the other way whenever she gets into trouble.

I always have a soft spot for a winsome fish out of water, and Seul-bi is no exception. Her childlike wonder is infectious, and she has an endearing earnestness in everything she says and does. Yes, she acts like a child much of the time, but that’s not her fault – she was intentionally raised to be that way.

What’s more, her innocence isn’t her only defining trait. She’s determined, a quick learner, and good at processing information quickly and using it to her advantage – like when she was being kidnapped and used her vision of the not-so-evil loan shark’s future to convince him to help her escape.

And the way she slowed down and smirked to herself as she decided she could handle the thugs chasing her and Su-kwang legitimately gave me chills. Ignorance of the real world aside, her powers and the exploitation she and her mother have suffered has given her a gravitas that simmers under her sunny surface.

I’m really curious to see where the story will go from here. We’ve set up Seul-bi’s quest to live like a normal human, her mother’s declining power, the terrible injustice done to Su-Kwang, and a potential wedge between Min-joon and his father. Here’s hoping those threads continue to weave together in equal parts fun and heartfelt.

So, although Jinxed at First is definitely not without its flaws, I really enjoyed both of these episodes, and I’m excited to watch our little mermaid learn to stand on her own two feet.

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Jinxed at First: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)