Miss Night and Day is a fun, bite-sized show that might be comparable to a Bollywood masala movie. It has some romance, some comedy, some suspense, some literal magic, and some heart-felt moments that will leave you with a positive feeling even when the show is done.
No of Episodes – 16
You can easily binge-watch it in a weekend on Netflix.
Miss Night and Day: Plot Overview
Miss Night and Day show revolves around Lee Mi-Jin (played by Jung Eun-Ji). She is a civil service aspirant who is finding it hard to land a job. After her recent failure, she ends up falling into a well – that transforms her, literally. We, as viewers, are brought along on this journey as we see her struggle with her changing age; a 48 year old (played by Lee Jung-eun), during the day and her usual 28 year old self during the night.
With her new identity and her struggle to keep it hidden, you’ll follow even more shenanigans over the span of the show. The creators have done a great job of showing the despair that the main character goes through as she needs to “fix” herself, and the feeling of freedom and fulfilment that the second identity brings her.
Both her identities end up entangling with Gye Ji-woong (played by Choi Jin-hyuk). He is a workaholic prosecutor who is chasing his own answers.
Ageism
The drama touches on ageism in a refreshing way. It highlights the fact that different people have different pace in living their lives. Declaring oneself a success or a failure based on achieving some time-bound goals defined by the society, is neither feasible nor sensible.
Given that the drama is based in Asian society, it was also especially wonderful to see the female lead use her old age as an advantage to wriggle out of tough situations.
Romance and Relationships
The supporting cast did a stellar job with this one. It was amazing to see supportive Asian parents in this series, even if they didn’t fully understand what was happening in their children’s lives.
The main couple’s romance was standard. One major complaint being that the male lead was the last one to find out the identity truth. This made it feel like the two people had completely different sets of goals throughout most of the show’s runtime. In contrast, the second male lead found out way earlier and confessed after knowing the whole truth. It made one lean more in his favour. It would have been way more fun, if the first male lead was in the loop from the beginning. I would have loved to see the main couple truly work as a team, solve cases together, and figure out work-arounds surrounding the magical transformation.
The second couple is absolutely cute. Both the characters were so kind-hearted in their own ways, that it made us want to root for their happiness. All in all, the character interactions were solid and lent to making this a good series.
Comedy
Despite the series’ good comedy, there was one aspect that just didn’t work for me.
The female lead’s mum is shown as the aggressive one, and there is a supposedly funny sequence where she gets physically violent with her husband and his friend. This was highly uncomfortable to watch. It’s 2024 already, shouldn’t we have moved past this dynamic?
Pacing
The Miss Night and Day series did struggle with the pacing especially in the latter half. While this is a seasoned series with a bunch of different tropes, the creators did fumble at various places in trying to tie everything up.
The mystery aspect of it felt completely separate from the other aspects of the drama, almost like the stories were running in parallel and never really touching each other, until the last 2-3 episodes. The ending also felt somehow rushed and stretched at the same time. And the unnecessary separation in the second last episode just raised more points to resolve, adding to the issue.
Miss Night and Day Review: Final Thoughts
For all the fantasy lovers out there that enjoy a dose of magic added into the mundane, this would be a good, relaxing pick. Plus, it is a feel-good watch that is neither too emotionally taxing nor too mentally taxing. All in all, it’s perfect for a weekend binge session.