Many of you expressed, over on Patreon, that you’d be keen for a group watch of Alchemy of Souls – so here we are! 🤗

Basically, this is a chance for us to enjoy this show together, in tandem:

Two episodes a week.

Time to think.

Time to talk, squee, and dissect everything. 🤩

Whether you’re a first-time viewer or a returning fan, you’re equally welcome! ❤️

How a group watch works

Let me clarify upfront that this is not a live watch party, so you don’t have to worry about timezones, and whether you’d be available to join, when the episode notes go live.

This is more of what I like to call an aligned watch experience, where we agree to watch 2 eps a week, and then be ready to discuss the episodes, when my episode notes get published on the blog.

Some folks will be able to jump in right when the notes go live, coz their schedules and time zones align, but others will jump in whenever they are able, later in the day, or week, and the conversations can go on all week, until the next episodes get discussed.

You get to watch on your own time, and chime in on your own time, but it is still a shared community experience, where everyone watches in tandem.

Does that make sense?

The notes for this group watch

I’ve actually already covered this show on an episode-by-episode basis on Patreon, back when Show first aired, in 2022-2023.

Instead of writing new episode notes for this group watch, I thought it made sense to use the notes that I’ve already written for Patreon, to anchor this group watch.

Why you should watch

If you enjoy magic, action and drama, with romance and comedy woven through, this might be right up your alley.

I thought this was a strong outing by the Hong sisters, who manage to keep many moving narrative pieces in the air, while adhering to the internal mythology of the drama world that they created.

Plus, Lee Jae Wook is pretty darn badass in this. 🤩

Trailers:

Lens adjustments

Here are a few things that I said in my reviews of the two seasons of this show, around lens adjustments.

1. This drama world is very magicky.

There aren’t any rules except the ones Show explicitly establishes — and sometimes those get revealed gradually.

2. It can be confusing at first.

With a sprawling cast and many different sects and organizations populating our drama world, it can feel a bit overwhelming at first.

My suggestion is to just bear with it for a bit, because the who’s who and what’s what all somehow starts to fall into place, after a while.

3. There is a time skip between Season 1 and Season 2.

What this means is, Show doesn’t pick up right where Season 1 ends, and in the time skip  between the two seasons, things have changed for our various characters and relationships.

Knowing to expect it, helps, and understanding that it might take you a while to get your bearings in Season 2, also helps.

4. Yes, there is a change in female lead.

I’d had my concerns about this, going in, because I’d already grown fond of Season 1’s female lead Jung So Min.

Keep an open mind on this, is my advice.

First, it makes story sense, and second, I found that I ended up liking Go Yoon Jung a great deal in this as well.

Logistics and other details

Schedule: Sundays, starting 1 March 2026. Posts will go live at 8:00am, my time (GMT+8).

Romance: Yes.

Commitment: 30 episodes (Season 1: 20 eps, Season 2: 10 eps).

Two episodes per week = 15 weeks total, from 1 March to 7 June 2026.

In other words: We will discuss E1-2 on Sunday, 1 March 2026.

Note: During the group watch season, reviews will go live on Mondays instead of Sundays.

Where to  watch:

Show is available on Netflix.

Getting around geo-restrictions

If you’re geo-restricted, a VPN service would help you get around that. Not only does it provide online safety, it also gives you access to lots of great geo-restricted content.

I personally use NordVPN. You can find my review of NordVPN here.

You can use my affiliate link (here!) to enjoy up to 74% off, plus an Amazon gift card with prices starting as low as US$3.39 per month.

An article on why it’s not illegal to use a VPN to access legal streaming content can be found here.

In closing

..That’s about it, really! I really hope that you guys are excited for this group watch, and I hope you’ll have a great time, discussing the show!

Please go forth and enjoy your first set of episodes – and remember to tune in for the Open Thread posts, going live starting next Sunday! ❤️