Hotel Del Luna: First Impressions

I have to admit, I initially had no intention to watch Hotel Del Luna. Yet here we are. The history behind the drama was enough to turn me off - namely, that the Hong Sisters, writers responsible for fun romcoms in the past, but more recently attached to atrocities like Hwayugi, were penning the series. After being so thoroughly burned by them, I was going to avoid this drama. But hey, I caved, and here's what I thought of the first episode.

So Hotel Del Luna rides on the idea that there is a mysterious hotel for ghosts, situated in the centre of Seoul and invisible to the eyes of ordinary people. Right off the bat, I have some praise for the show. The world-building just sucked me in. The hotel and its workings are richly detailed, so I'm already intrigued by this shape-shifting building and the wonders it holds inside. Of course, this wouldn't have been possible to the same degree without such an enormous budget, but nevertheless this hotel is interesting.
The nicer surprise was the characters - I've long believed that the Hong Sisters belonged to that group of female writers who glorify their male leads and ignore their female characters. Case in point, Hwayugi. But the whole appeal of Hotel Del Luna is in the flamboyant and mysterious heroine. I cannot stress enough how mesmerising IU is here, she's just awesome. Perhaps the issue with Hwayugi, therefore, wasn't a gender based thing, but instead an issue with the fantasy genre. The all-powerful heroine is embedded with plenty of personality here, but so far the mortal hero has very little to do. Hopefully Yeo Jin-gu will be better utilised in the following episodes, but for now I'm just pleased to be seeing a heroine-centred story.

Now for the issues. Firstly - and this is just a small issue, rather than a genuine problem I had, although perhaps it could pose as one later - the leads seem slightly miscast. I'm not saying they aren't doing a fantastic job (of course they are, these two are very charming and capable actors) but it does feel like the roles were built for older people. According to the timeline, Chan-seong should be nearing thirty, and Yeo Jin-gu cannot convince me he's that old. The suspension of belief is a little easier in IU's case, since her character has this timeless quality that she's rocking so far.
Here's my real problem, though, and luckily it was the only glaring problem I had. The dialogue sucks. It's really bad. During the first scene, which set up the mystery behind IU's character, I couldn't follow what the two characters were saying at all. As for the rest of the episode, I wish someone could compile the number of times the Korean verb for 'to die' was used in any of its participles, because it was a lot. Hotel Del Luna can only improve here, and it must.