The Alhambra is a church and fortress in Granada, Spain. The look of the town, full of cobblestones and two-story buildings, is about as old country as it gets. So where better to set a Korean romantic drama that involves an amazing virtual reality game? That’s the premise of Netflix’s Memories Of The Alhambra. Read on to find out more… MEMORIES OF THE ALHAMBRA STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot Barcelona, Spain. A Korean teenager makes a panicked phone call from a public phone to an executive, offering him the technology he developed, so he doesn’t sell it to a rival with bad intentions. The Gist The teen is Jung Se-joo Park Chan-yeol, who has created a very realistic virtual reality game that can be played via a contact-lens VR device developed by the company run by Yoo Jin-woo Hyun Bin. Jung tells Yoo to meet him at a hostel in Granada that he sometimes goes to, but the teen disappears en route. Yoo shows up at the Hostel Bonita in the middle of the night. It’s run by a young woman named Jung Hee-joo Park Shin-hye, who reluctantly rents the exec the rat-infested, dirty sixth floor room, and is wondering why a man with wealthy tastes like Yoo is renting out room in her hostel. After unclogging his toilet and stuffing rat holes with toilet paper, complaining to Jung Hee-joo the entire time, the chagrined Yoo wanders the streets of Granada, and eventually comes to a public roundabout with a menacing statue in the center. He looks up, and he sees the statue come alive, slam down his sword and start to do battle. With the help of his tech guys back in Seoul, he starts to understand the game that he’s playing, taking all night to level up. When he gets back to the hostel, he finds out that Jung Se-joo is underage and would need a guardian to sign over the rights to the incredible VR game he’s developed, which is also being pursued by a rival. He also finds out more about why Jung Se-joo stays there; it’s owned by his grandmother. That’s right Jung Hee-joo is Se-joo’s sister. Let the charm offensive begin! Photo Netflix Our Take Let’s acknowledge one thing Memories Of The Alhambra is ambitious, especially for a series from South Korea. It’s not only trying to tell a complex story, but one that spans locations. Most of the action takes place in Granada, not Seoul, which means there are some cultural clashes it can address, while maintaining the love story that will likely develop between Se-joo and Jin-woo, because Jin-woo runs a hostel that is geared towards South Korean travelers. Of course, it seems like what won’t happen is that we’ll see Spanish characters enter Se-joo and Jin-woo’s universe except as extras or, in the case of the waiter at a bar where Jin-woo continues to enter in order to find the game’s first weapon, will just be reacting to what the Korean characters are doing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it seems like a missed opportunity to examine that clash in more depth. Other than that, the first episode spends far too much time showing Jin-woo trying to defeat the first level of the game. We get it; corporate intrigue is baked into this show’s DNA. But we don’t care if the VR game goes to Jin-woo or his rival, and we don’t care about the CGI bells and whistles that show Jin-woo playing the game on the streets of Granada. The romance, started under devious circumstances, is where the rubber meets the road on this show, and the first hour spent way too much time getting to that. Sex and Skin Pretty chaste. Photo Netflix Parting Shot After berating Hee-joo for the dumpy quality of her hostel, Jin-woo finds out about who she really is, then gives her a smile as she stands on the kitchen counter with a broom, bashing the screaming smoke alarm. 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Despite the great visuals from Grenada, the acting is a bit broad and the corporate intrigue piece isn’t interesting enough to wade through the silliness and get to the meat of the story. Joel Keller joelkeller writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, Fast Company’s and elsewhere. Watch Memories of the Alhambra on Netflix Tags Korean Dramas Memories of the Alhambra Netflix Stream It Or Skip It