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Adorable
Overall this story is absolutely goofy and fun. The two main leads are feisty and adorable together. I get the feeling I'm watching an old western. The serious moments of the show are outweighed by the comedic moments. The storyline is a little slow at points; however, the characters and acting are five star. I would definitely recommend watching this again.The crossdressing scene had me dying and laughter. And when the female lead came in saying she was the investigator's wife. All those slaps were hilarious.
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Not enough romance for me
Disclaimer: this is my own opinion. Everyone's tastes are different. If asked, I wouldn't tell anyone to run away from watching it, but it was a disappointment to me. I think it was the writing that let this show down for me. It was drawn out, and often uneven. Was it a comedy? A drama? It couldn't seem to make up its mind. The story was somewhat interesting, but, in my opinion, could have been improved with some editing.What I liked:
Kim Hye Yoon as Kim Jo Yi. I really like this actress, and her voice is great. I liked them turning the tables and making a woman in a historical show be the strong one. She was strong, outspoken and was willing to fight for what she wanted. Sometimes her wide-open, doe-eyed looks were overdone.
OK TaecYeon as Ra Yi Eon was okay here. I've never been blown away by his acting (I think I need to watch Vincenzo), and he managed to portray a wide-eye innocent well here. Some of his expressions were over the top, which worked when they were trying for comedy, but not when they were attempting seriousness. The scene with him and the bad guy (one of the MANY bad guys) on the edge of the cliff was seriously overacted.
Choi Tae Hwan and Park Do Soo. Hated him with a passion, which was the intention. This was a character that was definitely a hamburger short of a happy meal. Absolutely no conscience, he kind of lived in his own psychopathic world. His smiles at absolutely inappropriate times were chilling.
The friendships. The sidekicks, the friendships made along their journey, found family. I liked watching these relationships develop.
What I didn't like:
Way too much palace intrigue. I was surprised, because by all the clips I'd seen, this seemed like it was going to be very light. It started out that way, and then turned pretty heavy for most of the rest of the episodes. And how many scheming bad guys does one show need?
The romance felt like it was added as an afterthought at times. We got some cute scenes of them realizing that they liked each other, then episodes full of neither one of them wanting to get married, then a rushed, unsatisfactory ending.
They talked about how all he wanted to do was cook, that's what he wanted to do with his life. Suddenly, it was forgotten. We never got to see evidence of that passion until the very end, and even then, I didn't think it was portrayed correctly.
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Not Good Enough
Korean Drama " Secret Royal Inspector: Joy ", not to be confused with the other korean drama "Secret Royal Inspector" with the similar name and plot, is a period comedy drama.The story is pretty basic, with some interesting cases here and there, that aided to the entertainment. There were some funny moments as well and a light-comical atmosphere overall throughout the drama. However, and apart from the main villain who was tragic and gave some depth to the story, the rest of the drama was silly and boring. The romance too was cheesy and lacked chemistry.
On the other hand, the performance were enjoyable and pretty great, especially from the main lead. The chemistry between the cast was smooth as well. However, the main girl was annoying.
So, overall, three out of ten.
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Modern social concepts meet old fashioned values, making for some fun easy comedy
Man, this drama started out SO GOOD. It was fun and funny and engaging, I loved every interaction and every scene…It’s very break the 4th wall modern despite the setting. …and then they went back to the castle, and things dipped so far into boring that it was honestly difficult to slog through. The end picks up ok, but gosh that middle is almost like an entirely different drama.A lot of kdrama comedies are like this though, they start off fun and then try to get too serious for themselves and turn the comedy from a 10 down to a 1. Normally something like this would get a much lower rating from me, but the good parts were too good to discount. If I were to try to put my finger on exactly what went wrong, I think the FL and ML were exceptional when they were playing off each other. In many episodes toward the middle they get comparatively small amounts of time together, which sucks because they had great chemistry together and that chemistry spread to the entire side character group and created something fun and magical.
The pop culture references were really well executed by both the director and the cast. The music was pretty good, and the sets were gorgeous. All of the actors were fully engaged and invested in their roles. I enjoyed having a strong female lead outsmart all of the overtly sexist men. The production team really cleverly and unobtrusively plays with current social issues without impacting your immersion in the story and without being too preachy. That part was exceptionally well conceived.
Overall it’s worth a watch, I might even watch it again some day.
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Sweet, little watch
I wasn't too sure about this show when I first started but two things made me stay: one, when the protag, a Joseon era male, rejects the notion of having children, and two, when the series states that no animals were harmed in production. Both of these were different enough to make me watch on.Other things that I found refreshingly different and new were seeing "honour among thieves" in how the antagonists were given backstories of their own and also an insight into what it was that made them bond. It was quite a pleasant surprise as well to see Choi Tae Hwan's acting range from having met this actor on Hello, Me! He did a good job on an enabled, psychopathic legitimate heir and the family dynamic of the father and son were well played out, imho.
The leader of the angatonists, Tae Seo, was a well written character that was played to perfection by Lee Jae Kyoon; LJK manages such intensity and vulnerability that it was difficult to hate on this antagonist. Even his friend, Cha Mal Jong, was a grey character. Though CMJ is the usual stereotypical cruel villain I found myself admiring his loyalty to his friend and his "band of thieves". He died protecting them and their secrets and such loyalty was rare to come by, even amongst "good guys", and rarely associated with villains that I admired the writer's approach to the characterisation.
Other noteworthy acting was Chae Won Bin who has to portray two characters and honestly, when I saw her on her second character I didn't even realise she was the same actress. Even when there was a part, at the end, where she portrays both characters one after the other, I was amazed at how she managed to exude such different presence and aura as to make those characters so different and separate, though they were portrayed by the one, same person.
What I loved about this series is the sense of equilibrium that it gives the viewers. Seeing three women supporting each other as sisters and being entrepreneurs with their natural talents and "businessing" themselves to success, in such a harsh era for women, was a pleasure to watch. And seeing the men that their efforts also inspire, and whom supports the women back, gives a feelgood vibe. There's just a certain sweetness to this series that is satisfying to the heart and soul to watch.
The only criticism I have for the show are the flashbacks. Imho, they're not handled as well as other shows. The too similar lighting and place and similar hairstyles and such doesn't delineate the past and present enough and makes it confusing between the present and past switches.
Aside from that, I would recommend this show to anyone wanting a nice change to the stereotypical cliches found in this genre and also the subversion of male-female r/ships, expectations and responsibilities, overall.
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I LOVE IT!!!
This drama has a lot of funny moments nowadays we really need something like this, something makes us smile and laugh something makes us happy, we watch dramas like this to forget our reality and this drama made me happy!! i really hope it has a happy ending Was this review helpful to you?
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This was okayThe story was connected well
The suspense was good
The romance was light
But still don't know why I didn't like much
I have to admit it hooked me sometimes
But many times not
I think this was because I wasn't in a drama mood
But inspite of that I liked
I felt sorry for Lee Jae Kyoon so much I saw his end wasn't fair at all
I wished he lived inspite of all what happened
I liked what happened for Jeong Bo Seok [Chief State councillor] and his son so much
He annoyed me the whole drama
I hated when he killed Jae Kyoon
I felt with pain when he stabbed him twice 😭😭
I hated when he and all his friends died but not Jung Soon Won
The whole drama I wished that they saved the crown prince and hide him and he will appear again but that sadly didn't happen
I didn't like mich the role of Cha Hak Yeon
Joy childhood friend
It was literally just to fill the drama
They can easily cut his scenes and it won't affect the drama at all
In general it was nice smooth one with unexpected events
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Dry
As dry as they could come, lacking creativity in the silliness and diversity in the cast. There was no appeal or whatsoever in both leads right from the very beginning. More often than not, it felt like a bunch of cosplayers fooling around the set.Was this review helpful to you?
Bit all over the place
Feb 2024Bit of a romp, with a pretty bloodthirsty side, a naive-romantic side and a slapstick-style comedic side too. That mix didn't always work together.
Really liked OK Taec-yeon and Kim Hye-yoon as a pair; very cute. Refreshing to have such a positive, practical, smart and opinionated LF role in a period drama, who often took the initiative.
In fact the majority of women in this were strong; no 'princesses'.
Lots of fun, annoying, wicked and some barking mad, characters, join them. I thought Ra Yi-eon's long suffering Grandma was pretty funny.
It did go all around the houses on occasion (and then some), with a few aspects of the story becoming a bit laboured. There aren't multiple crimes being investigated, but one overall mystery that once Yi-eon gets his teeth into it, becomes a huge can of worms.
Plenty of manipulation and there were also a couple of quite moving scenes, too, which were well done.
I liked that some just deserts were visited upon some of the worst characters, although what became of one, I wasn't sure.
Overall a pretty good watch, even though not perfect.
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A cool series to watch
It was very entertaining, I liked all the characters and actors, the guys are funny, women are independent and organize things together, the villains were also interesting, one of the sons being more nuanced.I loved how the main characters formed a group of friends and were helping each other for the investigations or personal matters.
Maybe the series felt a bit slow around episodes 6-7, but then, from episode 8 something happens and the rest of the story is dynamic. Watch till the end, really, there are plenty of plot twists you can't see coming!
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Lighthearted comedy!! With a pretty decent plot!!
A fun and humorous saguk styled drama!Definitely contained some good plot points - but had way more potential to have had a better storyline. The ending was okay - it was good but could have been better of course; especially with the condition of how the enemies were handled (some portions were just too dark etc).
Love love the cast - Taecyeon & Hyeyoon are such both wonderful actors!
Will definitely give such big credits to the villian - son; Lee Jae Kyoon did a fantastic job!!!
All of the support characters were hilarious and wholesome as well~
Overall, a good, light-hearty watch!
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