I am honestly awed by this series, that actually managed to get worse with every passing episode. And now you'll ask "Why are you watching, if it is that bad? Stop judging and drop it".

Well the answer is simple; Hate-watching. This is such a badly written series that it is fun to criticize and see how bad it can get.

Now, to the people actually wanting to know what is wrong with it and if it has any redeeming qualities, I will quickly mention the good and the bad.


The good:

+ Some of the actors are watchable:  Even though the cast is filled with some very popular actors, unfortunately, most of them are not as good as usual. Despite that though, they are still caring this drama that lacks in everything else.

We have Lee Jae Wook (Han Tae Oh), Choi Jin Ho (Kang Joong Mo) and Choi Hee Jin (Kang Hee Joo) that are doing -mostly- a good job. Then we have Lee Jun Young (Kang In Ha) that is okay. After this series, I am honestly not sure if he is a bad actor and I thought he was good in his past performances or he is good and he was just not that great in this series.

+ Kang Hee Joo: Most people like her, others don't understand why the majority likes her. Well I am here to answer that.
Kang Hee Joo is the only one in this series that seems to have a character -and an actress that can support it-. Besides her gorgeous looks, she is the only one that is actually consistent and has a personality. Is this personality not really "great"? Yes. She is naive, persistent and toxic at times. But she feels real and is great to watch.


Now we will get to the bad (yes that was all the "positive"):

- Plot: I don't have lots of things to say. This is just a very badly written series. Characters are purely unlikable and change personalities (like Tae Oh being a genius, but suddenly turning dumb), romance is cringy and unnecessary -and I am being very kind-, actions are not really explained or make sense (like ruthless FL that appears so strong and has all these great ambitions -even gets married to benefit herself- and when her mother asks for money, she turns super weak and cries when she could just get rid of her one way or another-) and let's not forget that this basically turned into a makjang halfway through (people playing dead, actual murders, evil dad coming back, fake allegations leading to death sentences etc.)

- Time skips: One of the worst -if not the worst- decisions of the writer. We have so many time skips for no reason. First episode, we are literally getting to know the characters. They have this great plan to rise in power and suddenly boom 5 and 10 year time skips where they have achieved so much and are in these high positions and we don't know how and what happened in between.

- Characters: The characters are generally very one dimensional or they tend to like completely change personalities. That aside, another thing that bothered me is that some characters appear, seeming important or promising, and then they suddenly dissappear like they were never part of the plot -or writer remembers them when he needs them for the plot to move forward-.

- Root for who?: I felt like the scriptwriter wanted the audience to root for Tae Oh and Hye Won, and here I am rooting for Hee Joo and even In Ha at times.
All characters are super unlikable and they try to pass as this "male and female lead are the good ones". My dude, they are not. Tae Oh kissed his best friends wife and did everything in his power to destroy a conglomerate family and for what? For nothing. And Hye Won? She married In Ha just to get power and cheated on him with his best friend! And did she actually get any power? Yes (when the script said so). Let's not forget how she tried to take advantage of everyone and always put herself first...

- Draggy or fast paced: I am not sure! This seriss felt super draggy at times. I was sooo bored. Other times, it felt like it needed so much more time to develop the "plot" and the characters.

- Romance: It is so cringy and unnecessary. FL's incapability in acting aside -she looks like someone forced her to be there-, the interactions between her and Tae Oh are so cringy. They have zero chemistry.
Also, I don't understand why and how the whole "falling in love" happened. First of all, female lead is just purely unlikable as a character. Secondly, they barely have any interactions. Like when did he fall head over heels for her? Lastly, the romance is just sooo unnecessary. It is just a plot tool that is used in some cases to make Tae Oh do things he shouldn't be doing...

- FL is unnecessary and badly written: Oh look, another female main character that has nothing to add in the series. Writing wise, she is supposed to be manipulative, ambitious and self-centered. But she literally does nothing. She gets privilages just because script says so and out of the blue. She is just there helping other people with their plans. The only thing that she does is marrying In Ha, but even that was something he initiated.

- Clichés: Many and I mean many clichés. We have the typical chaebol fights for the "throne", the typical sad backstories/dysfunctional families of the main leads, the typical bad "siblings" and many others.

- Hong Su Zu's acting as Na Hye Won: Su Zu's performance is one of the worst if not the worst I have ever seen in a Kdrama by a female actress all these years. There it is, I said it.

After reading many comments like "She will get better, it is her first main role" or "Don't be harsh with her, it is her first role" and completely disagreeing, I want to express my opinion.

Firstly, the crew responsible for the casting should have seen that she is incapable of acting, especially since she would act as the freaking female lead -emphasis on lead-. So why she was chosen? Either, they really liked her looks or there is another reason (connections, being popular -or  impossible- all other candidates were worse). Now, no one can convince me they liked her acting, because she just can't act.

Even if there were connections involved, the director should have helped as much as possible to get a good result or just try to guide her. And I don't know if he did, but it doesn't seem so. Not even a single frame of her compliments her. Even when she is sleeping she looks tense.

Moving on, actress takes the other half (and more) of the blame. She should just not have taken this role, if she knew she can't do it. This is not a support or guest role to get familiar with the whole acting process and learn. This is a main role and more so in a series with some big names.

The thing that irritates me the most is that it doesn't even look like she is trying. She has a puppy eye expression no matter what is happening. Seeing something that can ruin her life? Puppy eyes. Someone is literally chocking her? Puppy eyes. Like come on!

It's not like she is good at being serious and she lacks in the emotional scenes. She lacks in every single scene, no exception.

So no, for me, "don't be harsh, this is her first role" isn't an excuse for such a horrible performance. We have seen child actors doing better. We have seen other actors doing better in their "first roles". If she had some good scenes, I would understand. I would ignore. But that is not the case.

Of course, threatening the actress and posting hate comments on her account is a big no. She is human too.

I do think that if she chooses to continue acting, she should do proper training, because this is not it.

Ending: I didn't expect the series to suddenly turn good in the end and, well, I was right. The ending was as expected. Evil In Ha gets his punishment, while male lead Tae Oh -that was also not the greatest person out there- and love interest Hye Won get their happy ending...

All in all, a very badly written series with some questionable acting performances and barely any redeeming qualities. Ideal only for hate watching.