An expensive production with a whole lot of nothing

I was really looking forward to this drama solely for Lee Jun Ho because I loved him in the Red Sleeve. But, the show is so utterly underwhelming and shallow, there is nothing to look forward to. The characters only exist to pine after each other without trying to accomplish anything in life making for a very boring and uninspiring story.

This is a cliche rom-com where a rich guy falls for a working class employee. It would've been interesting if the writers treated the characters like adults, instead of high school students, and gave them mature interactions and meaningful conversations. Instead, they proceed to bore us with every single overused cliche known to k-drama making the plot extremely predictable. Gu Won has no personality outside his crush on Sarang. At the beginning, he is shown as a sophisticated and rich bad-boy skydiving in a suit and landing on a helicopter pad James Bond style. Later, we find out that he is nothing more than a nepotism baby with no social awareness, no competence, no charisma and exists solely to pine after Sarang. Even his feud with his sister is superficial because he doesn't do anything other than pursue his love interest. He finished an MBA at the beginning of the show, which could've been a nice plot device for him to start serious work in the hotel and eventually become the owner. No, he is a director in name only and doesn't do anything or show any particular interest in work. Even his employees have to tell him that he needs influence and support in order to succeed, instead of spending so much time obsessing over FL.

Some story arcs are completely asinine. The Arab prince is reduced to a total simp for Sarang competing for her affection with Gu Won. God knows why we need another atrocious love rival trope where everyone falls in love with the heroine because she is so precious. And the arc with the flight attendant friend isn't interesting enough for me to care about because she is such a minor character.

Overall, the show felt like a high school drama filled with overused cliches. Characters have no motivation and there is no real plot. Pass.

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Dumb

The legal show deals with some very serious issues like sexual harassment, bullying, and child abuse, but the drama can't figure out whether it is a romantic comedy or a legal drama with romance.

As a lawyer, Yuri acted like a hysterical and unbalanced teenager who threw temper tantrums and started physical fights. She was supposed to be a strong woman, but she acted like a screeching hyena yelling every time she was faced with adversity. Every episode was filled with her yelling at something or at someone. And, OMG, her overacted crying was like watching a 5 y/o throwing a tantrum in a toy store.

The constant yelling was so annoying that it was hard to take her or the show seriously. Did the writers honestly think it was an appropriate way to portray a strong female character? And it wasn't just Yuri who behaved like that, Jeong Ho did the same. Both of them spent the majority of their time bickering about some stupid crap, yelling, and cursing. Everyone's behavior was rude and tacky, making the characters annoying and unlikable.

It wasn't only the constant screaming, the writers purposely put the characters into situations where they acted ridiculously. In episode 8, Yuri unintentionally ate a bunch of marijuana rice cakes and behaved like a clown. So now, we had characters who perpetually acted stupid in a story about lawyers. Oh boy.

Finally, the show would've been more believable if Yuri opened her own practice and got Jeong Ho to work with her, them being childhood friends at all. Running a coffee shop while doing legal work, and presumably not getting paid, was a pretty silly plot idea. A hard pass.

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Nothing is exciting about this drama

I really tried to like this drama. The premise is interesting telling a story about a woman's personal and career growth. But, a promising start about female empowerment fizzles out into an uninteresting and hardly exciting corporate drama with almost no romance.

The writers build up Lu Ji Ming as an overbearing jerk who constantly undermines Ning Meng's education, career aspirations, and talent. He always berates and insults her abilities telling her that she will never amount to anything other than being his secretary. Based on this characterization, it's very hard to root for him as a romantic lead because no self-respecting woman would ever fall in love with a man with such an abusive behavior. But, after many episodes of being a jerk, the writers drastically change his personality making him suddenly nice to Ning Meng so they can have a happy ending. There is no consistency in character development and storytelling.

The pacing is slow for the majority of the show. There is too much corporate filler, that is not particularly interesting, and not enough romantic development. To make matters worse, the writers introduce love rivals half-way through the show taking the opportunity away from the main couple to spend any meaningful time together. That's why these types of shows should not drag for longer than 20 episodes. There is no consistency in story telling with too many unnecessary plotlines deviating from the main plot and creating a very boring and choppy story. Overall, the drama has a good start but falls flat in later episodes and has very lukewarm romance.

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Oppa!

There is a whole lot to like and a whole lot to dislike about this show. If you are looking for a medical drama about curing mental illness and showcasing good medical ethics, look elsewhere. The show rather focuses on over-the top characterization of mental disorders and a love-conquers-all plot.

Watching Ji Sung act is pure delight. He effortlessly switches from comedy to tragedy and skillfully changes tone and characterization between personalities. One moment, he is a cunning, eyeliner-wearing bad boy, the next, he is a teenage girl screaming "OPPAAAAA!". His acting truly shines where the plot fails, making the drama very performance driven and flat on storytelling.

The worst thing about the show is Oh Ri Jin. I know that a dorky and messy female was a popular stereotype at the time the drama was filmed. But, Ri Jin is frustrating and mostly annoying. She is loud, sloppy, and unintelligent. And, she screams all the damn time. The writers build her up as an empathetic doctor, but they make no attempt to show her medical skills or have her treat patients. Instead, she is always between jobs while being praised for the skills she does not seem to have. Her character lacks depth and goes through very little development. While childhood abuse is the source of Do Hyun's torment, Ri Jin happily bee-bops through life with amnesia. When she finally regains her memories, it does not seem to sway her or have any impact on her at all.

Secondary characters don't do anything relevant, but hijack a lot of screen time. I like Park Seo Joon, but Oh Ri On is an eyesore. He has no purpose and the writers constantly insert him between Do Hyun and Ri Jin with no push-back from her, making the show often a frustrating watch. He is meddling and manipulative, but the writers never address it and portray him as an overprotective brother with one-sided incestual love for a woman raised as his sister. Instead of creating a deep brother/sister bond, the writers follow a cliche formula where multiple males must fall in love with a weak heroine without her actually deserving it.

The storytelling is very inconsistent with too many tonal switches. In one episode, Do Hyun's teen girl alter ego is chasing after Ri On. In another, Do Hyun is tearing up for multiple scenes trying to deal with his never-ending trauma. While I enjoy good comedy, it is out-of-place here because the show's focus is on past abuse and mental illness, which are anything but funny. Some of Do Hyun's personalities have no depth and only serve as comic relief. But, the personalities that are the most impactful disappear for episodes at a time. The writers try to do too many things at once by sporadically flip flopping between hilarity and tragedy and thus creating a very choppy story.

Overall, the drama has consistently good pacing and Ji Sung's versatile performance makes it entertaining. But, it would've been much better with 16, instead of 20, episodes. Too much time is spent on the secondary characters and flashbacks. Editing needs work as episodes haphazardly jump between scenes before finishing them. The final showdown between Do Hyun and his relatives for the control of the company is very anticlimactic. And, the writers drag Han Chae Yun's obsession with Do Hyun for way longer than necessary.

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Misery loves company

The show celebrates the worst of human qualities in relationships. It starts off with an interesting but albeit old premise - two dysfunctional people enter into a contract marriage out of necessity. These two complete opposites are meant to fall in love and help each other grow, right? Nope.

One of the biggest draw backs is a lack a character development. Nam Se Hui is a human robot with a personality of a potato who only has his mortgage and cat on the brain. Yun Ji Ho is at the end of her rope with no job or a place to live. Marriage gives them an opportunity for self-reflection and personal growth, but that opportunity is completely wasted because neither of them learn anything or try to better themselves. We are constantly told that Ji Ho is strong. But, in reality, she is reckless, spineless, and possesses no self-control. To me, she is mindbogglingly unlikable and perpetually miserable. She spends too much time with a toxic co-worker and manufactures a conflict with Se Hui because she suddenly feels guilty about the contract marriage. Instead of sitting down together to figure out what to do next, she divorces and leaves her husband for some pretentious reason that now she needs to find herself. All of her problems seem artificial and self-inflicted to force us to sympathize with her. Se Hui maintains the same bland frozen face for the entirety of the show. Even his feelings for Ji Ho fail to give him a personality.

Ji Ho's arcs with Bok Nam and Ko Jeong Min are mind-numbing. Bok Nam is pushy, rude, and creepy. He makes condescending remarks about her husband and disrespects her marriage. Against her better judgment, she goes off at night to drink beer and watch him make passes at her. And this character is written to be smart. The arc with Jeong Min is even more cringe. I am not sure what the writers are trying to convey here, that Ji Ho also likes women or that Jeong Min is so edgy that even women are attracted to her? Getting drunk together and Ji Ho opening up to a complete stranger, while having no communication with her husband, makes her even more off-putting and unlikable.

Now, lets talk about Ji Ho's degree. The writers constantly remind us that she graduated from a prestigious university. But, she has nothing to show for it. At 30, she has no career or job prospects. Neither does she try to pursue self-improvement. All she does is hang out with friends and settle for a part-time job while wallowing in self-pity. Most of these issues have to do with writing. Smart people strive to improve themselves so they can succeed in life. Ji Ho does nothing to do better and gives up writing altogether. The point is that she is not smart.

The ending is a suitable culmination to this marathon of cringe. The writers try to create a relationship that subverts societal expectations where the main couple just loves each other instead of attaching labels and listening to unsolicited advice from the elders. However, the only people who makes sense here are the parents. Marriage is work that is not based solely on love. Ji Ho and Se Hui's shared experiences should lead to a mature and deeper bond. Yet, the final result is an immature, superficial relationship, completely devoid of any chemistry, that doesn't even feel like it's between two genuine people. Apparently, we are supposed to be impressed that they choose to disrespect their parents and enter into household contracts instead of being in a legal marriage. Moreover, Se Hui doesn't even look like he wants this. Everything seems to be Ji Ho's idea as she continues on a quest to find herself. What a crappy message. Avoid this mess.

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Half-assed

The best word to describe this drama is "half-assed" - a half-assed plot, half-assed characters, a half-assed attempt to tackle a genre. The drama starts off as a slap-stick comedy with poop humor. Lee Dam clogs up a toilet after a very cathartic #2, then proceeds to seal it with duct tape. The writers work very hard to create the lolz that would only be appealing to middle-schoolers. Then the drama decides to play a game of musical chairs with different genres going back and forth between romance, melodrama, murder mystery, melodrama, and romance again.

After the first two episodes, the drama becomes somewhat tolerable with a lot less poop humor. However, the writers still fail to make Lee Dam compelling enough for an 1000 year old entity to be romantically interested in her. She is nothing more than a sloppy college girl with a tendency to get sh*t-faced. But, apparently, her almost passing interest in history is totally enough for a demi-god to fall in love with her. And, Shin Woo Yeo is completely bland as supposedly a beautiful and seductive fox demon. He has no game or a personality and is extremely uninteresting as a male lead.

The bead is returned to its original owner somewhere in the middle of the drama. At that point, the writers have no idea what to do next. The love triangle is interesting for about five minutes, yet that plotline is milked until the very last episode with Gye Sun Woo making sad faces at Lee Dam for no reason other than her not falling all over herself for him. The murder mystery is somewhat compelling, but it survives for about one-two episodes until the story devolves into a tropey dramatic angst where Woo Yeo isn't sure whether he wants to bang or eat his beloved.

That about sums it up.

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A whole lotta stupid

I give this drama an 8 for the first half and a 3 for the second because everything becomes stupid. It's pretty unbelievable that the writers are able to create such an engaging story and then turn it into a marathon of stupidity.

Kim Moo Young is built up to be a cold, manipulative, incredibly intelligent sociopath with a sex appeal up the wazoo. He doesn't care about anyone's feelings and shamelessly uses poor Seung Ah as a recreational activity cuz he can. He plays her like a drum while the plot slowly develops his feelings for Jin Kang through playful banter, meaningful conversations, and flirting. His bad-boy charm, cunningness, and insanely good looks are the highlight of the show. Unfortunately, all of this intelligence goes *poof* in the second half leading to some very stupid choices.

The drama's biggest let down is the characters' motivations, actions, and incomprehensible consequences based on those motivations and actions. Everyone hates Moo Young's lack of empathy. But, Yoo Jin Kang has no problem spending time with him while he dates Seung Ah all the while preaching sanctimonious b*llshit about morals. Later on, she unapologetically lies to her brother and goes on dates with her hot boyfriend behind oppa's back while preaching more sanctimonious bs. Oppa gets a little too high on his moral high horse about Moo Young's shenanigans and stabs him in the gut without regrets. It's even more asinine that he does not get arrested for assault/attempted murder or even get questioned after making a confession. Jin Kang throws a temper tantrum about her sexy boyfriend now having a hole in his belly, but doesn't seem to care that her brother is the culprit.

The murder mystery is the most interesting and complex storyline. But, it ends early with Im Yoo Ri's character being largely unutilized while the writers decide to bore us with the childhood trauma plotline, and characters preaching morality and acting illogically. Moo Young transforms from clever and observant to gullible and reactionary. He believes Jang Se Ran's atrocious story, the same Ms. Jang who is an insane sociopath and the least likely to tell the truth, and hastily makes a life altering decision leading to very tragic consequences. Special "thanks" to the genius who decided to make a tertiary character like Ms. Jang into a central plot device. She is an attractive and calculating older woman who is the head of a conglomerate. So, it's totally believable that she would fall for someone like Moo Young, who has no special skills, talent, or money, and then make him a CEO. And that's because Moo Young's biggest asset is dat ass.

Moo Young and Jin Kang have some very spicy chemistry on screen. But, the best thing about the drama is acting. Seo In Guk was made for this role. He wasn't just playing Kim Moo Young. He was Kim Moo Young.

The ending is tragic, but who cares, because everything! is! stupid!

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Ode to Ji Ah

The drama has a promising start with an exorcist and a medium solving ghost mysteries following the familiar ghost-of-the week format. The title is inaccurate because the plot only focuses on the exorcism storylines with the realty business being an afterthought. No actual home selling is being shown in any of the episodes. What I liked about the drama is that every ghost story is not only about sending ghosts happily ever after into the afterlife. Both Ji Ah and In Beom experience ghost memories allowing them to resolve any unfinished business and provide closure to the surviving family, which adds depth to the story and characters.

The drama's weakest link is Ji Ah. When she is not brooding, she is crying. When she is not crying, she is mad. When she is not doing any of these, she is sleeping. She is completely underdeveloped as a character and keeps doing the same things in every episode, which significantly affects her relationships with everyone else. Her and Oh In Beom have many near death experiences and share ghost memories. He even helps to send her mom's ghost into the afterlife. There is so much potential to develop their relationship into a solid friendship, even with a possibility of romance. But, with Ji Ah's perpetually constipated attitude, they always feel like strangers.

Even the promising exorcism plot turns into an endless loop of Ji Ah drama. The story surrounding mom's death becomes a boring array of flashbacks showing the same thing over and over and over with Ji Ah's always losing her sh*t at the end. The egg ghost plotline is the most compelling, but it is completely underdeveloped and ends with a fart, while the writers insist on boring us with scenes of Ji Ah crying hysterically after suffering through another dead mom flashback.

I really enjoyed about 2/3 this drama, but the poor writing at the end and a lack of character development were disappointing.

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Mediocrity r us

The drama had enough to create an engaging story and interesting characters, but for me it fell short. The show felt a lot of like a modern workplace drama with characters playing dress up. The plot didn't delve deep enough exploring the difficulties Haeryung faced trying to fit into a man's world. And, the dethroned prince storyline only picked momentum towards the end.

The chemistry between Haeryung and Yi Rim was a bit bland. She was six years older than him and acted more like an older sister than a love interest. They often looked awkward together and weren't convincing as two young people in love. I was very apprehensive to watch this drama because of SSK's abysmal performance in Captivating the King. But, surprisingly, she did a pretty decent job.

The ending was very underwhelming. The drama had a very progressive message for women to pursue their dreams and not being shackled by society's expectations. However, neither Haeryung nor Yi Rim achieved any tremendous heights at the end. They lived together like a married couple, but they weren't married and nobody paid too much attention to that. This was especially strange considering the historical period they lived in. Yi Rim abandoned his princehood and became a nobody while Haeryung blissfully continued to bebop through life as a historian. At the end, they achieved nothing and their so-called "freedom" consisted of them blissfully living in an extramarital relationship. I didn't get anything out of this message except that being mediocre was ok.

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Mixed feelings

I have mixed feelings about this drama. On one hand, the political intrigue was very interesting and the action scenes were fun. The chemistry between the couples was very good leading to nicely put together love stories. On the other hand, some characters had very bad motivations leading to very questionable choices.

Prince An was an awful villain. He concocted an entire revenge plot to kill multiple people because of a years old incident where a child accidently knocked over a candle. He had no substance, bats*t crazy motivations, and extreme shortsightedness. His love for Fu Rong seemed very superficial. All he did was plot, manipulate, and lie to her.

ML and FL were cute together and had good chemistry, but FL made some very awful choices. Her relationship with ML had very little trust. Whether it was the murder of her teacher, divorce, or Ruyi pavilion, she never gave ML the benefit of the doubt or allowed herself time to verify the information given to her. Instead, she gave in to rumors and manipulations and jumped to conclusions. For someone who made a big deal about trust, she never trusted the person she supposedly loved. Moreover, the fact that FL stabbed ML on their wedding night should've been the end of their relationship because that was a huge breach of trust. But, that was not the case here.

Even though the second couple also had great chemistry, they became boring because their relationship stopped at flirting and did not move further until almost the end of the show. They were obviously in love, but neither of them made any steps to move forward for a very long time. I ended up skipping most of their scenes after episode 20.

One of my biggest gripes with the drama was young women running around with men they were not married to. This was supposed to be a huge taboo where reputations were ruined. Not the case here. Nobody ever addressed the fact that ML and FL spent the night alone in a cave, that the second couple spent the night alone in a cabin, that Fu Rong was often alone together with Prince An, and so on. This nonsense led to more ridiculous behavior by Fu Rong. She constantly snuck out for one reason or another and was found by ML usually in the company of his love rival Prince An. For someone who was supposed to be intelligent, Fu Rong didn't have enough sense to realize that Prince An had feelings for her and that it wasn't the best idea for a married woman to fraternize with a man who had feelings for her and who wasn't her husband. At that point, it was hard to see what Prince Su, or even Prince An, saw in her. She was reckless and childish, and had no common sense.

A lot of plotlines were a tropey mess. It's pretty obvious that the writers wanted to give ML and FL scenes were ML heroically rescued FL, but it was done in such a clumsy manner. He would go away on a mission then randomly appear out of nowhere and catch her from falling. The plotline where she was buried alive was a cringe fest. Zhang Yan was a very minor character who completely disappeared from the plot after they returned each other's birth cards. Yet, the writers just randomly threw him back into the story to create romantic drama without actually thinking it through.

Some of the martial arts scenes were a bit silly. ML could jump on top of a tower as tall as a skyscraper to admire the moon with FL. But while running away from assassins, he couldn't jump over a river or over a gate.

The story started out well but it turned into a cliche mess of misunderstandings, mistrust, jealous side chicks, and awful behavior. Even after the trust issues were resolved, I couldn't get over the fact that FL tried to kill ML on their wedding night based on sketchy information. There are plenty of historical dramas with good character development and interesting plots. This drama is not it.

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Great romantic chemistry

This is a romance drama with some gothic fantasy elements. The production and acting was great and the story was very entertaining.

Caiwei was a young woman with a troubled past . She was a serious character who lived quietly as a coroner and inadvertently found herself mixed up in murder mystery. After the face swap, this characterization was completely gone. It's not that Ju Jing Yi (JJY) is a bad actress. She is typecast to play a specific character. So, herein lies the problem with characterization by JJY where she portrayed a variation of Fu Rong and Yunxi, instead of a solemn girl introduced by Zheng He Hui Zi. Curiously enough, her characterization of the original Shangguan Zhi was on point. The showrunners should've done a better job at coaching her about the role because she obviously can act outside her usual stereotype.

The romance was nicely written. Pen Yue's original obsession with Caiwei was a bit off-putting. But as he rediscovered the "new" and "improved" Shangguan Zhi (SZ), he slowly started falling in love with her. The writers did a good job showing the personality change, that SZ was no longer a mean-spirited woman, but a very nice person. I loved Pen Yue's and SZ's interactions and situations they were thrown in where Pen Yue gradually started seeing the differences between the old SZ and the new SZ drawing similarities between the new SZ and Caiwei. I also liked that Pen Yue went through internal struggle feeling guilt over the fact that he started developing feelings for SZ while still mourning his dead wife. Not to mention, the chemistry between the actors was amazing. This is one of the fewer romance dramas where adults act like actual adults, instead of awkward teenagers.

I did not love the ending. Some good characters were wasted just to draw an emotional reaction from the audience. And, instead of tying up all the loose ends, it ended on a giant cliff hanger not revealing who the actual mastermind was. Will this lead to a sequel or are we just supposed to wonder? Who knows.

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Do not snack while watching

Sifeng was easily the best character in the show. He was loving, patient, loyal, and had convictions. The writers did a good job developing his relationship with Xuanji. Although, she was frustrating at times due to her cluelessness, it wasn't completely without merit. She was missing her six senses, so it was natural for her to not understand love. But, she understood friendship and bonds that brought people together. And, due to her bond with Sifeng and his help to get her senses back, she gradually fell in love with him.

Normally, a slew of misunderstandings would be frustrating. But, here, they were necessary to show character development and Xuanji's struggle to reunite with Sifeng and to get him to forgive her. I liked that the writers did not just make Sifeng take her back as soon as she showed up. She had to work for it and she never gave up. This showed that her love was as strong as his, which I liked.

Now, the worst part of the show was the constant blood spitting. We really need to go away with that. It's disgusting and completely unnecessary. Characters don't need to spit blood in every fight or with every physical injury. It looks forced and ridiculous. Watching the show completely destroyed my snack time.

I also did not care for most of the secondary characters. Linglong was spoiled and annoying. The sixth brother was boring. Wu Tong falling in love with Linglong was completely nonsensical and poorly written. If the writers went down the redemption route and wrote Wu Tong as less of a psycho, their relationship could've been interesting. None of the sects had any redeeming qualities. They were narrowminded, pompous, and thought very highly of themselves while committing atrocities. The demons were a lot more relatable and sympathetic.

Because I absolutely hated Hao Chen/Bailing for his continuous meddling and self-righteousness, I wanted to see him die a horrible death. But his defeat was rather underwhelming. He just realized that he was wrong and was demoted. I thought it was anticlimactic. I wanted to see him defeated in battle like the villain that he was.

Overall, I could watch this show again because I absolutely loved the love story.

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Not bad, but could be better

The drama definitely would've done a lot better with some plot and episode trimming. There were too many side characters with minor story arcs that were irrelevant fillers. I couldn't care less about every auntie's personal problems. That didn't add anything and only deviated from the story and dragged the plot.

In the last ten episodes, it became apparent that the writers completely ran out of ideas and just wrote whatever to finish the 40 episodes. The spy/envoy arc had nothing to do with the main plot. It felt like a filler and was completely uninteresting. The main story was about the FL saving her family from poverty and bringing the male relatives back and ML dealing with the royal family drama. The envoy arc had nothing to do with either.

FL also felt a little too perfect. There was no character development to show achievement through trial and error. At the beginning, she was a teenager from a privileged family who never had to struggle with anything and didn't have good relations with any of her family members. After the exile, she magically got her act together and had all the answers without having to overcome or learn anything. Even the mishaps were not due to her mistakes but mistakes of her aunties. Everything that she achieved was completely undeserved because she never had to struggle. She went from zero to hero overnight.

The acting was mostly ok. Hu Yitian's had his usual frozen face that took away from his chemistry with FL. But, he got better later on and started showing a little bit of emotion. Zhang Jing Yi was ok, but unconvincing as a historical character. It felt like a modern woman playing dress-up.

The chemistry was ok, but FL's Mary Sue personality made secondary couples a lot more interesting. Shen Huan and Shaoyao were a lot more fun because there was actual character growth and the couple looked like they really couldn't wait to be together while ML and FL just hanged out without taking any steps to move their relationship forward.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. Hu Yitian's is definitely an eye candy and the fighting scenes were entertaining.

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Too long and boring

Another Chinese drama that unnecessarily dragged for twice as many episodes than necessary. There wasn't any actual plot, but a loosely put together romance/slice of life story.

Everything that made the show interesting, SWAT action and disaster rescue, quickly fizzled out into a mundane slice of life story. Kelei and Mika, who were the only couple worth watching, got together early in the show and had an extremely vanilla relationship without any ups and downs. All the couples had no dynamic or sexual chemistry. The show often looked like a real life documentary just filming people hanging out.

Kelei/Mika were the most wholesome, but they acted like an old married couple. There was no tension, conflict, or sexual chemistry. Many of their scenes did not have any direction. They just bantered and played around. If they were a real life couple, they would've been a joy to watch. But this is a TV drama that needs conflict, especially for a young couple. They kissed a couple of times at the beginning of their relationship and that was the height of their romantic chemistry, never to be seen again. It was pretty unbelievable that the writers thought it was a good idea to write a young couple spending so much time alone and never making out.

Wenbo/Qingxia were plain toxic. She arbitrarily started liking him after meeting him maybe twice and began pursuing him. He also liked her, but for some stupid reason kept rejecting her. Instead of moving on after being repeatedly rejected, she kept pursuing him and he kept rejecting her. His lame explanation later on revealed that he was rejecting her because he thought she was better matched with another guy. Seriously? And, this tripe lasted for 30+ episodes. When they finally got together, I couldn't care less. I actually ended up skipping most of their scenes because their bickering was exhausting.

Chief Shao/Sister Keyao were just ok. In most of their scenes, they spent time together without any romantic chemistry. There was nothing interesting about them at all.

Overall, the drama would've been a lot better if it was cut by half and had a lot more conflict and romantic chemistry. Instead, we had to watch scenes upon scenes of young people acting like they've been married for decades. The story was boring a lot more often than it was exciting. There were a lot of filler scenes of characters just doing mundane things. I ended up skipping through a lot in the last ten episodes just to get it over with. The last three episodes with the hostages were interesting, everything between the beginning and the end was a snooze fest.

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Good enough

The show was well paced with a very well developed plot centered around political intrigue. All the male characters were interesting, and, thankfully there weren't any convoluted plotlines and cliche tropes. My favorite relationships were between Ha Seon and the Chief Royal Secretary, Eunuch Jo, Guard Jang, and the villains. However, the show should've gone without the romance.

This was probably the first drama where I couldn't care less about the romance. It felt like an afterthought. Nothing against the actors. Everyone did a great job portraying their characters. Big props to Yeo Jin Goo being so young but already so talented. He did a fantastic job playing two completely different characters. But, the romance bored me out of my mind. Yeo Jin Goo next to Lee Se Young looked like a younger brother rather than a romantic partner. Their relationship was completely uninteresting and the chemistry was bland.

The ending was odd having an unnecessary death then returning back to life. The writing choice didn't contribute anything to the story but rather pointlessly dragged the plot for a few extra episodes killing off some very cool side characters and focusing on the boring romance story between Ha Seon and So Woon. The bromance between Ha Seon and the chief royal secretary was way more interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot about duty and loyalty. But the story could've gone without a bland romance between two people who had no chemistry on screen.

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