Solid and fun romance fantasy that stumbles at the final hurdle

A fun show that's fairly romance heavy and light on the angst.

Pros:
- Both leads are gorgeous.
- Well-paced drama that, in my opinion, never drags.
- Plenty of fun moments like body switching, going to the human realm, powerful magic spells etc. but these beats never last so long as to outstay their welcome.
- Set and costume design is very good.
- The romance aspect (while not mega steamy or anything) does include physical contact and kisses, unlike some other dramas.

Cons:
- The ending feels very very rushed.
- Plot can be a little predictable at times.

Possible cons:
- This is very subjective but some people I've shown this to have found the FL's voice difficult to deal with (this sounds really mean but the only real way to describe it is that she kind of talks like a baby? whether or not this is the actress's normal voice, it can be grating to some although personally it didn't bother me).


Possible triggers/romance preferences:
- The dynamics of the relationship could be seen as fairly lopsided as the ML is very powerful, old and scary from the initial perspective of the FL and the FL is portrayed as innocent and naïve in the extreme. However he's rarely overtly cruel and it's not a one-sided thing.
- At least one kiss is non-consensual.

Non-spoiler mood warning for the ending below: if you don't want to know if the ending is happy or sad, stop reading here.

/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/

Ending is happy but is preceded by some angst.

Read More

Does it deserve the (negative) hype?

This review is as spoiler free as possible while giving fair warning about this drama! So no plot details, but mood spoilers etc.

For me, this was very much a drama of two halves. The first half was enjoyable, the second half was.... Not. The acting is good, the problem here was entirely the script/story.

The portrayal of multiple personalities isn't realistic, obviously. If you're someone who can take the show at face value and just go with the rules as set by that universe, you may still have fun with the first bit, like I did.

It's not the greatest show ever but it's an enjoyable enough ride with plenty of cute and fun moments - up until the main plotline wraps up and you realise there are still a bunch of episodes left. Instead of using those episodes to wrap up the romance, the show goes off the deep end in a way that I can only really describe as unpleasant.

The in-universe "rules" around the personalities are completely disregarded. There is a sudden and massive amount of unnecessary angst. Finally, and I am in no way exaggerating, the very last few minutes of the very last episode essentially goes "wait actually the personalities did work how we said they did at the beginning after all so forget all of that".

If you're the world's biggest Hyun Bin fan and simply must watch anything with him in... Watch up until the main story wraps up and then maybe the last 5 minutes of the last episode. It won't be satisfying but at least you won't feel actively bad.

Read More