TalkingWithYou
USA
This review may contain spoilers
A review in 2021 - This is worth the watch, but ...
The bad:
My review may have some biases, as I am reviewing this drama in 2021. If I watched this drama in 2016, I probably would have given it a 9.5 instead of an 9 but I cannot do that now, and here's the reason why, ignorance is bliss! What I mean by this is nowadays, I loathe toxic male leads, you know, the ones who tell you they are going to kill you one second, and then the next tell you that you belong to them. As much as I wanted to romanticized the female and male lead in this drama, I couldn't because the male lead character screamed toxic, although his acting was on point! BTW, in real life I do believe monarchies were very toxic people, so it's not unreasonable for the characters to exhibit such traits. The male lead was looking to the female lead to give him the maternal love that he never received from his mother, or older brother. Thus, he sought that in the female lead, but it was never truly love as much as it was his self-appeasing nature. He grew up trying to appease his family but all in all he still wasn't wanted. I did have compassion for the male lead, as he went through extreme trauma growing up, and it's human nature to make mistakes and try to learn how to behave better, as we grow and learn. Nevertheless, I am over the misogynist male lead characters (e.g. kissing women without their permission, not understanding that no actually means no, putting their hands behind the female characters back and pushing her up for a kiss, etc..). Although, there's a level of toxicity with the princes and princess, I am so glad that I did not get the damsel in distress vibe from the female lead character. Oh yeah, I think the music was somewhat too dramatic for certain scenes. Like in one scene around episode 6, the song "I love you," is played when the male lead is threatening the female lead. It's a bit weird.
The good:
*The scriptwriter did a great job explaining why the male lead end up killing his brothers. Usually when we hear of stories like this, we automatically assume that the killer was a psychopath murderer. Instead of investigating the real culprit working behind the scenes. The female lead did have visions about the future, but those visions didn't tell the full story but rather what would happen.
*The acting was on point. While watching this drama, I thought the female lead was the same female lead from Records of Youth. I never watched a movie in which IU acted, until this one. Neither am I familiar with her music, so my opinion is not bias. I think she did a fantastic job acting as a woman who was wanted by all the princes, except for 2. That's not an easy task to be able to act that out so well, that it doesn't turn the audience off. I believe each actor played their roles well, although this series probably could have had 23 episodes instead of 20 in order to allow for the romance between the female lead and male lead to seem more realistic. I believe their romance between episodes 7-13 was a bit rushed. However, the screenwriter did a fantastic job, with what she had. Btw, Eun's death was so tragic (episode 16), him and his wife are so cute in that episode. Good acting, I am in tears!
Overall, this drama was good but watching this in 2021, and not being ignorant of how media plays a role in sociocultural, and the viewpoints of society is the reason why I cannot give it a 9.5. BTW, I know it's a creative licensed historical drama, thus, there has to be some toxic traits, and that is the reason why I did not give it an 8.
My review may have some biases, as I am reviewing this drama in 2021. If I watched this drama in 2016, I probably would have given it a 9.5 instead of an 9 but I cannot do that now, and here's the reason why, ignorance is bliss! What I mean by this is nowadays, I loathe toxic male leads, you know, the ones who tell you they are going to kill you one second, and then the next tell you that you belong to them. As much as I wanted to romanticized the female and male lead in this drama, I couldn't because the male lead character screamed toxic, although his acting was on point! BTW, in real life I do believe monarchies were very toxic people, so it's not unreasonable for the characters to exhibit such traits. The male lead was looking to the female lead to give him the maternal love that he never received from his mother, or older brother. Thus, he sought that in the female lead, but it was never truly love as much as it was his self-appeasing nature. He grew up trying to appease his family but all in all he still wasn't wanted. I did have compassion for the male lead, as he went through extreme trauma growing up, and it's human nature to make mistakes and try to learn how to behave better, as we grow and learn. Nevertheless, I am over the misogynist male lead characters (e.g. kissing women without their permission, not understanding that no actually means no, putting their hands behind the female characters back and pushing her up for a kiss, etc..). Although, there's a level of toxicity with the princes and princess, I am so glad that I did not get the damsel in distress vibe from the female lead character. Oh yeah, I think the music was somewhat too dramatic for certain scenes. Like in one scene around episode 6, the song "I love you," is played when the male lead is threatening the female lead. It's a bit weird.
The good:
*The scriptwriter did a great job explaining why the male lead end up killing his brothers. Usually when we hear of stories like this, we automatically assume that the killer was a psychopath murderer. Instead of investigating the real culprit working behind the scenes. The female lead did have visions about the future, but those visions didn't tell the full story but rather what would happen.
*The acting was on point. While watching this drama, I thought the female lead was the same female lead from Records of Youth. I never watched a movie in which IU acted, until this one. Neither am I familiar with her music, so my opinion is not bias. I think she did a fantastic job acting as a woman who was wanted by all the princes, except for 2. That's not an easy task to be able to act that out so well, that it doesn't turn the audience off. I believe each actor played their roles well, although this series probably could have had 23 episodes instead of 20 in order to allow for the romance between the female lead and male lead to seem more realistic. I believe their romance between episodes 7-13 was a bit rushed. However, the screenwriter did a fantastic job, with what she had. Btw, Eun's death was so tragic (episode 16), him and his wife are so cute in that episode. Good acting, I am in tears!
Overall, this drama was good but watching this in 2021, and not being ignorant of how media plays a role in sociocultural, and the viewpoints of society is the reason why I cannot give it a 9.5. BTW, I know it's a creative licensed historical drama, thus, there has to be some toxic traits, and that is the reason why I did not give it an 8.
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