It’s the 21st century, let’s write better male leads

At the beginning, this drama left you questioning what was real and what was not, and kept you engaged in the story. After we find the real story of what happened in the childhood though.. the drama takes a sharp turn, the CEO was finally turning into the courageous, righteous person he was when he was younger.. until he wasn’t, and they bring back the arrogant, narcissistic speeches which become less and less funnier as the story progresses.

However, the most devastating part about the ending scenes are the female lead apologizing for things she absolutely shouldn’t be apologizing for.. first for not being sure about wanting to sleep with him, and then for taking him to the same place as the man she went on a date with ONCE.. It’s like the writers wanted us to hate this man after they wrote younger him as mature and caring, who made choices those older than him couldn’t even make (one point in case being his older brother), and giving us 1/3rd of a glimpse of what a proper male lead with that personality looked like for like a half of a second. What a shame.

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It began okay - the CGI was a bit cheesy and the male lead's hair in the historical era looked ridiculously fake, but it was nothing extreme and easy to overlook those small details.

My main problem was the advancement of the love story. Sure, she's his past love reincarcerated, great, but she has no idea about the past, so how did she even fall for him so quickly? Their romance was just far-fetched at best. Even in their past life romantic scenes, there wasn't much depth to their love. When it comes to this point, I would typically stay for the second-lead's stories, but in this drama, the second leads were nothing but filler characters.

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I thought this drama would just be like a sweet breeze that I could get through while I’m in a drama slump, but I was clearly very wrong.

The female lead acts so infant-like, and to her boss of all people, it was a big turn off. I did continue watching even after her behavior, wondering if she would miraculously experience character growth and act like an adult, but there was only more pouting in the upcoming episodes. Then there was a forced kiss in the club. There was also the cold male lead who likes her but has to act like a jerk to her because that is what will make her like him back of course. I tried.

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Lately there have been a lot of dramas that start off great, then just fall flat in the last remaining episodes. Sadly, True Beauty turned out to be one of those dramas. By the last episode, I was skipping through every single dialogue just so I could finish the drama and get it over with.

One scene in particular struck with me in the last episode. It was when Seo Jun urged Ju Gyeong to visit Su Ho, declaring that he was leaving for America (?) again. Ju Gyeong goes to him and begs him not to leave, crying and telling him she cares for him, causing the pit in my stomach to grow bigger. Su Ho was the one who left her messages on read, couldn't express what he was feeling clearly and left her in the dust, but ultimately the female lead had to be the one begging him to stay as if she was the one in wrong?

Also, the redemption arc they gave to Kang Su Jin after illustrating her as the biggest villain of the show did not move me in the slightest. They could've just skipped that scene just as much as they should've skipped making her a villain to begin with. They introduced her to be the outstanding, noble character and as if flipping a switch turned her into a hating, venomous person just like that. On the other hand, Ju Gyeong's sister, played by Im Se Mi was a great character, but I really couldn't understand how she stayed with Ju Gyeong's teacher after all the mixed signals he sent and him not being to tell her or know what he even wanted.

However, I must say that the acting was good, Moon Ga Young was exceptional and I couldn't envision anyone else in her role. I was a little unsure about Hwang In Yeop in the beginning, but by the end he'd sold me over.

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I went to watch this drama blindly, and I really think it had the potential to be something great, but the cliché superpower troupe really killed it for me. The main lead's leg magically healed and he magically began stronger (with some training) in one episode, so I just couldn't connect with him. I was seeing him as an underdog, and rooting for him as an underdog, but they molded him out to be a perfect hero, making his previous character that had much more depth diminish in one blow.

The storyline was fine, I'm not the biggest fan of action so those scenes were snoozers, and the mystery aspect of the show just wasn't intriguing enough for me to continue watching. I'm a bit disappointed, this was not what I was expecting from the raving reviews.

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