Hwarang is a blast of youth. It is inspired by a real-life event. However, limited knowledge about history won’t affect your experience watching this drama . Even if it happened more than a thousand year ago, the theme is relevant to the current situation. It is about being part of the privileged group, about the desire to make a change to a corrupted and unjust society, about power struggle among those who have been in power for too long. Don’t worry, this is not a heavy k-drama. This is a light drama, basically to showcase all these beautiful young men living together and a battle of high level testosterone on a daily basis.

The story is not the strongest point of Hwarang. The production got a low score for me. But I don’t watch Sageuk so I don’t have any comparison. It looks like being filmed on a tight and low budget production. I didn’t check. Except for the beautiful dresses, the visuals are pretty lame.

Still, I will watch this drama over and over again. Just like eating junk food, it’s not good but it’s delicious. I am craving for more.

This drama has a long cast of talented actors/ actresses, I suspect the cost of production went to the casts. The casts save this drama. An example, I see how Kim Chan Wan as Park Yeong Shil put his signature in the character he plays so that the antagonist has more depth. So do other actors/ actresses. They bring their own interpretation to their character. At least, this is the case for the more experienced casts.

Wooga squad came out of this drama. It’s an indicator on how good the chemistry and relationship among the young casts is. Park Seo Joon together with Park Hyung Shik and Go Ah Ra, they make a good team. The rest of the young cast are similarly okay but, for me, Seo Joon stands out compared to others. Taehyung is my bias so I won’t comment much on his acting. It’s too similar to how Taehyung is being portrayed in real life on the many bangtan reality shows. I enjoy it but I am not sure if he is acting or he is simply being himself. There were moments when he was good, but it's like hit and miss. I don’t know if the character is made to accommodate him or he was given that character because it is similar to his. I suspect he could show better acting if he was given a different character, one that is not too close to his public personality and push him to go beyond his comfort zone.

Oh and, I know this is from a past time in a patriarchal culture but I read somewhere that Hwarang was created to counter the strong women squad. The women protagonist and antagonist are strong but I really wish there were more women in it.

I like some of their music, its catchy. But again, I have my own bias towards a certain bands. Ehm, what can I say? :)

This is a good drama if you need something light, want to be entertained. Hwarang has a bit of action, a splash of mellowness and a chuckle every now and then. Forget logic and be forgiving about holes in its story.