The fatal flaw of this drama was that it did not know whether it wanted to be a brainless historical rom com or a serious sageuk. It started off strong with a wild premise (a girl pretending to channel the dead Crown Princess’s spirit?), a chaotic FL, and a rather dumb conflict in the grand scheme of historical dramas (the prohibition of marriage/love in general). It promoted itself as a crazy, senseless, comedic drama that didn’t take itself seriously, and I was satisfied with just turning off my brain and laughing.

Then by second quarter of the drama, they seemed to have some kind of teenage identity crisis where they realized all other great historicals have political intrigue and tragedy and therefore, this drama needed it too. Unfortunately, the writers are absolutely horrid at writing political schemes, and they gave us the most laughable political plot and villains. Even more unfortunately, the acting of the villains were horrible. And suddenly the FL, who is much much better at making comedic faces and sly jokes, has to pull sad expressions and say deep things about sacrificing for love while I, the watcher, roll my eyes. And then most unfortunately, the writers couldn’t even commit to this new melodramatic mood, and had to transition back to their rom com feel at the end and tie up their “serious” plot with the dumbest solutions.

As for the leads themselves, they were pretty average. I liked the FL a lot more in the beginning before she became all sighs, distant gazes, and sad phrases. The ML was statically boring the entire time. The acting itself wasn’t good or bad, but I think both actors are not the best at acting serious or emotional. There were bare hints of chemistry in the very beginning of the drama, and none by the end—the enjoyable chaos of the leads’ relationship spun into a cringey, unnatural, senseless mess.

Would not recommend to anyone :)