This drama was absolutely gorgeous, the music was breathtaking, the acting was mesmerizing, every single minute was wonderfully staged. The only problem was the slow, stumbling pacing and inadequate script. Another review uses the word "lost" to describe the story — I wholeheartedly agree.

First off, the actors delivered in their roles as incredibly well-rounded, challenging human beings. In particular, I want to highlight Lee El as it's one of her best roles in ages; if you're a fan, this is a must-watch as she single-handedly delivers tons of incredibly tender and dazzlingly cool moments. Jung Kyong Ho gave a solid performance as this deep raspy-voiced wizened old man who transitions into a whiny young master-type with smooth ease. And of course, his dispairing breakdown scenes totally shook my heart. The real break out gem was Lee Seol, who wasn't on my radar before (I wasn't impressed by her previous works), but displayed an incredible range and totally made me stand up and take notice by the middle (note that the actress doesn't sing the main songs, but that's hardly a demerit). Park Sung Woong was tons of fun and had great chemistry with the cast. It's a rare series where not one character fell flat; even the role of Lee Choong Ryul was turned out wonderfully; I really wanted to beat his face in (and then pinch his cheeks)!

Soundtrack of the year, hands-down. Until I get my hands on the CD, I'm rewatching the drama just for the music.

Where the series really fell flat was the lengthy, repetitious monologues and overextended pacing; it was very much "tell, don't show." The worst part was, it didn't even tell that much, but instead kept repeating the same old lines up until a big rush to wrap up the plot at the end. To be sure, the drama kept me on the edge of my seat —but after a while, it got far too tiring with too little payoff. The ending came as a relief, but the plot seemed to just jump and skip so many steps in character development to get there that it just wasn't that satisfying. I can understand why the ratings were so low.

Just to nit-pick on plot, and in case you're looking out for some of your favorite smaller actors—The Kang Ha side-plot was bafflingly shallow, and in my opinion the entire character should have been cut or at least more closely integrated into the main storyline. Ditto for Yoo Ra In and Mr. Kang; this drama's attempts at including comedic foils were fell flat for me, and therefor I couldn't get too invested in their characters when they started getting deep and serious. In comparison, Lucca's plotline was so flat, the character barely had time to develop—his only use was to be banged around as a plot device to force events to keep going (great acting, though, I'm keeping an eye out for his lead roles). On the other hand, Kim Won Hae's character hardly made a dent despite being essential plot fodder.

In comparison with other dramas, all of these negative points come to nothing. But since every other element of this drama is so brilliant, they stand out like a sore thumb.