Will leave you with more to be desired.

Strong start that's guaranteed to keep you hooked but it doesn't remain consistent. Episodes 11 to 16 were too flawed, full of plot holes, illogical sequence of events, change of mood and pace. The quality as well took a dip compared to how polished it was in the earlier parts, it became too tame and lost the energy. Some plot lines/characters/situations were cartoonish and didn't fit the serious theme of the drama. I wish they showed more of his family and their dynamics, given their bizarre sudden situation. There were only given a couple of scenes at the beginning and another at the end.

The LGBTQ plot line felt off and out of place, it didn't even go anywhere. Some of the obstacles/challenges weren't interesting to follow, tackling real serious issues would have been better. The "villains" and their motives were a bit underwhelming, we were led for something greater with the build up we had. The antagonists might be its weakest point.

Anyway, great acting by the president, it's still a solid watch but will leaves you with more to be desired. 7.5/10

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Another YUCKY brain dead love triangle!

Comically over dramatic and another YUCKY brain dead love triangle :/

The first 5 episodes were the worst, how did they manage to hook the viewers! No wonder they were teasing short snippets from events that will happen in episode 18. It's bullshit how many traits/habits/quirks they gave Soo Yeon for the ML to identify her, we get it she's the girl.

Hyung Joon presence was exhausting, an obsessed mentally ill rich dude who always plays the victim and seeks pity from everyone in every possible situation. Even the character's actor wasn't that good. Meanwhile, Jung Woo is arguably the worst cop/detective you'll ever see in a drama. The dude got beaten up and lost to every thug he went against. How did this weak-ass-bitch graduated?

One more thing, cringe ending :/

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It's a passable family drama

Obviously, Hye Won and Jae Ha were the highlights but I wanted to see more of them in the second half. Their story was almost finished mid way through, why not create more arcs for them? At least they were cute af at the end. I said it before and I'mma say it again, Lee Yoon Ji is one of the most underrated actresses.

It's a passable family drama but lacks some focus on a bigger scoop. Every chunk of episodes focus on a different character/story. They missed the opportunity to make the three sisters' dynamic as the main focus, it was, but for a short period and brushed off fairly quickly. Regarding conflicts and escalations, the writer seems to know one and only one way to achieve that, this is done by isolating the victim and shift all the blame to them by everyone including their family. This was done repeatedly to most of the characters/stories, it makes it hard to watch when it's this detached from common sense. They went overboard by showing that they live in an extremely sexist society, this is not 1920 anymore, again this also comes down to how the writer choose to create conflicts. The overcooked "happy moments" for the last episode felt off and just had too much artificial flavor. Especially with this wacky 10-years promise for Ji Won, just be normal.

My god! What's wrong with Min Myeong Suk, he's abusive, toxic, manipulative, mastermind in gaslighting and borderline misogynistic. Really got on my nerves! I just wanted a better resolution for Ji Won at the end.

Anyway, it's watchable. I'm just too harsh with my ratings.

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Solid

I'm not a fan of the writing style that pushes the viewers too hard to interpret and speculate. You're expected to accept whatever is present to you. If writers were to do so, they need a better structure and understanding of world building. Take for example the British series Utopia, it does it brilliantly.

The director must really love the Dolly zoom, although it looked good but I wish there was more visual variations even at the cost of it being experimental. You are already pushing your skill ceiling in all departments so why not shoot for the moon?

Anyway, it's a solid watch and will probably appeal to everyone.

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Bad!

Oh god where do I begin!!!
The production is embarrassing with no consistent picture quality. Bad sound design with muffled dialogue sometimes, peaking audio to an irritating level and bad music/OST insertion.

Wish the problems stayed with the production quality only but things get a lot worse!!
The premise is misleading, big time! The few first episodes (and MDL synopsis) give you the impression that it is about a mother diagnosed with Alzheimer and want to teach her spoiled kids life lessons before the inevitable but what we got none of that. It's mostly about an old conflict, a missing child and some business related things (none of which about loan sharks).

If you are expecting to see siblings relationships with each other or with their mother or spoiled kids growing up, you get none of that. The kids adapt to their new life within 3 episodes without much struggle or whatsoever. Some characters disappear without any notice like the mother's secretary which we had seen a lot of him earlier.

Park Bo Gum shouldn't be part of the main cast, we only get 1 short scene of him every 3 episodes or so.

Alzheimer is a very very convenient plot device for a lazy writing here, 15 episodes can pass without any mention of it. Might as well just remove it.

The drama is full of extreme cliches and illogical moments that can only be seen in jaded makjangs, so be prepared. When they pulled up the DNA bullshit that was the purest form of manufactured shit I've ever seen!! Some genuinely frustrating moments that has no right to be here. In short, this is amongst the worst makjangs out there.

Acting was fine.

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Barely Danceable

The drama was much better than what its synopsis, title, poster or cast selection might entail, the same can be said about some of the initial scenes. The drama itself turned out to be decent despite taking sometime to kickoff, it took over 3 episodes. However, it was a bit dry sometimes and was missing the necessary link to tie everything together. The romance was an awful addition to the mix, really wasn't needed. On the bright side, it was only half the length of a typical 16 episodes drama. Yet, the drama could've worked better in a 120-150 mins movie format with better production. Speaking of which, the production value was really rocky and barely serviceable.

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Wannabe Delinquents

On one hand, it tackled some important complexities surrounding youth crime and the justice system. But on the other hand, it felt like it was hitting the viewers over the head with its message a bit too hard. They always found a way to end up being overly preachy. I guess that's part of the overdramatization? The drama had a handful of cases but these were presented in descending order, with each one being less appealing than its predecessor. I feel conflicted about some of the cast choices, but if we were to ignore that and only focus on the characters, the situation didn't look so bright either. By episode 6, they started to inject personal stories and affairs, but it was a bit too late to have proper development when the drama was just 10 episodes. In the end, it was a watchable law drama with some notable ideas but remained average until the end.

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Iljimae: The illegitimate Thief

Aside from the obvious writing problems, the story itself felt like it was dragging its feet endlessly. Everything became tiring and dull after episode 4. The male lead was on a life mission to become more and more pathetic with each passing episode. Romance? A pale imitation. There was no spark, no cosmic alignment of hearts, just a void where chemistry should have ignited. And then, to compound matters, they slapped in a love square (pentagon?) that was infested with poorly written love interests between any and every one of them. The ending was a weak attempt at redemption. It rushed to tie up loose ends but ended up creating even more problems, leaving major gaps to what could have been a very simple wrap up.

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A queen

The narration and its subsequent transitions were overdone and jarring. Regardless of the historical accuracy, everything was portrayed and delivered as poorly as possible to maximize the trashiness and spitefulness, guaranteeing to make you hate the palace power-struggle themed dramas just a little bit more. This was a very painful and redundant 60 episodes. There was a big massive disconnect of the characters' writing after the timeskip. The awful OST the drama didn't help enduring its journey. With the ridiculous overdramatization of the last 5-6 episodes, the drama reached its ultimate clown status. I pity those who had to endure this drama serializing weekly.

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Okay

It's a watered down tale with low tension and disappointing baddies which all made the insane runtime just a tad bit more unbearable. The entire story is confined to in-palace drama where the king likes a commoner while another woman grows to be super duper extra jealous. You may imagine how the story will pan out for 60 episodes. Its length turned out to be its biggest weakness, this is further emphasized with its first and last 5 episodes of which they were dull and redundant. It would've been significantly better with a short runtime since the main leads were likable. Speaking of which, the main leads scenes were generally enjoyable, they had a good chemistry but only when it's NOT romantic. Their romance sucked! Making the king physically a weakling was a nice touch. Although the drama is named after the historical character and we were shown and told about her having ambitious ideologies but we rarely got to see that side of her character in the drama, just a few scenes in the middle and around the end. Instead, we got a typical melodrama in a historical setting while borrowing small bits and pieces from the real historical character for world building. The main leads were doing a lot of heavy lifting to keep the drama afloat. The drama is okay but it doesn't have much to offer and the long runtime is really hard to justify.

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Poor!

From the story to the characters behavior and their relationships were all made from pure revolting cringe. This drama's female lead had the perfect embodiment of the childish naive mentally handicapped female lead despicable trope. I truly dream of the day when Korean writers wake up to the realization that this behavior is NOT cute! Disguising this behavior under the umbrella of youth and innocence is borderline pedophilic. The leads' interactions and romance had to be the most painful part of the drama. But the pain didn't end there, the drama's length was utterly fatal. Excruciatingly long for all the bad reasons. As if they didn't edit the drama at all and just threw in all the footage they had filmed.

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Could have been better...

It was a seriously bad decision to show a battle as an introduction to the drama. Slow movement, bad choreography, extreme camera shaking to cover the extras' performance in the background and post production ugly blood splatter. It was clear the drama wasn't going in that direction, there was barely any fights after that. Aside from that, the drama had its issues with the writing. That can range from unnatural flow, disjointed pace, inconsistencies, and a poor transition/development of the characters. Soo Ro going into politics and a position of power was the worst direction to the character. It's outside the scope of his character and always came off as a child playing politics. The drama handled death poorly, whenever someone died you don't feel the impact and weight of their death. It's almost irrelevant after the next episode. The same can be said about the entire situation with the love interests the drama had. Which also featured questionable chemistry between anyone and everyone. With all that being said, at least the cast was decent (and you had a couple of shirtless Ji Sung scenes) to keep you distract for a hot minute.

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A sloppy mess for an interesting setting

It became quite apparent right off from episode 2 that this was a massive flop. The drama would have worked wonderfully and masterfully as a movie or at least as a 3-4 episodes short drama, otherwise, it's absolutely riddled with problems in its current condition and format. The unique setting and scenery weren't enough to help its case. It ingeniously transformed the art of storytelling into a chaotic, avant-garde mishmash of disjointed scenes that left me pondering the deep mysteries of life, such as whether the writers had ever heard of structured narrative or if they were just operating under the belief that plotlines are mere suggestions for lesser beings. Each plot twist, if one could even call them that, was a tantalizing leap into the abyss of narrative incoherence, leaving me on the edge of my seat not in anticipation, but in a desperate attempt to maintain my balance amidst the swirling vortex of plot holes and character motivations more elusive than a unicorn at a camouflage convention. I can't thank the creators enough for their valiant efforts to reduce character development to a cryptic crossword puzzle that nobody asked for, but we apparently all deserved, according to them. I wish to see better attempts going for a similar setting and theme from more competent creators. It's hard to recommend this drama unless you're a diehard fan of some of the cast members. Jun Ji Hyun disappearing for ~5 years then coming back with this project was nothing but a disappointment. It made it harder to be excited for her next project "Polaris (2023)".

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YAWN!!!!

It's unbelievable how boring this drama was. Most of its run was wasted on a single plot that is the lost daughter. Other than the main characters, everyone else felt expendable and useless. The writer didn't put much effort in the side stories either. All of them were short and lacked development despite having 80 episodes. The romance was straight up forced and it only started to happen in the last 8 episodes. The drama clearly ran out of time or was cut short just by looking how they made the last 2 episodes. A quick abrupt time skip and a generic update of the character.

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