Bon Appetit, Your Majesty

Bon Appétit, Your Majesty – When Mediocrity Goes Viral

The best way to watch this drama? Grab some food, put it on 1.75x speed, and just let it run.. The show has no real substance. The writers clearly got lazy and decided a proper story was optional; instead, it’s basically a long food showcase where dishes get more screen time than the actual characters.

Yes, the title hints at food, but the description also promised "romance, fantasy, comedy", Did it deliver? Let’s see:

Fantasy– Oh yes, time travel! The lead goes back to the past. I guess that’s *all it takes* to count as fantasy these days.
Comedy – Original jokes? Forget it. Just recycled gags from every older drama of the same genre you’ve ever seen. Classic.
Romance – Romance, they call it? There’s no buildup, no real conversations, barely any screen time together, and suddenly the ML falls for her just from tasting her food, forcing himself on her, while the FL randomly decides she likes him too. As if that weren’t enough, the leads have non-existent chemistry. They simply look like two good-looking people sharing the screen, nothing more. And after all this, the creators expect us to believe they’re in love. It’s utterly absurd

Now to acting.
Yoona’s performance was fine but predictable. She’s been playing the same rom-com roles for years, merely swapping the setting and profession. Nothing new, nothing surprising—just another comfort-zone performance from her, which, as usual, turned out to be average.

Chaemin shows good potential, but his acting here was wildly overhyped. He was mostly good throughout the run, but not the miracle the internet made him out to be. Honestly, most of the buzz seems driven by his looks rather than his actual acting, and that’s just how it works in K-drama land.

Also wanted to add this: Park Sung-hoon being dropped turned out to be a good thing—this weak script didn’t deserve an actor of his caliber. It was better suited for a rookie like Chaemin (who played his part well👍,still I believe his performance was exggerated by the audience), especially since it was the food, not the cast, that carried the show.

As for the central storyline—there wasn’t one to begin with. By the last four episodes, it felt like the writer finally as well as suddenly realized, “Oops, we don't have a plot,” and started throwing in whatever came to mind just to force a happy ending. The result? A drama with no sensible closure. The creators practically mocked the audience, with, “Let’s throw the dumbest stuff at them as we known they’ll swallow it,” and, unsurprisingly, audience did.

Conclusion: This is easily the most overhyped drama of the year—mediocrity at its finest. A one-time watch if you have nothing else lined up. With a 80-Minute episodes dragged out by endless food shots , average acting and no solid story, it’s not something anyone would revisit.

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With Food as the Main Course, Everything Else Was Just a Side Dish!

After being transported 500 years back to Joseon, award-winning French chef, Yeon Ji Yeong, met temperamental tyrant, King Yi Heon, when he was out on a hunting spree. Despite being in shock and disbelief, Yeon Ji Yeong ended up cooking her first dish in Joseon. Although initially skeptical, Yi Heon gave it a taste and memories about his late mother, the deposed Queen, came flooding in. After a failed attempt at escaping, Yeon Ji Yeong was brought to the palace by Yi Heon where he commanded her to cook for him as his Chief Royal Cook. As they work together, love blooms and eventually continues across time.

I never knew food could be such scene stealers. I believe the dishes in this drama and the visualization of its taste makes up a majority of the scenes. The camera angles and sound effects when cooking and tasting the food would make you drool. This would be perfect for a food or cooking show. However, as a drama that promises themes of fantasy, comedy, and romance, Bon Appétit, Your Majesty did not deliver mainly because of sloppy writing.

The story started out promising showing enmity between the two main characters. As the drama progresses, there was a repetitive formula of conflict, cooking, tasting, and conflict solved. This made it seem that cooking and tasting were the focus of the drama and everything else were just grounds to serve the food. The comedy in this drama was also below par. Compared to its predecessor Mr. Queen, as a historical, cooking, time travel, comedy romance drama, this drama left no lasting impact. Not to mention, the sloppy ending that left so many unanswered questions. The writer was definitely lazy towards the end and decided to go for the "what matters is that it's a happy ending, everything else doesn't matter" approach. The script in the end left me scratching my head in disbelief as it clearly represents how the writer just don't want to be bothered writing anymore.

Aside from the story, the character development was also poorly written. Despite Yoona and Lee Chae Min's potential as actors, it is a pity that their abilities were not used to the best advantage. In the first two episodes, Yeon Ji Yeong and Yi Heon's chemistry were interesting enough to keep you anticipating. However as the story progresses, the chemistry between the characters started to get plain and boring, which was ironic considering that their romance were supposed to start and make you feel butterflies in the stomach. The only evident progress was that they went from a hostile relationship to becoming friendly and closer. The buildup of romance was not strong enough to support the ending when Yi Heon lost Yeon Ji Yeong and how they reunite in the present. Watching the ending actually made me cringe as I wonder how dramatic and exaggerated the characters are.

To summarize, this drama definitely lacks depth in terms of story and character development. It is a drama best watched on a faster speed and while eating some food, just to kill time. However, if you are a fan of Yoona or Lee Chae Min, Bon Appétit, Your Majesty is worth giving a try!

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