This review may contain spoilers
objectively awful 12 hours of pure expensive torture
2.0 only bc platform begged for it :/
this is the sloppiest shi that sucked so bad for me. the drama was genuinely painful to sit through lord... the only reason i even survived 12 hours of this mess was Gong Seung Yeon. she absolutely carried this whole thing with insane elegance and class. every time she came on screen the drama suddenly looked expensive again. beautiful, icy, remorseful, heartbroken, brave... she delivered EVERYTHING. her screen presence is actually crazy and she was easily the best styled person there too. the hanboks, the gowns, that Dior looking suit in the end?? she ate every single frame. and her deep voice added so much impact too. queen mother also SERVED hard every time she appeared like at least some women in this drama knew how to act. she basically ATEEE.
Our prime minister deserved so much better too because his performance was genuinely nuanced compared to whatever the ML was doing. his micro expressions carried more emotion than entire conversations in this show. meanwhile Byeon Woo Seok looked awkward and miscast the whole time. this icy tsundere role was NOT for him at all. even when his character literally fainted from the fire and was lying unconscious in bed he somehow still looked like he was smiling š i could never take any emotional scene seriously. he only became slightly watchable near the end when he turned into a pathetic simp househusband because that softer vibe fits him way more.
and omg IU... im sorry but acting is just not her field. her facial expressions were annoying most of the time and every emotional scene felt so flat. they tried SO hard to force this rich cold CEO aura on her but it never landed once. she was just mean, spoiled and underdeveloped the whole drama. not to mention her styling was atrocious too which is insane considering her character was supposed to be some fashion influencer. half the outfits looked cheap and ill fitted. even her face always looked bored instead of intimidating. she should honestly stick to roles that actually suit her strengths because this role exposed every weakness possible.
half this drama felt like it was desperately trying to recreate Queen of Tears emotional glamour and Lovely Runner fangirl hype but ended up looking like a confused pinterest board with no identity of its own š they tried SO hard to style IU like some mix of Yoon Se Ri and Hong Hae In with the expensive cold rich girl aura but it failed miserably because neither the writing nor the acting could sell it. and the amount of scenes that straight up felt copied from QoT and Lovely Runner??? insane. except those dramas at least knew how to build emotional payoff and chemistry while this one just kept throwing aesthetically shot moments together hoping the audience would eat it up because the cast is popular.
THE WRITING YA ALLAH... this genuinely felt like a first time writer opened ChatGPT and said āwrite me a royal political romanceā because what even was this sloppy ass script š they kept introducing plotlines and abandoning them two episodes later. who started the fires?? who killed the mother?? who sabotaged the brakes?? who leaked the marriage contract?? what happened to the prime minister in the end?? NOTHING got resolved properly. and instead of fixing these massive plot holes they wasted screentime on cringe romance scenes and forced hero moments like that stupid car accident scene.
the monarchy abolition ending literally felt like they made it up during filming with zero buildup. everything about this drama screamed expensive but lazy. huge budget, big cast, beautiful visuals at times... yet the execution was so half baked and empty. like a gourmet meal with no seasoning. there was actually so much potential in the premise too which makes it even more frustrating. with proper writing, stronger character development and more episodes this couldāve been amazing. instead it became one of the sloppiest and most badly written kdramas iāve watched in a while. if it werenāt for my husband, i wouldāve dropped this immediately. genuinely a waste of time and potential.
coming from someone who has been watching kdramas for over a decade now... i could already tell from the FIRST episode this drama was gonna turn into a sloppy expensive mess and unfortunately i was right š and no before people start with the ānot every drama needs something happening every episodeā excuse... thereās a difference between slow paced storytelling and a completely directionless script with unresolved plotlines everywhere. we are watching a drama not staring at aesthetic pinterest edits for 12 hours. even as someone who genuinely liked IU in Moon Lovers and Byeon Woo Seok in Lovely Runner, this drama exposed so badly that visuals and fandoms carry them harder than acting ever did. both of them felt painfully weak here and the only reason this drama is surviving is because of their huge fanbases hyping up every frame. my husband literally got baited into watching this because of the expensive looking sets, cars and cinematography š and yes the aesthetics WERE beautiful at times but good visuals donāt magically excuse lazy writing, awkward acting and a story that keeps going nowhere.
this is the sloppiest shi that sucked so bad for me. the drama was genuinely painful to sit through lord... the only reason i even survived 12 hours of this mess was Gong Seung Yeon. she absolutely carried this whole thing with insane elegance and class. every time she came on screen the drama suddenly looked expensive again. beautiful, icy, remorseful, heartbroken, brave... she delivered EVERYTHING. her screen presence is actually crazy and she was easily the best styled person there too. the hanboks, the gowns, that Dior looking suit in the end?? she ate every single frame. and her deep voice added so much impact too. queen mother also SERVED hard every time she appeared like at least some women in this drama knew how to act. she basically ATEEE.
Our prime minister deserved so much better too because his performance was genuinely nuanced compared to whatever the ML was doing. his micro expressions carried more emotion than entire conversations in this show. meanwhile Byeon Woo Seok looked awkward and miscast the whole time. this icy tsundere role was NOT for him at all. even when his character literally fainted from the fire and was lying unconscious in bed he somehow still looked like he was smiling š i could never take any emotional scene seriously. he only became slightly watchable near the end when he turned into a pathetic simp househusband because that softer vibe fits him way more.
and omg IU... im sorry but acting is just not her field. her facial expressions were annoying most of the time and every emotional scene felt so flat. they tried SO hard to force this rich cold CEO aura on her but it never landed once. she was just mean, spoiled and underdeveloped the whole drama. not to mention her styling was atrocious too which is insane considering her character was supposed to be some fashion influencer. half the outfits looked cheap and ill fitted. even her face always looked bored instead of intimidating. she should honestly stick to roles that actually suit her strengths because this role exposed every weakness possible.
half this drama felt like it was desperately trying to recreate Queen of Tears emotional glamour and Lovely Runner fangirl hype but ended up looking like a confused pinterest board with no identity of its own š they tried SO hard to style IU like some mix of Yoon Se Ri and Hong Hae In with the expensive cold rich girl aura but it failed miserably because neither the writing nor the acting could sell it. and the amount of scenes that straight up felt copied from QoT and Lovely Runner??? insane. except those dramas at least knew how to build emotional payoff and chemistry while this one just kept throwing aesthetically shot moments together hoping the audience would eat it up because the cast is popular.
THE WRITING YA ALLAH... this genuinely felt like a first time writer opened ChatGPT and said āwrite me a royal political romanceā because what even was this sloppy ass script š they kept introducing plotlines and abandoning them two episodes later. who started the fires?? who killed the mother?? who sabotaged the brakes?? who leaked the marriage contract?? what happened to the prime minister in the end?? NOTHING got resolved properly. and instead of fixing these massive plot holes they wasted screentime on cringe romance scenes and forced hero moments like that stupid car accident scene.
the monarchy abolition ending literally felt like they made it up during filming with zero buildup. everything about this drama screamed expensive but lazy. huge budget, big cast, beautiful visuals at times... yet the execution was so half baked and empty. like a gourmet meal with no seasoning. there was actually so much potential in the premise too which makes it even more frustrating. with proper writing, stronger character development and more episodes this couldāve been amazing. instead it became one of the sloppiest and most badly written kdramas iāve watched in a while. if it werenāt for my husband, i wouldāve dropped this immediately. genuinely a waste of time and potential.
coming from someone who has been watching kdramas for over a decade now... i could already tell from the FIRST episode this drama was gonna turn into a sloppy expensive mess and unfortunately i was right š and no before people start with the ānot every drama needs something happening every episodeā excuse... thereās a difference between slow paced storytelling and a completely directionless script with unresolved plotlines everywhere. we are watching a drama not staring at aesthetic pinterest edits for 12 hours. even as someone who genuinely liked IU in Moon Lovers and Byeon Woo Seok in Lovely Runner, this drama exposed so badly that visuals and fandoms carry them harder than acting ever did. both of them felt painfully weak here and the only reason this drama is surviving is because of their huge fanbases hyping up every frame. my husband literally got baited into watching this because of the expensive looking sets, cars and cinematography š and yes the aesthetics WERE beautiful at times but good visuals donāt magically excuse lazy writing, awkward acting and a story that keeps going nowhere.
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