This review may contain spoilers
Just a rant basically
This will be a long review/rant since I have quite a lot to say (so sorry). For anyone who doesn’t like reading, yes you should give this show a shot despite its shortcomings but I beg of you watch it with your braincells on (cuz some of y'all in the reviews cleary didn't). It was a slow watch for me but hey I didn’t drop it so that’s positive.
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I’ll start with the cast which I thought was amazing. Junho was amazing and we got to see one of his best performances to date. Seyeong was just as terrific, and I don’t understand the criticism I’ve read in some of the reviews before I started the drama. I think oftentimes she gets roles that are poorly written and then instead of the writers she gets all the slack, which is why I expected this to happen here as well. However, I felt that she executed her role well. The rest of the cast was brilliant as well, unsurprisingly for the older cast since many of them are renowned actors.
Onto the story. The pacing was quite slow. Many things happen in the first eight to nine episodes but nothing really major. A bunch of quickly solved small disputes, of which some didn’t really contribute a whole lot to the main story. But perhaps that’s a subjective opinion of someone who likes things to move along a bit faster. Despite this, I still feel the first part of the show made more sense and was more cohesive. Things take a wild turn when San becomes king, and they prop a lot of things into like 4 episodes. I really don’t understand the need to suddenly transform the show into a historical realism drama when it didn’t seem to be one in the beginning. I know a lot of it was factual but just like many period kdramas they either romanticize the story or tell it as it is and keep it very historical. This drama wanted the best of both worlds but had no time to do that. That last episode was… a lot.
Before I get to the main rant of this review, I have to say that the best thing for me in this drama was the friendship between the four maids. It was so beautiful and honest. I cried more for them than anything else on the show.
Now for my specific complaints. The message to me for the better part of the show (because it’s changed somewhere in between) is how important the maids are and how they are not always properly valued. We see this frustration come up in the FL as well. However, this, otherwise really important message got lost in translation due to the poorly written plot of the maid organization.
What is in essence a union for maids gets at first downplayed as this villainous, authoritarian-led organization that wants to, prevent San from getting on the throne. Don’t get me wrong I understand that Head Court Lady Jo was greedy, and her main focus was not the maids at all but it is exactly this that which downplays the whole point of the organization and waters down the main message of the story. AND THEN instead of emphasizing this established greed when portraying the organization as the enemy, the show leads the viewers to believe it is the importance of the maids above the king that makes the organization bad. When Court Lady Seo tells the FL about it and she says that the organization would even overthrow the king for the good of the maids and how they think they can choose the king they serve, I truly thought “Now you’ve lost me”. In a sense, it is almost as if Korea’s propaganda against anything that smells of socialism started seeping through (“see what happens if we let people unionize” type of beat). And so, the show’s message about the importance of the maids gets lost by the show’s own insinuation that even though the maids are important, the king is still the king and the maids should be faithful to him no matter what. Whatever whiff of a progressive storyline I got, in the beginning, is completely lost by episode 9.
The second part of the story (San becoming king) was all over the place. So much was happening. The teen concubine was unnecessary, her death even more so. It was also really sudden for no reason. That being her brother’s villain origin story is I guess understandable but not really. Also, again, happened way too fast and so was poorly developed to me. He was weird throughout the whole show and his character could’ve been handled so much better. Him just out of nowhere becoming the leader of the maid organization?????? But again, as I said i think this all stems from the dramas wish to be a historical realism type of drama all of a sudden. Had they done so from the beginning they would’ve developed the story much more organically.
I also have to comment on the FLs refusal to be San’s concubine. I feel like many people in the reviews despise this part of the story but in full honesty, I do not understand why. Okay yes, the reasoning is at first a bit confusing but in the end checks out to me. To start at the beginning, I first thought the reasoning was that the FL didn’t want to be Head Court Lady Jo’s spy, so to speak. That was a good enough reason for me. But then obviously she goes on to explain that she doesn’t want to be confined by that role etc...
Many of the reviews disagree with this reasoning, arguing that nobody in their right mind would give such an opportunity up for a lifetime of servitude and friends. However, that’s an insane opinion to me. Deok Im likes what she does even though she acknowledges that it comes with its errors. And she likes the ounce of freedom that comes with her job as well as the fact that she gets to spend her days with her best friends. Someone here even commented how they don’t get why she would throw away an opportunity to have a romance and experience motherhood for “friendship”. As much as I don’t see this show as a feminist one, I think it’s audience at times is even less progressive. Her choosing herself and her friends made perfect sense to me and it also adds to the tragedy of their love. Their roles in life are essentially what keeps them apart, even metaphorically later on. Could it have been written better? Yes. However, the point was still made. And tbh after his persistence and his hurt ego because she kept saying no, I was sick of him and kinda wanted her to never say yes. So many red flags in the guy (that kiss??? the camera showing her pushing him away and him pushing her closer??? ew). This has turned into a rant but how can you claim to love a woman and then want to punish her because she supposedly doesn’t return your feelings. GROW UP. Until the very end he wanted to own her practically despite her wishes for her own freedom. And yes, obviously the system is to blame for the better part of her frustrations. However, even on her death bed he denied her what she wanted, to see her friends. Even in her death he couldn’t let her go, asking Kyeonghee why she would be waiting for her friends when she was his. I’m sorry but there was nothing romantic about that, and it upset me so much that he kept ignoring her will even after her passing.
It is also crazy to me how he does not realize the limitations of their roles and FL’s hesitation due to that. He was born into it, he knows the sacrifices he needs to make in the name of duty and he knows how awful they sometimes are. So why does he not understand that Doek Im doesn’t want to make those sacrifices? And at first I understood this as him being an ignorant man who is also king and so he has a lot of privileges. But once they lost their child? It is then, after yelling at her for being sad, that he should’ve realized what he did to her.
In conclusion, finally, this story to me is not a love story at all and I frankly don’t understand why anyone would see it as one. It’s a tragedy but not because of their sad romance, more because Deok Im’s wishes for her own found freedom are relentlessly ignored by a selfish king. A king who when she refused him, wanted to punish her and once she accepted, treated her as some sort of possession. Maybe this was the message the writers wanted to get across, the sufferings of the women in the palace from the maids to queen consort. And I honestly think if the juxtaposition between FL’s love for the king and her need for her own freedom had been developed better, the before-stated message would’ve come across smoothly, making the story come to a cohesive end.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
I’ll start with the cast which I thought was amazing. Junho was amazing and we got to see one of his best performances to date. Seyeong was just as terrific, and I don’t understand the criticism I’ve read in some of the reviews before I started the drama. I think oftentimes she gets roles that are poorly written and then instead of the writers she gets all the slack, which is why I expected this to happen here as well. However, I felt that she executed her role well. The rest of the cast was brilliant as well, unsurprisingly for the older cast since many of them are renowned actors.
Onto the story. The pacing was quite slow. Many things happen in the first eight to nine episodes but nothing really major. A bunch of quickly solved small disputes, of which some didn’t really contribute a whole lot to the main story. But perhaps that’s a subjective opinion of someone who likes things to move along a bit faster. Despite this, I still feel the first part of the show made more sense and was more cohesive. Things take a wild turn when San becomes king, and they prop a lot of things into like 4 episodes. I really don’t understand the need to suddenly transform the show into a historical realism drama when it didn’t seem to be one in the beginning. I know a lot of it was factual but just like many period kdramas they either romanticize the story or tell it as it is and keep it very historical. This drama wanted the best of both worlds but had no time to do that. That last episode was… a lot.
Before I get to the main rant of this review, I have to say that the best thing for me in this drama was the friendship between the four maids. It was so beautiful and honest. I cried more for them than anything else on the show.
Now for my specific complaints. The message to me for the better part of the show (because it’s changed somewhere in between) is how important the maids are and how they are not always properly valued. We see this frustration come up in the FL as well. However, this, otherwise really important message got lost in translation due to the poorly written plot of the maid organization.
What is in essence a union for maids gets at first downplayed as this villainous, authoritarian-led organization that wants to, prevent San from getting on the throne. Don’t get me wrong I understand that Head Court Lady Jo was greedy, and her main focus was not the maids at all but it is exactly this that which downplays the whole point of the organization and waters down the main message of the story. AND THEN instead of emphasizing this established greed when portraying the organization as the enemy, the show leads the viewers to believe it is the importance of the maids above the king that makes the organization bad. When Court Lady Seo tells the FL about it and she says that the organization would even overthrow the king for the good of the maids and how they think they can choose the king they serve, I truly thought “Now you’ve lost me”. In a sense, it is almost as if Korea’s propaganda against anything that smells of socialism started seeping through (“see what happens if we let people unionize” type of beat). And so, the show’s message about the importance of the maids gets lost by the show’s own insinuation that even though the maids are important, the king is still the king and the maids should be faithful to him no matter what. Whatever whiff of a progressive storyline I got, in the beginning, is completely lost by episode 9.
The second part of the story (San becoming king) was all over the place. So much was happening. The teen concubine was unnecessary, her death even more so. It was also really sudden for no reason. That being her brother’s villain origin story is I guess understandable but not really. Also, again, happened way too fast and so was poorly developed to me. He was weird throughout the whole show and his character could’ve been handled so much better. Him just out of nowhere becoming the leader of the maid organization?????? But again, as I said i think this all stems from the dramas wish to be a historical realism type of drama all of a sudden. Had they done so from the beginning they would’ve developed the story much more organically.
I also have to comment on the FLs refusal to be San’s concubine. I feel like many people in the reviews despise this part of the story but in full honesty, I do not understand why. Okay yes, the reasoning is at first a bit confusing but in the end checks out to me. To start at the beginning, I first thought the reasoning was that the FL didn’t want to be Head Court Lady Jo’s spy, so to speak. That was a good enough reason for me. But then obviously she goes on to explain that she doesn’t want to be confined by that role etc...
Many of the reviews disagree with this reasoning, arguing that nobody in their right mind would give such an opportunity up for a lifetime of servitude and friends. However, that’s an insane opinion to me. Deok Im likes what she does even though she acknowledges that it comes with its errors. And she likes the ounce of freedom that comes with her job as well as the fact that she gets to spend her days with her best friends. Someone here even commented how they don’t get why she would throw away an opportunity to have a romance and experience motherhood for “friendship”. As much as I don’t see this show as a feminist one, I think it’s audience at times is even less progressive. Her choosing herself and her friends made perfect sense to me and it also adds to the tragedy of their love. Their roles in life are essentially what keeps them apart, even metaphorically later on. Could it have been written better? Yes. However, the point was still made. And tbh after his persistence and his hurt ego because she kept saying no, I was sick of him and kinda wanted her to never say yes. So many red flags in the guy (that kiss??? the camera showing her pushing him away and him pushing her closer??? ew). This has turned into a rant but how can you claim to love a woman and then want to punish her because she supposedly doesn’t return your feelings. GROW UP. Until the very end he wanted to own her practically despite her wishes for her own freedom. And yes, obviously the system is to blame for the better part of her frustrations. However, even on her death bed he denied her what she wanted, to see her friends. Even in her death he couldn’t let her go, asking Kyeonghee why she would be waiting for her friends when she was his. I’m sorry but there was nothing romantic about that, and it upset me so much that he kept ignoring her will even after her passing.
It is also crazy to me how he does not realize the limitations of their roles and FL’s hesitation due to that. He was born into it, he knows the sacrifices he needs to make in the name of duty and he knows how awful they sometimes are. So why does he not understand that Doek Im doesn’t want to make those sacrifices? And at first I understood this as him being an ignorant man who is also king and so he has a lot of privileges. But once they lost their child? It is then, after yelling at her for being sad, that he should’ve realized what he did to her.
In conclusion, finally, this story to me is not a love story at all and I frankly don’t understand why anyone would see it as one. It’s a tragedy but not because of their sad romance, more because Deok Im’s wishes for her own found freedom are relentlessly ignored by a selfish king. A king who when she refused him, wanted to punish her and once she accepted, treated her as some sort of possession. Maybe this was the message the writers wanted to get across, the sufferings of the women in the palace from the maids to queen consort. And I honestly think if the juxtaposition between FL’s love for the king and her need for her own freedom had been developed better, the before-stated message would’ve come across smoothly, making the story come to a cohesive end.
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