Timea Ilic

SSK defence squad

Writing this "review" mainly to defend Shin Sae Kyeong because wow, girl cannot catch a break from y'all.

One thing I hate in the kdrama fandom is when women get all the criticism when it's so obvious that the writers and directors should get most of the blame. Now I am not saying that SSK is the best actress in the world but she tried and she did in my opinion well for with what she was given. Her character could've been so much more complex and interesting had they written her to be more on par with the ML's character. His brother dies and he becomes king and therefore heartless and in my opinion she should've been just as heartless, but god forbid women have any other emotion than sadness and love. The revenge part just was not as emphasized as it should've been and the love story was too meh to be entertaining. In any case, it is not SSK's fault she got a poorly written character. Had they wanted her character to be different they should've written her differently or directed her differently. SSK did justice to a character she got and y'all need to tone it down with the hate.

Lastly, I hated the fact that her best friend dies, basically because of the ML and the love story continues... How am I supposed to root for them if I despise him from the very beginning??????? "Oh but he's the king he had no other choice" WRONG, he had many choices and was even begged to pick another one. And how was the FL not angrier about this??? Give me the pen I swear I can fix this mess.

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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.

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I love Ahn Bohyun but ????

I am writing this review simply to explain why I dropped this drama and why I think you shouldn't watch it if you were curious. It has a minor spoiler but nothing huge for the overall storyline.

TW!!!: rape, sexual assault

I started this drama because I'm a fan of Bohyun and because I was interested in seeing Jo Boah in a role like this. However, the minute the show started I was worried already. The ML is a d*ckhead and one thing I cannot stand in kdramas is ML's who are a*sholes and get some stupid, poorly written redemption arc and we're all just supposed to forget they were a*sholes. But this drama truly takes it up a notch with the level of a*shole-ness (for lack of a better word).
The ML basically serves the rich and is their pet (Doberman), which irked me to say the least but I thought okay we'll get a redemption arc, or he'll have to defend something un-defendable and realize how f-ed up this has all been... But no! In fact even after his main client rapes a girl and films it (a very Burning sun-like scenario might I add, art definitely reflected reality), ML wants to help him and is looking for ways to work directly under him. They even have drinks in if I'm not mistaken the exact same place where the rape happened. I was properly pissed off already and seeing ML's redemption arc beginning having nothing to do with yk questioning his own immorality, I gave up. And for this I think you should not give this drama a chance at all.

Also, such a waste of Jo Boah and her character??? I actually liked her in this and thought the action suited her well but even she couldn't keep me interested.

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so slow

I watched this drama because it has so many good reviews, it was well watched and just known as one of the top dramas in the kdrama world (not to mention that literally everyone is in it in some way or another).

It started well, the historic background really gripped me and made me watch further. The main story as well as the sub plots were all very interesting and made me want to find out what would happen next.
But then the story started to slow down, like reaaaally slow down.

Before I get to the rest of the story, I just have to say the main love story just did not convince me at all. Their scenes were poorly written if you ask me because at some point they were just in love and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why it happened or when. And their scenes were unnecessarily dramatic. Their long gazes, the dramatic music... it would work if I had been convinced from the start but I wasn't so it was just boring and skippable. However, the last episodes changed a bit and from the moment they get fake married, I really like the couple. Their heart wrenching ending also made me bowl. But again these were the last episodes.

The rest of the story is kind of the same. Starts interesting, especially with Eugene assassinating that minister, the smuggling of that one patriot etc. but then the story sort of forgets it's potential for exciting moments. There were some funny moments, some interesting ones but they hardly kept my will to finish the show intact. I honestly only finished it because of the historic background which was really interesting, especially in those last episodes. And there we are again, those last episodes saved the show to me. They were exciting, the love story was finally interesting, things started moving along and I finished those episodes with no problem.
Also, someone here said the historic background doesn't feel as meaningful for a global audience but I fully disagree. The story about the rebels was my favourite and it was incredibly touching to see how many people from different life paths all came together to try and save their country. I feel like I learned a lot and was just moved by the resilience Korean people showed in the faces of their oppressors.

All in all, this drama was okay. The cinematography is amazing, the casting was obviously great and the OST has some gems. But it should've been shorter, 24 episodes all longer than an hour is just way too long to keep the audience gripped (although many would disagree i guess). But I still think if you have a good attention span that you should watch it.

Some other things that annoyed me:

- Hina finding out about her mother's death. I don't know why the minister had to use her only to tell her her mother passed away. I know he gave his reasoning but it felt dry and just lazy idk
- all the men being in love with one woman while not even properly knowing her and who she is. Very unnecessary.
- we get zero closure for Hotaru. Plus we don't really learn anything about her until the end and the story felt cliche when i feel like it could've been way more meaningful to the whole plot. Idk she's just there and then she's not and that's just lazy writing to me.
- Hina dying??? like I know she wanted to but then she didn't want to but then she did? It would've been a lot more meaningful to let her die in the hotel or let her live. The way it happened was only so that she could confess to Dongmae which at that point felt unnecessary. Why did they even start that love line?????
- Dongmae having 309403924 battles and dying several times until actually dying like ??????
- the French... girl

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Propaganda?

Writing this review now, only because I cannot belive how this drama is still being praised.

This was truly a waste of such an amazing cast but then I also feel so weird about the fact that they even took these roles. This drama's messaging was horrible. Their take on suicide and suicidal people was genuinely disturbing and EXTREMELY harmful!!!!!!!! I won't elaborate becuase there are reviews here that do that better than I could.
I don't think this drama should be a suggested watch for anyone and it should have so many trigger warnings.

It just surprises me how many people watched it and enjoyed it because I didn't even bother watching the second part because of the message of the story.

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