DramaAjumma

It's not to me about liking or disliking the romance. I like it although it isn't actually necessary to the big story but what the script does is slow down the narrative building in other areas. I just don't think the integration between the romance and the adventure side of things is as cohesive as it could be. The characters are interesting, the backdrop is certainly a selling point but all the moving parts feel like they're grinding towards something.

Commenters here are wondering why this show isn't as popular as it should be considering its unique premise and I'm offering a reason. What the show does is certainly interesting but it doesn't have broad appeal. Why is that despite the fact that the romance is such a key component? It has to be some aspect of the storytelling that's not working. The show is covering a lot of lore. A lot -- almost an entire history of a country but it takes 10 episodes for them to get to the other side after puzzling through where the gateway is. I realise they are only half hour episodes but it still feels really long.

At the end of the day we know that this is about them stretching things out to 40 episodes or thereabouts.

Who is making these criticisms? The Knetz? I would ignore them. Waste of time.

If we consider what the storyline is indicating, Junmo wasn't that interested at first but when he thought about his wife and her family he changed his mind. And if you consider the terms and conditions that he negotiated, it was about promotion -- two ranks and he didn't care about the money. An idealist would have jumped at the chance and rejected the terms outright. He's not one and frankly this is far more sophisticated characterization consistent with a gangland drama.

The first episode was good and a decent character set-up for the male leads. The backdrop and the motivations are clearly laid out so I'm looking forward to how these agendas play out in the rest of the show. It's definitely a historical piece with the chosen palette as well as the amount of smoking that goes on. What I particularly like about the set-up is that the antagonist could be the protagonist in his own tragic story. Like The Godfather. He's sick of being treated like rubbish. He has ambition and smarts to make it happen. He commands genuine loyalty that goes back to his school days. Moreover, the protagonist although something of the typical loose cannon is motivated not really by ideals of justice but wanting to look a bit better in front of his in-laws for his wife's sake. That's potentially very interesting in terms of his character arc.

Initially I thought the wife wasn't really necessary but as the episode progressed it occurred to me that she's there not so much as to set up some obligatory love triangle but to act as his lifeline. I suspect that she's included so that he doesn't get completely consumed by the undercover persona. She will be, I'm guessing, his conscience. A reminder to him why he's there in order that he doesn't completely lose his way. I also think that her purpose in the narrative is to flesh out Jung Gi-cheul as the mob boss -- to give him that extra layer, to humanize him so that he isn't some kind of cartoon villain. But the lovely thing always about Wi Ha-jun is that he always projects a certain vulnerability no matter how badass he is.

That staring contest at the end is rather good. This is a collaboration that I'm hyped up to see a lot more of.

I like this show a lot but I think it suffers from a lot of the problems that beset C dramas. It's not just the pacing but a lot of time is spent building on the romance to the detriment of the world building. Personally I think the storytelling would have been better juxtaposing the two worlds from the start rather than relying on these exposition dumps that no one is going to remember a day or two later. In a fantasy show the world building is king. It is always better to show rather than tell.

For me at least the show would have been more efficiently told if we had Jin Han and Co. make their appearance a lot sooner and interplay that with the Chang Dong and Ye Liuxi angle.

It seems to be a competition as to who lights up the most cigarettes.

I imagine that there will be some similarities as both cover the same sort of ground in the same period but the plot seems to be quite different.

I don't think it's just a matter of "bad luck". Her mother distinctly said to her when she announced that they were getting engaged that Xizhou is not the type to devote himself to love. He likes her well enough but he doesn't love her. Certainly not enough to want to accommodate her or leave behind his vengeful schemes. And he only married her in haste to secure her father's support on the board. If anything she's naive. She thinks that if she tries hard enough and compromise with him, sooner or later he will come to the party.

The darkness has always been lurking inside of him. Years of being badly treated by Mdm Jiang and all that built-up resentment. All he needed was the right trigger to see it unleashed.

I haven't really liked any of his previous dramas except Siege in the Fog but that one is horrendously long and the push and pull just goes on forever. When they're finally together, all kinds of madness ensues.

Great. Everyone has problems and they hit the bottle.

I don't think Ruanruan is wrong about the kind of relationship spouses should be having. BUT it was her choice to marry a guy who isn't 100% devoted to her. Especially if she's the passionate type who goes into everything 100%. She knew it too. She was warned by other people that he wasn't the type to give himself completely over to love. She went into the marriage believing that she could change him which is always a bad idea. Or compromise on her core principles. The conversation that they had in Episode 20 is the one she should have had with him before they got married. They are both paying the price for entering a mismatched marriage in haste.

Sonnet 18. Yes!
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

For some reason the earlier episodes felt longer but everything after episode 10 feels so quick. :D
It's probably a lot more exciting now that they've crossed to the other side.

The child actors are rather good especially the kid that was in Hidden Love.

Huh... did the episodes go from 45 minutes to half an hour each?

It isn't just this show. Sure, Ji Chang-wook has got a really strong fanbase willing to sub his material but what of the other actors?
It's still a Disney problem particularly if they're trying to break into the K drama market.

I don't think she's evil incarnate either but I don't particularly like her because not only is she trying to replay the past, she doesn't understand her own son. She is fixated with winning over the other woman even now. In a real enough way she's paying for her own misery. But misery loves company. She's against Yunshen being together with Zhu Jiu and thinks he should marry someone who can help him shore up his power base in the company eg. Zhizhi. It's one thing when a man marries a woman he doesn't love. It's another when a man marries one woman when he's in love with another woman. She should know better because she's still living the nightmare of not only not being loved by her husband but resented by him. She is dooming not only her son to a repeat of history but Zhizhi who shouldn't be embroiled in this family dysfunction.

Regardless of whether her family saved Lingtian, the company still belongs to grandpa and the board. It is up to them who should run it. Moreover Yunshen isn't the least bit interested in running the show. He just wants to do pharmacological research. A fact that has been stressed over and over by more than one person. What era does she think she's living in? This isn't the imperial court. The board will do what they think will profit the company.

Every single bad thing that occurs in this family in recent days can be attributed to some action of hers in one form or another. I'm not saying that Xizhou isn't responsible for what he's scheming has led to but Mdm Jiang has been behind the scenes playing divide and conquer for some time now. She been making snide comments to Xizhou from the moment he started living with the Fu family.

It's a great show and yes, it is for mature audiences. There's also no romance which in part explains the rating. There's some politics but I don't mind politics in corruption dramas.

Disney Plus is just woeful in promoting their dramas. Aside from the trailers none of the promo materials for this show have got English subs so far. It's hard to believe that this is getting a concurrent worldwide release.

Some but not like K2 or Healer. It's more of a rom com murder mystery.

The motivations are indeed quite clearly laid out. And then there's the medical side of things too -- to develop the Perdo plant into a pharmacological product.
But there is dysfunction because of decisions made by the previous generation which has ramifications for the brothers. Sadly the mother hasn't learnt the right lessons from what happened.