DramaAjumma

Ah... I thought that there was something familiar about the production values and my brain immediately reached for The Longest Day in Chang'an. So it's the people responsible for that that's behind this. Good stuff.

Haven't seen Huang Xuan in anything for a while.

Pretty good so far.

It's fascinating twist on the old psychic-medium story. All of this is predicated on the assumption that the human brain is just a highly sophisticated hard drive with electronic circuitry with information that's transferable from one receptacle to another.
Reminds of me of Johnny Mnemonic.

It's a decent watch if you're fan of police procedurals so don't let the rating fool you. (Although on MDL sometimes high ratings don't tell you anything about the quality of the writing) It is a bit of a slow start but the show begins to hit its stride around Episode 6.

I've finally caught up with the last two episodes which turned out better than I had expected. I'm enjoying all the agendas at play but frankly and oddly to me... the romance is probably the least compelling part of the show. I liked Ji-un as a character better when he was the radical, progressive royal tutor than he is as the love interest. I wish we had much more of that before the show succumbed to rom com tropes.
Just my 2 cents.

Stupid, stupid brother. Yah, really stupid.

Episode 10 exemplifies my love-hate relationship with cross-dressing dramas in general. I like this drama enough and I like the leads to keep watching but the need to prolong the charade is always a double edged sword. Being romance-centric doesn't mean that the push and pull has to go on needlessly. Moreover the whole thing about Lee Hwi's sudden resolve to find a Crown Princess seems more about playing hide and seek from Ji-un rather than a realistic long-term strategy to evade notice from the powerbrokers. It's a distraction quite frankly. To drag another person into the secret defeats the purpose of why she became the Crown Prince in the first place.

Part of the problem is also the fact that the show hasn't determined with any clarity if being the Crown Prince is really that important to Lee Hwi. She's constantly in survival mode and I have to pose the question -- does she really want to rule as the next monarch? Because I don't see it. She doesn't appear that ambitious. And that's perhaps the price the show pays for focusing on her budding romance with Ji-un.

I am surprised at how good Rowoon is. His comedic timing is pretty good and his expressions are spot on. He is quite capable of being swoony too.
The way Ji-un is written I think we're meant to think that he is attracted to Lee Hwi because they have a fated connection that began in childhood that transcends status and appearances. Her cross-dressing is just a barrier that they have to overcome. But their romance is built up as the real deal because they can't help being attracted to each other despite their immediate circumstances.

It's true that Ji-un is an anachronism. He has to be in order to stand out in her eyes. And in the eyes of the audience. He's a man not really of his time and is a disruptive figure in the story.

Episode 13 wasn't that bad. Mopey Moo-hak was kinda cute.
By now everyone knows that Jang Tae-jin is a right royal scumbag that deserves what's coming to him.
But Episode 14 was a blast I didn't know I needed Kim Min-jae doing the moonwalk in different directions. What a hoot! A pi****** contest over food.

And there really is no honour among thieves.

Moo-hak is such a boy.

Nobody likes betrayal.

Me too.
At last someone who gets it.

I have to say despite all the hard-to-watch scumbaggery that was going on in the latest episode, the show did a great job of stripping bare all the hypocrisies demonstrated by many of the supporting characters. Those who were scornful of nouveau riche Moo-hak and his uncultured sensibility were the first to cave when money was waved under their noses. I don't blame them for doing it but just the fact that they were being very snobbish and high minded only minutes before makes it all very ironic. And then there's the uncle who's now begging the adopted niece to save Cheongsong after slagging her for being the outsider in previous episode. Moo-hak's family didn't fare any better. Good to see our male lead standing up to stepmother and dad for their adulterous hanky panky that he's tolerated all these years. Appealing to family loyalty was laughable and the tongue-lashing they got was a long time in coming.

I think he had a choice (although he probably didn't think so) but he didn't want to be poor or powerless if he went ahead with the wedding. I don't doubt he was coerced and his plan was to get her back when his position at Segi was consolidated.

So the whole thing with her being adopted was a cover story for why he really broke things off. Of course now that he thinks he's all-powerful and he can run roughshod over everyone, he's acting like the Terminator. He's especially vengeful about Moo-hak because he's ruining all his plans that he's carefully laid out the past five years.

The problem with Jang Tae-jin is not because he didn't love Dali then but he didn't love her enough to give up all the trappings of wealth. He prioritized wealth over her and paid the price. He literally believes that money can buy him love.

I don't really think he wanted to dump her originally but possibly someone twisted his arm and threatened to remove him from Segi unless he did it. So he chose power over the girl.
It would explain why he's on a rampage now.

To me this has always been an opposites attract narrative and one that is actually beautifully written. There's an element of that in many rom coms but I think this is one of the better ones in terms of how it's woven into the bigger narrative. You can see them both changing and accommodating each other all throughout especially in the last episode.

It's a great show and a lot of it definitely has to do with how the leads are written.
It's one of the year's biggest surprise as far as i'm concerned.

Maybe he means the stepmother and the stepbrother? Kim Si-hyung?

I feel that this terminology that she's a damsel in distress is overused. If she was able to do everything perfectly, somebody will be calling her a Mary Sue.
She has her strengths and weaknesses. She wasn't brought up to deal with the business side of things. She's an artist and an art historian. I think she's done really well so far under such trying circumstances and she's been a really good influence on Moo-hak. It's easy to forget that with all that's been going on.

I'm really loving Moo-hak's monologues. How did he get so wise so young?
I can't wait for him to destroy Jang Tae-jin.

The first 10 minutes was hilarious... and then the scumbaggery kicked in... wow... nasty, nasty.
Anyway, at least the villains are smart. I've got to give the show that. It's total war.
Jang Tae-jin is very punchable right now. He's the worst because he pretends to be a friend.