DramaAjumma

It's not bad. I'm enjoying the cases and the friendships. Gets better as the show progresses. Yang Zi is fine in the titular role but I really like the male lead who's new to me. He does really well as the broadcaster.

It's obvious Bibyoung is bad news all round. On some level I agree with everyone's perspectives but sooner or later someone has to show him the door or make sure that he doesn't work any more except as a freelance music teacher. He is very bad not just for the agency but for the entire industry. In the long run if he's actively undermining his own company then he's very bad for business regardless of his talent.

The second half of this show is definitely better than the first half.

I wouldn't say the romance is non-existence but undergoing development.

I don't think we should assume that the laws for adoption work the same way then that it does now. We already know that the police force was corrupt and the adoption agencies did underhanded things in overseas adoptions. Would it be beyond the pale that that the lawyer was able to adopt Hyo-kyung without going through official channels especially if a few lies were told? The 1980s seemed like a different world.

Well, to each their own but I thought the Longest Day was great. It kept my interest all throughout. Tribes and Empires would have been good if they actually finished it.

I am really watching this for Kwak Si-yang (one of the highlights of Alice) because he is so good in this. Hot, cool, badass and adorably funny. Although I like my underdog stories this one relies too much on histrionics especially in the early episodes. Thankfully they've toned that down in the more recent ones.

The show has descended into silliness. Not sure how much more of this I can watch.

What's the point of the sageuk backdrop if they're not going to take the historical side of things at least somewhat seriously?

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.