Eleison

I will try to think of some more good ones that are recent, but two great sageuks that have a bit of romance in them are Knight Flower and Under The Queen's Umbrella (my favorite sageuk of any I've watched).

My Sweet Monster has cringey/cheesy humor for some, but the romance is darling and the characters in it are all precious with fantastic chemistry. Two Cdramas: Hidden Love was a very good romance (with super good chemistry, like in Lovely Runner but a more mature romance, I'd say (Zhao Lusi is super cute, but the humor is not cutesy or cheesy, if that makes sense; I started really liking it once she wasn't a high schooler)) and When I Fly Towards You (WIFTY) was pretty good, too; slice of life plus romance.

I will try to think of others from the time frame you sent that Ibwould recommend!

I hope you do! :)

I know! I think the synopsis, trailer and tags were poorly constructed because most people who dislike it say they were expecting it to be different. They want more singing or less singing, or an actual story about her coming back from being on an island detailed and addressed more realistically, etc. I love this screenwriter's works, so I knew exactly what to expect, but it bothers me how many people this is a miss for, because it's so well done! Such a bummer!

Yes, Episode 1 was fabulous.

I think you should try to push past 4. Episode 5 is where things picked back up for me, and I liked Episode 7 as a close 2nd on Episode 1. Episode 11 was also so, so beautiful. There's a lovely song that Ran Joo singa in that episode that was so lovely. The later episodes tie up all the themes started in Episode 1 regarding fatherhood (and found family), friendship, love and selflessness over hate and possessiveness. It's really a beautiful drama if you can finish it!

Also, this screenwriter is known for her stellar pilot episodes. I loved While You Were Sleeping by her and I Can Hear Your Voice. Both are in my top 10! I would say both are more universally liked than this drama, as WYWS still has an 8.7 despite having 120,000+ watchers on MDL rating it. Highly recommend!

Other Kdramas by this screenwriter are some of my all-time faves. While You Were Sleeping and I Can Hear Your Voice, in particular!

If you like other Kdrama rom-coms and don't mind a fantasy/time-travelling component, chances are you'll like this! Some of the nit-picks people make are valid, but I think they blow the faults WAY out of proportion. I agree with a lot of them, to some extent, but they didn't keep me from enjoying the drama because all the main characters are so good-hearted and adorable that I was just caught up in the sweetness of their stories. I hope you enjoy it!

Um, but there are no idols in this drama... why are you calling it an "idol drama"?

My hunch is they didn't have the King and Queen consummate their marriage because this means that while they are "married" ceremonially they have not made their marriage valid through consummation (that's my impression from the way dramas portray marriage in sageuks--I could be wrong!). This is to make the "clown's" closeness to the Queen feel less like they're cheating behind the king's back since the King and Queen are "married" in name only. Also, the real King being insane further complicates his claim on his "wife," and I think is all done to make the MC's romance something you can root for since most people can't root for adultery in their entertainment.

Yes, this is one of my favorite sageuk scores!

The have good chemistry and he is very sweet and devoted to her. As a character, it's hard to find a sweeter ML, and while there's not a lot of that closeness shown through kissing and such, you feel it in other ways. It reminds me of an older Kdrama in this sense. I think the romance was still very sweet overall!

I agree that this is a perennial issue with Kdramas, but I don't think this drama was one of the worst offenders as far as this faulty trend goes. It does seem crazy to greenlight a drama that doesn't have an ending written yet, right? 🤷‍♀️

I personally thought the last 1/3 was just fine! It seems many people thought it got boring but I actually liked Ji Hwan doing what he did in Episode 15, and it engaged me all the way to the end.

The poster is a good hint for the tone, I'd say. :)

They made it clear he had never dated before. Most people aren't immediately good at things they've never done before or good at things they've never practiced. 😉

Not sure if it was written into the script, or if the actors couldn't sell it. Either way, I thought it was convincing based on what we know about Ji Hwan and the lack of romance in his life.

Darn, the rating went down again. 😔 Are the ones who are rating it low finding the humor cringey? It's really not a bad drama, and has such great chemistry among the cast (I've rarely seen such chemistry) with great character arcs and backstories, not to mention great acting and lovable characters. It's too bad!

Haha, you should check out the My Demon page. It makes the contrarians on this thread look tame. The gangster drama that censored a BL also had a pretty frustrating environment in the thread for a while, too (don't remember the name of the drama).

I've heard people say it was the most unrealistic part about dramas: that people would run into each other in Seoul (cause that's always happening in dramas). Not in my experience! I visited Seoul and saw several different sets of tourists in different locations around Seoul multiple times (they're noticeable because they weren't Korean), so it's not unrealistic. You can run into the same people! It does have a weirdly small-town vibe despite being huge.

Good luck! 🫡

That's true, Kdramas do have longer episodes! Exposure was the key for Kdramas for me, too, so it will take time, I guess. 💁‍♀️

I love BGMs (I care way more about that part of the soundtrack than the OST with lyrics and pop music (that also took time to get used to because pop music is not written for American TV shows or movies, except maybe in the end credits to play as background; I know film score composers better than actors 😅)). I even know which Kdrama composers I like now because they consistently do the best melodies for BGMs.

And I was devastated to find that there are no BGMs for Cdramas on Spotify! 😭 Because some of the LLTG BGMs are SO LOVELY. I will try to share one of my favorite tracks from it if I can find a YouTube snippet.

Haha, okay! I'm definitely going to give it a shot.

And I would highly recommend LLTG and The Double. I love Zhao Lusi the most in LLTG (she's stellar), but I loved the romance and characters of the main leads in The Double even more than in LLTG. The Double is also shorter and easier to get through. 😅 It's so hard to find a watch rhythm with these Cdramas. They're SO long that they're impossible to binge (but you want to), and yet if you wait too long you forget stuff because they have such intricate plots and confusing names (still not used to the Chinese names yet). Any tips? 😂

They both have beautiful music, too (LLTG in particular).

Thanks, @ShortCircuit. Helpful and informative as ever! I appreciate it. Can't believe you even remember I don't watch BL. 😂 Thanks a bunch!

Quick question; would you say this is more like Love Like The Galaxy or The Double in that sense, then? Those feel more "historical."

Oh! Whoops, well, that extra stuff would have been nice! Clearly some of us (me) were too dense to get the idea, I guess. 😂

I found it kind of a confusing watch at times, to be honest, and thought a lot was left unexplained, but it's still enjoyable if you don't mind some mild horror genre elements. I particularly enjoyed the first few episodes and the last few.