InspectorMegre

No, the real Korean stations almost if not always produce better kdramas. I cannot think of any Netflix "kdrama" that was better than a genuinely local kdrama.
And FYI,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1_j6izmEX4

i see their point.... indeed, that level of evil does require insanity.
Or the villain could be a reptile or some other nasty kind of alien or demon or incarnation, but what is normal to those species is insane to humans

Exactly! He replaced a visibly poisonous garden snake with a well camouflaged most deadly viper LOL So what kind of whimp is he, when he attracts only snakes?
The visibly poisonous at least keeps calling the Chef "our son" - since he came quite old into the family, with leukemia, and remembers they are not his parents

wow this plot is an amazing dilemma! and a very current issue

Watched ep 1 and it looks promising. it did not take much to learn all characters :) many characters will make for more plot, so the script always stays dynamic :)

Keep our fingers crossed. Eagle Brothers and Our Golden Days flopped mid way, but to be honest, this drama has a better beginning than those too.

KBS weekend dramas have a history of really bad, cold, distant FL actresses who cannot act - 3 Bold Siblings, Young Lady and Gentleman, For Eagle Brothers, Our Golden Days, It is Beautiful Now, Live Your Life, ...... EG had even cold secondaries. Showing a cold distant FL took too much time of drama and made a good-acting ML totally useless bc he had nobody to act with. That plus dumb script killed those dramas.
Some were partially saved bc secondary characters took over, like in 3 Bold Siblings, Mi Yong and YoungerSister became the most prominent couple; and in YLAG and OGD, the villains took over. FEB totally flopped as secondary characters scripts were left bland too and their acting was mostly dismal - I am thinking the young woman who wanted the divorced dad - her script took so much time on the screen but she was a total piece of cement on screen. In OGD, the actors for secondary love stories were awesome but were not allowed to shine and take over. It is sad. I am not sure who it is at KBS that keeps doing this, but they need to be retrained or someone else be assigned. WHO IS IT AT KBS THAT LIKES INDIFFERENT, COLD FEMALE PARTNERS? In other words, WHO AT KBS ASSIGNS PRETTY WOMEN WHO HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT ACTING AND SHOW UP ON THE SCREEN AS SELF CENTERED PIECE OF CEMENT? Women who just pose, without expressing feelings and without expressing any affection to their male partner. Basically, ignoring the male partner. FLs in 3BS, FEB, LYOL, IIBN, OGD, were just totally indifferent to their male partners. I am NOT asking for skinship scenes!!! I am asking for scenes showing that FL does not ignore ML, where FL is actively engaged in the scene and pays attention to ML. Those actresses were terrible, like cement, just minding their own business on screen, never really giving attention to their screen partner, never engaged in the scenes, they looked like they are acting in a solo drama, and it was so boring. I will never forget how 3BS ML kept trying to engage the FL and she was just unresponsive. He would try to talk to her, to call her yobo, etc and she was just DEAD unresponsive. She ignored him non-stop. She is the worst of them all. But all the ones I mentioned are just bad actresses and really selfish, they kept ignoring ML and paying attention only to themselves. They cannot act.

With so many characters in this new drama, it should be easy to always have interesting characters up front. Keep our fingers crossed!!!!

For me yes and no, since many of those girls chose it willingly - to pay for their drug habit, etc. Some out of conviction it is all right...

I think a very valuable lesson from this drama that should send any parent into frenzy is that this drama exposes what is going to happen to your child if it ever misses from home, runs away, or turns to drugs or gangs, or talks to strangers over internet and then meets them, or goes strange places and parties.... This drama is a sobering call to the hell that is out there.... .

This reminds me of The Defects and of western movies. It does not feel like a kdrama, it is too ... empty and isolated.
I think it is good to bring these issues up and to use these hyped up extreme situations to start talking about these subjects...

Yeah, women cheat on their husbands and vice versa, and yeah ppl do drugs and prostitution and violence and yeah it is corrupt out there, but those are just THE TIPS OF THE ICEBERG, and the iceberg starts in your own family, where your own parents practice sexism, where children get trained into that as normal, and at work, where a woman is paid 70% of men' salary, and in our dating and love life, where "hot" guy means someone aggressive and rather violent piece of cement, and where women compete with each other to reach the top and secure prestige via some MALE as their front.

So to me, this drama is just not deep and not serious, but more of ... hyped up gory advertisement that is going to become stale and obsolete very fast. ....
Unless parents catch on that this is the fate of their children if they talk with strangers on Internet and then meet them in person... your kid is gonna be like that Yoo girl....

It is ok to start here and at least put it on the radar... It is good to have a female cast witih good actresses (well - will that happen), with strong female characters - although these are too unbalanced and .... cold... to be good role models; it is good to have a drama without pretty boys and silly romances, thank god, her husband looks like a normal person, not a plasticized face....

But all these gory crimes and disgusting gory details ... are ... well... very american tv like. And then scenes, with just few ppl and subplots, it is just ... lonely, isolated, empty feeling. Doesnt feel like a kdrama with that feeling of "togetherness". gongsaeng These women are good friends but somehow their friendship feels very cold. No i do NOT want to see them get drunk together. I mean all their communication is so blaze and rather distant. They are like superhumans flitting around..... There is something very kdrama-ish that is lacking here. That gongsaeng feeling.

I am watching this and I feel like I am in Sweden or USA, not in Korea... something like that. The faces are asian but everything else is western.

****** So anyways, this is at least a start, but there is a LOT LOT LOT more that is important that has to be addressed if these causes are ever going to addressed.

The main issue is that we humans are behaving like animals and the law of tooth and claw is STILL the most valued law amongst the humans.
WE MEASURE POWER BY OUR ABILITY TO HURT.... NOT BY OUR ABILITY TO HEAL....

AND WE MEASURE OUR POWER WITH OUR ABILITY TO MATE AND KILL THE COMPETITION

Our unchecked egotism is the core problem
Leading to the prevalent idea that women are lesser and thus can be exploited, this idea of keeping women as slaves - the prevalent idea for thousands of years on planet Earth. Women have been free labor, free child care, no property, no rights, SLAVES, for thousands of years.

AND IT IS STILL GOING ON. And how can we expose it, not just in these special gory extreme situations, but in daily life, how ppl interact, work, live, and mate in DAILY LIFE

So in summary, this drama is ok but to me, not really interesting because I am already too well amiliar with the issues, and I want to see SOLUTIONS THAT WORK IN THE TRENCHES, I feel like I am at war every day as this "societal glob" tries to squish me and intimidate me and push me down and out - womn cannot be wealthy, powerful, strong, beautiful AND smart, etc etc etc etc.

I want to expose and transform that very basic image that ppl have of women.

Ok then there is a formula - the trashy scripts are made out of miscommunication, not listening, keeping secrets, egotism, false pride, insecurity, refusing to talk or hear, etc etc etc just like in this drama, entire plot is made on that fact that jae min and her family are DUMB. The plot is just ... DUMB. And cbaracters too OL So Jae Min can take care of herself? wow the lawyer saved her life like 5 times already.... The dad saw everything and is just loitering around that parking lot... exposing CEO Chae... ?? omg..... what a loser family.... Then instead of speaking fast he keeps on dragging ... until found out again... .... .Well - i guess many ppl identify with this family. THE WHOLE PLOT IS JUST LACK OF COMMUNICATION AND EGOTISM . It's ok. I guess this is a daily drama, for less intelligent audience. I just cannot stop to notice the difference in script quality with evening dramas. This time around, by sheer luck, there are kdramas with GREAT scripts and the difference between this drama and those dramas is like night and day.

As for acting, Lawyer, Se Mi, and Chae actors are great; also both lawyers' parents and Jae Min's dad actors are great too, and her family - well ... except Jae Min actress, she is doing Se Mi a lot better than Jae Mi.

now we know why prof. kang is cheating... his wife is a poisonous overcontrolling snake... and ceo cha looks like a purring kitten in comparison.
of course our prof. kang has NO IDEA who ceo cha really is :)

FYI - cdramas just do not have the lightness, the humor, the compassion that kdramas have. I tried watching many and cdrama is just too heavy, survival oriented, and rather crude. I tried watching many and I can sign on the dotted line, they dont have it. Harsh life in China makes cdramas just ... harsh. This is my honest opinion after trying to watch many.

Chinese actors CAN do amazing stuff if you put them in the right creative environment. I am thinking Stephen Chow Hong Kong movie Mermaid. The main lead is from China. I tried to watch his Chinese dramas and they are ... blah. But in Mermaid - he got totally unleashed and had an amazing amazing role, soooo memorable. Watch that movie if you can, it is quite something.

I think kdramas are that more of that kind of environment, where you can be more creative and free. The signature of kdramas is this humor and lightness about even heavy subjects, but the kind of humor that is COMPASSIONATE and understanding, and leads to change. Kdramas are like jesters.... .Very unique Korean feature.

Hahahaha quite on the contrary. Cdramas do not have it at all. I think you are missing something LOL
Cdramas are a lot more crude, have no humor, lightness and compassion, and are more survival and hype oriented.
I watched so many and it is impossible to find a good one. Only rarely rarely a good one comes along and it is super extra special, like move Xuang Zhang in 2016. Koreans never made anything that deep.

Kdramas are a lot more sophisticated, finer, lighter, they have humor based on compassion. Cdramas just do not have any of that. This is my sincere assessment after trying to watch many cdramas. Harsh life in China just did something, stripped them of creativity and freedom.

There is c-k drama Making Family that is quite nice. I like Bond drama or its acting but it is so heavy and so ... heavy LOL Cdramas are just HEAVY

Exactly what I am saying. You are learning about love. When you love something/someone, missing is a part of it. Also, getting ready to meet again, preparing yourself to be a better person and make the next meeting even more memorable and better, and then savoring the meeting.
Enjoy the process.

that's the problem... her only path is to become his concubine... which means.. being jailed in the palace. So it is not fun at all...
So now - do you want a good king for the country, or a happy marriage for two? If they make it happen bc life there is unstable anyways...
The first question is - SHOULD Yeol become the king, would he be truly the best person for the job? To be honest, I am not quite sure he has what it takes.. He seems the ONLY candidate I am aware of right now.. and would not be terrible. But is he the one?

Comments after ep 9 and into 10:
Ah BeastBoy is changing into a Bad Boy and then even a NiceMan - it is so much better, the actor is really good looking and when he has real feelings and esp nice genuine feelings on his face, he looks even more handsome. When he starts smiling, he will be wow handsome.

I do hope his fans will remember that nice makes him more attractive :)

Also - when he acts nice genuine feelings, Min Ki is actually a better actor than MSM :) MSM was faking the scenes in looking for Eun Ho and arrow etc, basically most of ep 10... He just cannot act melodrama too well. Bc ... it is just too soapy LOL It is not real.. He is great for real life stuff and comedy. With some melodrama, but not this heavy and ***pompous*** It is just overdone fake :)

FL actress was acting so well in ep 9 and most of 10. She too has trouble with too heavy soap.

===
As for the Stupid Controlling Dad of Eun Ho - well he got what he was looking for. He hasnt learned yet not to meddle? He has been causing constant trouble with his meddling. HE IS AN IDIOT :) Telling the truth to the king, getting a heart attack, telling Prince to quit... Wow moron father and person.... Seems like his last was also meddling into affairs of a drug addict psycho king... Someone needs to kill that king :) Same for the VanityQueen - so she rather send her own son far away then marry him to a commoner? What a stupid woman and idiotic "mother". It is all about HER prestige and vanity, nothing about him. Usually ppl like that get into power positions... So I hope she gets poisoned soon LOL just kidding. Sorta :)

I am not sure what kind of karma got the Prince wounded - but it must lead for something better. In real life, he would be dead for sure, as in Joseon, they just keep killing each other.

The concubine and the Bearded Monster trying to poison the King is sooo cheesy - how come nobody ever noticed that incense makes you feel funny.... ?

Moon Sang Min's face is ... irrelevant :) What matters is what is inside him :) and that he is a very good actor who can show on his face and body what he is feeling and thinking. And, he can do that only if he knows those thoughts and feelings.
In other words, I am saying - dont judge the book by its cover.

Also, MSM will grow on ya, you will eventually see that he is cute because he is such a good actor and pulls you into the character, it seems real

Exactly. Bad Boy wants EunHo but is too stupid to know how to get it, so he tortures her to get her attention

why not Yeol? He would be a sage king, good for the country

I was thinking about that.... yeah.. first, she can only become a concubine... second, then she is jailed in palace... so what is the practical way for them two to live together? He would be a good king and would benefit the country

Ah let the longing simmer in your heart and make the love deeper :) Waiting one week gives you time to reflect and digest what you saw

if you want to watch kissing scenes, go watch some hollywood or some porn LOL

this is a piece of art so the CONTENT is what matters the most