Juelin

Miserable and boring

Don't get fooled by this drama's promising start - overcoming past trauma, a touch of intrigue, a promise of a bright future. After just a few episodes, the show turns into a endless loop of misery with characters doing stupid things and refusing to be happy.

Instead of telling a heartwarming story about healing, personal growth, and finding happiness, the plot gets high-jacked by filler arcs, side characters, and the main couple's constant "woe on me" whining. The writers milk the past trauma trope until there is nothing more to milk and completely abuse the use of flashbacks. In the second half, the show turns into a cheesy melodrama full of overused cliches. He breaks up with her and runs away because he loves her. They spend time with rival love interests and avoid each other when they shouldn't. There is no hope and nothing to look forward to because everyone always falls back on being miserable no matter how much they accomplish. The atrocious storytelling culminates with Lee Kang Doo's liver failure due to nose bleeds and fainting all the while he sees ghosts and hears voices.

Moon Soo is unbelievably frustrating and unlikable. She is portrayed as a typical innocent female who is supposed to be extraordinary in her simplicity. In reality, she is selfish, clueless, and has the emotional maturity of a middle schooler. Although, she eventually starts acting her age and dressing like an adult, that doesn't help her character development. She continues living in her little bubble and playing a martyr when it suits her. When she wants Lee Kang Doo to give her attention, she relentlessly pursuits him. But as soon as she is uncomfortable, she gives up and disregards him when he needs her the most. Her ignoring him when he begged for her attention before fainting really highlighted the awfulness of her character.

Romantic chemistry between the main couple is very bland. They hold hands, hug, share a jacket, but as soon as he comes close to her, she recoils like he has the cooties. For a righteous nutjob who exudes unapologetic, raw masculinity, it was rather disappointing to watch Lee Kang Doo share such vanilla and chaste kisses with a woman he was so passionately in love with. Lee Jun Ho is so good he can have chemistry with a potato, but even his talent couldn't save the drama from Won Jin Ah's awful acting.

Overall, the fast-forward button saved me, otherwise, I would've dropped this disaster after episode 5. The pacing is slow and the plot is riddled with side arcs completely irrelevant to the main story. I was looking forward to this drama because of the high ratings, now I want all those hours of my life back.

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Promising start, boring romance, lame ending

The entire drama felt like the writing team was either completely replaced in the second half or the writers decided to troll the audience. I was a fan up to about episode 12. The political intrigue was very engaging and the story was worth watching just for that. After the crown prince returned to the palace, the plot fell completely flat and the ending undid everything the main character accomplished.

The writers built up Lee Gon to be a calm, intelligent, responsible man who cared about the country. He spent the entire show fighting for what was rightfully his - the throne, just to voluntarily give it up for a woman he barely knew. This was so out of character for him because he was written as someone who was incredibly level-headed, especially in comparison to his brother, who kept throwing temper tantrums and crying all the time. Instead of creating a plot that made sense and writing a convincing love story, the writers threw their own characters under the bus to force feed us a happy ending.

I would have been alright by this decision if the romance was convincing. It wasn't. The actors looked stiff together and had very little chemistry. Barely any time was spent on building a meaningful romantic connection. A few days in the woods together wasn't enough for Lee Gon to abandon his responsibilities for a woman he didn't know all that well.

Overall, this was an incredibly underwhelming show that lost all charm in the second half. The romance was bland and the ending was terrible.

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Crappy soap opera disguised as a medical drama

If you are looking for a medical drama showcasing professional ethics, you won't find it here. The so-called doctors act like hoodlums constantly yelling in front of patients and purposely setting each other up to fail. Instead of writing a story about complex medical issues, the writers proceed to bore us with a trashy soap opera and hospital politics filled with juvenile bickering and medical malpractice. There is also no plot. The show just moves along from one medical emergency to another without a central idea tying everything together. The characters are shallow and unlikable, focused too much on their interpersonal relationships instead of doing their job as doctors, and, there is hardly any romance. Do In Bum could've been interesting, but he is just a prop with no purpose or a personality. The writers do attempt to utilize cliches but they go nowhere. The reason behind Yoon Seo Jung's silly trauma is incredibly asinine and feels like a half-assed attempt to manufacture tension that is pretty much forgotten in later episodes. And, the love rectangle between the main couple, Im Bum, and Woo Yeon Hwa fizzles out as soon as it starts.

The villain is a cookie cutter bad guy with shallow motivations and no coherent reason for any of his actions. He mindlessly tries to destroy Master Kim's career because of some medical mishap over a decade ago and behaves like a petulant child rather than an experienced medical professional in charge of a hospital. Moreover, he has an absurd amount of power for a hospital director who is somehow able to influence the military, press, politicians, and pretty much everyone around him without any explanation why.

I don't understand all of the positive reviews. The show is a marathon of trashy melodrama with no plot or interesting characters. Pass.

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Too long and boring

Another Chinese drama that unnecessarily dragged for twice as many episodes than necessary. There wasn't any actual plot, but a loosely put together romance/slice of life story.

Everything that made the show interesting, SWAT action and disaster rescue, quickly fizzled out into a mundane slice of life story. Kelei and Mika, who were the only couple worth watching, got together early in the show and had an extremely vanilla relationship without any ups and downs. All the couples had no dynamic or sexual chemistry. The show often looked like a real life documentary just filming people hanging out.

Kelei/Mika were the most wholesome, but they acted like an old married couple. There was no tension, conflict, or sexual chemistry. Many of their scenes did not have any direction. They just bantered and played around. If they were a real life couple, they would've been a joy to watch. But this is a TV drama that needs conflict, especially for a young couple. They kissed a couple of times at the beginning of their relationship and that was the height of their romantic chemistry, never to be seen again. It was pretty unbelievable that the writers thought it was a good idea to write a young couple spending so much time alone and never making out.

Wenbo/Qingxia were plain toxic. She arbitrarily started liking him after meeting him maybe twice and began pursuing him. He also liked her, but for some stupid reason kept rejecting her. Instead of moving on after being repeatedly rejected, she kept pursuing him and he kept rejecting her. His lame explanation later on revealed that he was rejecting her because he thought she was better matched with another guy. Seriously? And, this tripe lasted for 30+ episodes. When they finally got together, I couldn't care less. I actually ended up skipping most of their scenes because their bickering was exhausting.

Chief Shao/Sister Keyao were just ok. In most of their scenes, they spent time together without any romantic chemistry. There was nothing interesting about them at all.

Overall, the drama would've been a lot better if it was cut by half and had a lot more conflict and romantic chemistry. Instead, we had to watch scenes upon scenes of young people acting like they've been married for decades. The story was boring a lot more often than it was exciting. There were a lot of filler scenes of characters just doing mundane things. I ended up skipping through a lot in the last ten episodes just to get it over with. The last three episodes with the hostages were interesting, everything between the beginning and the end was a snooze fest.

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The grass is always greener on the other side

The drama gives a realistic view on marriage and what happens when two people stop communicating and being considerate. Cha Joo Hyuk is selfish, self-centered, and completely unaware (or refuses to acknowledge) that his weaponized incompetence triggers his wife's temper. He dreams of a better life without her until he is given an opportunity to travel back in time to change his outcome.

The first 12 episodes have consistently good pacing and fluid storytelling. Cha Joo Hyuk wakes up married to his beautiful and rich first love until he meets Seo Woo Jin again. I enjoyed the use of flashbacks showing just enough of Joo Hyuk and Woo Jin's relationship and how in love they were before marriage, which plays a big part in his character development. The story switches between comedy and melodrama as the main couple gets to know each other again. The writers portray Joo Hyuk feelings of guilt and regret rather well as he realizes the gravity of his mistake and what he lost.

Woo Jin is clever, spunky, and has a hilarious sense of humor. I really love her characterization. Thankfully, the writers avoid the cliche portrayal of a messy and childish heroine, and create a well-rounded adult who can be serious and funny. Her and Joo Hyuk have very good chemistry and slowly begin to re-connect. Even secondary characters are fun. The drama gives them just enough focus not to overwhelm the viewer or take the attention away from the main couple.

The last 4 episodes undo everything I loved about the drama. After confessing his mistake to Woo Jin, Joo Hyuk is desperate, full of regret and longing. This is when the story should've started to wrap up. But, the writers force us to sit through 4 more episodes of Woo Jin relentlessly pursuing Joo Hyuk to reconcile. Joo Hyuk's behavior is completely contrary to what he wants as he goes out of his way to avoid her and regresses back to the self-centered jerk he was at the beginning. Instead of giving his redemption arc a logical conclusion, the writers turn him into a spineless coward refusing to make any effort to be a better man and husband. The main couple's explosive chemistry completely fizzles out with Joo Hyuk's vacant stares and Woo Jin's continuous begging. At that point, it is hard to root for them or even care if they stay together. Moreover, the drama gives too many filler scenes to the secondary characters. I say watch episodes 1-12 and skim through the last 4 just to get to the happy ending.

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Icky and forgettable

This drama sucks you in with a promise of an engaging story and interesting characters. But, after a few episodes, the whole thing devolves into a cesspool of boring cliches, plot holes, and bland story arcs.

The story started off with Renjuan and Qiuchi having an incredible first encounter just to be separated and reunited again at school. They had some of the best chemistry I've seen in Chinese drama with cute interactions and beautifully written romance. The fun lasted for about 15 episodes until the story switched up to a series of very bland and skippable short arcs with very quick resolutions. It would've been fine if these stories somehow fit into the plot. But after one ended, none of the minor characters and plot ever resurfaced again.

One of the major issues was the main couple getting together too early and leaving no room for future romantic development. This became apparent when the writers force fed us every possible jealous lover trope to manufacture tension and destroy their own story. Brave Renjuan regressed into a spineless turd who couldn't be bothered to fight for her love. Instead of thinking of a clever way to avoid marriage between Qiuchi and Princess Yeying, she ended her relationship with Qiuchi in a screaming match. Ironically, a very timid Qinghe exchanged hair pins with Hang Ruxue, then both strolled off leaving the princess to pout on her own. Not only did the writers completely destroy Renjuan's character making her look weak, they also showed that she couldn't handle adversity or fight for what was important to her.

The villains were reduced to scorned lover caricatures devoid of any complexity. Wen Renshu started out as a jealous schemer only to regress to a complete idiot who acted against her self-interest because of her deranged obsession with Fu Yuanzhi. Instead of rubbing her two brain cells together, she went out of her way to help Yuanzhi get rid of Qiuchi without realizing that she was helping the object of her affection dispose of his love rival. Yuanzhi went from being clever and calculating to a complete psycho trying to burn his classmates alive. The quality of storytelling felt laughably arbitrary like nobody on the writing team communicated or even understood their own plot.

And then there were plot holes everywhere. Evil step mother promised to be a force to be reckoned when she threatened to destroy Renjuan's future and marry her off to some loser. That storyline was quickly abandoned and the stuttering loser just fell off the plot. Renjuan's martial arts training evaporated in favor of the damsel-in-distress trope where she forgot how to fight and now needed to be constantly rescued.

Even the best thing about the drama - the love story between Renjuan and Qiuchi - eventually became boring and repetitive. The plot felt like the writers ran out of ideas at episode 15 and decided to wing it moving forward. I was so excited when I started watching it, and now I want all the hours I wasted back.

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A cliche mess

This drama is a testament to everything that is wrong with the xianxia genre. It's too stylized with little to no room for imagination. A stoic ML in a position of power? Check. A childish FL with a baby voice? Check. Immortal realm - good, demons - bad? Check. Self-righteous Taoist sects? Check. Incomprehensible love rectangles? Check. Everyone under the sun falling in love with an immature FL? Check. Rebirth and amnesia? Check. B*tchy and jealous side chicks? Check. This drama follows the same tired tropes without skipping a beat, and it only gets worse with the next episode.

The first 15 or so very slow episodes were mostly about the relationship between ML and FL. FL started out as a child-like fairy and became more serious as she developed feelings for ML. It was a good character development for her because of the life-changing trauma caused by heartbreak. Unfortunately, as the story moved to the mortal realm, Yan Dan regressed back to the childish turd that she was in the immortal realm, but even more so than before. Even though she lost her memories, I thought the trauma she suffered would be a life changing experience leading to a more mature and thoughtful person who was given a second chance at life. But, that was not the case here.

The drama reminded me of Ashes of Love, which was a dumpster fire, with Yan Dan being a slightly smarter version of Jinmi. This was a stark contrast to Love and Redemption, where FL was only clueless about love, but she was sympathetic and thoughtful otherwise, and, her interactions with ML were meaningful. Similar to Jinmi, Yan Dan acted like a child continuously bickering with ML and having a multitude of braindead males falling in love with her. And, because of her over-the-top behavior, her interactions with ML lacked romantic chemistry looking more like an adult babysitting a kid rather than two adults falling in love.

Another issue was Yan Dan's lack of motivation. In the immortal realm, she had some purpose to protect her sister. After she lost her memory, she went wherever the wind blew. First, she swore allegiance to Yu Mo and became his "concubine". Then, she ran off with Tang Zhou and did not give a second thought to Yu Mo or the fact that he could be looking for her. I also thought that the writers spent way too much time on Yu Mo's and Yan Dan's relationship. It was apparent from the start that they will never be a couple, so milking that unrequited love and giving them more screen time than necessary completely deviated from the plot and unnecessarily dragged the story.

In all honesty, I hardly have any interest in finishing part 1. So, it's unlikely I will be watching part 2.

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Exceeded expectations

The drama was extremely addictive with tons of positives.

The first 15 or so episodes were amazing. FL falls victim to her husband's heartless plot to kill her because his powerful lover ordered him to. She feels betrayed, confused, and heartbroken. Shortly thereafter, she assumes the identity of a dead girl she befriended and moves into the girl's family home to plan her revenge. The story has mystery and intrigue. I enjoyed watching Li Jiang/Xue Fangfei maneuver through the Jiang family drama, befriend new family members, and outsmart the evil step mother. FL's character was classy and mysterious making me always wonder what she would do next. What I like about this drama is that episode 1 jumps right into the plot. There was no set-up. We didn't need to sit through 10+ episodes for things to start happening.

Unfortunately, which is typical of most Chinese dramas, the story tends to deviate from the main plot into mini-arcs. Here, the story was the most interesting when Li Jiang was in the capital. After she left the family residence to meet the Ye family, the quality of storytelling went down. The Ye family, draught, and imperial diviner arcs were completely uninteresting. As soon as FL started dressing like a man, playing drinking games, and skulking in the mines with ML, the story hit every cliche trope and lost its air of mystery. Also, FL befriending the Ye family and gaining their backing did not add anything to the plot. They disappeared from the story as soon as she went back to the capital and did not re-appear to help her in any way.

One of the highlights of the story was FL and ML's explosive chemistry. They flirted, bantered, shared passionate glances, and were just a step away from ripping each other's clothes off. Unfortunately, due to incomprehensible Chinese censorship, this amazing romantic chemistry climaxed with a very underwhelming chaste candlelight kiss.

The story was worth watching just for the villains. Li Ming did an amazing job as the elder princess Wanning. She portrayed the character exactly how she would've been - conniving, hateful, jealous, resentful, and very very insane. Her smiles were deadly and her threats were real. Walking around and twirling her dresses made her look like the main character in her own story. I normally don't care for villain backstories because there shouldn't be any sympathy for evil. But, boy oh boy, did she gain my sympathy even though she was worth hating. It also made me wonder whether she was a different person before her father sent her to the enemy kingdom to be abused. I also felt like the punishment for every villain was fitting. Wanning killed herself with her beloved hand after realizing that he never truly loved her. Yurong committed suicide after realizing he will never get back what he lost and that his death was inevitable for committing treason. He dug his own grave committing one crime after another without truly taking responsibility for the all the evil he's done.

The ending felt rushed. Some cool characters were killed off in the very last episode just to get last minute emotion from the audience. It did not feel like a natural story progression, just something the writers decided to do the last minute. One moment, Xiao Heng was holding on to the pendant his beloved gave him as the token of her love while awaiting his death from the charging army, the next moment he rides his horse towards Fangfei standing by the tree they planted together. It didn't look very well thought through and felt rushed just to finish the show with a happy ending.

Overall, I really enjoyed the drama. The relationships felt real and mature, the intrigue was interesting, and the acting was brilliant.

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Not sure what it was

I'm not sure why this show has such high ratings. The story had no direction and the characters were unlikable. FL was spineless, whiny, had no motivation, and made incomprehensible choices over and over. ML just keept following her and trusting her after she repeatedly disappointed him and broke his heart, cuz reasons.

The first half was funny and even interesting. By episode 15, it became a directionless mess. Nobody communicated anything. Characters didn't stand up for themselves or their convictions. Qianqian just ran around doing random crap without any clear motivation. She obviously liked Han Shuo, but she tried to set him up with someone else. And then, everyone was suddenly in love with her. Pei Heng showed up 20 times to "save" her, without her actually needing saving, and repeatedly got his ass kicked by Han Shuo. Chuchu became a villain for no reason and started doing absolutely obnoxious schit. It's ok for shows to be funny and have a simple plot. Not everything has to be deep. But, this was just painful. Thank god the show only had 24 episodes.

I did like the ending. It was very sweet, reminded me of Fushigi Yugi.

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Good drama

At first, I dropped this drama after a few episodes because I detest female characters who are purposely written as clumsy, whinny, and clueless. It's not endearing but really annoying. But after hearing good things about it, I decided to give it another chance and watched it till the end.

This drama has amazing character development. It starts off as kind of comedic but later becomes quite dark and emotional. The main characters go through a transformation. She becomes more mature. He gains feelings and empathy. They are star-crossed lovers and this drama really went out of its way to show the type of love that endures. They fought for each other, made sacrifices, had faith in each other and at the end stayed true to who they were. They also made each other better. She matured from a clumsy airhead to a thoughtful person. He developed feelings and was able to form relationships and appreciate others.

The ending felt rushed. One moment she was waiting for him to come back to life, the next moment he was standing behind her "I am baaaack!", they kissed, the end.

The story tended to drag sometimes but it didn't affect the plot too much.

The acting was fantastic, especially by Dylan Wang. The way he conveyed emotion after Orchid died was heart breaking.

Overall, the show has some really good acting, good music, really emotional scenes, and a very touching love story. Recommend!

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Toxic dumpster-fire of a love story that needs to be burnt with pure glass fire

STORY AND CHARACTERS
The show just wasn't that great. The story dragged on for 60 episodes with unnecessarily long story arcs that could've been cut down to one or two episodes. It took fifteen episodes to reveal who Jin Mi was. The girl had no character development. Her one talent was to inadvertently get the two most eligible bachelors to pine after her. This is such a stupid trope because it is completely undeserved.

One of the creepiest things was everyone going along with Jinmi getting engaged to Runyu. She was a child in a woman's body who didn't know the difference between friendship and romantic love. Everyone knew she was a moron but they still went along with her agreeing to the engagement, even though they should have known she had no idea what she was agreeing to. The fact that the flower realm raised her to be a blissful idiot was extremely shortsighted too. Jinmi was supposed to be protected from any future heartbreak, but she was given no tools to be able to protect herself from it. Everything and everyone was stupid.

The mortal arc unnecessarily dragged on for 10+ episodes. The whole point of it should have been to move the character development forward and to show that no matter how much Jin Mi and Xu Feng were separated, they would always find their way back to each other. Everything else was irrelevant. We didn't need to see the drama inside the mortal lives of immortals who were going back to being immortal in just a few episodes.

The chemistry between Jinmi and Xufeng was very stale. Watching them together was as exciting as watching the paint dry. Jinmi was pretty, but she wasn't particularly bright and there was nothing special about her. She didn't even know what gender she was at the beginning. Their kisses resembled toddlers pecking each other on the lips. Everything was dry and passionless.

After the mortal arc, the only thing left to look forward to was the emperor and empress getting their comeuppance. But the cringe didn't end there. The biggest problem with the writing was that good characters did very awful things, nobody held them accountable, and the story never addressed their bad behavior. We were supposed to just ignore it and continue cheering for team Jinmi/Xufeng. A perfect example was Xufeng getting into Jinmi's pants. I didn't fault them for falling in love. But I found it reprehensible that Xufeng did not wait for Jinmi to break her engagement with Runyu before sleeping with her. She was still a moron. But he reached a whole new level of awfulness for treating his brother that way. By doing this, Xufeng showed that he was just as immoral, callous, selfish, and entitled as his crappy parents.

On the other hand, the writers went out of their way to demonize Runyu and to portray him as a villain. All of the characters who sided with Runyu and complained about how awful the heaven was suddenly decided to abandon him after he deposed the emperor. The writers never explained why. Characters just randomly decided that they wanted to go a different way. This made them look very cowardly and cynical. Meanwhile, everyone kept cheering for Xufeng, who was written as the golden boy who could do no wrong.. He also seemed to forget that he was a prince with responsibilities. Chasing after Jinmi was all he cared about.

In episode 45, Jinmi finally realized that she was in love with Xufeng. But, really, who cares at this point? I was honestly fed up with their bs. They did Runyu dirty repeatedly and nobody held either of them accountable. Instead, everyone judged Runyu and held him to some arbitrary moral standard when he did nothing wrong. Jinmi ended up marrying him for no good reason, even though she was told she didn't have to. Runyu still kept holding on to her even after she ran off to find Xufeng. "But what about our marriage?" Seriously? I sympathized with Runyu a lot but him still trying to hold on to her knowing she was fully committed to his brother was an idiotic plot development. He should've let her go as soon as he found out she slept with Xufeng.

The drama has a terrible message. Deposing callous and self-serving tyrants is bad. But, acting without honor and a sense of duty is ok. Also, blind favoritism, betraying family members, abandoning friends, and breaking promises is acceptable and even encouraged. By episode 47, I was done. I knew that Jinmi and Xufeng were going to end up together, but I couldn't fathom why. His family killed her family and she stabbed him in the back for thinking he killed her father. They crossed the point of no return so many times. Their relationship was based on betraying those closest to them, abandoning their duties, and having no faith in each other. What kind of values are these and why were we supposed to root for them?

ACTING
The acting by the two main leads was mediocre. Xufeng always had a blank look when he was pouring his heart out to Jinmi. If he was telling her what he ate for breakfast that morning, we wouldn't know the difference. His expression conveyed no emotion of love, despair, confusion, or heartbreak. It was an awful performance, just like most of his acting throughout the drama. Yang Zi's portrayal of Jinmi wasn't good either. She had no personality.

Luo Yunxi delivered a solid and sympathetic performance as Runyu. He is very good at playing tragic characters. I thought his performance in this drama was better than in Till the End of the Moon. And Kathy Chow was fire as the Queen B---ch. RIP

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No plot

The drama has a lot of great ideas but no coherent plot. At the beginning, there are enough engaging moments to keep me interested, but they quickly fizzle out into a boring and draggy marathon of underdeveloped plot lines.

Han Se Gye is dynamic and quirky to Seo Do Jae's low-key frozen face. But, Do Jae never grows on me. He is a carbon copy of Nam Se Hui from "Because This Is My First Life" with zero charm and personality. Their unique conditions could've played a big part in their character and relationship growth. Instead, Se Gye's face change devolves into a series of anticlimactic mini-arcs and the rest of their interactions is boring and pointless banter.

When it comes to the plot, it's a number of half-assed story lines with extremely easy resolutions. The face-swap is interesting for about five minutes until it becomes a bunch of mini-arcs that have no impact on the story and character development. The so-called "villains" are passive-aggressive, semi-infantile jerks who are obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious with no depth or purpose, and, they are dealt with fairly quickly without creating any actual tension. Se Gye's identity crisis becomes an afterthought, devoid of any substance, as the writers choose a safer route with light-hearted comedy and regularly used cliches. What's worse, the mystery behind her condition is never explained.

Secondary characters are shallow and forgettable. I ended up skipping most scenes with Sa-ra and Ryu Eun Ho. They weren't interesting enough to keep my attention as I already struggled with the drama's draggy plot.

Overall, the show is a lot of missed opportunities to create a compelling love story between two odd people with unique issues. The drama is riddled with repetitive moments, overuse of flashbacks, and cheesy dialogue. Serious elements, that made the drama interesting, are reduced to comedy or abandoned altogether. This was a one-time watch for me.

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Beautiful

Where do I even begin? This drama is gorgeous. It's so well written and paced. The plot jumps right into the perfect family life of Baek Hee Sung and Cha Ji Won. They are happy and in love until Heesung's past starts to catch up with him.

The plot is a rollercoaster with a good blend of a crime thriller and romance. Heesung and Ji Won have a beautiful life together, but he has a dark past she doesn't know about. When everything starts to unravel, the drama does a great job showing Ji Won's conflicting emotions. She is heartbroken and confused. But, her love for her husband and keen intellect eventually lead her to the truth. The first couple of episodes creates an air of mystery around the main character. Heesung's real motivations are unknown. He may be a villain because of his violent reunion with Kim Moo Jin. But, as the story progresses, we slowly find out that not everything is as it seems.

The pacing is surprisingly good from start to finish. The use of flashbacks is very well balanced and gives just enough background without deviating from the present storyline, and, giving a glimpse into Heesung's childhood, the person he is supposed to be, and the beginning of his and Ji Won's journey to love. There are no filler arcs. Every character is relevant and plays a part in the plot development. Every twist and turn is thrilling and adds to the complexity of the story. One issue is that the main villain is revealed very late in the show creating some issues with pacing and plot continuity. But, it doesn't hurt the storytelling too much and the drama is able to bounce back. Another issue is longwinded melodramatic scenes. The writers probably wanted us to delve deep into the characters' thoughts. But, the overly dramatic scenes often feel excessive with the actors overplaying the characters' emotions. And, the human trafficking arc is out of place and completely unnecessary, especially in relation to serial killers finding their victims.

The drama has one of the best love stories I've seen in k-drama. Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won have unforgettable chemistry and do a wonderful job relaying the characters' emotions. Heesung and Ji Won are truly soulmates who cannot live without each other and go to great lengths to stay together.

The acting goes without saying. Lee Joon Gi perfectly relays Heesung's love for his wife, his struggle to understand himself, and trying to cope with the injustice done to him. Kim Ji Hoon is dynamic and absolutely believable as an insanely good looking psychopath. The OST is beautiful and fits well with the story. "Fee you" is one of my favorite songs now.

All I can say is that despite the drama's few shortcomings, this truly is something that took my breath away and made me miss it after it ended. Definitely recommend.

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When everything is stupid

Watching this show was truly a chore. All of the characters were unlikable with no real motivation or common sense. The show used every cliche, trope, stereotype under the sun - dorky FL, a jealous side chick, misunderstandings, withholding information, separating for no reason, mother-in-law from hell, accusations without any evidence. Everything was stupid.

I am glad I watched Ju Jing Yi's work in backwards chronological order starting with In Blossom. Otherwise, I'd stop on this show. Yunxi was a carbon copy of Fu Rong from The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion, the same clueless turd who became bffs with a man with questionable motivations and identity. She completely trusted him and was blissfully unaware of his feelings for her while being married to someone else. I cringed when silly Ningjing had to explain to her that running around with a man who wasn't her husband was problematic. Moreover, Yunxi was portrayed as kind and intelligent. Apparently, feeding one person diarrhea poison and threatening another with bad marriage was considered "kind". Just no.

Most of the secondary characters were either forgettable or annoying. Ningjing and Tang Li were unbearable together. They bickered constantly for no reason whatsoever because the writers decided that two adults acting like toddlers was funny. Ningjing was only tolerable when she was in the company of other people. Telling Yunxi that running around with Qishao was no bueno was probably the highlight of her character development.

The plot was a directionless mess. Most of it consisted of forced tension based on the characters' complete lack of common sense. All this nonsensical drama could've been easily avoided if everyone did the obvious, like telling the truth. Watching characters consistently making stupid decisions caused me nothing but second-hand embarrassment. Their actions ranged from withholding important information because reasons, bringing jealous side chicks into a married couple's home, refusing to be rescued, and so on. Feiye never seemed to know where his wife was. They kept separating for nonsensical reasons again and again because we needed more tension. "How did we end up like this?" You literally did not. All you needed was to talk to each other. None of their angst was justified because the problems were laughably superficial. It's like the drama was written by high school students. Stupid tropes everywhere.

You won't be missing much if you skip most scenes in the last 15 episodes. The show was just so damn boring. Most conversations were filled with fluff and should've been cut by half to get the point across. If there was urgency to do anything, the characters ended up not doing it and talked about their feelings instead. Nothing made sense and everything was stupid.

Romantic chemistry between ML and FL was passable, even though romance was not the main focus of the story. This brings us to the incomprehensible Chinese censorship. Mature romantic chemistry between a married couple that goes beyond grade school antics is problematic, but Long Feiye's naked a** is totally fine. Is anyone else confused? I know I am.

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