Juelin

Do not snack while watching

Sifeng was easily the best character in the show. He was loving, patient, loyal, and had convictions. The writers did a good job developing his relationship with Xuanji. Although, she was frustrating at times due to her cluelessness, it wasn't completely without merit. She was missing her six senses, so it was natural for her to not understand love. But, she understood friendship and bonds that brought people together. And, due to her bond with Sifeng and his help to get her senses back, she gradually fell in love with him.

Normally, a slew of misunderstandings would be frustrating. But, here, they were necessary to show character development and Xuanji's struggle to reunite with Sifeng and to get him to forgive her. I liked that the writers did not just make Sifeng take her back as soon as she showed up. She had to work for it and she never gave up. This showed that her love was as strong as his, which I liked.

Now, the worst part of the show was the constant blood spitting. We really need to go away with that. It's disgusting and completely unnecessary. Characters don't need to spit blood in every fight or with every physical injury. It looks forced and ridiculous. Watching the show completely destroyed my snack time.

I also did not care for most of the secondary characters. Linglong was spoiled and annoying. The sixth brother was boring. Wu Tong falling in love with Linglong was completely nonsensical and poorly written. If the writers went down the redemption route and wrote Wu Tong as less of a psycho, their relationship could've been interesting. None of the sects had any redeeming qualities. They were narrowminded, pompous, and thought very highly of themselves while committing atrocities. The demons were a lot more relatable and sympathetic.

Because I absolutely hated Hao Chen/Bailing for his continuous meddling and self-righteousness, I wanted to see him die a horrible death. But his defeat was rather underwhelming. He just realized that he was wrong and was demoted. I thought it was anticlimactic. I wanted to see him defeated in battle like the villain that he was.

Overall, I could watch this show again because I absolutely loved the love story.

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Not completely horrible but not great either

Even good actors and an interesting plot idea couldn't save the drama. It had all the right tools but no oomph.

Han Ri Ta and Do Ha were the most boring two characters. I get that Do Ha was supposed to be a sad person who just wanted to die, but in the very least the writers could've given him a personality and more facial expressions. Han Ri Ta wasn't any better. They were one depressed person falling in love with another depressed person resulting in slow and longwinded conversations about what sad lives they had, which got old very fast.

The most mindbogglingly stupid thing in the whole story was Han Ri Ta's reasons for killing Do Ha. She created a bad situation by killing his father forcing both of them to become fugitives. But, instead of having faith in him to deal with it and moving forward together, she just decided to kill him to end it all because she didn't want to deal with it anymore. Were we supposed to believe this was love? They were portrayed as star crossed lovers, but her motivations were shallow and self-serving .

The villain was one of the most terribly written villains I've seen in a long time. Firstly, the evil dad wanted to kill Do Ha for "disobeying" him, why? Because he brought a girl home and fell in love with her. That's it. Furthermore, the evil dad's ghost spend 1500 years chasing after Han Ri Ta's reincarnations just to kill them as revenge for killing him because he was a terrible father. This was basically a giant recurring temper tantrum, being evil for evil's sake, not for anything substantial or meaningful.

Some plotlines randomly disappeared. Firstly, making FL a firefighter and ML a celebrity was never going to work. There was no situation where they could consistently be together to move the story forward. As a result, nobody ever worked because they needed to spend time together for the story's sake. She was a firefighter for a total of two episodes and he quit being a celebrity altogether except occasional fangirls chasing him when it was convenient, although he was supposed to shoot a super special historical drama at the beginning of the show, which went nowhere.

The finale wasn't well thought out either. There was no point bringing Jun Oh back, unless he and Young Hwa were going to end up together. The giant plot hole why Jun Oh and Do Ha looked identical was never explained. The writers left it as pure coincidence, which was some very lazy writing, especially because Do Ha and Young Hwa future reincarnated selves looked the same. This was a waste of a great story idea, because Jun Oh looking like Do Ha could've been a plot device to give Young Hwa a happy-ish ending too. But Young Hwa did not get her happy ending, neither did Do Ha. Yes, their souls were reincarnated at the end, but they were reincarnated as different people who probably did not remember their past lives. Young Hwa was unique because she was the closest version of Han Ri Ta and because there was still Do Ha's unfinished business. After the curse was lifted, there was no more unfinished business. Do Ha's soul left and Young Hwa continued on with her life without her true love. I thought this ending was rather tragic.

Overall, the drama started out with an epic bang and fell completely flat with shallow characters and villains acting like cartoon bad guys. There were moments where it tugged at my heart strings, but the badly written plot and characters' stupid decisions made the drama a chore to watch. This was definitely not Kim Young Dae's best work.

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Fun!

So fun! This drama manages to cleverly mix comedy with an actual plot involving conspiracy, murder, and corruption.

All the good characters are likable. All the villains are deplorable. ML and FL have really good romantic chemistry and are so much fun together. I normally don't like love triangles, but I didn't mind this one because it didn't drag out the romantic tension too much and settled who was going to be the endgame couple relatively fast.

Even though the drama was short with only 12 episodes, the pacing was good and the story wrapped up nicely. The acting was awesome. Kim Young Dae and Park Ju Hyun are both really good actors and have amazing onscreen chemistry.

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So good!

This is easily one of the best c-dramas of 2023. It does not use the same lame tropes so many other dramas fall victim to. There are no unnecessary plotlines or characters, no continuous cycle of misunderstanding and miscommunication. The drama has meaningful character development, romantic chemistry, and one of the most wholesome and healthy relationships I've ever seen.

There were, of course, some problems. Li Tongguang's (LT) was a terribly written character. His continuous obsession with Ruyi was extremely frustrating . The writers went out of their way to keep him incompetent until the very last episode. His immaturity caused a lot of people to die unnecessarily. After the emperor was killed, it was pretty unbelievable that the first thing he chose to do as the new regent was to poison Ruyi and force her to marry him, just for her to be rescued by Yuanzhou in the same episode, and for Yuanzhou to tell LT for the 100000000th time that he was a creep and a coward. This was especially frustrating because it happened after LT had really good scenes with Princess Yang Ying making it seem like he was getting over his infantile obsession with Ruyi. The show also fixated too much on the Ruyi and Yuanzhou's love story. Yes, we all loved them. They became a couple early and it was refreshing to see them having mutual understanding, respect and love, without falling back on jealousy and miscommunication. But, the writers should've given more screen time to other couples too. I really wanted to see more romantic chemistry between LT and Princess Yang Ying.

Princess Yang Ying was one of my favorite characters who went through the most intense character development. She started as a meek and weak girl just to grow into a strong person taking charge of her life. There was no character regression from better to worse. Everything that happened to her was on point and only contributed to her character growth.

The romance between Ruyi and Yuanzhou was unbelievably wholesome. Yuanzhou was written as every girl's dream man - tall and handsome, strong, kind and attentive, loving and understanding, not obsessive or overly-jealous, intelligent, a friend, a leader, a fighter and protector. The guy was perfect. He let Ruyi handle her business but also protected her when she needed protecting. And, Ruyi didn't magically turn into a damsel-in-destress as soon as a man entered her life.

The message of the show was incredibly meaningful - friendship, loyalty, country, love, and staying true to yourself. I was also impressed by how the characters went out of their way to stress the importance of having respect for women and often said things that we as audience were feeling when someone *ahem* Li Tongguang *ahem* acted like a mentally deranged creep.

I have to say something about the ending. A lot of people hated it, but I thought it was ok. I don't think the main couple died. Some people interpret the ending as symbolic or metaphorical or just Chu Yue's dream. I can't agree. We never saw anyone actually dying, but a lot of suggestive scenes that someone supposedly died. For characters who successfully faked their death throughout the show, they faked it again to be able to walk away and to start a family in seclusion, just like Yuanzhou wanted from the very beginning. And, Ruyi followed him because she couldn't imagine life without him. If it was Yang Ying in the last scene, the death scenario would've made more sense because she was very close with Ruyi and Yuanzhou. Chu Yue - not so much. When Chu Yue saw the boy, she immediately imagined Yu Shisan because that was her last memory of him. Instead, it was someone else who was named after Yu Shisan bearing Yuanzhou's last name. Yuanzhou named his son in honor of his best friend who died. The only red flag was the boy wearing white and riding a white horse, white traditionally being the color of mourning in China. But the idea that death came to reunite Chu Yue with her friends in the afterlife, most of whom she didn't even have a chance to develop a relationship with, looking like Ruyi's and Yuanzhou's son who was never even born, is some crazy mental gymnastics I am not willing to entertain.

The acting was good. I loved Alen Fang's portrayal of Yu Shisan, who was so goofy and adorable. This was such a pleasant surprise after my disappointment with his performance in the Long Ballad. And, of course, Liu Yuning will forever be my favorite.

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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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An expensive production with a whole lot of nothing

I was really looking forward to this drama solely for Lee Jun Ho because I loved him in the Red Sleeve. But, the show is so utterly underwhelming and shallow, there is nothing to look forward to. The characters only exist to pine after each other without trying to accomplish anything in life making for a very boring and uninspiring story.

This is a cliche rom-com where a rich guy falls for a working class employee. It would've been interesting if the writers treated the characters like adults, instead of high school students, and gave them mature interactions and meaningful conversations. Instead, they proceed to bore us with every single overused cliche known to k-drama making the plot extremely predictable. Gu Won has no personality outside his crush on Sarang. At the beginning, he is shown as a sophisticated and rich bad-boy skydiving in a suit and landing on a helicopter pad James Bond style. Later, we find out that he is nothing more than a nepotism baby with no social awareness, no competence, no charisma and exists solely to pine after Sarang. Even his feud with his sister is superficial because he doesn't do anything other than pursue his love interest. He finished an MBA at the beginning of the show, which could've been a nice plot device for him to start serious work in the hotel and eventually become the owner. No, he is a director in name only and doesn't do anything or show any particular interest in work. Even his employees have to tell him that he needs influence and support in order to succeed, instead of spending so much time obsessing over FL.

Some story arcs are completely asinine. The Arab prince is reduced to a total simp for Sarang competing for her affection with Gu Won. God knows why we need another atrocious love rival trope where everyone falls in love with the heroine because she is so precious. And the arc with the flight attendant friend isn't interesting enough for me to care about because she is such a minor character.

Overall, the show felt like a high school drama filled with overused cliches. Characters have no motivation and there is no real plot. Pass.

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The main actress ruined the show

Shin Sae Kyeong (SSK) ruined the show. With a good actress, even the most ridiculous plotlines would've made the show exponentially better. SSK just can't act. She has one facial expression and her mouth is always open. If the sound was on mute, we wouldn't known whether Mongwoo was happy, sad, horny, or constipated. She had no personality and her face always looked the same because of SSK's stiff acting. Half-way through, it was impossible to ignore her overbite and teeth always showing. I don't blame the actress because it was the director's or producer's, or whoever was in charge, responsibility to manage her and to tell her to keep her mouth closed. I am absolutely flabbergasted that they thought her mouth being open in every scene was ok. Even Jo Jung Suk, being the superb actor that he is, couldn't save the show. When one person spills his heart out and the other one just stares blankly, it completely kills the chemistry and any romantic mood.

Let me emphasize that the gender bender/cross dressing trope is ridiculous and outdated. It is also very suspect. Dramas where a man is trapped in a woman's body and has a romantic/sexual relationship with another man get ruined by bad endings because the producers try to make them less gay. But, apparently, it's not gay at all to have a man liking a woman pretending to be a man. Totally not gay, because he is actually a she, right? Not really, considering that the guy who is having a crush thinks he is interacting with another guy and keeps questioning his own sexuality. If the show was set today, poor king Jinhan would be erratically taking internet quizzes to convince himself he was not gay.

The king should've found out that Mongwoo was a woman after she came back from the dead to eliminate any bias and identity crisis. This is not to mention that SSK was completely unconvincing as a man, as most women are. There were plenty of opportunities for Jinhan to find out early that she was a woman, like when he grabbed her hand and commented on how delicate it was. His ridiculous conclusion was that she was from a rich family, instead of questioning her gender. Any sane person at that point would've already had a pause, but the writers insisted he remained in the dark to drag the tension out for as long as possible.

The revenge plot was also nonsensical. They spent half the show talking about revenge and not doing anything. It was unclear why they even wanted revenge and what the king did for them to seek revenge. Mongwoo was portrayed as an intelligent person, but her motivations were very narrow-minded. I have no idea why she disliked Myung Ha. All he did was love her and wanted to marry her. Even forging the confession letter was done to protect her from being tortured. It seemed that she judged people's character based solely on their ability to play baduk, which made her very shallow and elitist.

Overall, bad acting, stupid tropes, and a boring and badly written plot make this drama a hard pass.

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Laughably bad

I watched this drama exclusively for Moon Sang Min because I loved Under the Queen's Umbrella. This was just terrible.

None of the characters had any b*lls to speak up and tell the truth. Lee Do Han didn't have the courage to tell his brother that he was gay and that the marriage was a sham. Na Ah Jung didn't have the courage to tell her "fiance" that she liked his brother and to Ji Han that the marriage was fake. Lee Ji Han didn't have the courage to tell his brother that he liked his fiance. But, Ji Han still had the audacity to get on his moral high horse and get upset at Ah Jung and Do Han for supposedly keeping things from him after sneaking around with Ah Jung behind everyone's back.

Secondary characters were meaningless and boring. None of the older siblings got their comeuppance for continuously scheming against their younger brothers. Dead mom's husband didn't get punished for causing her death. Ji Han's "first love" was the most pointless and non-confrontational love rival ever. Nobody's actions had any consequences and nothing really mattered. The three main characters made some very strange moral choices and were never called out on anything. Zero thought was put into creating a meaningful story and character development.

The acting was mediocre. Moon Sang Min did a decent job. But, Jeon Jong Seo was terrible. She had one resting b*tch face in most scenes like the drama was a chore for her. Her and Moon Sang Min had no chemistry. Overall, the show was a complete waste of time with zero entertainment value.

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Great chemistry between ML and FL

I don't have a lot to say about this drama except that it should be watched just for ML and FL. They had amazing chemistry, romance, kissing, you name it. Everything else was forgettable.

I ended up skipping through the scenes with the parents, gangsters, high school kids. They were not interesting and felt more like fillers than part of the actual story. Even the villain was kind of disappointing because the writers did not really develop him. He had no backstory and his motivations were kind of just doing bad things for the sake of doing bad things, kidnapping just to see his victims suffer, and that's it. He was a one dimensional personality with no substance. However, the actor who played the kidnapper was very handsome and I wish he was cast more in main roles.

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So good

There aren't enough words to describe how I feel about this drama. It tells a story of a mother's love for her children while navigating through betrayal, a struggle for power between the family members, murder, and political intrigue. Not a single character was out of place. Not a single plotline was unnecessary. All the characters got their proper screen time and development. The villains were written for us to hate and the protagonists were written for us to love and root for. This is undeniably one of the best Asian dramas I have ever seen.

The show treats each relationship between the queen with her sons with tender love and care showing that each prince is unique and has a special relationship with his mother. The queen loves them in spite of all their shortcomings and unusual personality traits and makes them feel loved and accepted. I particularly appreciated this take because in Joseon certain lifestyles would have absolutely been condemned, regardless of how much a mother loved her children.

Even other princes, who were not the queen's children, got character development showing their own personal trauma and relationships with their own mothers. The queen was so loving and compassionate that she was able to connect with every single character, even the ones who at first were against her, through her love and compassion and good deeds. And, the acting was phenomenal.

Overall, the show has a very well written plot, amazing character development, and extremely likable characters we can actually relate to.

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Needed more plot

My main complaint with the show is that it reached its logical conclusion in episode 12. This is when ML and FL were already a couple and the mystery behind the kidnapping was resolved. The rest of the episodes were just filler without a plot. When there is no conflict and nothing to resolve, the story becomes stale. There wasn't even that much conflict with the older brother. He just kind of became irrelevant after the kidnapping mystery was resolved. The animosity between the brothers also looked forced because of the lack of plot development. When Young Joon told Mi So that his brother was a "bastard" and there were issues with their childhood friends, it implied that there might've been past bulling or some other conflict which had nothing to do with the kidnapping. But, it was just the kidnapping. To make matters worse, the issue between the brothers was forced on them by their parents who lied about the kidnapping for their own good, which was a pretty stupid plot device because it did not justify all the animosity. And, after it was resolved, everyone acted like nothing happened for the last 4 episodes, which was especially disappointing because the kidnapping and resulting trauma were an important plot point central to ML's and FL's character development and the writers made it completely superficial and unimportant at the end.

The resolution to the plotline of Mi So wanting to find herself felt like a cop out. At the beginning, she wanted to leave the company to find a husband. Then, that plotline was abandoned just to resurface at the end where Mi So realized she wanted to continue being Young Joon's secretary because she loved him. And, she remained his secretary after marrying him. This was rather a strange choice for a wife of a CEO to have the same position as his office employees, instead of holding a higher position for which she was actually qualified.

One of the things I liked was that FL had enough sense to pick up on the nuisances about ML's behavior to discern that there was a lot more to the kidnapping story than what she was told. I loved that she did not just blindly believe everything she was told and started having a crush on the older brother, which would've resulted in a very stupid love triangle. She suspected from the very beginning that Young Joon was the one who was kidnapped, which led her to the truth. In return, Young Joon transformed from a self-centered person to a thoughtful and caring boyfriend and employer. The main couple also had very nice chemistry and some very steamy scenes.

Other than that, there wasn't much else going on. The side characters were not interesting enough to carry the plot. I ended up skipping most of scenes in episodes 13-16 and just watched the ones with the main couple to get to the end faster.

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Good story with some pointless characters

A lot of people criticized this show for casting older 40+ y/o actors to play teenagers. This is the least of the show's problems. Although I like Zhang Ziyi, she is not an extraordinarily beautiful woman as Wang Xuan is supposed to be. There are plenty of prettier and younger actresses who would've been more suited for the role. For this reason, I think Ziyi was miscast. Everyone else was on point. It was very refreshing to see a more mature actor playing the role of a battle-hardened, undefeated general, instead of a 20+ y/o idol with mediocre acting skills and baby fat still intact.

** SPOILERS **

The titular Wang Xuan/Awu "rebel princess" hit her peak character development half-way through the show. She matured from a care-free and spoiled princess to a level-headed young woman who learned the meaning of duty and country and was able to skillfully navigate through the court intrigue. Wang Xuan wielded the power of the Wang clan which shaped the course of the empire and produced future kings. Unfortunately, after Ma Zilong took the throne, her character was reduced to nothing more than a beautiful object of men's desires with an abnormally large number of braindead males chasing after her. Even the mighty Helan Zhen regressed from an arrogant warrior to a lovesick fool bringing her wedding dresses and begging her to love him. One of the most ridiculous twists was Song Huaien going through a 180, becoming a traitor, and wanting Awu to be his "empress". What a way to turn an interesting character into a cliche. The drama basically dumbed down from a political thriller-ish to an uninteresting soap opera regurgitating the same old tropes.

One of the dumbest things about the drama was a complete lack of insight from most characters. They either wanted Awu or to kill Xiao Qi. Wanting to kill Xiao Qi was an especially ridiculous plot idea because he was the only honorable and loyal subject who was the less likely to usurp the throne. Yet, all of the royal inbreds continuously plotted against him thinking he wanted power, which backfired in the most ridiculous way. Some of Wang Xuan's motivations were also very confusing. She tried to sit on two chairs at once - being Xiao Qi's wife and a member of the Wang family, which led to some questionable choices. One of those questionable choices was her fraternization with Helan Zhen, drinking and dancing with him, something that was completely inappropriate and put a wedge between her and Xiao Qi.

Zitan was one of the least interesting characters and the biggest waste of screen time. Tony Yang is an absolute eye candy, but his good looks weren't able to save the character from being unbearable. The writers could've done so much with him instead of reducing him to exist solely to pine after Awu. And even that was comical because he had one chance at the beginning of the show to be with her and he completely squandered it. Even Awu had to spell it out to him why he was unworthy because he had no spine and couldn't care less about anything other than his childhood crush. And, that hasn't changed throughout the show, which later led to a lot of people getting killed just so he could get into Awu's pants.

Contrary to the criticism, Wang Xuan and Xiao Qi's big production in the throne room to get Zitan to confess his crimes was actually quite clever. I did not particularly enjoy her spending so much time with Zitan afterwards trying to save him, but I attribute it to her still caring about him as her childhood friend. This was later confirmed in her conversation with her father when she told him that her love for Xiao Qi and Zitan was "different".

The most complex character was Wang Lin. Cynical, pragmatic, and unrelenting, he understood the complexities of ruling a country and the responsibility that came with it. Usurping the throne wasn't just his blind quest for power but to also remove an incompetent ruler and to bring stability to the empire. He was truly the only person who was fit to sit on the throne.

The drama did a good job at characterizing the relationship between Wang Xuan and Xiao Qi. This is probably due to the fact that the characters were played by mature actors and not idols. Their relationship had chemistry, meaningful interactions, mutual understanding, and respect. The drama did a good job at flushing out why Wang Xuan fell in love with Xiao Qi and let go of her childhood love for Zetan. Zetan represented her care-free childhood. Xiao Qi represented mature love where she learned duty, loyalty, and the hardships of life. She appreciated Xiao Qi for his bravery and heroism and looked down on Zetan's continued callousness and immaturity. I appreciate the fact that the drama did not go down the cliche route creating a love triangle between the three of them.

The ending was ok, although I wanted to see stricter justice served against the characters who committed crimes. Overall, the drama was very entertaining for the first half and for the last 10-15 episodes, but it could've gone without some storylines. And, I definitely wanted to see more of Xiao Qi, instead of the abominable Helan Zhen arc and Zitan's forlorn expressions.

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Dumb

The legal show deals with some very serious issues like sexual harassment, bullying, and child abuse, but the drama can't figure out whether it is a romantic comedy or a legal drama with romance.

As a lawyer, Yuri acted like a hysterical and unbalanced teenager who threw temper tantrums and started physical fights. She was supposed to be a strong woman, but she acted like a screeching hyena yelling every time she was faced with adversity. Every episode was filled with her yelling at something or at someone. And, OMG, her overacted crying was like watching a 5 y/o throwing a tantrum in a toy store.

The constant yelling was so annoying that it was hard to take her or the show seriously. Did the writers honestly think it was an appropriate way to portray a strong female character? And it wasn't just Yuri who behaved like that, Jeong Ho did the same. Both of them spent the majority of their time bickering about some stupid crap, yelling, and cursing. Everyone's behavior was rude and tacky, making the characters annoying and unlikable.

It wasn't only the constant screaming, the writers purposely put the characters into situations where they acted ridiculously. In episode 8, Yuri unintentionally ate a bunch of marijuana rice cakes and behaved like a clown. So now, we had characters who perpetually acted stupid in a story about lawyers. Oh boy.

Finally, the show would've been more believable if Yuri opened her own practice and got Jeong Ho to work with her, them being childhood friends at all. Running a coffee shop while doing legal work, and presumably not getting paid, was a pretty silly plot idea. A hard pass.

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Nothing is exciting about this drama

I really tried to like this drama. The premise is interesting telling a story about a woman's personal and career growth. But, a promising start about female empowerment fizzles out into an uninteresting and hardly exciting corporate drama with almost no romance.

The writers build up Lu Ji Ming as an overbearing jerk who constantly undermines Ning Meng's education, career aspirations, and talent. He always berates and insults her abilities telling her that she will never amount to anything other than being his secretary. Based on this characterization, it's very hard to root for him as a romantic lead because no self-respecting woman would ever fall in love with a man with such an abusive behavior. But, after many episodes of being a jerk, the writers drastically change his personality making him suddenly nice to Ning Meng so they can have a happy ending. There is no consistency in character development and storytelling.

The pacing is slow for the majority of the show. There is too much corporate filler, that is not particularly interesting, and not enough romantic development. To make matters worse, the writers introduce love rivals half-way through the show taking the opportunity away from the main couple to spend any meaningful time together. That's why these types of shows should not drag for longer than 20 episodes. There is no consistency in story telling with too many unnecessary plotlines deviating from the main plot and creating a very boring and choppy story. Overall, the drama has a good start but falls flat in later episodes and has very lukewarm romance.

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Oppa!

There is a whole lot to like and a whole lot to dislike about this show. If you are looking for a medical drama about curing mental illness and showcasing good medical ethics, look elsewhere. The show rather focuses on over-the top characterization of mental disorders and a love-conquers-all plot.

Watching Ji Sung act is pure delight. He effortlessly switches from comedy to tragedy and skillfully changes tone and characterization between personalities. One moment, he is a cunning, eyeliner-wearing bad boy, the next, he is a teenage girl screaming "OPPAAAAA!". His acting truly shines where the plot fails, making the drama very performance driven and flat on storytelling.

The worst thing about the show is Oh Ri Jin. I know that a dorky and messy female was a popular stereotype at the time the drama was filmed, but, Ri Jin is frustrating and mostly annoying. She is loud, sloppy, and unintelligent. And, she screams all the damn time. The writers build her up as an empathetic doctor, but they make no attempt to show her medical skills or have her treat patients. Instead, she is always between jobs while being praised for the skills she does not seem to have. Her character lacks depth and goes through very little development. While childhood abuse is the source of Do Hyun's torment, Ri Jin happily bee-bops through life with amnesia. When she finally regains her memories, it does not seem to sway her or have any impact on her at all.

Secondary characters don't do anything relevant, but hijack a lot of screen time. I like Park Seo Joon, but Oh Ri On is an eyesore. He has no purpose and the writers constantly insert him between Do Hyun and Ri Jin with no push-back from her, making the show often a frustrating watch. He is meddling and manipulative, but the writers never address it and portray him as an overprotective brother with one-sided incestual love for a woman raised as his sister. Instead of creating a deep brother/sister bond, the writers follow a cliche formula where multiple males must fall in love with a weak heroine without her actually deserving it.

The storytelling is very inconsistent with too many tonal switches. In one episode, Do Hyun's teen girl alter ego is chasing after Ri On. In another, Do Hyun is tearing up for multiple scenes trying to deal with his never-ending trauma. While I enjoy good comedy, it is out-of-place here because the show's focus is on past abuse and mental illness, which are anything but funny. Some of Do Hyun's personalities have no depth and only serve as comic relief. But, the personalities that are the most impactful disappear for episodes at a time. The writers try to do too many things at once by sporadically flip flopping between hilarity and tragedy and thus creating a very choppy story.

Overall, the drama has consistently good pacing and Ji Sung's versatile performance makes it entertaining. But, it would've been much better with 16, instead of 20, episodes. Too much time is spent on the secondary characters and flashbacks. Editing needs work as episodes haphazardly jump between scenes before finishing them. The final showdown between Do Hyun and his relatives for the control of the company is very anticlimactic. And, the writers drag Han Chae Yun's obsession with Do Hyun for way longer than necessary.

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