Juelin

Hilarious and delightful

The enemies to lovers plot is nothing new, but, the show makes it hilariously entertaining. What I love about it is that the writers manage to create comedic characters without turning them into infantile nincompoops. Mi Ran and Kang Ho are very well matched in terms of intelligence and assertiveness. She sees through his fake charm and he appreciates her assertiveness.

The show is very well rounded in terms of pacing and storytelling. Because it has only 10 episodes, there are no boring story arcs and the plot moves at a very good speed. I also appreciate that the writers don't unnecessarily drag out plotlines and resolve any misunderstanding fairly quickly. The rest of the drama is focused on the main leads' explosive chemistry. He loves her not because she is a cute, but because she is brave and not afraid to put her well being on the line to save other people. By getting to know each other, they lose some of their cynicism and realize that there are good people in the world. Not all women are opportunists, and, not all men are cheaters. Kim Ok Bin impressed me in "Arthdal Chronicles". Here, she shows her versatility in a comedic role. And, I absolutely love Kim Ji Hoon. He can be a convincing psycho serial killer and a romantic character. We need to see more of him in main roles.

The final episode gets a little bit convoluted. The writers decide to throw a last minute curve ball for the sake of tension. I don't think it was necessary to expose Mi Ran's serial dating life style and to create drama between the main leads. It felt very forced and unnecessary compared to the drama's otherwise very fluid storytelling.

Overall, the drama is very enjoyable. All the characters are likable and the romance is very satisfying.

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A whole lotta stupid

I give this drama an 8 for the first half and a 3 for the second because everything becomes stupid. It's pretty unbelievable that the writers are able to create such an engaging story and then turn it into a marathon of stupidity.

Kim Moo Young is built up to be a cold, manipulative, incredibly intelligent sociopath with a sex appeal up the wazoo. He doesn't care about anyone's feelings and shamelessly uses poor Seung Ah as a recreational activity cuz he can. He plays her like a drum while the plot slowly develops his feelings for Jin Kang through playful banter, meaningful conversations, and flirting. His bad-boy charm, cunningness, and insanely good looks are the highlight of the show. Unfortunately, all of this intelligence goes *poof* in the second half leading to some very stupid choices.

The drama's biggest let down is the characters' motivations, actions, and incomprehensible consequences based on those motivations and actions. Everyone hates Moo Young's lack of empathy. But, Yoo Jin Kang has no problem spending time with him while he dates Seung Ah all the while preaching sanctimonious b*llshit about morals. Later on, she unapologetically lies to her brother and goes on dates with her hot boyfriend behind oppa's back while preaching more sanctimonious bs. Oppa gets a little too high on his moral high horse about Moo Young's shenanigans and stabs him in the gut without regrets. It's even more asinine that he does not get arrested for assault/attempted murder or even get questioned after making a confession. Jin Kang throws a temper tantrum about her sexy boyfriend now having a hole in his belly, but doesn't seem to care that her brother is the culprit.

The murder mystery is the most interesting and complex storyline. But, it ends early with Im Yoo Ri's character being largely unutilized while the writers decide to bore us with the childhood trauma plotline, and characters preaching morality and acting illogically. Moo Young transforms from clever and observant to gullible and reactionary. He believes Jang Se Ran's atrocious story, the same Ms. Jang who is an insane sociopath and the least likely to tell the truth, and hastily makes a life altering decision leading to very tragic consequences. Special "thanks" to the genius who decided to make a tertiary character like Ms. Jang into a central plot device. She is an attractive and calculating older woman who is the head of a conglomerate. So, it's totally believable that she would fall for someone like Moo Young, who has no special skills, talent, or money, and then make him a CEO. And that's because Moo Young's biggest asset is dat ass.

Moo Young and Jin Kang have some very spicy chemistry on screen. But, the best thing about the drama is acting. Seo In Guk was made for this role. He wasn't just playing Kim Moo Young. He was Kim Moo Young.

The ending is tragic, but who cares, because everything! is! stupid!

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Ode to Ji Ah

The drama has a promising start with an exorcist and a medium solving ghost mysteries following the familiar ghost-of-the week format. The title is inaccurate because the plot only focuses on the exorcism storylines with the realty business being an afterthought. No actual home selling is being shown in any of the episodes. What I liked about the drama is that every ghost story is not only about sending ghosts happily ever after into the afterlife. Both Ji Ah and In Beom experience ghost memories allowing them to resolve any unfinished business and provide closure to the surviving family, which adds depth to the story and characters.

The drama's weakest link is Ji Ah. When she is not brooding, she is crying. When she is not crying, she is mad. When she is not doing any of these, she is sleeping. She is completely underdeveloped as a character and keeps doing the same things in every episode, which significantly affects her relationships with everyone else. Her and Oh In Beom have many near death experiences and share ghost memories. He even helps to send her mom's ghost into the afterlife. There is so much potential to develop their relationship into a solid friendship, even with a possibility of romance. But, with Ji Ah's perpetually constipated attitude, they always feel like strangers.

Even the promising exorcism plot turns into an endless loop of Ji Ah drama. The story surrounding mom's death becomes a boring array of flashbacks showing the same thing over and over and over with Ji Ah's always losing her sh*t at the end. The egg ghost plotline is the most compelling, but it is completely underdeveloped and ends with a fart, while the writers insist on boring us with scenes of Ji Ah crying hysterically after suffering through another dead mom flashback.

I really enjoyed about 2/3 this drama, but the poor writing at the end and a lack of character development were disappointing.

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Mediocrity r us

The drama had enough to create an engaging story and interesting characters, but for me it fell short. The show felt a lot of like a modern workplace drama with characters playing dress up. The plot didn't delve deep enough exploring the difficulties Haeryung faced trying to fit into a man's world. And, the dethroned prince storyline only picked momentum towards the end.

The chemistry between Haeryung and Yi Rim was a bit bland. She was six years older than him and acted more like an older sister than a love interest. They often looked awkward together and weren't convincing as two young people in love. I was very apprehensive to watch this drama because of SSK's abysmal performance in Captivating the King. But, surprisingly, she did a pretty decent job.

The ending was very underwhelming. The drama had a very progressive message for women to pursue their dreams and not being shackled by society's expectations. However, neither Haeryung nor Yi Rim achieved any tremendous heights at the end. They lived together like a married couple, but they weren't married and nobody paid too much attention to that. This was especially strange considering the historical period they lived in. Yi Rim abandoned his princehood and became a nobody while Haeryung blissfully continued to bebop through life as a historian. At the end, they achieved nothing and their so-called "freedom" consisted of them blissfully living in an extramarital relationship. I didn't get anything out of this message except that being mediocre was ok.

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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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Mixed feelings

I have mixed feelings about this drama. On one hand, the political intrigue was very interesting and the action scenes were fun. The chemistry between the couples was very good leading to nicely put together love stories. On the other hand, some characters had very bad motivations leading to very questionable choices.

Prince An was an awful villain. He concocted an entire revenge plot to kill multiple people because of a years old incident where a child accidently knocked over a candle. He had no substance, bats*t crazy motivations, and extreme shortsightedness. His love for Fu Rong seemed very superficial. All he did was plot, manipulate, and lie to her.

ML and FL were cute together and had good chemistry, but FL made some very awful choices. Her relationship with ML had very little trust. Whether it was the murder of her teacher, divorce, or Ruyi pavilion, she never gave ML the benefit of the doubt or allowed herself time to verify the information given to her. Instead, she gave in to rumors and manipulations and jumped to conclusions. For someone who made a big deal about trust, she never trusted the person she supposedly loved. Moreover, the fact that FL stabbed ML on their wedding night should've been the end of their relationship because that was a huge breach of trust. But, that was not the case here.

Even though the second couple also had great chemistry, they became boring because their relationship stopped at flirting and did not move further until almost the end of the show. They were obviously in love, but neither of them made any steps to move forward for a very long time. I ended up skipping most of their scenes after episode 20.

One of my biggest gripes with the drama was young women running around with men they were not married to. This was supposed to be a huge taboo where reputations were ruined. Not the case here. Nobody ever addressed the fact that ML and FL spent the night alone in a cave, that the second couple spent the night alone in a cabin, that Fu Rong was often alone together with Prince An, and so on. This nonsense led to more ridiculous behavior by Fu Rong. She constantly snuck out for one reason or another and was found by ML usually in the company of his love rival Prince An. For someone who was supposed to be intelligent, Fu Rong didn't have enough sense to realize that Prince An had feelings for her and that it wasn't the best idea for a married woman to fraternize with a man who had feelings for her and who wasn't her husband. At that point, it was hard to see what Prince Su, or even Prince An, saw in her. She was reckless and childish, and had no common sense.

A lot of plotlines were a tropey mess. It's pretty obvious that the writers wanted to give ML and FL scenes were ML heroically rescued FL, but it was done in such a clumsy manner. He would go away on a mission then randomly appear out of nowhere and catch her from falling. The plotline where she was buried alive was a cringe fest. Zhang Yan was a very minor character who completely disappeared from the plot after they returned each other's birth cards. Yet, the writers just randomly threw him back into the story to create romantic drama without actually thinking it through.

Some of the martial arts scenes were a bit silly. ML could jump on top of a tower as tall as a skyscraper to admire the moon with FL. But while running away from assassins, he couldn't jump over a river or over a gate.

The story started out well but it turned into a cliche mess of misunderstandings, mistrust, jealous side chicks, and awful behavior. Even after the trust issues were resolved, I couldn't get over the fact that FL tried to kill ML on their wedding night based on sketchy information. There are plenty of historical dramas with good character development and interesting plots. This drama is not it.

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Not bad, but could be better

The drama definitely would've done a lot better with some plot and episode trimming. There were too many side characters with minor story arcs that were irrelevant fillers. I couldn't care less about every auntie's personal problems. That didn't add anything and only deviated from the story and dragged the plot.

In the last ten episodes, it became apparent that the writers completely ran out of ideas and just wrote whatever to finish the 40 episodes. The spy/envoy arc had nothing to do with the main plot. It felt like a filler and was completely uninteresting. The main story was about the FL saving her family from poverty and bringing the male relatives back and ML dealing with the royal family drama. The envoy arc had nothing to do with either.

FL also felt a little too perfect. There was no character development to show achievement through trial and error. At the beginning, she was a teenager from a privileged family who never had to struggle with anything and didn't have good relations with any of her family members. After the exile, she magically got her act together and had all the answers without having to overcome or learn anything. Even the mishaps were not due to her mistakes but mistakes of her aunties. Everything that she achieved was completely undeserved because she never had to struggle. She went from zero to hero overnight.

The acting was mostly ok. Hu Yitian's had his usual frozen face that took away from his chemistry with FL. But, he got better later on and started showing a little bit of emotion. Zhang Jing Yi was ok, but unconvincing as a historical character. It felt like a modern woman playing dress-up.

The chemistry was ok, but FL's Mary Sue personality made secondary couples a lot more interesting. Shen Huan and Shaoyao were a lot more fun because there was actual character growth and the couple looked like they really couldn't wait to be together while ML and FL just hanged out without taking any steps to move their relationship forward.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. Hu Yitian's is definitely an eye candy and the fighting scenes were entertaining.

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Too long

The drama would've been monumentally better if it was cut down to 40 episodes, 50 tops. When something was happening, it was interesting. The rest of the time, it was draggy and boring. There were too many scenes and conversations that should've been edited. Watching characters interact in a regular home environment was not interesting even if the drama was portraying a more realistic family life.

It took ML and FL 40 episodes to get married. Before that, he was off somewhere serving in the military with the story rarely focusing on him. Instead, it was just her dealing with family drama and her childhood crush on a day-to-day basis. After the wedding, the sisters mostly disappeared from the plot making me wonder why the writers gave them so much screen time. It would've been more interesting if the drama was more narrowly focused on ML and FL growing up and falling in love, instead of less relevant side characters.

Another thing that was frustrating was the fact that none of the villains were properly punished. The evil stepmom burned the house down and died in the fire. The evil aunt got stabbed trying to kill FL. The fourth sister just continued on with her miserable life after scheming against FL. There was no actual punishment that they truly deserved after all the evil crap they pulled.

Overall, this was a one time watch for me. If I had to do it again, I would skip about half of it.

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Good enough

The show was well paced with a very well developed plot centered around political intrigue. All the male characters were interesting, and, thankfully there weren't any convoluted plotlines and cliche tropes. My favorite relationships were between Ha Seon and the Chief Royal Secretary, Eunuch Jo, Guard Jang, and the villains. However, the show should've gone without the romance.

This was probably the first drama where I couldn't care less about the romance. It felt like an afterthought. Nothing against the actors. Everyone did a great job portraying their characters. Big props to Yeo Jin Goo being so young but already so talented. He did a fantastic job playing two completely different characters. But, the romance bored me out of my mind. Yeo Jin Goo next to Lee Se Young looked like a younger brother rather than a romantic partner. Their relationship was completely uninteresting and the chemistry was bland.

The ending was odd having an unnecessary death then returning back to life. The writing choice didn't contribute anything to the story but rather pointlessly dragged the plot for a few extra episodes killing off some very cool side characters and focusing on the boring romance story between Ha Seon and So Woon. The bromance between Ha Seon and the chief royal secretary was way more interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot about duty and loyalty. But the story could've gone without a bland romance between two people who had no chemistry on screen.

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It's ok for a low budget flick

A low budget show is low budget with only 10 very short episodes. It's a shame that this wasn't a full length drama because there was enough plot to write a nicely developed story and characters.

The acting was decent. Na In Woo is still a bit inconsistent. His acting is good in some dramas but stiff in others. Here, he was good.

The plot was mostly straight forward, except for some side stories that went nowhere because of the short length. The writers tried to stick a lot of material into a very short drama without giving any of the new characters and storylines any development. It felt rushed and awkward.

Rewatch value? None. It's a good show to kill time for a few hours and forget about afterwards.

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Fanservice disguised as historical drama

This drama should really be taken for what it is - fan service. All the effort was spent on casting idol actors to attract a certain fanbase of adolescent girls and nothing else. There is no coherent plot, just pretty boys running around with fancy hair and lip gloss looking like they belong in an 80s glam rock band.

Romance was a tropey mess. Dude momentarily gains consciousness just to kiss a girl after hearing her confession, then loses consciousness again. Puhlease. The characters were kind of shallow and didn't really have much development. Even if the focus was on fanservice, the writers could've done something with the plot. Instead, we had convoluted storylines that didn't make sense. The queen wouldn't give up the throne to her son and kept hiding his identity to supposedly protect him, instead of putting him on the throne and helping him secure it. Not to mention, there was this lame conspiracy plotline and the queen's self-serving motivations for the sake of pretending there was a plot. The Hwarang were supposed to be the king's guard, but they spent most of their time bickering and doing song and dance. Only towards the end, somebody started doing something interesting. And don't even get me started on the incest plot where the queen wanted to marry her son the king to her daughter the princess because of some "sacred bone" tradition. I understand this is a fake historical drama, but seriously. And, OMFG, Sam Maek Jong's CONSTANT whining about how weak he was as the king during the entirety of the show - while he was in hiding, after he became Hwarang, after he officially became king, every freaken time he was faced with adversity he bitched and moaned about being incompetent.

The OST was pretty underwhelming. The same song with a female singer was playing in most episodes during romantic/angsty scenes as if it was on a loop. Production and acting were ok. I thought Park Seo Joon and Park Hyung Sik did a good job. Seo Yea Ji had the easiest acting gig as the princess, she looked constipated with the same expression in every scene. Ah Ro was forgettable and weak. She never stood up for herself and allowed everyone to make decisions for her and did whatever she was told. Her bland chemistry with Sun Woo did not justify any of their romantic angst.

All the side characters with their stories and romance would've been interesting if the writers took the drama a little more seriously and wrote an actual plot and character development. I ended up skipping most scenes from episode 13 onward because there was no interest in anything other than the three main characters. I don't think I missed much.

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This drama......

This drama will leave you laughing, infuriate you, and totally KO you emotionally.

It started very strong. ML and FL met when they were both young, had quirky and funny interactions and a quick romantic development. Unfortunately, the romance plot, while having a fun beginning, started going in circles to the point of frustration. San chased after Deok Im (DI) begging for her to love him when he was the crown prince and he continued pursuing her and begging her to love him after he became the king.

At some point, I wanted to see DI get a promotion, an upgrade, to move up in life which would've also given a chance for San/DI to develop further aside from just being a king and his maid. But, she did the same things for the entirety of the show and had awkward interactions with San about their relationship, which made the pace and story development a bit stale. Her consistently rejecting him, because she wanted to lead her own life, would've made sense if DI actually had plans to leave and move on after he found a concubine, but she kept coming back to be his maid, which went against the entire premise of her wanting to lead her own life. This plotline needed to either wrap up a lot sooner or the writers should've written more story to avoid the round-about "love me!!!" by San. And, frankly, them always having the same conversation became really boring.

The other plot lines with San living in the shadow of his "traitor" father and having a love/hate relationship with his abusive tyrant grandfather was very well written and made San an extremely sympathetic character. The transition between him being a crown prince and a king was also very well done showing him transforming from a scared little prince to a decisive king who wasn't afraid to get rid of anyone who opposed him, including family members.

I was going to write about the treatment of women, but it would be redundant considering that this is a period peace. It doesn't matter which period and which country. It always sucked for women everywhere until 100 years ago. Enough said.

The ending broke me until it didn't. After DI accepted San and became his concubine, the story quickly switched gears and showed that their love wasn't happy at all. For the majority of show, San was broken-hearted from being continuously rejected by DI, and DI wasn't very happy being San's concubine because she was forced to wait for him, was at the mercy or his schedule, and had to share him with other women. The scene of DI telling San on her deathbed that she didn't want to meet him in the next life really drove the tragedy home and showed the awful predicament women back then. Even a woman who was well loved and lived in privilege had nothing of her own and was just another thing a man owned.

Just as I thought that my depression couldn't get any worse, it turned out that the ending was San's dream. Waking up in cold sweat and realizing that DI was alive was a second chance of sorts for San to appreciate what was truly important to him. I wasn't particularly thrilled with that twist because it messed up the chronology and made the story more complicated than it should've have been. And, it felt emotionally draining after having to witness DI's death and San's loneliness and longing for years to come after he lost the one woman he ever loved. Nevertheless, this was a beautiful love story.

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Really good

Season 1 (episodes 1-27) had a slow start. It took a whopping six episodes for Shaoshang and Ling Buyi to finally meet face to face. Before that, nothing was happening aside from Shaoshang showing absolute disdain towards everything and acting like a spoiled brat. She was supposed to be a neglected and abused teenager who was left as a baby with her relatives while her parents served in a war. The writers didn't do a really good job flushing her out her character at the beginning. She stumbled between being portrayed as a neglected teen to acting very whiny and entitled. In every scene she would go out of her way to act out and complain about everything, instead of trying to reconnect with her parents. Fortunately, the writers didn't let her fester into an unlikable shrew and her character development picked up nicely. It turned out she loved to learn about how things worked. She was very sympathetic to other people problems. And she was a great problem solver.

Her mother's actions were very confusing. For someone who was a seasoned general, mom showed extreme shortsightedness when it came to parenting. She knew very well about her daughter's accomplishments, but instead of looking at the big picture and appreciating the fact that Shaoshang did not grow up to be shallow and spoiled, mom always fixated on her daughter's smaller problems - a lack of education and etiquette. Mom's inconsistency showed even more during Shaoshang's engagement. She did not want the marriage with Lou Yao because he was unintelligent, weak, and wasn't able to protect Shaoshang. Mom also picked up on the fact that Ling Buyi liked her daughter. However, when Ling Buyi proposed, mom immediately put her daughter down to be some awful and unintelligent simpleton who was unworthy of anything. It was no wonder Shaoshang wanted to get away from that house. The icing on the cake was mom's favoritism towards the cousin, instead of trying to reconnect with her daughter.

I really wanted to see the mom and daughter's relationship grow where Shaoshang realized that her mom wanted to prepare her for the adult life and teach her how to navigate society. In return, mom would realize that Shaoshang was a very special and beautiful person and finally got over her fixation on Shaoshang's upbringing. There were some very good moments where I thought mom and daughter would finally grow close - the one where mom slapped one of the ladies at Lou Yao's house. But then there was the scene with Lin Buyi's proposal where mom was a total let down.

The way the Cheng family was portrayed as a "military" family was odd. General Cheng was a general, just like Ling Buyi. But General Cheng didn't seem to have any kind of influence or power at all. At 21, Ling Buyi had an awful lot of power and influence, and even an army to command. General Cheng was nowhere on that level even thought he spent his entire life fighting and was at least twice as old as Ling Buyi. The only person who seemed to have any kind of military discipline in the Cheng family was mom. The two brothers, who were with the parents when they were away, acted like spoiled and pampered aristocrats, instead of military children. They also looked like they never handled a weapon in their lives.

Some storylines needed serious cropping, like the very long engagement to Lou Yao that wasn't going to work out anyway. Shaoshang and Ling Buyi playing catch up with each other could've been sped up a little bit too. I wanted to see more of them hang off the roof together instead of watching Lou Yao bringing her snacks.

There were also some very great scenes showing the build-up of Shaoshang and Ling Buyi relationship. The scene where she pulled an arrow out of his chest was hot and very intimate.

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Didn't do anything for me

I tried to like this drama because of Ji Chang Wook, but it didn't do it for me. Most of the characters are unlikable, the romance is lackluster, and the plot is draggy.

One of the biggest problems with the drama is Eun Bong Hee. She is a young professional who acts more like a pouty teenager than a lawyer. The writers don't help her character by giving her a slightly infantile personality with perpetually pouty lips and childish hobbies. I'm not sure why it is compelling to have a young adult write in a pink diary with stickers and a garden variety of emojis like she is in middle school. To make matters worse, she totally lacks any common sense and self-restraint by strolling around campus and singing songs about cursing and killing her cheating ex-boyfriend. The woman is a clumsy and immature mess, but we are supposed to think she is adorable.

As much as I like Ji Chang Wook as an actor, I didn't feel any romantic chemistry between the main couple. His acting is diverse with a variety of emotions. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Nam Ji Hyun. She isn't very good at conveying emotion and has one default confused look with pouty lips. Their interactions often feel like an adult talking to a teenager, making the romantic chemistry very bland. Moreover, some of their actions are confusing. He doesn't reciprocate her feelings right away. But, when he does, she refuses to accept them even though she is still in love with him. The writers obviously try to add tension to the plot but, instead, make the characters act illogical.

The villain is the only character who is interesting. This is the first time I saw Dong Ha in a role and he absolutely nailed it.

The continuous Papa John's product placement is off-putting.

This was a one-time watch for me. The 20/40 episode extended run time dragged the pacing. The show would've benefited from better editing.

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Not as good as part 1

While I absolutely loved part 1, part 2 felt disjointed. ML and FL had a lot more interactions, but the story had way too many useless characters and frustrating plotlines.

There were a lot of scenes where ML and FL almost met but missed each other by a hair. At first, it was ok, but later became very frustrating because the writers overdid it. Some characters and storylines were pointless. What was the deal with the Chinese princess and her unrequited love for Jang Hyun? It didn't move the plot forward, but created unnecessary conflict that was more frustrating than meaningful. The princess got no character development and her arc ended in a very underwhelming way. She was cruel and selfish, and I expected Jang Hyun to deal with her in a smart way. But he told her he was leaving and she accepted it, the end. Gil Chae getting abducted to Qing also felt off. It was a tool for her to meet Jan Hyun, but the plotline felt like a forced cop out, rather than a natural story progression.

It also felt like the writers changed their mind with the direction of the story. They made a big deal about women being abused in one household because of a jealous wife. But Gil Chae spent very little time there, then left, and that was it. The arc with Gil Chae marrying the sergeant was also completely pointless. It was another tool to keep ML and FL apart for a bit longer without serving any other purpose.

The entire part 2 felt like a forced attempt to continue with the story post war, except there was not as much conflict and action. A lot of story arcs felt uninspired and forced. I wish the war plotline wouldn't have ended in part 1. This was when the story was at its best.

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