Kannadin

Don't think it will happen sorry. Han Hyo Joo's acting in it. I've noticed she only did romance at the beginning of her career but her taste leans more towards thriller/SF type of shows with very little romance in it and I would argue it's also the same for Ju Ji Hoon. He does have some stories with romance in them but it's never the main focus and he doesn't seem to particularly enjoy them... So yeah, don't get your hopes up.

I already planned on checking if it was a happy ending... But as I mentioned before:
"I don't mind a bittersweet ending... I don't even mind a sad ending... as long as the show isn't depressing 90% of the time"

I really hope for you guys that it's not a sad ending, otherwise it would be realistic... but oh so frustrating for viewers. This being said, I've dropped it. I don't do "on hold" because ultimately I noticed that when I do that, it just stays "on hold" for months and when I want to pick a show up again, I feel I've got to rewatch everything .

Also I've been struggling since ep 6 with this show so for me, definitely not a good experience in spite of the production and acting value.

But thank you for your point of view anyway :D

Thank you @Renn Saranghae and @yoonuyea for your replies.

You know what? You're right.
That sentence particularly resonated " Don't make yourself suffer by one drama when you can watch countless of others drama that fit your preferences."

I'm the type that struggle to drop shows I've invested lots of time in particularly when people are raving about them. I don't know how many times I've struggled to finish a show only to realise that I should have dropped them when I felt the first "struggles". For My Dearest... I've been struggling with it since episode 6 of the first part. So...

As you've said, there are plenty of good shows available. " A Good day to be a Dog" seems like a perfect fit for me given my current mood. [Edit: Just checked its airing schedule is a mess so I guess I'll be looking for something else until the end of december at least >_<]

I'm not putting it "on hold". I'm dropping it. Maybe in a couple of months, I'll change my mind... But right now, I need uplifting stories that make me happy and this is not it.

Wishing you all a good watching experience.

I'll probably silently drop here when the show reaches its end to see how you're all feeling about the end but that's the end of my journey with this show :D

Good luck Renn Saranghae whichever decision you take :D

Really struggling with this show. I thought It was going to be a sweet romance but instead I get a tragedy. Yes the show is gorgeous, yes the actors are terrific... But I'm watching each episode 10 minutes by 10 minutes every day.
It was pretty nice in the first few episodes.... But now it's just depressing. With all that's happening in the world, I just don't need more depression.

I'm on the verge of dropping it and at the same time I've passed the middle of the series... BUT I am certain that if I drop it now, I will never pick it up again because just like I avoid makjangs like the plague ( I don't enjoy rising my blood pressure no matter how exciting the cliffhanger), I don't watch depressive shows.

I don't mind a bittersweet ending... I don't even mind a sad ending... as long as the show isn't depressing 90% of the time which is how I've been feeling regarding this drama ever since the start of the war.

Is there anybody feeling the same? To drop or not to drop? I've finished ep 11 and have just started ep 12... I feel it's great place to drop it before I invest more hours... But I'm still hesitant. What do you think?

Fairly obvious Ryang Eum doesn't see Jang Hyun as just a "hyeong". What he did was awful but I can't even hate him. Poor soul, was condemned to be stuck in this one sided love but I guess he had made peace with Jang Hyun being with women he didn't care about. In that regard, he would still be the most important person in Jang Hyun's life.. but then came Gil Chae, and he obviously became number 2. To not be able to confess and be stuck in this situation your whole life. You were born in the wrong century. I hope they give him proper closure by the end of this series but it seems given the killer glare of episode 10 that they're gonna make him go the evil road.

Here's the Youtube link with the complete playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N77k56-OpuI&list=PLShqORWiDquMpEUsV6Ff_9tReieErYDRT&ab_channel=SBSWorld

Viki doesn't work well with VPN but Youtube does so if it doesn't work for you and If you've got a VPN, it should do the trick.
Good Luck!

It's on Viki. Been watching this very slowly for the past 3 months... It's also available on Youtube... Maybe it's a regional problem? I'm in Europe.

The show is good so far but I just can't bring myself to binge. It's veryyyyyyyyyyy veryyyyyyyyyyy political. Backstabbing left right and center all the time. Tires me out. There are some parts that I fly by quickly while others are a bit harder to get through... Lee Bang Ji and Moo Hyul are my favorites so far.

It just feels like sometimes I have to force myself to get through the political stuffs... All that backstabbing and plotting really bores me when it's too long while I don't mind watching Moo Hyul and Bang Ji being just freakin' awesome.

I'm crossing my fingers that it gets a bit less political for the rest of the episodes (currently watching episode 28).

So currently watching episode 23 and I spoiled myself the end...
We got :
- Noble idiocy trope
- Illness is suppose to make me empathize and forgive evil characters trope (WELL IT DOES NOT, You crossed the line, no cancer is gonna make me forget this. You got what you deserved. That's called Karma.)

I have no empathy for Old Gao. Given the way Li Xun had always treated him, he should have left sooner. He always sucked it up, at some point if you always stay with people who bring out the worst in you, it becomes your own fault if you don't move your ass and change your circle of friends.

Can't even blame Li Xun. He's always been an ass, ultimately if people stay with him it's because they accept the treatment. Jesus!

I have my own Li Xun in my own family except the guy's no genius. Anyway, after years of putting up with his sh*** because he's family, I decided to leave him behind. We see each other about 2-3 times a year, family obligation, and that's IT.
And that's that because the guy is not a bad person per say, however he's a ruthless douchebag who always thinks he knows better and is right, which includes talking badly to his own parents even when they're trying to help him. Anyway. As I said, exactly like Li Xun.

So Old Gao... You spiralled out of control but don't blame it on Li Xun, blame your own stupidity. Don't blame others for your own fault. Makes my blood boil.

Sigh...

I'm staying for the chemistry of the main couple... That's it.

Agree with your comment. This could have been exciting if the number of episodes had been 12 or 14 at most.
The main problem of this drama is the pace. They decided to drag this show for 20 episodes hence the "smart characters" end up appearing stupid and slow because given the clues given, it's incredible it takes them so much time to catch up with the villains.
Anyway. I've stuck with it for 16 episodes...
Too late to give up now...

I'm gonna see this to the end...

And after that, no K drama while they are airing for at least 6 months. I've been burned by The Heavenly Idol and this one... And this is not the first time. I don't know why but everytime I watch a K drama as they are airing, they turn out to be disappointments. And everytime time I swear to myself that I'm not gonna watch a K dramas live EVER again...

But then... I watch some GREAT shows which have already aired... and I repeat this awful time-wasting-loop.

Problem is: most K dramas are quite a time investment... I find it easier to drop shows that have already ended than shows already aired.
For some reasons, as long as all episodes are not out... You can still hope it will get better...

But once it's aired, if you realise it sucks... You can just check reviews and comments to see if it gets better and hence drop it faster.

Anyway, 2 weeks and it's the END of this loooooooooooooooooooong show. I won't be missing you, but you'll be another show on my complete list. It's ridiculous, but that's my current motivation.

I wish I could do "skipping" but I just can't...
It just feel like I'm not really watching the show. My mom does the same when she reads and I just... I can't.

But yeah, good for you. Skipping scenes is probably the best way to watch this show :D

It's an old fashioned way of editing video. Tvn is a private channel, and hence has more add cuts than the 3 national channels (namely MBC, SBS and KBS). I usually don't really pay attention to those but in this drama, it's very badly done. The transitions are just not smooth at all, it's like the director didn't take into account that most people are not going to watch this drama on Tv but on streaming websites without add cuts (and I'm including Koreans as well).

This drama is, in terms of pacing and editing , very much like old K dramas aired 20 years ago. Personally I'm struggling with the pace. It feels like a weekender and I tend to stay away from them since I find the pace too slow.
I'm too invested in the story itself to quit now but this is one of these dramas that I can't say is bad... but I can't enjoy it as much as I wished because it's going at a snail's pace in my book. If I had started it once it had finished airing... I'd probably have dropped it by now... But since I'm too invested in the plot now... and following it week by week., I found the perfect solution: I watch by halves of 30 minutes.

Ep 05: FINALLY!!!

And then?

Seriously? This series is finally delivering but nope. Gotta wait until the 19th of April. That's pretty nasty.

I agree with your comment above. It's a good story in itself but the title and the poster are misleading. The title particularly gives you this idea of "slice of life romance"...

I for one wasn't in the mood for anything political and only started to watch it because I was expecting some romance in a historical setting.
Instead I got some political historical which is a genre I tend to stay away from.

I'm also disappointed in that respect. If I am in the mood for some mystery centered story, I choose my drama accordingly.
I spent so many episodes waiting for the romance to take centerplace that ultimately I feel it's would be too late to give up now.
If it was a bad show, I would have dropped it... but instead I get a good show (not great though) I 'm just not in the mood in at present.

Problem is, I know myself. If I leave it now to pick up later, I'm bound to drop it at some point.

I also agree with your comment about the Red Sleeve and The King's Affection. Yes, there was some politics... But the story was much more romance centered as implied by their posters and titles...

Given how everything's moving so far... I don't have lots of hope for any form of true romance developing before all that political hullabaloo is resolved. Unless...

Unless the preview of episode 13 is accurate. Leaving the palace with all these eyes watching might be good for some character development.

Just finished. I'm like you for most of the review.

Regarding Earth being miscast... As somebody who actually is around the age of his character here( close to 40 but not yet there) and who often gets comments that I don't look my age... Unless you have a very good dermatologist and are filthy rich, you're bound to have some things that cannot be hidden. You lose fat on your face as you age and even if you don't have any noticeable wrinkles, you do get some deeper ones whenever you're smiling or express yourself. You can color your hair for sure... But that's about it and Leng is poor so that's some awesome coloring for someone who does it alone and not at the hairdresser's (because it is EXPENSIVE, which is why I personally have decided to just accept the white hair, society's expectations be damned). Ah and on top of that he's working late at night. As somebody who worked with flexible hours for YEARS, I can tell you, past the age of 30, you start to notice the difference in your ability to feel refreshed after a good night sleep. The older you get, the more your body doesn't like working night shifts and the bags under your eyes take longer to go away if you don't sleep and wake up at the same hour everyday. Women are worse than men in that area, but the problem is still there for both.

Anyway, regarding age, the only exception would be senegalese people of the wolof tribe. They're the darkest people on the planet, which means that they have the strongest protection against damages of the sun on earth. Unless they're smoking, wolof people living in Europe where there is not as much sun as in Senegal tend to REALLY not look their age and would definitely work as Uncle Leng here.
But they're dark, wouldn't work for lighter skin people. This is genetics, there is nothing worse for the skin than the sun and the darker your skin, the best protection you naturally have against its damages.

But like you, that wasn't something that spoiled my appreciation of the series. What ruined it for me... was the fact that Uncle Leng was speaking like somebody in his 80s and not close to 40. This is supposed to be this more mature tone or whatever, but most people my age, close acquaintances in their late 50s even, don't speak like that. Hell even my own parents, one over 70 now don't speak like that! On the contrary, some have teenagers, happy to get their freedom back, want to do the things they couldn't do when they had their kids. Those who didn't have kids and basically didn't meet Society's standards be it in terms of personal or professional choices, are still adventurous with lots of projects in sights etc.
Notably because, you do learn to be more cautious as you age, but you also have much more experience in life which makes you more confident in trying out new things. If you've got health and experience, you basically have the best of both worlds albeit for a few wrinkles.

So as I was watching it, I was thinking... The screenwriter is definitely someone very young. Only young people would have such a dark view of age, especially now that we live in an era where using filters to have an impossible appearance has become the norms. So I checked. He's currently 32. Not that young... But definitely didn't make his research. If you make a tv series focusing on the fears of a soon to be 40-year-old man... It would be great to at least DISCUSS with 40 year old people.

Anyway, the writing really didn't do it for me. To understand his very dark view of life as literally someone who thinks his life is finished at 40... They should have shown a little bit more of his past life. One love trauma is not gonna wreck your view of life the way they showed it. They also never explained why Leng and his sister left home.

I wasn't particularly enamoured with the young couple... Honestly didn't care for any of the characters except for Khaotung.
Anyway for me it was an ok show, but I'm not gonna complain too much because we got something different from the usual BL fare so even if I didn't like it as much as I wished I could... I still gave a 7 for the "trying something different" part...

I could probably laugh at these jokes... if I was 10 years old... or even younger.
Not gonna repeat what everyone has typed below...

I've sat through many terrible BLs last year, and this one is definitely not in the terrible category... But the disappointment however is.

This being said, tone shifts happen in series and I'm still hoping we're going to get what we had in the trailer, i.e something more mature and melo-like.

Another thing I didn't understand, even in the trailer, is why the "love rival" should be Party when the obvious choice given the prequel, should be Khunkao who is listed here as a cast member. Or maybe both I don't know?

(Btw I was personally disappointed by the end of the prequel... I wish Nan would have moved on, even if he ended up finding Phu. It's what he deserved as a person, and that would have been much more on par with the overall tone of the series. They missed their timing because Phu was a coward, now he can only blame himself for missing his chance.)

I'm going to assume that Nan is so happy to see Phu again that he's decided to keep his grievances to himself for now. In the prequel, whenever I would see Nan go to Melbourne I would think: DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A PLANE TICKET COST?

The least that selfish Phu could have done is tell him that he had lied and that he was in another country but not Australia so that at least Nan would give up searching for him and spending money on travelling expenses every year. Could have done so many things with that money.

Anyway, I'm still crossing my fingers for some serious grovelling from Phu and a tone shift.

I'm an optimist.

Can't believe this is currently directed by one of the Kinnporsche director though. The shame.

Naksu was the only one who trusted him and thought he could do something of himself. All the others including his own friends didn't believe in him AT ALL.
Also Naksu had only him.

He knew, she had nowhere to go just like she knew, nobody believed in him apart from her.

Also... saying that Uk and Naksu trusted each other is taking it a bit far... They relied on each other for sure, but trusted each other? Not in the beginning. This is also why Naksu is such a well written character. She has an aim and an unreliable student. She manipulates him and others to get what she wants. I wouldn't call that a relation based on trust.
This only came in later episodes. I'm currently watching episode 16 so it's very much fresh in my mind. The full trust only came then. Before, they was already love and a little of trust, but it was a lot of Naksu manipulating Uk to get what she wanted. He just learned to understand her scheming better by the middle of the series and hence could understand where she was going. ( Not only him btw, since even the prince tricked her into becoming Ul's servant when he understood that he had been completed manipulated by Naksu)

That push and pull thinking cannot work here. Yi Hwan is the Prince. He's been told from the craddle that he can't rely on anyone. His brother has been killed, he's got no mother at his side, no political allies and he knows he's next on the hit list. His own father told him to fend for himself as he's already struggling with maintaining his position. They're not on the same level.

In spite of Uk being the supposed "master", he was basically on the same level as Naksu. He had at least in the first season, no responsibility and no expectations from anyone. He wanted to become a magician/sorcerer ( I'm watching the show with Korean subs so I don't know how it' s been translated) and that was it. As he grew to love Naksu, that's when he got a clear goal and responsibility which is to protect the woman he loves.

The Prince here is fighting for his own survival.

His own adviser, supposedly his best friend, a couple of days before, hid the turtle he found because he thought it would implicate his father. He had his reasons for sure, but Yi Hwan has know him for years and this is what he got. How exactly is he supposed to trust ANYONE?

Anyway, I disagree with the term "stupid" here. It's already a miracle he hasn't killed her. She could have manipulated him to gain his trust in order to stab him in the back more easily.

Uk is definitely the more likable one but these characters can hardly be compared. Their circumstances are just too different.

Anyway. People are complaining about the writing. I don't get the hate. I'm finding the writing solid so far. The pace is similar to old historical weekenders that used to be aired in the early 2000s when I started to watch K dramas. It's not necessarily a bad thing, though I understand that for younger viewers, it might feel very slow.

The editing though... Not so great. I don't mind the pace, but the choppy editing is not TvN level.

... Yeah Hope it will be available on another platform. Can't change the size of the subs and they're tiny. I wish every streaming platform would allow users to choose the size and the position of their subs like you can do on youtube or on your own video program. Sometimes subs are too low and in the black part which I find annoying ( looking at you Vikii and Heavenly Idol... If it was on Iqiyi at least the video would be tailored for my 2K screen as it should be), sometimes too small... That will a pass for me... I feel like I'm missing most of the action since I literally have to glue my eyes to the bottom of my screen. Maybe it works better if you don't have a big screen but mine is fairly big so it's really annoying.
It's also really annoying for users who don't speak english. If new subs come up they will have to see a double line... Just nope.
But I guess one can't complain since it's free but I just don't understand why they chose to do this when all the other channels just use soft subs.

So... The good thing about being warned the previous week is that I was expecting worse from 11.1.
Still wasn't a good end... But way better than what I expected.

11.2: Happy ending that doesn't make sense. Also in that scenario, Mum never met the other Dew again because the Dew he fell in love with originally was killed trying to save Mint from his world. So either he's offed by a car or he's offed by Mum from his own world. In both cases, he dies and it sucks... But the oblivious other Mum doesn't care because he's got another Dew in his world so fudge the other since you know they're the same.
I just don't like this type of trope. In that case, imagine there was no parallel universe. Dew and Diew are brothers. Mum goes out with Dew. Dew dies. He ends up happily with Diew.
Everybody would be like WHAT THE FUDGE?

11.1: Bittersweet ending that... doesn't make sense. I don't see the point of not seeing the parallel Mum if you've already broken up with the your world's Mint (Also, she's taking it pretty well so WHY?).

Anyway, nice change from the usual BL fare, but the ending just ruined the show for me so that will be a 6.5.
The aftertaste is just too bitter.

I wouldn't use the world "disgusting" but "puzzling" instead... But I'm with you for episode 11.1. Can't talk about Episode 11.2 since I haven't seen it yet...

BUT PLEASE! Check that fudging Spoiler box !

Err Thank you for the link...
But I go for the legal option. I already have a VIP account anyway.