Knavery

That was a pretty cool reveal for Yeo Rin and explains a lot.

We're all aware of the tension between the King and the Prime Minister. Nobody is denying that. But you have to explain why the Prime Minister broke with her character as shown in the previous 12 episodes. For 12 episodes she was portrayed as one thing. In Episode 13 her character completely changes. And before I get "the scenes aren't chronological" - go back and watch yourself. It doesn't matter they're messing with chronology. There are way too few scenes to explain the scenes from Episode 13. Like I said - the job of the writer is to explain how we get from A to B with a character. The Prime Minister's character was about as bad as Game of Thrones and Danerys staring at a clock tower before deciding to massacre a bunch of innocent people. It's just stupid character development to conveniently serve the plot and that is a sign of very poor writing and directing. She's a wolf who becomes a lamb and the turn around is way too fast with too few scenes.

I kind of delayed watching since it was so bad SBS delayed an episode to air a movie released months ago...

The big reveal in Episode 13 fell flat. That's it? What else is there now? It feels like the remaining episodes need to focus exclusively on Lee Lim because that's still the gaping hole of this show. He still makes no sense. He made no sense in Episode 1. He makes no sense in Episode 13.

Also not a fan of how the Prime Minister's character did a 180 with no warning. She's the one who holds her tongue and plots her revenge. What the hell happened in Episode 13?

If the writers can't handle basic character development of a side character what hope do they have of managing time travel and alternate realities?

I'm half expecting the same thing that played out with the Prime Minister to play out with all remaining characters to force some obnoxious ending we can't predict. The writers can feel smart when in reality it's garbage. It's like that Brian Regan joke about the phrase "one thing led to another". The job of the writer is to explain how that one thing led to another thing. The clip and joke are out there on youtube and it sums up my feelings.

I really like the start to this show. Hopefully it keeps building.

Honestly I'm down to watch the end of this. It's just so bad and so stupid. It's like a trainwreck or a car crash. You can't look away from the carnage as you pass by it.

It's not surprising when they reveal yet another character crossed worlds. At what point did this happen? Off screen as usual so it's some big twist and not viewed as a lack of imagination and planning by the writing team?

The ending to episode 11 was probably the dumbest romance scene (or display of love, whatever you want to call it) I've seen in my entire life. It was more like really bad fan fiction than something someone should ever get paid to write.

I mean damn, it's bad, really bad. But now I'm just treating it like an unintentional comedy, like The Room. I'll make it through one laugh at a time.

The payoff was basically not there. I don't care if the themes are forgiveness and redemption... it was still awful how they went about it. Forgiveness and redemption doesn't have to be displayed with grand gestures by supporting characters.... which by design take away the main character's ability to act.

The ending sucked because of this. I'm fine with death. I'm fine with redemption. I'm fine with forgiveness. I'm not fine with the main characters being completely uninvolved in the ending of major storylines.

Looks messy, not something I'd normally do but Xu Hao was hilarious and adorable in Taoism Grandmaster that I'm going through so I'll give her a shot for her first leading role.

Well if the effect they're going for with their abstract art is "bad show" or "bad at my job" mission accomplished with episode 9 and 10.

Weak writing and directing rearing its head in Episodes 9 and 10 is the reason. Episode 10 in particular was really, really bad.

It's just a jumbled random mess of scenes with very little coherence or chronology. They sidelined interesting characters like the Prime Minister in favor of random scenes here and there and then finished off with Lee Lim cheat-mode like it's a video game. You can tell how little thought was put into writing, creating and cutting these episodes.

Hate is a strong word but the show is starting to lose me. If 11 and 12 are similar to 9 and 10, I'll be dropping this show. It was that bad. I can live with 1-8 but 9-10 was the train going off the rails, falling into a lake and blowing up. I'm not sure how the show recovers from such a disastrous combination of episodes.

This felt more like a soap opera set in a historical period than a historical period show... I was kind of disappointed to be honest.

We need season 2. It can't end like that. And to be clear: it's a "what happens next" ending not an ending I didn't like. Damn I'm addicted to this show.

Really liked her in The Dark Lord, hope she gets a leading role in something.

Can someone explain how he cleared his name? I understand his brother replaced him and then was released (fake released by people plotting against Xiao Tian?) but I still don't understand how he cleared his name.

A lot of strong opinions. I like the show. It's not blowing me away but I'm not on the edge of dropping it either. I'm curious to see how it all plays out and ends.

I definitely want a more front and center role that goes beyond jealousy. They keep hinting at it and she's taking out the occasional politician/woman standing in her way. Hopefully she figures out what is going on and creates a third dynamic beyond the King and his nemesis (uncle? Cousin? The guy who murdered his father anyways).

It's definitely very different from most Korean TV shows but I thought it got a little too ridiculous and farfetched. The acting and visual effects is top notch.

Lee Min Ho is a bit of a monotone. I think Kim Go Eun is a bit overrated at acting as well personally. She's got that 'every girl' look and I think that helped her get Goblin and then the popularity of Goblin carried her to this and she's still not that good especially arround romance.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying she's ugly or even plain - she's extremely pretty - but as a guy she's got the look of someone you could have known growing up and not movie superstar looks like Son Ye-Jin or Kim So-Hyun or Suzy.

I enjoyed this week personally because more characters are starting to figure things out and we're getting an idea of what's going on.

This is far from a masterpiece but I'm a sucker for alternate reality stuff.

Yeah the FX for that battleship was pretty bad. Like early 2000s American TV bad. I get they probably had budget and time constraints but if that was the case they shouldn't have put them on the ship to begin with. It felt really, really small first of all and there was obvious "fakeness" that was completely CGI rendered.

I agree the story isn't the strongest and it feels disconnected but I just love alternate reality stuff so I'll keep watching. This is nowhere near as good as Man In The High Castle, I just hope it doesn't end on a whimper like that show did.

Also Jung Eun Chae looks beautiful with the hair and outfits. I mean wow.

A lot of slapstick acting/comedy but I enjoyed it.