This review may contain spoilers
A Food Drama With a Side of Romance
I'm a sucker for food dramas so this is right up my alley. It's like a cross between a historical drama and Food Wars minus the ecchi, so I had a great time watching this. The characters are endearing and the historical aspects quite intriguing. It made me dig deeper into the real history the story was based on and read pages of historical facts about the notorious Yeonsangun of Joseon. To me, this was a kind of elseworlds type of story, a “what if” the true events that transpired were distorted to fit the narrative of those in power. After all, history is written by the winners.
But alas, the writing in this is far from perfect. There are many suspend-your-disbelief moments, inconsistencies, and obviously contrived instances. But my biggest beef is that while it started with a bang, it ended with a whimper. I didn't mind that they spent too much time on the cooking as I saw this as a food drama with a side of romance and not the other way around. However, the ending was a bit of a letdown to me because they didn't even bother to show how the King ended up in modern-day Seoul, his misadventures prior to finally finding the love of his life, what happened after he disappeared in Joseon, and why he was allowed to travel to the future. I would've rather they ended with just them laying eyes on each other in a tearful poignant scene after showing those “missing” pieces of the puzzle. But they chose not to and so their reunion didn't really feel earned. I can forgive the hiccups in the writing, but the rushed ending, I cannot. They could've just made a special episode to wrap things up more properly. I mean, it was enjoying some of the highest ratings in a K-drama in the last 10 years, an additional episode would've been most welcome. In fact, it warranted one more episode.
Despite all its flaws, I can't deny the fact that this was one of the more entertaining K-dramas I've seen to date. It made me look forward to the next episode and it didn't bore me, not one bit. It's the kind of drama that you would definitely enjoy more if you just took it for what it was, a tropey, silly but fun little food drama/rom-com that had the old school and formulaic K-drama vibes.
But alas, the writing in this is far from perfect. There are many suspend-your-disbelief moments, inconsistencies, and obviously contrived instances. But my biggest beef is that while it started with a bang, it ended with a whimper. I didn't mind that they spent too much time on the cooking as I saw this as a food drama with a side of romance and not the other way around. However, the ending was a bit of a letdown to me because they didn't even bother to show how the King ended up in modern-day Seoul, his misadventures prior to finally finding the love of his life, what happened after he disappeared in Joseon, and why he was allowed to travel to the future. I would've rather they ended with just them laying eyes on each other in a tearful poignant scene after showing those “missing” pieces of the puzzle. But they chose not to and so their reunion didn't really feel earned. I can forgive the hiccups in the writing, but the rushed ending, I cannot. They could've just made a special episode to wrap things up more properly. I mean, it was enjoying some of the highest ratings in a K-drama in the last 10 years, an additional episode would've been most welcome. In fact, it warranted one more episode.
Despite all its flaws, I can't deny the fact that this was one of the more entertaining K-dramas I've seen to date. It made me look forward to the next episode and it didn't bore me, not one bit. It's the kind of drama that you would definitely enjoy more if you just took it for what it was, a tropey, silly but fun little food drama/rom-com that had the old school and formulaic K-drama vibes.
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