Michelle Topham

She's the one I liked from the beginning. Not remotely miscast for me. She's perfect for the part, IMO.

The two male leads are well cast too, but it took me to Episode 14 to really care about either of them.

Shows how different people's tastes are doesn't it? :)

Fun first two episodes. Looking forward to the next two.

I've actually just watched Episode 16 of WoH, and the acting is NOT great by a fair number of the main actors, to put it mildly :) (It's so inconsistent throughout, incredible in some scenes, pretty iffy in others, that to some extent it feels like different directors were involved -- don't think they were, but that's how it feels).

And that kid CANNOT act to save his life (don't even care to remember his name he's so terrible) -- I want to scream every time he shows back up :)

And Guardian not staying faithful to the source is another big reason why I stopped watching it -- the ending in the novels is so good and, apparently, that isn't the deal in the adaptation, so I don't want it to taint my love for the novels.

Yeah, I'm maybe exaggerating a bit about Doctor Who -- hahahaha.

Will say though, after all my complaining, I may come back to this at some point and give it another go. And that's because I'm currently watching Word of Honor, another Priest adaptation, and really wasn't loving it that much for the first 13 episodes. Then Ep 14 hit, and NOW I get the obsession over it :) And, like Guardian, the main leads' acting is superb in that one too.

Oh and as for the low budget aspect of Guardian, I read somewhere (sorry, don't remember where?) that the company adapting it went bankrupt midway thru, and so had to cute costs to the bone to even finish it. And that's why the production quality gets worse and worse as it progresses. Sadly, it probably would have been a lot better if that hadn't happened. Kudos to them, at least, for actually finishing it.

As for the Guardian 3rd novel, what the hell, right? :) I think I'm relatively intelligent, but I must have read some passages 7 or 8 times just trying to figure out what god did what and how that affected who and what? :)

Still ended up loving the series overall, even bought it in paperback, but.... Priest seemed to get a big bogged down in mythological minutae in the last part of Book 3. :)

I'll give you the leads -- pretty decent acting from both. The problem is even they can't save the rest of it. Especially as most of the rest of the cast's performance even drags theirs down.

Plus, that it's set in a different world than the novel and with plot points that don't make a lot of sense due to said change, for anyone who has read the exceptionally good novel series, this is just like nails scraping down a blackboard.

I would imagine even Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long are probably upset that they agreed to do this, as it ended up so poorly done.

A real shame as I enjoyed the Guardian books (not my favorite danmei series, as it becomes very confusing in the last book when Priest digs into the mythology a bit too much). But this I couldn't stomach past Episode 2.

It honestly reminds me of the British cult classic Doctor Who (back in the 1970s not the newer episodes), which also deals with sci-fi and sometimes mythology, as the acting was hammy and the special effects in those were awful too.

50 years later, and this is the quality they managed to come up with :(

IMO, The Untamed is far far better - the plot is more interesting, the acting is even better, the cinematography is gorgeous. This one I'm struggling to get passed Episode 5 as it's just not interesting. Yet at least.

The production on this is HORRIBLY cheap, the special effects are laughably bad (the high school kids I used to teach could do better) and the acting is terrible.

Zero idea if this gets better as I'm only on Ep 2 but, so far, it's not great. Xin Peng's acting is the worst of the lot but, Ye Gods, most of them are awful -- which makes it really really hard to watch.

EDIT: Nope, dropping it. Worst acting I've seen in a looooong time, and it's all just so cheap and badly done. What a shame. A brilliant novel series devolved into hot garbage. Priest, the author, must have been so upset.

The soundtrack, btw, is exceptionally good -- been playing it on repeat on Spotify for several days, but man it deserved a better drama.

Must depend on where you are in Europe. I'm in Austria and it's available here.

Depends on the region. I pay for WeTV, but it's not available in mine (Austria).

The Korean fan world is incredibly toxic. A lot of them seem to be pathetic little people with no lives, so they take out their disappointments on actors who aren't "perfect". Who the hell is?

Personally, I couldn't care less if Jung Woo Sung has a child out of marriage or not. It happens to hundreds of millions of people around the world every year as condoms break, the woman forgot to take her birth control, or isn't on the birth control she says she is etc.

I judge him by his amazing body of work, his talent, and what an incredible amount of work he does for charity. And that you cannot find anyone in the Korean entertainment industry who says a bad word about him, as he is genuinely just a nice and kind person.

So he has a child out of wedlock but, unlike tens of millions of other men, he stood up, admitted it and said he will pay for his child's upbringing. Good for him.

Yep. Same person shows up on 1/2 the dramas released whining about how "boring" they are. Doesn't seem to realize they're just proving they are a shallow, not particularly intelligent person who, apparently, doesn't have much of a life. Sad.

And yep, Parole Examiner Lee is excellent. As is proven by it just grabbing its highest ratings yet in Korea.

Black comedy. If you have that kind of humor, you'll love it (I do, but then again, I'm British ;)

Because some people don't like a drama where they have to use their brain. And yep, it's very entertaining -- well acted, well-written and well-directed.

Excellent first episode. All in for this as it continues.

Loved the manga, and didn't expect to like the drama as I often like the original work more than its adaptation, but this is excellent.
Well cast and well-acted, and it moves fast so it stays interesting throughout. This could go down as one of my favorite Japanese dramas. (And yes, Sakura does become less of an idiot as the story progresses :)

EDIT: Oh and love that they cast Karina as the sister. She was one of my favorite characters in the manga, and Karina has done a brilliant job bringing her to life.

Enjoying this one so far, particularly because Baek Ji Won has a well-deserved main role for once.

Plot is interesting, performances are great (love the cast) and it's pretty decently written so far. Some pretty funny black humor too.

Not surprised it earned the highest rating for a tvN drama in that time slot this year (except one) for its first episode, and that its ratings increased again last night.

Problem with MAL is they have a finite 'Block' function too. I hit the max level a long time ago so am now stuck seeing cancerous people like this one. Ah well :)

What's hilarious too is people like this come on and leave whining comment after whining comment as if a) anyone cares about their opinion and b) as if anyone in the Korean drama industry in particular cares. (Newsflash: they don't even read these comments :)

What a waste of minutes/hours of your life you'll never get back. Hating on someone and just spewing into a black hole of suckage.

And agreed, Baek Ji Won is doing a brilliant job. Happy to see her get a main role for once too. Well deserved.

So glad you like it!! (sorry for late reply!)

And yep, Chinese donghua (anime) is going to be huge in the next few years. Their animation is amazing now, both 3D (like in A Moment But Forever) and traditional animation like we're used to coming out of Japan.

The Chinese government is pumping a HUGE amount of money into Chinese animation studios, so I think you'll see a ton of new shows just as good as this, if not better.

The cast in this is the absolutely bomb. Brilliant casting and performances.