Don't be fooled by the silly outrage, it's a good watch
I will preface this by saying that i haven't watched many K-dramas, so I review this show at face value.All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the drama. It was a captivating watch, I really enjoyed the storyline and the buildup of the story and characters. It is a silly and whimsical drama with some really nice visuals, beautiful music, funny comedy, and great acting and chemistry between the leads. I personally enjoy slow buildups and didn't at any point feel like the story dragged.
Some people might find the main roles abit jarring and not as traditionally romantic, as they are both morally gray, but I felt like it was played off well, apart from some inconsistencies in the writing of the genie.
I see alot of outrage in the reviews about "misappropriation" of islamic theology, but i find this ridiculous. Nowhere does this drama claim to be a religious drama and a representation of Islam, it is a fictional story. All stories created out there, are more or less inspired or based off religious theology, wether its the bible or the quoran or any other religious texts. There are many many examples of beloved movies created inspired from or based on biblical stories, so why Islam is treated as more sacrilegious by the critiquers in a completely fictional creation, i will never understand.
Religious texts are inherently telling stories of human lives and their relationships with eachother, the earth and greater purposes, so it is completely normal that writers take inspiration from these.
That was my little tangent.
All in all, really enjoyed the drama, and definitely recommend watching!
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A messy plot with decent actors and missed opportunities
For a drama with such a nice title, I was expecting something abit more mature.It is clear that they went with an overall direction that is meant to please younger audiences with over the top editing, slow mow, fighting scenes, visual effects, stylish poses etc. Same with how they directed the FL and ML and their romance.
The show had many good premises, but it ended up being an absolute mess of story line.
1. Forced arranged marriage where a smart and defiant FL is not scared of ML, eventually aligning in solving cases together.
2. An empress dowager regent trying to fend off the wolves and protecting the throne for her grandson whilst also trying to promote women into power and Official positions.
3. Marshall Xu raising a bottom up police force to fight off the crimes of the nobles.
4. A sect spreading throughout the state brainwashing people and threatening the safety of the state and the throne
Any of these premises would have worked as a great drama in itself, but combined together, it was very chaotic. I definitely feel like it's a wasted potential, I wish the story line was consolidated and targeted towards more mature audiences. If they truly wanted to go with a silly romance and over the top action with good looking actors, they didn't need to go with such a convoluted plot.
Now, in terms of the premise of the show, FL acts according to her age, she is supposed to be young and willfull, so they went in that direction both woth how she acts and the romance itself. The actress in real life is very young, so making it the most sexy, steamy drama isn't very fitting in this instance. The story itself would have worked if the FL was older, almost considered "spinster" in those times. It would have been fun to see a "discarded" FL that has career ambitions slowly win over the scary and unapproachable ML. No need for the childhood connection.
There are some really interesting characters in the show, the actors do great/decent job. I appreciate some of the storylines in the drama, like FLs family and the empress dowager regent. It's a drama that is totally fine to watch in the background, but has little rewatch value, and relies on many tired tropes and this very empty feminism agenda.
I would give this a 6.5/10 in MDL scale. I fastforwarded alot of the last 10 episodes, because most of the scenes didnt really add much to the story.
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