MiyamotoMusashi

That´s one reason, the other is that you simply can expect to get a fully conclusive story in the first air time, which is a motive behind watching dramas in the first place.

The focus and subject matter shifted a bit in season 2, so people expecting something similar might be disappointed.
That´s just about expectations though, and not about the actual quality of the show.

True, not everything can be as good as previous projects, but the general feel, the quality of dialogue, and featuring a tight group of friends, yep it delivered on that.
Reply 1994 was not as good as 97, let alone 88, it´s still a very good show for example.
Plus PP had more episodes and more length in those episodes, meaning twice the time basically.
Having said that, i do not like the Season approach, it is one of the main things of K-Dramas to have a show conclude with its first air time, i hope it will not become a trend.

It does not go the usual and overdone good and bad route but just depicts the repercussions of being morally compromised, and the implications of it both on your character itself but on people and things you can influence.
So in that sense, it is a very mature approach and delves into the corruption topic in a low-key but ultimately more impactful way.

Of course it means that. I can´t and do not pretend to make an all-knowing and encompassing description and assessment of a fictional work, but i am judging it based on my opinion and views, and also within the context of how it was perceived and rated by others, so yes, it literally becomes overrated in my book, the word meaning it is rated higher than it should be in my opinion. I do not really understand your qualms with the word to be honest.
What the rating suggests is a masterpiece, what i got was above average drama that had its weakness in the last third.

This is a question or preference, not quality. It is obvious people have a differing sense of investment in consuming fictional works, some people specifically look for certain things and ignore other things that maybe were not done so well because it delivered on the aspects they look for, or just want comfort food really in which they can predict everything that is going to happen and do not want to be challenged and engaged and so forth, there are many different viewers. But, and i am only speaking for myself, i am not talking about such sense of preference, while i obviously do have my preferences as well, i do not judge something based on them because it would be unfair to it, but how well it achieves and executes what it wants to do. So it´s not about the what but the how and why. To apply that to Flower of Evil and your previous comment, of course the supporting and realistic romance between them is noteworthy, especially compared to other overdrawn romances in other dramas, but does that aspect justify the rating? No, there are other things.
To be also fair, of course something should be judged based on what it is and what it wants to achieve with its narration within its own genre (even further, technical stuff like camera angle and focus, OST and so on, but that exceeds the limits here), so for example, someone expecting complete realism before going into a Makjang, a clear genre in which everything is purposely exaggerated, is unfair and would not have a point.
Having said that, i went into the show without any expectation of the narration and its genre, i hardly read the description, but just watched it based on the hype and rating it received here.
And what i saw was a clear disparity between the grounded and realistic first 10 episodes in which you have intelligent characters in a cat-and-mouse game with the additional, intriguing dynamic of a married couple that seemed completely in love and trust with each other, having such a thing revealed and cast upon them, to, starting with episode 11, traditional Makjang acting and behavior, intelligence of its character dropping down, contradictions to the first 10 episodes in both narration and tone and the list goes on.
These things are not explained by "well it´s a melodrama from the get-go, what you expect?" when the first 10 episodes were almost completely different in all the aspects i have mentioned a few times, so yeah, that does not really work.
When you have a characters who has been mostly pretending his emotions for the first 10 episodes and was depicted to be low-key and calm suddenly burst into shivering tears without and build-up or progression towards it, it does not work.
We can continue with this but i doubt we will come to a agreement in regards to the shift.

Criteria of A or B is irrelevant since i am judging it for myself obviously, and also see if others felt the same, which seemed to be the case. Like i said above, different focus or preferences of people can come into it, this has no bearing on my opinion that it is overrated though.

Like i said before, i am not judging it confined by my own preferences, expectations and wishes, but within the frame the drama set up itself in. I am not going to a rom-com and then complain about unrealistic romantic developments for example, that´s different.
And i do not agree with judging and rating fictional works within their genre only because different genres can not be compared, but we are basically judging the best of the genres, at least we should be, and then people can pick whatever genre they prefer.

I pretty much articulated my criticism of the show, i do not think there is much room for interpretation in that regard.

Well, judging someone´s actions and behavior based on what you would or would not do, in this case calling something overrated, is an aspect of arrogance, hence high horse, even if your intentions were different.
Your tone was ok and there was no insults, but that´s not the point.

Ah yes, like i said, the first 10 episodes were breathtaking with the premise, the execution, suspense, the mature romance and so forth.
For those 10 episodes, the rating is arguably justified, but it stopped being that from episode 11 and turned into something we have seen many times before and is more appropriate for the average thriller K-Drama and also Makjang.
The tone, intelligence and behavior of characters and so forth, simply did not fit that anymore, hence my opinion on it.
I don´t have a problem with the happy ending, i rooted for it as well since the main character, besides the dead, is the biggest victim in all this, but how we got there, the stuff with the accomplice, him getting outsmarted, the couple reaching a stage of complete trust, but then suddenly losing that trust again, the overdramatized acting that required a character to cry their eyes out every 5 minutes, and other stuff, signified a significant drop in ingenuity, consistency and execution.
If people were not bothered by it, more power to you, liking it is not a bad thing, but it was not that for me.
Considering the majority of dramas are cheaply produced, overacted and run off the mill story, it´s a no-brainer it is better than most, but there is a big difference between above average and masterpiece.

First, let´s get off the high horse, shall we?

Second, this is a rating site, the ratings have a meaning and express the superiority of dramas through those ratings. And the purpose for that is to show possible new viewers recommendations based on that rating, while showing appreciation for the work itself that is warranted by the quality presented. While one might say "who cares, this is a English site and has no bearing on the industry and the people who work on these dramas" (while that is becoming less and less true since the overseas industry, especially the English-speaking one, has become a good market for K-Dramas, hence why streaming services like Netflix more and more invest in them), it is still important to show the appropriate amount of praise for something that is worthy of that praise, and in this case it is not in my view, that simple, while better done shows which have a much more well thought out narration and well done execution might get overshadowed by FoE´s rating which in my eyes should be corrected, otherwise the entire rating system is pointless anyway. And so, while i do only have one voice, expressing that is perfectly within reason and my right, while possibly exchanging views with people who might feel the same way and stop being the circlejerk that it mostly is.

So let´s stop being sensitive and expect criticism even if you disagree with it. What the majority thinks or feels has no bearing on my views, except, admittedly, i only watched the show based on the rating since i do not usually, actively inform myself about upcoming dramas, so i usually look what new drama is creating a hype and has a good rating and go from there, and this time the show failed to justify the rating it has.

1.) Flower or Evil stayed below the expectations, partly the ones created by the forum, but also the ones the drama itself set out in the beginning but was not able to keep.

3.) Hospital Playlist: Already expected the best considering the writer´s track record, was not disappointed

17.) Same as Playlist, from the first season, it showed the writer´s capabilities, and it continued with season 2, masterpiece.

Have not seen anything else on the list, just shows how much watching i need to do in the little time i have...

1) Pretty much main problem with majority of K-Dramas. They have a traditional episode count that is the norm in the industry, but might not actually fit the story at hand, so the dragging starts and what could have been a really fulfilling drama turns out like many before.

2.) I do not have a problem with this one if the connection to the first male lead is done well. For example, you can´t name Crash Landing on You here since he was neither particularly rude, just suspicious considering what he got taught in his life, nor did the second lead fit better to her.
But yeah, there are some cases in which this does happen and the second male lead was much better but it´s rare, most examples people use for "second male lead syndrome" i tend to disagree with.

3.) I think this is universally hated.

4.) Never understood this one. Why associate romance with children, and why completely ignore who knows how many years of potential experiences.

5.) Just like 3.

I guess i gotta be the party pooper again...
I think the drama is overrated since it feels like the first episodes raised expectations (admittedly, they were really good, pulled you in immediately) that the latter episodes could not fulfill.
The first 9-10 episodes were top notch drama entertainment, the premise was bold, the acting was spot-on, gotta praise especially Lee Joon-Gi for his performance in those episodes, the combination of murder mystery, romantic drama and psychological exploration of its main character were unique and always kept you at the edge of your seat, the episodes just flew by.
Then starting with episode 11, there was a significant drop in quality, whether it was overacting (suddenly everyone started acting like it is a 90s Makjang, especially Lee Joon-Gi whose character suddenly made a 180 degrees turn), characters becoming more stupid to fit the plot, completely predictable "twists", and events that have been done thousand times before in the same or similar fashion (not only the you know what in the last episode but everything before post episode 10), which is a stark contrast to both the unique premise before, and also the grounded style of dialogue and behavior of the characters before episode 11.
To me, it seems like the writer had a really good and unique premise in mind, was able to realize it up to a certain point, but did not know how to finish it and hence had to go back to usual and overdone tropes that did not really fit with the first half/60% of the drama but still was inoffensive enough to not warrant an outcry, and that feeling and impression is substantiated by her writing history.

So the verdict is, it is still definitely recommendable, even the latter episodes are better than most dramas out there obviously, but the rating on this site suggests a consistent masterpiece (literally the 4th highest rated drama on this site), which simply does not reflect reality and its actual quality, so it´s more hype than anything.
As usual, the ratings on this site are hit and miss for me, and this one is an example of a miss.
7.5-8.0/10

Yes they have but nevertheless, i doubt it will change anything for you.
It´s really a polarizing thing and depends on what you look for in a love story or heck, in love yourself. I think JH was the traditional grand love story of "the one that got away" whereas DT story was much more grounded and creeped up on you, but in the end hit very hard.

This was already the case when he woke up, dude was in a coma for 12 years or so, there is no significant muscle tissue left, he literally can´t move a muscle...
There are cases of people being in a coma for 10 days or so and losing the ability to walk since their leg muscles atrophied to a stage in which they needed to relearn it (muscle memory).
It simply did not fit with a drama that has been pretty realistic and down to earth in its writing.

Yep My Mister was great, but it is one of many really, but definitely one of the best.

Dont have to be for the most part, there are a few writers i would look out for but besides that, i think the scoring list on this site is not bad in choosing dramas, though there are a few exceptions of course.

Well their history is relatively new, but they are trying to go beyond the usual k-drama formula and give more freedom. The big traditional networks of course have a greater history, and they also have the mammoth historical dramas on their belt.

Yep partly, read about and from the real guy as well, also the novel Musashi.

People feel comfortable with known and predictable rather than feel challenged or surprised by something knew, at least often that is the case.
Plus limited thinking and imagination when they are confronted with somethinf new. Just experienced that recently while watching Six Flying Dragons and saw how people expect the traditional good vs evil thing and the drama was much more complicated than that, yet they were still asking who the bad guy is.

Tired of cliched plot points and so forth so completely agree.

This drama was a mess. Many things have been mentioned below, basically

1) the main characters really act illogically and like children in a world and context in which every action influences the fate of the country and with that the people, while pursuing personal agendas, but they constantly pretend they are up to the task somehow and they are doing the right thing, while being hypocritical with their actions.
Also a lot of illogical behavior and plot points, which the viewer just has to accept without thinking too much, otherwise your suspense of disbelief is gone. I will not mention spoilers, but i at least had 2 instances in each episode in which i thought "you can´t be serious".
Also the friendship loses credibility pretty early on, yet you need to pretend it´s something valuable for the drama to work, and i could not do that. Honestly, i was happy it ended the way it did.

2) The drama basically intertwines a personal story of fictional characters with a real historical context, and it is obvious the writers expect the viewer to know everything about the historical events, and hence does not remotely try to build them up in his world, but just lets the event unfold and lets the characters act and react to them. Sometimes he even completely ignores very crucial stuff and mentions them on the side.
This does not work remotely, since even knowing about the events (the Korean viewers probably know everything since it is a crucial part of history i would presume, but English viewers are losing pretty much if they do not have the knowledge, i fortunately did, otherwise the experience of watching would have been even worse), an emotional connection to said events and the characters in them can never be achieved, so it feels empty.

3) The OST, for the most part, was completely out of place and inappropriate for the respective situations. I can guess they tried something different with the OST, but besides one distinct exception (Lee Bang Won theme), it fails completely.

Positive aspects
- Incredible production value (i read 17 million dollars) which can be seen from the get-go, the camera shots (a one take of an entire battle for example), costumes, the action (which was pretty much the best i have seen in a K-Drama, whether it´s arrows or swordfighting), all these were top-notch. And at least in this aspect the main characters delivered, unfortunately they were not up to the task in the emotional stuff.

- The older supporting cast was great and really played the younger ones to the wall, especially Jang Hyuk, who pretty much remained the main reason for me to finish the drama, he was exceptional and stole every scene he was in.
It´s time he gets a main role in a huge production again, last great stuff with him i saw was Money Flower.


So honoring the great technical stuff and Jang Hyuk´s performance, i give it a 6.0/10, definitely overrated score on this site.

This was a good drama, albeit a bit overrated looking at the score.
First off, this is not really the story of Hong Gil Dong like the other dramas, but basically how he became Hong Gil Dong, sounds like it´s basically the same, it is not. He basically becomes Hong Gil Dong, meaning the dude fighting for the people, 2 thirds into the story, before feels like a backstory to that. It´s not a big problem, since his backstory is pretty interesting and emotional, nevertheless for people who might expect ass-kicking from the get-go, just a warning.

The main criticism is two parted, first the many coincidences and forced situations to connect the characters which really stretch the suspense of disbelief, and then the almost comical villains at times, which is starkly contrasted with their actions and what it leads to.
Additionally, the romance is a bit thin to be honest.

But the themes, the interaction of the main character and especially the Hong gang, the action and the OST were superb, so i would give it a 7.5-8.0/10.

tvn has been dominating the drama quality for years, i do not know how it is regarding ratings and success in Korea itself, especially since network channels enjoy the trust of older people, but quality-wise, tvN is far ahead. You can just click on tvN above and look at the dramas.

It´s small but it is not insignificant, meaning it has both a big effect on the narrative and the main character

She never said she does not want to be a concubine though, that is where you are mistaken.
It started with "you are a noble and someone powerful,.i dislike you", whereas Bang Won always said that he is not like the other nobles which was and still is true to be honest. But that was not because she would have been a concubine, but because she projected all the heinous things the other nobles did on Bang Won. Then they got closer but the great cause was the priority, and then Bang Won started to drift away from the rest of the organization ( when he heard what the 5 rules are).
And in the end, too much stuff happened and they had their own things to do.

So while class difference played a role, it was not the main problem after Boon got to know Bang Won.