This review may contain spoilers
Big Budget, Big Disappointment
I started watching it with excitement, thinking I would get to see beautifully written characters in beautiful clothes. But nope, that was not the case.
Initially, it seemed as though Sung Hui-Ju was a no-nonsense character, and she gave as good as she got, but we never saw that throughout the drama. In fact, she cowered when confronted with the marriage contract by the media. The only time we see her show "power" is when it was directed at her family. She never thought anyone in the palace a lesson. She was played like a fiddle. I was expecting a showdown between her and the queen mother. The only thing she managed to do at the palace against the enemies was donate to the palace when they needed funding and play the recording of the prime minister. I only saw a flashy character with no strength.
For Prince I-an, the queen mother was right; their bloodline was weak. The only person he punished was Lord Inpyeong, and I am sure it was because the Queen Mother insisted. I would have expected him to show us that he would have made a better monarch than his brother and his nephew before proposing abolishing it. Because he said he was coveting the position initially.
Hui-ju got the short end of the stick from her contract with the Prince because she never used the power marrying him gave her before he proposed to abolish the monarchy. At the end, he became a jobless bum living off his wife. As her brother said, she likes the trophy type.
The drama had actors like Jo Jae-yoon, who everyone knows can play a very good, love-to-hate villain. But we didn't see him do anything else, though trying to kill the Prince is significant, but it didn't feel enough. And there were a lot of under-utilised actors. Like the King's maid, Hui-ju's father, the royal secretary, and many more.
Generally, Korean dramas need to stick to 16 episodes because their stories can be so rich compared to their Western counterparts that squeezing them into the 12-episode format will end up destroying the industry. I would like to think the emptiness of the plot was due to them having to edit a lot of things and remove parts that could have given the drama more flesh.
Just my 2-cents. Also, we don't get to see what happened with the prime minister. He did try to kill the Prince and blackmailed someone from the royal family.
Initially, it seemed as though Sung Hui-Ju was a no-nonsense character, and she gave as good as she got, but we never saw that throughout the drama. In fact, she cowered when confronted with the marriage contract by the media. The only time we see her show "power" is when it was directed at her family. She never thought anyone in the palace a lesson. She was played like a fiddle. I was expecting a showdown between her and the queen mother. The only thing she managed to do at the palace against the enemies was donate to the palace when they needed funding and play the recording of the prime minister. I only saw a flashy character with no strength.
For Prince I-an, the queen mother was right; their bloodline was weak. The only person he punished was Lord Inpyeong, and I am sure it was because the Queen Mother insisted. I would have expected him to show us that he would have made a better monarch than his brother and his nephew before proposing abolishing it. Because he said he was coveting the position initially.
Hui-ju got the short end of the stick from her contract with the Prince because she never used the power marrying him gave her before he proposed to abolish the monarchy. At the end, he became a jobless bum living off his wife. As her brother said, she likes the trophy type.
The drama had actors like Jo Jae-yoon, who everyone knows can play a very good, love-to-hate villain. But we didn't see him do anything else, though trying to kill the Prince is significant, but it didn't feel enough. And there were a lot of under-utilised actors. Like the King's maid, Hui-ju's father, the royal secretary, and many more.
Generally, Korean dramas need to stick to 16 episodes because their stories can be so rich compared to their Western counterparts that squeezing them into the 12-episode format will end up destroying the industry. I would like to think the emptiness of the plot was due to them having to edit a lot of things and remove parts that could have given the drama more flesh.
Just my 2-cents. Also, we don't get to see what happened with the prime minister. He did try to kill the Prince and blackmailed someone from the royal family.
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