This review may contain spoilers
What to Make out of this Drama? Mostly Left Me Feeling Clueless
I started watching this drama when it was still airing. They had only released 6 episodes till then. I loved the stupid, quirky charm of the FL so much that I binge-watched 4 episodes in one sitting, and decided to wait until the rest of the episodes were out. Then I would sit and binge-watch the whole thing all at once. So I waited for 2 long weeks. Finally, when I got to starting the series again, I decided to parse through the previous episodes as a recap. And then from the 5th episode onwards, it somehow started getting weird, and it just got weirder and weirder by the minute.
Things that I liked:
1. Sex positivity: It was so good and refreshing to see proper kissing on screen, and two grown-up characters getting into the action without the whole sloooooooowwwwww "stolen glances, chases, hand grabs" and all that slow burn romance cliches. They knew they liked it and they went for it. Need more sex positive representations on screen like these.
2. Lead couple's romance/chemistry: Very corny, but cute. Also their romance was pretty straightforward from the get-go. No additional fluff and drama, so if you want to watch two opposite characters remain in love, this was a pretty good instance of that. Also amazing chemistry between the two.
3. Side characters: They spent enough time talking about the side characters and their story arcs, and I appreciate that.
4. "Everyone is a lead character in their own drama": This was the best line in the whole series. I wish they explored this idea in more details instead of focusing on 50 things very superficially. Like, why does the ML's best friend have a difficult dynamics at home; what is the relationship between Jo Eunae and her father. But points to the writers for thinking of new concepts to explore, I guess.
Things that I didn't like:
1. Wafer-thin plot: The plot of the story ends by the time the two of them decide to get together (somewhere around ep. 6). After that, the plot is just paper-thin. The palace intrigue has no bulk to it, random foreigner angle has no resolution (didn't make any sense at all).
2. Random kid/shaman author figure: I get it, the writers wanted to bring an additional "divine intervention" angle to the story, to tweak the story towards its happy endings, but was it necessary? I didn't see the point of any of the interactions that the leads had with the kid/shaman/deity character.
3. Second Prince: Why introduce him in the last section of the story, when he had the potential to be a bigger, more menacing presence throughout the series? Made no sense. His whole story arc had so much potential, but it just was wasted thanks to the coyingly sweet romance time of the lead couple.
4. Ending: The ending was weird, the switches between the two 'Cha Sunchaek's were very random with zero explanation on either end.
Bottom line, the series had the potential to be better, but got lost midway in trying to resolve the transmigration problem. Overall, a one-time watch, bearable thanks to Taecyeon's stoic face and Seohyun's quirky charm.
Things that I liked:
1. Sex positivity: It was so good and refreshing to see proper kissing on screen, and two grown-up characters getting into the action without the whole sloooooooowwwwww "stolen glances, chases, hand grabs" and all that slow burn romance cliches. They knew they liked it and they went for it. Need more sex positive representations on screen like these.
2. Lead couple's romance/chemistry: Very corny, but cute. Also their romance was pretty straightforward from the get-go. No additional fluff and drama, so if you want to watch two opposite characters remain in love, this was a pretty good instance of that. Also amazing chemistry between the two.
3. Side characters: They spent enough time talking about the side characters and their story arcs, and I appreciate that.
4. "Everyone is a lead character in their own drama": This was the best line in the whole series. I wish they explored this idea in more details instead of focusing on 50 things very superficially. Like, why does the ML's best friend have a difficult dynamics at home; what is the relationship between Jo Eunae and her father. But points to the writers for thinking of new concepts to explore, I guess.
Things that I didn't like:
1. Wafer-thin plot: The plot of the story ends by the time the two of them decide to get together (somewhere around ep. 6). After that, the plot is just paper-thin. The palace intrigue has no bulk to it, random foreigner angle has no resolution (didn't make any sense at all).
2. Random kid/shaman author figure: I get it, the writers wanted to bring an additional "divine intervention" angle to the story, to tweak the story towards its happy endings, but was it necessary? I didn't see the point of any of the interactions that the leads had with the kid/shaman/deity character.
3. Second Prince: Why introduce him in the last section of the story, when he had the potential to be a bigger, more menacing presence throughout the series? Made no sense. His whole story arc had so much potential, but it just was wasted thanks to the coyingly sweet romance time of the lead couple.
4. Ending: The ending was weird, the switches between the two 'Cha Sunchaek's were very random with zero explanation on either end.
Bottom line, the series had the potential to be better, but got lost midway in trying to resolve the transmigration problem. Overall, a one-time watch, bearable thanks to Taecyeon's stoic face and Seohyun's quirky charm.
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