If nothing else, its enjoyable
Here I go again: being enjoyable is not the same as being good. "I had fun watching this drama. And I love the actors. Beautiful people. Its a ten!" means nothing. Did you liked it? Maybe you also like hitting puppies, I don't know, so I rather hear about script, directing, visuals, acting, vfx, pacing etc etc. Here, I'll go first.
Visuals. Lots of decent shots, so good cinematography. I could even say that there were a couple of extremely nice shots. The "fireworks" (dunno the proper name but we see them in kdramas a lot) over the water? Or from the Royal Grand Ball (? sorry, forgot how it was called). Yeah, really fantastic shots. And a few couple more. The colour palette was a little drab dare I say, seeing as this has "royalty" subject... You can't go for "natural, modern" vibe when you're introducing a fictional monarchy... So, they should've made it stand out. The class, the wealth, whatever. We do have some, sure. But cmon. I mean, more wouldn't have hurt. Good vfx.
Sound design. Good. I should start with the OP. Very good, very catchy. Both visually and audio. It does its job, getting you pumped-up and ready. So, good job. The rest is ok I guess. Definitely not bad. A special note here, fantastic work for episode 11. This episode is special from multiple standpoints, I'll keep mention it. So, really good work now. From volume levels (some scenes demand to keep it very quiet, and they did it), to different variations of one theme. What I'm trying to say, it is good.
The usual editing. Nothing fancy. Sometimes it feels like it drags, but thats mostly because of the script.
You could say it has a high production value.
And now the good stuff. The script is meh, at best. The concept was weird from the start but you could make it work somehow. Just look at Hallmark and their number of "royal" stories :)) What we got instead, old court drama trying to apply "behind the scenes" battles in modern times. Political games, done poorly. Done poorly as a politician in-universe (lousy politician, if you will), but ALSO as an element in a kdrama (lousy writer). And so, we've got this story full of plot devices and plot contrivances. SO "lucky" that the characters do or say the exact things that will progress the story, otherwise it would've ended too early.
Characters. Well, some decent ones. And the acting was good enough to make them stand out. Actually I am a little bummed regarding some of them. For example, Queen Mama. You wouldn't know it from here, but the actress is good. And here she was made to be just some hysterical, always screaming, crazy mom(?) or something. I really don't know how to describe her. Fortunately, in episode 11 she is let to act at her full potential. That really made me happy. Unfortunately, her acting at full power in scenes with the ML, oof. Its like watching Anthony Hopkings and, dunno, Zendaya. Or maybe Gal Gadot, I should keep the "hot" factor. Even FL starts acting a whole lot better. Obviously, it all drop a bit in the next episode, but still, it was good. Oh, I should also mention here, I'm praising the acting and the sound design, the cinematography etc. The script/plot is sht. Maybe not as broken as before but still bad.
Oh, the pacing. I don't remember if I talked about it. No idea. You get a scene with "we need time" and 10 minutes later (I'm joking, I haven't checked), we are shown that the "later" is here. one week? One month? Who knows.... Same for the world building. We know its about Monarchy and thats it. Its just... there. Thats all. No visits from foreign officials, presidents or royals. Something.... *sigh*
Anyway, lets sum it up. Episode 11 = good. The rest is meh. Good sound design. Good cinematography. Oh, good chemistry between multiple characters. Oh, some decent comedy. I just remembered and I really need to mention it: sht Secret Service/Royal Guards. They are just glorified umbrella holders. And this is not me trying to be funny. Thats all they did properly. No body protection, no security protection in general, not with the car thing, not even not stopping reporters from entering a door. And before someone says something stupid like "well, reporters, you can't be violent against them". Well, at the moment its just a guy with a camera, you don't know if he's in disguise or not... And then 10 more a passing by... Omg, I've forgotten all about this aspect. Oh, and good ending scene. I was hoping for something like that.
It gets a rating of (barely) 6. No rewatch value. Just one good episode doesn't warrant any. You could still watch and enjoy it, obviously. I'm not saying that the kdrama being bad means you should stay clear... just know that some stuff won't make sense, thats all. It looks and sound fine, I guess. So if you like superficial things, it works just fine.
Have a lovely evening.
Visuals. Lots of decent shots, so good cinematography. I could even say that there were a couple of extremely nice shots. The "fireworks" (dunno the proper name but we see them in kdramas a lot) over the water? Or from the Royal Grand Ball (? sorry, forgot how it was called). Yeah, really fantastic shots. And a few couple more. The colour palette was a little drab dare I say, seeing as this has "royalty" subject... You can't go for "natural, modern" vibe when you're introducing a fictional monarchy... So, they should've made it stand out. The class, the wealth, whatever. We do have some, sure. But cmon. I mean, more wouldn't have hurt. Good vfx.
Sound design. Good. I should start with the OP. Very good, very catchy. Both visually and audio. It does its job, getting you pumped-up and ready. So, good job. The rest is ok I guess. Definitely not bad. A special note here, fantastic work for episode 11. This episode is special from multiple standpoints, I'll keep mention it. So, really good work now. From volume levels (some scenes demand to keep it very quiet, and they did it), to different variations of one theme. What I'm trying to say, it is good.
The usual editing. Nothing fancy. Sometimes it feels like it drags, but thats mostly because of the script.
You could say it has a high production value.
And now the good stuff. The script is meh, at best. The concept was weird from the start but you could make it work somehow. Just look at Hallmark and their number of "royal" stories :)) What we got instead, old court drama trying to apply "behind the scenes" battles in modern times. Political games, done poorly. Done poorly as a politician in-universe (lousy politician, if you will), but ALSO as an element in a kdrama (lousy writer). And so, we've got this story full of plot devices and plot contrivances. SO "lucky" that the characters do or say the exact things that will progress the story, otherwise it would've ended too early.
Characters. Well, some decent ones. And the acting was good enough to make them stand out. Actually I am a little bummed regarding some of them. For example, Queen Mama. You wouldn't know it from here, but the actress is good. And here she was made to be just some hysterical, always screaming, crazy mom(?) or something. I really don't know how to describe her. Fortunately, in episode 11 she is let to act at her full potential. That really made me happy. Unfortunately, her acting at full power in scenes with the ML, oof. Its like watching Anthony Hopkings and, dunno, Zendaya. Or maybe Gal Gadot, I should keep the "hot" factor. Even FL starts acting a whole lot better. Obviously, it all drop a bit in the next episode, but still, it was good. Oh, I should also mention here, I'm praising the acting and the sound design, the cinematography etc. The script/plot is sht. Maybe not as broken as before but still bad.
Oh, the pacing. I don't remember if I talked about it. No idea. You get a scene with "we need time" and 10 minutes later (I'm joking, I haven't checked), we are shown that the "later" is here. one week? One month? Who knows.... Same for the world building. We know its about Monarchy and thats it. Its just... there. Thats all. No visits from foreign officials, presidents or royals. Something.... *sigh*
Anyway, lets sum it up. Episode 11 = good. The rest is meh. Good sound design. Good cinematography. Oh, good chemistry between multiple characters. Oh, some decent comedy. I just remembered and I really need to mention it: sht Secret Service/Royal Guards. They are just glorified umbrella holders. And this is not me trying to be funny. Thats all they did properly. No body protection, no security protection in general, not with the car thing, not even not stopping reporters from entering a door. And before someone says something stupid like "well, reporters, you can't be violent against them". Well, at the moment its just a guy with a camera, you don't know if he's in disguise or not... And then 10 more a passing by... Omg, I've forgotten all about this aspect. Oh, and good ending scene. I was hoping for something like that.
It gets a rating of (barely) 6. No rewatch value. Just one good episode doesn't warrant any. You could still watch and enjoy it, obviously. I'm not saying that the kdrama being bad means you should stay clear... just know that some stuff won't make sense, thats all. It looks and sound fine, I guess. So if you like superficial things, it works just fine.
Have a lovely evening.
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