Yllejord

It started out really strong, then dissolved into deus ex machina (often literally) solutions, childish female lead and a healthy dose of repetitiveness.
Characters disappear, for others to appear out of nowhere.
Frustratingly, one more of those dramas with wasted potential. How come there's so many of them?

This was kind of dreadful. Finished it, though. There were some good bits.

What a rare and thoroughly enjoyable drama. Although it does get pretty dark at times.

Only a final post-credit scene. Hardly a cliffhanger.

The male lead is too unbelievable to be a courageous and righteous lawyer, in that case.
This critique is groundless.

Why, this film is perfect.
No, really, I find no faults. It sets up a plan, it follows it, with light, delicate yet steady balance, like a gisaeng's dance.
No notes.

Maybe, I mean maybe, if you're making a show about how "the people are the true king of this nation and their fate is in their hands"
... then don't make it about this one individual who is so wonderful, that said people willingly follow him like a cult leader.
Turns out, you can have the worst kind of white saviour story even when everyone's the same ethnicity, just as long as you're classist enough.

If originality was necessary for a good story, we would not enjoy anything. Only the occasional original story that comes every five years or so. Whole genres, romcoms, action, horror, would be worthless.
You yourself find My country a masterpiece although as a story, it is far from original.
My problem with it was not the lack of originality but the obvious heavy cuts they did in order to shorten the runtime. It was too rushed *for a drama.* While not the writer's fault, probably the studio execs', the end result suffered from it. I could see the potential, but would not call it a masterpiece.

Let's have a look at this nobleman. He befriends his slave, against everyone's discouragement and admonition. That's not evil.
But they both live in an unjust system. The nobleman is pressed to dehumanise his friend and the slave is at the receiving end of injustice and violence. Anger is a natural consequence. The slave curses the nobleman and all his family in a moment of high emotion. We see later that he doesn't really mean it, when he tries to save the wife and baby.
The wife dies as she has lived, a proper Confucian lady. Also a product of the evil system. Of course the nobleman is upset. He lost his family. Is he a little *too* fast to believe in the slave's guilt? Sure, but that's there to show how the evil system has ground down his defences after all. Living in it has not left him unaffected.
He still wears the red ribbon around his hand, though.

I made two points in direct answer to your "it lacked originality".
Also, a reminder that you can't really compare a film to dramas. Different forms of storytelling.
Three arguments in five lines of text and you're telling me I'm avoiding debate.

Those are dramas, deeply flawed ones at that.

Originality is not necessary at all for a good story. The same stories are told again and again. This one is well told.
The nobleman is not "evil" in this story, the whole system is. All the characters act in accordance with this main theme, a sure sign of a well-crafted plot.
Anyway, you didn't like it, it wasn't for you. That's fine.

Yes, and also court politics. But ultimately he fails, and for the people this is what matters, the results, not the intentions.
I think the film did a good job with this particular point by not making him moustache-twirling evil. His actions are shown as a combination of cowardice, simple incompetence, and how convinced he is by his own rationalisation: But I'm doing the right thing, this is what Confucius says!

This is one great film. Nothing to complain about. Loved it.

He did leave the palace to save himself, when the Japanese invaded and he did focus on rebuilding when his people were starving. Which part did you find historically inacurate?

The ending was infuriating to me. The family patriarch, who was the sole source of all the suffering in this story, ends up receiving the love and reverence of the people he wronged.
Fine, but his nephew/heir, who only followed said patriarch's teachings and example, gets a nasty comeuppance.
I don't think that villainous antagonists must necessarily be punished. I just want to see some consistency.
Is it cultural, like, the patriarch is too much of a sacred cow and we can't show that on tv?

I liked this one better than both Princess' man and Dong Yi.
People like different things.

Is Baek Daegil the most tortured, beaten, stabbed and otherwise abused character in any media ever?

It depends on whether you think the fabulous cast can save this cliché soup or not, I guess.
You made the wiser decision.

Nope, not for me. Managed up to episode 10, should have dropped earlier.

I don't get all the praise. This was a rough watch for me.
People who enjoy your typical romance with all of the tropes will love it, I guess.
The last three episodes were fine, I guess. Too little too late.

Right. I was very excited to watch it, thinking it will be about the, you know, maids, but nope. The leads were a noble woman, the perfect confucian young lady no less, and the son of the freaking king.
Very disappointing.