amrita828

Fantastic rant/review.
Very well said. 👏

I have no doubt the reason is explained, but I'm afraid the drama or its characters are doing nothing to make me curious about it.
Opinion, of course.

So true. Tiresome and extremely predictable. Is there even one soul out there who didn't know from the first time they showed a flashback, that the "mysterious" dancer was her past self?
This drama mimics destined with you in almost everything except it is worse acted.
Dropped.

Thank you for your comment, Ioana.
At the time of watching this drama, I remember telling a good friend that the most desirable scenario to me would have been Seung nyang marrying Ta Hwan while having an affair with Tal Tal in that library... 😉

Hormones driven wishes aside, I agree with you Tal Tal is an extremely interesting character, with a true and satisfactory narrative arc.

Thank you for replying without stoning me. 😉
This is definitely not for me, but I can understand the allure of simplicity.
I just find the extremely high rate a bit misleading for anyone who uses the rating as a criterion to choose what to watch - luckily there's always the dropping option.

Goodness gracious, what a bore!
I dropped the drama 'cause I can't fathom what they possibly have to say in 25 episodes.
9.1, really? 😳

😂😂😂😂
One of those reviews which are a far better entertainment than the show itself and wittier than its script. 😁

Ikr?
Not to mention the fact that, on a mere narrative level, the whole dream arc totally interrupted the plot flow. The characters in the dream are not the ones we started to care about, albeit with the same faces - a luke warm care on my part, to be honest, but still. I didn't care for that clam and her war god, so that when the 2 interacted and kissed I felt nothing at all. Enduring 5 whole episodes of silly sexual innuendos (the apple, the "dual-cultivation", the forced marriage) was neither romantic, nor sweet, nor titillating.

Ever wondered what kind of uproar that episode 14 would have caused, had the roles been reverse? If HE had drugged HER and even MUTED her so that she couldn't talk and then exacted his "husband marital rights" on her? There's one simple word describing such a scenario: rape. I don't care a dime whether he was in love with her: she didn't know, after all.
I feel kind of insulted too, as a viewer, that you seem to be the only one on MDL who had the honesty to address this issue - and other observations I'm totally in agreement with.

+100 for this review.

Finally someone is voicing my doubts about this drama.

I agree with you when you say you wished at some point someone had told them to stop. This show is like a fruit salad with all fruit known to mankind mixed together, so in the end one doesn't even recognize the taste of a single one. The logic is so messed up I'm watching without using my brain. For all the CGI they used, they are very sloppy in their editing: take the scene on the boat, for instance. She retreats to the brink, one more step and she's in the water, and yet a second later we see her running, running and again running to finally jump in the water! WHAT, she already was at the very end of the boat where the heck did she run???? There are so many such scenes, I'm honestly laughing like crazy while watching.
That's also the reason why I haven't dropped it yet: it's too outrageously entertaining.

The moral compass and characters motivations are the biggest problem, but it would take 3 pages to discuss them.

Thank you for this honest review.

Me too. The title is a little misleading. 🤭

I enjoyed the drama, but I enjoyed your review just as well.
Sherlock Sigmund da Vinci killed me, lol. A pity one can only upvote a review once.

Lol! I know what you mean. I think their penchant for fashion can be the worst double-edged weapon.

Regarding Binnie's older dramas, Secret Garden is another must, in my book. However, it's definitely a hit or miss: it's quite full of controversial scenes a generation Z may find cliche at best and unbearable at worst.

@Shannon Brown
Older dramas, especially older K-dramas, are much less politically correct than the later ones. If you have issues with things like wrist grabbing or stolen kisses you may find them hard to swallow. Yet, they often had much more solid scripts and created true toe-curling "tension" among the characters.

On my part, I agree with @seOulmate that Coffee Prince is a brilliant drama. It has one of the best collective alchemy and romantic chemistry I've ever watched and believe the way it was filmed and acted aged very well.

@Shannon
So you've never watched "Coffee Prince"? It's a true classic you can't possibly skip as a k-drama fan! 😁

P.S. I have tried Goblin... 3 or 4 times. My best achievement has been reaching episode 10 before dropping it for the fifth time. Can I join the "guilty club"? 😜

Thank you, Juno.
I realize I've been harsh on this one. I liked the first part a lot: it was original in its approach, that's probably why I was so disappointed in this one. "Petty teenager villains with unclear motives" - LOL. So true. :D

I couldn't agree more!

Thank you!
I am not as versed as you are in Chinese dramas and admit I have become quite fastidious, but this one was so badly written - and in part acted - I couldn't let it pass. :P

"You can skip all the rest because as foreshadowed by the eunuch theme, this drama has critical missing parts."

Lmao, this is priceless!
Fantastic review. With all those 10s and 9.5 I started thinking I was the one who missed parts... 😉