This review may contain spoilers
Taming of the Tyrant
This is the first role of Yoona's that I've enjoyed. 3 star Michelin Chef Yeon Ji Yeong is exactly skilled and audacious enough to root for as she navigates surviving the past she time travelled to. The show takes the path of the main character not caring about butterfly effect of straight up telling people she's from the future and in fact deliberately tries to change historical events. She's all about culinary science not mathematical theories. It does bring about the hilarious way that it shows enormous skill and a dash of pretty privilege to go around saying something that sounds insane to both ancient and modern people alike since she's so good at being a chef. I really enjoy how all the food contest and meal prep and eating scenes moves seamlessly with the overarching relationship developments and palace intrigue plots.
I'm neutral to the romance pairing of the leads, it's serviceable. It was silly to make the Chef Yeon 27 instead of the actress's actual age around the time of filming which was probably 34/35. King Yi Heon mentioned she's "older" than she looks and appointed her in charge of the palace kitchen. It wouldn't have mattered if she was playing her actual age, she would have still been appointed the gig. The flashbacks of previously shown scenes during the romance moments was too repetitive and time wasting though. The drama needed to trust that the present scene of the leads developing their bond is enough. I also would have rather the screen time went to showing a bit of Ji Yeong's time dealing with the power dynamics in the modern kitchens where she alluded she sharpened her abilities not just to craft and innovate meals, but to deal with bullies ancient and modern alike.
Killing off the amiable court lady food tester and the head Eunuch was a good move to show the stakes of the rebellion. The kitchen folk should have been too, though I get why the show saved them for the kicthen/jester/loyal guard/ inventor man team up with the deposed King Yi Heon. It's good that that Yi Heon did recognize that he did some really horrible things like ordering the deaths a lot of people in the course of his revenge when facing down his devious uncle. He should have also been sorry for literally kidnapping and terrorizing a whole nation of his own female citizens until he got obsessed with a magical time travel chef. It's annoying enough that Ji Yeong gets kidnapped in the rescue stand off, but then she unties herself and stands there and shouts at Yi Heon, distracting him when he's fighting alone against his uncle's goons. She could have at least thrown something at the assailants or the uncle to help and he notices her that way.
The last portion of the last episode is the weakest of the entire show, like they ran out of time for writing. There's no explanation for how the Mangurok meal journal that Yi Heon wrote ends up in France for Ji Yeong to pick up for her dad if the book disappears with her to travel back to the present. She doesn't spend anytime with her father that she missed so much. The torn page was good to explain how Yi Heon could travel to the present, but it doesn't explain how he got his new clothes and styling and found his way to her. This show definitely needed a one episode extension to tie things up neatly. The most offensive thing is that it condescends to the audience that it knows the audience wants to know, but it doesn't matter within the final dialogue of the show. Lamp shading doesn't solve the issue of it not doing the properly conclude with things it set up on it's own and failing finish. That lowers the overall score and enjoyment at the end.
I'm neutral to the romance pairing of the leads, it's serviceable. It was silly to make the Chef Yeon 27 instead of the actress's actual age around the time of filming which was probably 34/35. King Yi Heon mentioned she's "older" than she looks and appointed her in charge of the palace kitchen. It wouldn't have mattered if she was playing her actual age, she would have still been appointed the gig. The flashbacks of previously shown scenes during the romance moments was too repetitive and time wasting though. The drama needed to trust that the present scene of the leads developing their bond is enough. I also would have rather the screen time went to showing a bit of Ji Yeong's time dealing with the power dynamics in the modern kitchens where she alluded she sharpened her abilities not just to craft and innovate meals, but to deal with bullies ancient and modern alike.
Killing off the amiable court lady food tester and the head Eunuch was a good move to show the stakes of the rebellion. The kitchen folk should have been too, though I get why the show saved them for the kicthen/jester/loyal guard/ inventor man team up with the deposed King Yi Heon. It's good that that Yi Heon did recognize that he did some really horrible things like ordering the deaths a lot of people in the course of his revenge when facing down his devious uncle. He should have also been sorry for literally kidnapping and terrorizing a whole nation of his own female citizens until he got obsessed with a magical time travel chef. It's annoying enough that Ji Yeong gets kidnapped in the rescue stand off, but then she unties herself and stands there and shouts at Yi Heon, distracting him when he's fighting alone against his uncle's goons. She could have at least thrown something at the assailants or the uncle to help and he notices her that way.
The last portion of the last episode is the weakest of the entire show, like they ran out of time for writing. There's no explanation for how the Mangurok meal journal that Yi Heon wrote ends up in France for Ji Yeong to pick up for her dad if the book disappears with her to travel back to the present. She doesn't spend anytime with her father that she missed so much. The torn page was good to explain how Yi Heon could travel to the present, but it doesn't explain how he got his new clothes and styling and found his way to her. This show definitely needed a one episode extension to tie things up neatly. The most offensive thing is that it condescends to the audience that it knows the audience wants to know, but it doesn't matter within the final dialogue of the show. Lamp shading doesn't solve the issue of it not doing the properly conclude with things it set up on it's own and failing finish. That lowers the overall score and enjoyment at the end.
Was this review helpful to you?
