fyra

Although it was flawed and predictable, the first half of The Princess's Gambit was entertaining and showed great potential. I was impressed with the gorgeous costumes, the actors' chemistry, and how cut-throat the schemes were. Our main characters, Jiang Taohua and Shen Zaiye, were both intelligent and calculating, and I loved their cat-and-mouse dynamic. It felt like the start of a real enemies-to-lovers romance, their interactions being the highlight of each episode for me. I also appreciated that despite their obvious attraction to each other, their priorities were focused on their missions: Jiang Taohua's fight for her survival and her brother's safety, and Shen Zaiye's desires to dismantle the corruption in the court and seek revenge for the wrongs that were committed in the past. With such a premise, I was so sure this would become one of my favorite dramas of the summer.

Unfortunately, the second half of the story came and it took an uninspiring and lazy turn. Suddenly, there was a noticeable shift in the tone for the characters and a drop in consistency for the storytelling. The plot lost its clear direction and stalled, hindered by an unnecessary trope. Miscommunication, lies, and a lack of trust between the main characters caused the story to lose its momentum, diminishing the drama's overall engagement. And the character development... what character development? Jiang Taohua — who started out as a powerless but resourceful heroine that could overcome any obstacle thrown her way with just her wits and bravery — regressed into a helpless damsel in distress in this latter arc. And Shen Zaiye — who spent years plotting and was hard set on vengeance even if he had to tarnish his own reputation and become a villain to accomplish this— suddenly became fixated on solely Taohua and uncharacteristically sidelined his own ambitions until the last remaining episodes. The change in their personalities, shift in their goals, and losses of their sense of self were painfully disappointing to watch unfold.

The plot took a nose dive, and that should have been my cue to drop the drama, but I loved the characters and I wanted to believe that the scriptwriters could salvage the narrative by the end, so I stayed. Regrettably, things didn't go as I hoped and when I finally reached the last episode, I was just happy that the drama was finally over. I learned that a few of the main reasons why the drama felt so disjointed was because there were too many people involved in the scriptwriting process and the drama had deviated significantly from the novel — which made so much sense based on what I've watched. I was left pondering what the drama could've been like if the scriptwriters had stayed faithful to the source material. Perhaps we wouldn't have such a polarizing reception of the drama?

My final thoughts: The Princess's Gambit suffered from a weak script and poor directing. The actors did the best that they could with what was given to them. Sadly, their efforts were in vain because this ended up being a very mediocre drama filled with cliches, choppy editing, and plot holes. While certain aspects of the drama were still enjoyable and commendable, it fell short of becoming great. I feel bad for the actors, because I liked them as individuals and initially I also thought that they were magnetic on screen together. There was so much wasted potential. They deserve better, and I hope they can reunite in a future project, one with a higher quality script.