I thought it might be original considering the story, but in the end all the characters are totally clichés, nothing original. The rich girl is mean but she have to look pitiful because she has family issue, the poor girl who keeps making mistakes being too naive, etc. A little bit disappointing.
Well, I kept watching after episode one only for Kondo Shori (a nice suprise as he is a very good actor), because Yutaro is really the worst partner possible for a BL couple for me, but this is so boring, even the glimpses of Kondo Shori naked meals can't make me find anything good anymore unfortunately.
After the presentation by Netflix, the scenario seems a little too conventional: childhood friends with different social status, a noble and a servant, with inevitably the servant who becomes a hero and the noble who is on the side of the “bad guys”... We have seen more original stories.
Well, after the last two episodes, I still feel the same about this sageuk. Not very disappointed because I didn't have high expectations from the start. It's not a disaster, it has good points, and all the cast is good or at least okay for me. And I have watched far worse sageuk honestly. But because they tried to mix everything together, it cannot be very good for me. They should have stick to either a full comedic sageuk or a true revange story, but not mix evetything with a romance and nowadays considerations. If not for Woo Do Hwan, I would have probably skipped this one. I think I'll re-re-watch "My Country" now, because even if Woo Do Hwan was good as Kang Han Soo, it cannot compared to level of perfection of his role as Nam Sun Ho in this wonderful sageuk.
All the cast is wonderful, and the production of the drama is very good too. However, as a sageuk, it falls in the category of the "bad" ones for me, and for one simple reason: it mixes everything and in the end it's a mess. It's a real disease for sageuk dramas since a few years. I don't know if it's because they believe the audience likes that, or if the audience really want that in Korea, but for me, it's always a big fail. It started as a fun comedic one, actually interesting, and it became a tragedy. And the trailer for the next episodes don't give another feeling that this will end sadly, which I wouldn't mind if it was the general mood and genre from the beginning. I love Woo Do Hwan, he is one of my favourites actors and he is really great in this one too, but the drama itself is very disappointing. Even more if it's compared with "My Kingdom" which is a masterpiece. It could have been a great comedic sageuk, or a great tragic romance sageuk, but by mixing everything it totally lost his appeal for me. And the King behaviour, in particular, doesn't make any sense in the end. I don't understand what they want to do with the character, because he doesn't look like a good ruler toward whom people will turn, and he doesn't seem to get away from the power and influence of the Left State Minister or the Queen Dowager. I'm still looking forward to the last two episodes to see how it will end, but whatever happens, it will unfortunately not be a sageuk I will really remember happily.
People who don't understand or don't like the grand guignol theatrical genre shouldn't watch this movie, because of course they will not like it. But this movie is quite good as a grand guignol one.
Well, if taken not seriously and realistically, the story and the characters are quite fun. It's a light rom/com that don't take things too seriously, that's nice once in a while.
Ok, so it really became Battle Royal in the end... Which could have been good, or just okay, but it didn't worked for me here. I just don't understand the purpose of this story. What do they want us to understand from that ? There is so much to write about this. First, they swear way too much. All these characters cursing all the time, it was very annoying. Is the purpose of this show to make people think that Korean high schoolers are all dumb and really stupid ? We can wonder, considering all the bad decisions and idiotic things these characters did and said throughout the first and second parts. It's true that the suneung has a huge cultural importance in Korea, but I doubt it will be that important and remains the first concern of people if what happened in this drama was real, so it's not very convincing, even though it's a sci-fi drama. The worst trooper of all the class almost exterminate all of them ? Seriously ? If he had shot all of them in the classroom in one go, it could have been believable. But we see him shoot a lot of them again and again, even after loosing is first riffle, even after being touched at the leg, even after some escaped, and even against good shooters we have seen in previous episodes, he has the upper hand (like when Tae Man stand up to shoot him) ? No, even if the surprise effect and the chaotic situation, it wasn't believable for me. The spheres are still in the air at the end, but everybody goes back to the life as before, after the devastation we have seen in the previous episodes ? And just one scene where buildings are in construction is supposed to makes up for it ? Again, big no, not believing that. And Chi Yeol is the only survivor we see at the end ? With a stupid self-reflexion and some moral of this nonsense story ? Once again, big flaw... Considering the potential of the plot, the huge and good production of this show, the overal great casting (Moon Sang Min's acting, especially, was perfect for me) and acting, there are too many and big flaws to make it a good drama, unfortunately. Oh and why this poster here ? It doesn't correspond to part 2 at all. Just like the cast credits. What are these contributors doing with so much edits ?
Two people found this helpful ? That means three idiots with the one who wrote it. Everyone can have a personal opinion, but blatant hatred isn't something that should be tolerated.
1 
If not for Woo Do Hwan, I would have probably skipped this one.
I think I'll re-re-watch "My Country" now, because even if Woo Do Hwan was good as Kang Han Soo, it cannot compared to level of perfection of his role as Nam Sun Ho in this wonderful sageuk.
It's a real disease for sageuk dramas since a few years. I don't know if it's because they believe the audience likes that, or if the audience really want that in Korea, but for me, it's always a big fail. It started as a fun comedic one, actually interesting, and it became a tragedy. And the trailer for the next episodes don't give another feeling that this will end sadly, which I wouldn't mind if it was the general mood and genre from the beginning. I love Woo Do Hwan, he is one of my favourites actors and he is really great in this one too, but the drama itself is very disappointing. Even more if it's compared with "My Kingdom" which is a masterpiece.
It could have been a great comedic sageuk, or a great tragic romance sageuk, but by mixing everything it totally lost his appeal for me. And the King behaviour, in particular, doesn't make any sense in the end. I don't understand what they want to do with the character, because he doesn't look like a good ruler toward whom people will turn, and he doesn't seem to get away from the power and influence of the Left State Minister or the Queen Dowager.
I'm still looking forward to the last two episodes to see how it will end, but whatever happens, it will unfortunately not be a sageuk I will really remember happily.
There is so much to write about this.
First, they swear way too much. All these characters cursing all the time, it was very annoying.
Is the purpose of this show to make people think that Korean high schoolers are all dumb and really stupid ? We can wonder, considering all the bad decisions and idiotic things these characters did and said throughout the first and second parts.
It's true that the suneung has a huge cultural importance in Korea, but I doubt it will be that important and remains the first concern of people if what happened in this drama was real, so it's not very convincing, even though it's a sci-fi drama.
The worst trooper of all the class almost exterminate all of them ? Seriously ? If he had shot all of them in the classroom in one go, it could have been believable. But we see him shoot a lot of them again and again, even after loosing is first riffle, even after being touched at the leg, even after some escaped, and even against good shooters we have seen in previous episodes, he has the upper hand (like when Tae Man stand up to shoot him) ? No, even if the surprise effect and the chaotic situation, it wasn't believable for me.
The spheres are still in the air at the end, but everybody goes back to the life as before, after the devastation we have seen in the previous episodes ? And just one scene where buildings are in construction is supposed to makes up for it ? Again, big no, not believing that.
And Chi Yeol is the only survivor we see at the end ? With a stupid self-reflexion and some moral of this nonsense story ? Once again, big flaw...
Considering the potential of the plot, the huge and good production of this show, the overal great casting (Moon Sang Min's acting, especially, was perfect for me) and acting, there are too many and big flaws to make it a good drama, unfortunately.
Oh and why this poster here ? It doesn't correspond to part 2 at all. Just like the cast credits. What are these contributors doing with so much edits ?
Everyone can have a personal opinion, but blatant hatred isn't something that should be tolerated.