littlepoodle

I'm surprised that so many people are saying Da-rim doesn't care about Ji-hyeok. She clearly does, it's just that she cares more about her mother!

Which is something Ji-hyeok himself would surely understand. He's prepared to enter a loveless arranged marriage to save his mother. Has everyone forgotten that he agreed to that arranged marriage while he was still searching desperately for Da-rim and had no idea she was supposedly "married"? I'm not sure what he was planning to do - get married and still keep Da-rim as a girlfriend? That would make him something of a hypocrite, though I don't think he was logically thinking that far.

Both leads have moral struggles, but for some reason most viewers seem to be judging Da-rim more harshly.

They *both* prioritise their mothers over everything else. I'm sure this will be significant in the climax of the plot, one way or another.

"she enjoys knowing that someone is in pain because of her"

Does she, though? I haven't watched the most recent episodes, so maybe she's changed, but I'm confused because from the earliest episodes it was clear to me that Ahjin grew up thinking she needs to manipulate people in order to survive. She didn't sadistically pick a random victim to bully. She left people alone if they left her alone, and attacked those who had attacked her first.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the entire show and character, I don't know. I can't connect with a lot of the comments I see about Ahjin. She's not a good person. She's stuck in a mindset where she can only think of herself. But she's surrounded by people who are a lot worse, and to me, that makes a difference.

It's weird, I love psychological thrillers too! But something about this is especially stressful and unsettling. I think it's probably because, to me, Ahjin still feels a lot like a child who can only rely on herself. But I'll push on and continue to watch, for sure!

Thanks! To be honest, I don't find it hard to follow at all - just really stressful. Oddly, it's because I feel like Ahjin just can't catch a break and the drama is relentless, with no brief moments of breathing space. People just won't leave her be. After reading other comments, I've noticed that most people seem to find this frustrating to watch *because* of her, so I find it interesting that my reaction is the opposite. But like I said, I find myself rooting for her because the story is framed like she - no matter how effed up she is - is up against a world where others try to destroy her at every turn.

It's also interesting how this world is pushing her to make worse decisions and to reach higher in order to protect herself. She never had an interest in becoming a star, and wanted to become a lawyer, but that was taken from her. I think that's why I find the drama so stressful. It makes the world itself feel very unsafe and unsettling. There's no safe haven in sight, and the main character is basically still like a child fending for herself in unhealthy ways, and unwilling and unable to trust anyone.

I find it insane how many people these days believe that anything that's half coherently argued and uses proper punctuation (as in, knows how to use stuff like semi-colons and em-dashes) MUST be AI-generated.

As someone who learnt an effective format of presenting information from writing university essays, and has always used lots of (and maybe too much tbh) semi-colons and em-dashes, it honestly makes me want to stop writing anything online anymore.

I'm at Episode 5, and I find this intriguing but terribly stressful to watch. Does it keep getting more and more stressful as it goes on? If so, I don't know if I can handle it lol.

The FL is terrible, but I find her easy root for, when many people around her are so much worse in different ways. The father and stepmother were straight up evil, and someone like Le Na is just so "casually evil" and spiteful just for the sake of it. The FL does awful things for fairly logical reasons (although I found her way of dealing with her father incredibly stupid). But I don't know if that changes later on.

Is it really overhyping if a drama gives the viewers exactly what they were looking for? This is a romcom, no one is saying this is a deep and meaningful classic that deserves all the top awards. But the problem is that most romcoms these days don't romcom. It's so rare now to get an entertaining romcom that does most of its elements even reasonably well, and this one does a lot of things very well indeed, so of course it stands out.

A home-cooked meal isn't getting any Michelin stars, but it can still be excellent of its kind. And a romcom with a goofy premise, a fun and well-paced story, likable characters and silly humour can be excellent of its kind.

I thought the ending was emotionally satisfying, and that's the most important thing. The time travel aspect was never explained in a logical way, so I'm glad they didn't attempt an awkward explanation in the last episode.

Ji-yeong going back to the past was just a strange and miraculous that happened (and had somehow already happened, as the Mangunrok existed because of her). I have zero problems accepting that Yi Heon's time travel was also a strange and miraculous thing. This couple was fated to be together, across centuries, and that's all the information I need tbh. She didn't travel back in time to change the course of history, but only to change his fate, so they're connected by that book he wrote. It's not scifi time travel, it's just a romantic miracle.

Me too. And I thought it was made quite obvious he travelled through the page he was clutching. I didn't really need to see his wacky adventures while searching for Ji-yeong, though I am a bit curious how he became so well groomed and dressed...

Well, I hope the "this isn't meant to be a romance" crowd are eating crow now... The last episodes couldn't possibly be more romantic if they tried, lmao.

I thought the ending really delivered, and what I loved was that the drama stayed true to its tone even amid all the drama and tragedy: I'm thinking of the bizarre battle (wooden spoons, that's enough spoilers for you to know which one I mean) which managed to be funny and high stakes at the same time. I loved the ML's growth, and the FL changed significantly too. I loved how emotional and at times introspective it got in the final episodes, as I was worried about the drama remaining a bit too surface level earlier.

Basically, my review: brilliant first few episodes, brilliant last few episodes, a couple of inexplicably dull and awkward episodes in the middle. The Ming competition arc could have been so much better, but the drama soon got back in its stride after that, so I'm not complaining anymore. What I do find a bit weird is that I wasn't confused at all in the fast-paced political scheming and counter-scheming in the last episodes, but to this day I'm still confused what actually happened in that slow-paced competition with the Ming!

"And I'll also gently push back on the idea that romance cant develop if she has to return to the future. For me, that actually raises the stakes, their bond has to be strong enough to make the goodbye hurt/the chance of reunion feel meaningful."

THIS! A romance plot needs stakes and obstacles for the viewer to feel invested in the outcome.

I read somewhere that for a romcom to be effective, it needs to make the romance feel like a matter of life and death. Even if it's just a light-hearted story about modern people going about their day and working in an office, the possibility of the couple not getting together must feel like a real "all is lost" moment.

"i dont see how their dynamics have been taken out in the story"

No, to clarify - I didn't mean their dynamic has been taken out of the story. That's just usually how you gauge if a romance is central to the story or a subplot. If it can be taken out and the story still makes sense, it's a subplot. I just don't think this story is about anything without the central relationship between the FL and the ML. Drama is ultimately about dynamics between characters, and I don't think there's any other relationship even half as important to the plot as the main couple. Any other character could be cut out and you'd still have a story.

Sorry, I honestly didn't mean to be annoying; I hope I didn't offend you, I thought we're all just conversing about the drama here. I'll only say one more thing:

"most of their point is that romance is not the main plot"

I guess my question is, what IS the main plot, then? Could you take out the dynamic between Ji-yeong and the King from this story still have a plot? And would the drama have been equally exciting if Ji-yeong became some Queen's cook slash helpful bestie and there was no ML at all? In my opinion, no. But I respect that others may disagree.

Yeah, that's exactly it. I'm a bit frustrated that so many comments about this drama are acting like people like us are expecting nothing but lovey-dovey fluff. It's the exact opposite! Like you, I wanted some genuine depth to develop between them, and will be pretty disappointed and bored if it remains as surface-level fluff - even if there's a happy ending.

I'm always surprised how hard it seems to be to write satisfying romance. So many things can go wrong and make you lose interest, especially towards the end.

I don't even disagree all that much, really - I love slow burn, and I think this can still stick the landing, absolutely. I guess I'm just a bit tired of everyone suddenly claiming "this was never about the romance", as if people excited about it were pulling the romance out of thin air. It's not like people were watching something like Squid Game and asking "why isn't there romance in it". The dynamic between the FL and ML was clearly there from the start.

I said this in another reply, but a drama can't really be about food. Cooking can be a constant presence in the worldbuilding and character development, but food in itself isn't plot. A time-travelling chef could end up in a murder mystery, or a Squid Game type of edgy survival situation, or in a full-on political drama. Or in a romance with the King. The drama has to have some kind of a main genre, after all, or else it ends up being directionless.

"All am saying is that if this drama was meant to be all romance it would have started earlier"

Not sure I agree. It started in the very first episode with fighting and bickering, just like a ton of other romcoms. There was conflict (with high stakes), tension, and then emotional and intellectual bonding over food. There was even a kiss in episode 4. By episode 6, things were looking pretty much on track for romantic development.

Honestly, nothing about the first episodes told me this would be about anything other than the main couple falling in love over lots of delicious food, with complications thrown in their way. There was nothing particularly subversive about it either, it was built up like a fairly old-fashioned romcom (in a good way, those are quite rare these days).

edit: Sorry, I misread your quote as "if this drama was meant to be about romance". I do agree it was never ALL romance, just like most of the best romance plots aren't.

I just don't think a drama with an overarching plot can ever really be about "food". A drama doesn't have to have romance in it at all, but even something like The Bear or Food Wars is more than "about food". I'm trying to think of examples... well, House was about diseases, but it was structured like a weekly procedural. Each case was a medical mystery to be solved.

"I've seen 8 eps and I don't even really care about the romance part anymore"

I see this as a huge problem, if the most important interpersonal relationships in a drama suddenly become less important to the viewers than the worldbuilding (which, in this case, includes cooking/food).

Netflix categorisation isn't even the biggest problem to me, as the drama itself started out differently. The first episodes were firmly about the conflict - and developing relationship - between Ji-yeong and the King. The heroine here is a genius chef, and the heroine of a different drama might be a genius fashion designer or a champion at swordfightining: all of these things can be a major part of the drama, but the plot can never be driven by pretty dresses, flashy martial arts or nice-looking food, IMO.

"this drama lacks direction to me"

I agree. And it's disappointing, as it started out so strongly. I kind of regret recommending it to everyone I know now, lmao.

By the way, to everyone who says this isn't supposed to be a romance - I'm curious, which category is it listed in in your country? In mine, Netflix has put it in "Romance". Not even comedy or historical or any other genres, just "Romance".

Other dramas categorised as Romance include Crash Landing on You, Destined with You, Business Proposal and My Demon. In comparison, Mr Queen is simply categorised as "Drama" and Alchemy of Souls as "Fantasy". But I'm not sure how viewers are expected to interpret this as "BAYM isn't primarily a romance". What is it then, exactly?

"The female lead has also made it clear several times that she wants to return to the future, which shows that romance isn’t meant to be the central focus."

I don't really see the logic in that, tbh. Of course she's going to return to the future. But romance plots always come with obstacles, and the point is for the characters to fall in love despite them. And then beat the odds, or be tragically beaten by them.

"Because whenever I try to say that I am disappointed in the way things have turned out regarding our main couple it feels like everyone only understands as me crying over not enough romantic scenes like some silly teenager."

Yes! That's always so disappointing, it's like people are wilfully misunderstanding the problem. The question is always: what is the drama actually about? You *could* have a drama that's 16 episodes of one long cooking competition, but even that would have central character dynamics. It could be the antagonistic dynamic between the MC chef and her greatest rival, and between the MC and the best friend who betrays her. Or it could be the family dynamic between the MC and her overbearing father, who used to be the greatest chef ever until he got into an accident and... well, you know the drill. It could be a slice of life. It could be a murder mystery. It could even be a ghost story about haunted kimchi. Either way there's a plot and it's about *something* other than just food.

It would be silly to expect a story about haunted kimchi to become 99% a romance just because you ship the two rival chefs, but if the first episodes are 99% about the tension between the rival chefs and *then* the story suddenly becomes a murder mystery, people do have the right to grumble.

In this drama, there's no question whatsoever that the central character dynamic has been between the FL and the ML since the first episode. And there's also no question that the dynamic is meant to come across as a romantic one - they've even kissed, FFS. If that dynamic then takes a step back in the later episodes, well, that IS disappointing and there's no way around that.