You have to suspend untold levels of disbelief when it comes to Jin Mu/Fake Queen somehow retaining credibility throughout the series despite being comically evil and even towards the end publicly involved in a serious scandal (which is immediately forgotten about in the world - and Jin Mu somehow escapes anyway lmao). The character of the Crown Princes kinda falls apart in the final episode too. The series could have been much better with some minor changes to the writing.
Very difficult to take Seo Yul seriously as a character when he is largely not expressive throughout almost every scene he appears in, seemingly only in it to be a friendly prince-like guy with nothing else to offer.
Mu deok, Jang Uk and Maidservant Kim absolutely carried this drama so hard. When they were center to the scene the drama was really enjoyable. When they weren't present or sidelined, it was often exhausting. The production values were really high and I loved the costuming and choreography. However the soundtrack was totally forgettable and I can say the drama as a whole doesn't have much rewatch value.
Jang Gang being hinted at all drama long and then him stumbling around drunk for a few episodes only for him to finally make his grand appearence only to commit suicide felt like the point where the drama nosedived in quality.
The prospect of season 2 scares me. I hope they can get the ending right.
IMO it's a step down from season 1, but still really enjoyable because none of the characters are annoying and there's some fun/touching scenes. I did not feel that any of the main characters besides the Captain developed much in the second season. The Captain takes a more prominent role in season 2 if viewers already liked him. There is a General whose actor gives off dad energy which makes it hard to take him seriously as a villain.
The door is left open for a season 3, but I have concerns about what more the series has to say. Yeah the Korean military and mandatory service is broken, what more does the writer have to offer? Because I didn't see much more in season 2 based on what has already been said in season 1.
I'm not sure if my opinion is related to me watching this drama 4 years after it was aired but I have to disagree…
I'm almost half way through and the plot is made up practically every episode, there's no sense of anything being planned up to the end, it's like they've just winged it.
The schizophrenic tone of the drama coupled with the 80 minute episodes which feature at least 20 mins of close-up zooms and slow mos of the characters is killing me. How this is rated 8.9 is beyond me, people must simp for the cast...
Episode 3 Eun Soo: "Because I finally understand what you meant about unrequited love."
If next episode wasn't the final episode I would have canned this series right there and then. To drop this line after you've just spent the night on a date with another dude who confessed his feelings and you didn't reject them is abysmal writing. Especially since the guy you're saying you understand has been feeling this way for many years and has been utterly committed. I understand the limitations of the 4 episode structure but this was inexcusably jarring and made her character utter trash.
Just reading the synopsis feels exhausting, I know this thing is gonna have a convoluted plot which makes me wanna stick pens in my eyeballs. Might leave this on the watchlist for a while and come back to it when I feel more masochistic.
Episode 6 felt far too contrived... a sudden nosedive in the writing quality this early was unexpected. IU was great in My Mister but she seems exposed here, I cannot handle the fake crying every episode any longer - in multiple scenes per episode. It's agonising. Park Bo Gum doesn't have any quality dialogue whatsoever, far too much fallback on facial expressions. Between this and the preachiness in almost every conversation, it's a drop from me. The series so far, despite a lot of detail on the sets and costuming, feels let down by an inauthentic script and poor acting. Gosh these 6 episodes were exhausting. Good luck with this. Although, it seems people see IU/Park Bo Gum and are going to 10/10 this no matter what. Baffling.
• The two ‘second in command’ in the series of the police unit (Pildo) and the gang (Taeju) should have had a 1v1 to the death. I was 100% expecting this to happen and disappointed when it didn’t lol. If Pildo was destined to die imo this should have been the way, then his death wouldn’t have felt so random but more an honour based deathmatch over the captain being stabbed or something.
• A clearer ending for Jiwoo, it felt the writer wasn’t sure what the heck the end looks like for her so they kinda just ended it as quick as possible after the final fight. It left me wanting a bit more to wrap it all up.
Honestly? I really enjoyed this. It doesn’t pretend to be more than it is by randomly trying to inject eye-rolling profundity. It sticks to its guns - a predictable storyline but one that is fun, action-packed and has great chemistry between the characters. As a bonus, they really nailed the pacing so the episodes go by in a breeze and there’s never a dull moment. It’s hard not to marathon it. The OST is pretty cool.
Han So Hee really shines and I think it takes a lot of work ethic to make some of these chaotic fight scenes work.
Also shoutout the gangsters main henchman, dude is hardcore ride or die.
This drama's wasting too much time on useless subplots and several minutes long close-up stares. No wonder each…
I relate to a lot of these findings so far, although you may be further along than me.
I am finding it difficult to enjoy it fully, because the ML in particular despite only being a few years deep in the marriage has developed some sort of Lynchian amnesiac qualities where he incomprehensively cannot believe that it's possible to simply sit next to his wife or casually hold her hand or hug her or dare I say it.. sleep in the same room - despite having very recent memories of doing all of these things. He makes everything tragically exhausting and awkward by design, and FL lack of open emotion directly to him is tiresome after 4 episodes, we as an audience see her smiling as she walks away, but the ML sees nothing of this. This is a repeated pattern of interaction. The relationship problems feel manufactured by unrealistic bordering on comical family dramas combined with a villain who lacks any value to the series beyond causing frustration. He's not even entertaining in the slightest - which really a villain should be at the least for a series that has episodes 1.5 hours each. Just having the CEO holding repeated 1-2-1 meetings not even with the major stakeholder about a singular brand is insane, this is a run of the mill commercial deal not something of sustained magnitude like a merger. I find her personal participation in this nonsense to be bizarre, if anyone of the executive would be really forced to conducting these meetings it would be more likely to be the ML than FL if anything given his legal position.
Reading the synopsis, I wouldn't have touched this ordinarily because it screams melodrama to the maximum but I like Kim Ji Won so I gave it a try. With the episode length it's already become a slog, I have no idea how I will feel by the end of this.
Entertaining so far but really what happened at the end of episode 4 was ridiculous lol, completely took me out of the show.
I thought Park So Dam would have a bigger role in this series but (so far) she is contained to a few small scenes each episode. Shame.
Overall the way the show examines suicide so far is very ignorant and has emphasised common exhausting themes; money doesn't matter, pride doesn't matter, family matters, loved ones matter, the residual guilt and stress that is is inherited by others should be at the forefront of everyones mind and should act as the ultimate safeguard.
It does not consider so far other internal reasons for doing - and in situations where there is no external support network - think of a soldier on the battlefield alone and bleeding out. The show is so narrow to really only focus on those who lead privileged lives whose view of catastrophic failure is limited to not being able to work for a powerful company and become wealthy. The show keeps reminding us that the main character just wants to live a 'normal life' - have a family etc but his suicide is entirely unrelated to achieving that objective, he could have done all that without needing to work for big companies and he made bizarre mistakes such as investing all savings on the basis of a random friends suggestion. The actions he takes aren't actually 'normal' so he should not expect normal outcomes.
Finished. Overall disappointed. Outside of the birth mother (who was absolutely tremendous and a real redeeming…
There are a lot of sad moments in My Mister, but it also has its very positive moments too. The ending is absolutely filled with hope and happiness. It feels like a really big pay off and is truly an amazing send off to the cast.
My Mister and Mother are very different dramas so the comparison may be unfair, but given they both tackle a serious theme of abuse among many other things - the writing of My Mister is just so much better. The actions of the characters feel more realistic, consistent and explainable. The 'bad guy' is just more interesting too and is more involved in the series - the bad guy of Mother is just a stoic dude that walks around and mumbles/repeats the same dialogue over and over.
I’m half way through, you have to suspend a lot of disbelief to enjoy this show, especially made worse by the…
Finished. Overall disappointed. Outside of the birth mother (who was absolutely tremendous and a real redeeming factor) I didn't find the acting really convincing on any of the other characters.
There was far too many coincidences, melodrama and frustrating characters (her sisters... my god). Doctor character felt like he had no purpose other than to be a perfect guardian angel. There was a strong undercurrent of men being the cause of all womens problems, and always being violent. A male character could only be good if he was subservient to women. Despite the women characters in this show for the most part being self-absorbed, vindicative, abusive, equally violent etc, the viewers based on the comments desperately try to redeem, overlook, justify and ignore all of this. I mean for the first half of the show, FL left Yoon Bok everywhere on her own and for the most part, focused only on her own feelings. In my view, the FL was consistently neglectful of Yoon Bok throughout the series and was constantly in her own little world. It would have been preferable if they did not stay together. This is by far the most overrated kdrama I have watched thus far, although I have not watched many so far.
To go from watching My Mister to this was a wild drop in quality.
I’m half way through, you have to suspend a lot of disbelief to enjoy this show, especially made worse by the fact that she leaves Yoon Bok alone as much as possible and in totally random places. Really frustrating, this drama feels very overrated so far.
+ A lot of kdrama prolong the life of their stories through 'misunderstandings', actually a lot of these type of misunderstandings in King the Land were swiftly resolved, even in the very same scene in this drama, which was refreshing and feel good. It didn't feel like things were 'holding back' progress in a highly contrived way. Things that did hold things back were faced head on straight away which was cool.
+ Main couple were charming, I think Gu Won is a little over the top and doesn't feel remotely like a real person in some episodes whereas Cheon Sa Rang feels believable from the beginning. I think together it makes for a good story. Has a nice mix of fantasy and reality. The grandma is really authentic too.
+ Soundtrack is relaxing and enjoyable.
- Kang Da Eul's husband has zero redeeming features, like not good for anything, even their child. I am VERY surpised this relationship lasted to the end and would have liked to see a change here. I think how it went could have improved considerably and part of her storyline as 'settling' for a useless husband was very questionable.
- Although not realistic, No Sang Sik not ending up with that King the Land manager was a crime lol. I never thought I would hope for this...
- Not a game-changer in the genre as you can predict practically everything that might happen. However it is comfortable!
Very difficult to take Seo Yul seriously as a character when he is largely not expressive throughout almost every scene he appears in, seemingly only in it to be a friendly prince-like guy with nothing else to offer.
Mu deok, Jang Uk and Maidservant Kim absolutely carried this drama so hard. When they were center to the scene the drama was really enjoyable. When they weren't present or sidelined, it was often exhausting. The production values were really high and I loved the costuming and choreography. However the soundtrack was totally forgettable and I can say the drama as a whole doesn't have much rewatch value.
Jang Gang being hinted at all drama long and then him stumbling around drunk for a few episodes only for him to finally make his grand appearence only to commit suicide felt like the point where the drama nosedived in quality.
The prospect of season 2 scares me. I hope they can get the ending right.
The door is left open for a season 3, but I have concerns about what more the series has to say. Yeah the Korean military and mandatory service is broken, what more does the writer have to offer? Because I didn't see much more in season 2 based on what has already been said in season 1.
The schizophrenic tone of the drama coupled with the 80 minute episodes which feature at least 20 mins of close-up zooms and slow mos of the characters is killing me. How this is rated 8.9 is beyond me, people must simp for the cast...
If next episode wasn't the final episode I would have canned this series right there and then. To drop this line after you've just spent the night on a date with another dude who confessed his feelings and you didn't reject them is abysmal writing. Especially since the guy you're saying you understand has been feeling this way for many years and has been utterly committed. I understand the limitations of the 4 episode structure but this was inexcusably jarring and made her character utter trash.
• The two ‘second in command’ in the series of the police unit (Pildo) and the gang (Taeju) should have had a 1v1 to the death. I was 100% expecting this to happen and disappointed when it didn’t lol. If Pildo was destined to die imo this should have been the way, then his death wouldn’t have felt so random but more an honour based deathmatch over the captain being stabbed or something.
• A clearer ending for Jiwoo, it felt the writer wasn’t sure what the heck the end looks like for her so they kinda just ended it as quick as possible after the final fight. It left me wanting a bit more to wrap it all up.
Han So Hee really shines and I think it takes a lot of work ethic to make some of these chaotic fight scenes work.
Also shoutout the gangsters main henchman, dude is hardcore ride or die.
I am finding it difficult to enjoy it fully, because the ML in particular despite only being a few years deep in the marriage has developed some sort of Lynchian amnesiac qualities where he incomprehensively cannot believe that it's possible to simply sit next to his wife or casually hold her hand or hug her or dare I say it.. sleep in the same room - despite having very recent memories of doing all of these things. He makes everything tragically exhausting and awkward by design, and FL lack of open emotion directly to him is tiresome after 4 episodes, we as an audience see her smiling as she walks away, but the ML sees nothing of this. This is a repeated pattern of interaction. The relationship problems feel manufactured by unrealistic bordering on comical family dramas combined with a villain who lacks any value to the series beyond causing frustration. He's not even entertaining in the slightest - which really a villain should be at the least for a series that has episodes 1.5 hours each. Just having the CEO holding repeated 1-2-1 meetings not even with the major stakeholder about a singular brand is insane, this is a run of the mill commercial deal not something of sustained magnitude like a merger. I find her personal participation in this nonsense to be bizarre, if anyone of the executive would be really forced to conducting these meetings it would be more likely to be the ML than FL if anything given his legal position.
Reading the synopsis, I wouldn't have touched this ordinarily because it screams melodrama to the maximum but I like Kim Ji Won so I gave it a try. With the episode length it's already become a slog, I have no idea how I will feel by the end of this.
I thought Park So Dam would have a bigger role in this series but (so far) she is contained to a few small scenes each episode. Shame.
Overall the way the show examines suicide so far is very ignorant and has emphasised common exhausting themes; money doesn't matter, pride doesn't matter, family matters, loved ones matter, the residual guilt and stress that is is inherited by others should be at the forefront of everyones mind and should act as the ultimate safeguard.
It does not consider so far other internal reasons for doing - and in situations where there is no external support network - think of a soldier on the battlefield alone and bleeding out. The show is so narrow to really only focus on those who lead privileged lives whose view of catastrophic failure is limited to not being able to work for a powerful company and become wealthy. The show keeps reminding us that the main character just wants to live a 'normal life' - have a family etc but his suicide is entirely unrelated to achieving that objective, he could have done all that without needing to work for big companies and he made bizarre mistakes such as investing all savings on the basis of a random friends suggestion. The actions he takes aren't actually 'normal' so he should not expect normal outcomes.
My Mister and Mother are very different dramas so the comparison may be unfair, but given they both tackle a serious theme of abuse among many other things - the writing of My Mister is just so much better. The actions of the characters feel more realistic, consistent and explainable. The 'bad guy' is just more interesting too and is more involved in the series - the bad guy of Mother is just a stoic dude that walks around and mumbles/repeats the same dialogue over and over.
There was far too many coincidences, melodrama and frustrating characters (her sisters... my god). Doctor character felt like he had no purpose other than to be a perfect guardian angel. There was a strong undercurrent of men being the cause of all womens problems, and always being violent. A male character could only be good if he was subservient to women. Despite the women characters in this show for the most part being self-absorbed, vindicative, abusive, equally violent etc, the viewers based on the comments desperately try to redeem, overlook, justify and ignore all of this. I mean for the first half of the show, FL left Yoon Bok everywhere on her own and for the most part, focused only on her own feelings. In my view, the FL was consistently neglectful of Yoon Bok throughout the series and was constantly in her own little world. It would have been preferable if they did not stay together. This is by far the most overrated kdrama I have watched thus far, although I have not watched many so far.
To go from watching My Mister to this was a wild drop in quality.
+ A lot of kdrama prolong the life of their stories through 'misunderstandings', actually a lot of these type of misunderstandings in King the Land were swiftly resolved, even in the very same scene in this drama, which was refreshing and feel good. It didn't feel like things were 'holding back' progress in a highly contrived way. Things that did hold things back were faced head on straight away which was cool.
+ Main couple were charming, I think Gu Won is a little over the top and doesn't feel remotely like a real person in some episodes whereas Cheon Sa Rang feels believable from the beginning. I think together it makes for a good story. Has a nice mix of fantasy and reality. The grandma is really authentic too.
+ Soundtrack is relaxing and enjoyable.
- Kang Da Eul's husband has zero redeeming features, like not good for anything, even their child. I am VERY surpised this relationship lasted to the end and would have liked to see a change here. I think how it went could have improved considerably and part of her storyline as 'settling' for a useless husband was very questionable.
- Although not realistic, No Sang Sik not ending up with that King the Land manager was a crime lol. I never thought I would hope for this...
- Not a game-changer in the genre as you can predict practically everything that might happen. However it is comfortable!