There are so many things wrong with that first episode on the ship but let's just ignore it. This drama won't give you anything you want. It will always go against the viewer's desire. Jarring and distasteful turn of events for switching the love interest in the last quarter with little to no reasonable justification. The ML 'Do Yoon' was bland like a brick of stone, absolutely no chemistry with FL. They were trying so hard pushing him forcefully down our throats. Then you got the SFL In Joo/Yun Woo who broke some laws, committed some crimes and was morally corrupt yet she was loved and awarded at the end. She was losing constantly and then she suddenly got good at the end and won, the writers really wanted to give her a pity win. The interactions between both female leads were mostly awkward and emotionless, like two robots reading a script.
Anyway, the ending was ass and the writing was poor.
The drama is too dry not enough sauce. After the dust settles there's barely anything happening or anything interesting. Jang Hyuk was the soul driving this drama forward, yet he was kinda neglected for the last third with too little screen time.
I recommend watching "Pasta (2010)" over this one, Pasta is better in every single aspect. I can't believe this got a higher rating than Pasta :/
Don't let the mask gimmick deter you from watching it, it only appears few times around the beginning and the ending. The "not" so inconspicuous nature of hiding the identity is hilarious in itself.
Writing and comedy can use some help, it can get stale at times. The plot is a bit small for the decided runtime. Needs a better natural progression for the romance, it is a bit random, it starts around the middle then stops for few episodes then continues around the last few episodes and ends it with no kiss :/
On another note, we got no update on Sun Hee after she snitched. Also, the ML's father is one of the stupidest characters out there.
I have seen a lot of Kim Sun Ah works so far and it's amazing how unique and memorable every single one of them.
This is the type of makjang that only sinks downward in a never ending downward spiral. It lacks any sense of balance. Nothing makes up for it except the relief knowing that it ended. There's a lot to hate with nothing to like (except Yoon Shi Yoon??).
Hated all the relationships, the brothers, the CEO, both love interest and the love square. Awful progression for both FL leads. Yoo Kyung is a wuss and Mi Sun cannot be seen other than a mere comedic relief sidekick. Yoo Kyung got married for revenge but what kind of revenge was that? The lamest revenge ever, what a waste of a character.
Ma Jun changing last minute and it's all brotherly love? Sisters having a change of heart and excepting their brother after 15 years? A switch was flipped and everyone was happy-go-lucky at the end? Never tasted an artificial sweater this artificial like this one before.
When a melodrama pull cheap baits that's the first indicative of mediocre writing and this one is full of them. Add to that these weird long pauses and stares every single scene. Style over substance. The ending was okay, not good nor satisfying, just okay-ish.
Then you got the pacing. The last few episodes are empty while the last episode packed with 20x more content speeding up like crazy.
Oof, as if it was written by a teenager who writes fanfic after school.
TBH younger Krystal was bland, the more experienced Krystal nowadays is much better. At least she has been picking up good projects since Prison Playbook.
Surprisingly good for a long political drama. Usually political dramas are the weakest and they best fit in a movie format. Solid writing for the female lead character, but I wished she tune down her seriousness a little bit and get some of that Do Ya energy. Good writing and execution. It got a bit stale from eps16 to eps20 but it picked itself up quickly after.
Both leads pulled a great performance with loads of chemistry, although I wanted to see a little bit more emotions at the last few scenes instead of a hug.
I hated the main leads relationship, it shouldn't have gone in this direction it's pointless. Barely any chemistry between them. The ML is carrying his emotional package from his previous relationship to the new one with not much change. The cycle will repeat itself. It needed better written characters overall.
It would be much better if both couples were to reconcile or even part ways and move on instead of switching. Remove the last episode and let it end on 15 with some scenes were everyone had moved on. Anyway, it's passable at best 5/10.
First episode was made purposely too flashy to lure you in but soon enough you realize it's just a generic revenge story with little to no creativity. Although it had a big cast yet it feels the cast was small due to the lack of interesting characters. Needless to say the writing was average with some seriously stupid illogical bits. At least it's polished visually.
PS this shouldn't have the romance tag or even the political tag, it's purely drama/melo.
Starting from Ep17 it got progressively worse. The last 15 episodes had little to no progress at all. For a drama this long it feels empty, you can easily skip 5 eps without noticing any change. It needed more couples/mini stories. There were about 3 couples with the main couples taking 95% of the attention. Writing wise, there were some very questionable plot shifts here and there that felt out of place. Some characters can disappear for 10+ eps without any mention. The group of friends is never seen in the second half, only FL and Ra Ra.
There were also two driving elements to the story that were done poorly. The unjustified stubbornness of ML father, he is terrified of what people would think of him if his son married FL. And the unfathomable greed of FL step-mother, she sold her soul for materialism. There were a few things to like too. The main couple long journey was satisfying to see flourishing. Some characters got nice development, although it was strange how FL tolerated Ra Ra for this long.
Anyway, it was an interesting watch about Gisaeng. Proceed with caution 4.5/10.
Lacks on the comedy/politics department, while the romance was average. Distasteful "love square", better off if they just remove it and focus more on better writing and comedy. I really hated that double 1-year time skip on the last episode, it's the writers' way of telling you that they got stuck on how to wrap it up.
Aside from the weak writing here and there, this one and a handful of the older ones are breath of fresh air compared to the cotton-candy cookie-cutter sugar coated bland PG rated generic fluff dramas nowadays.
Anyway, it started great then got weak when the love rival appeared. Didn't like how it proceeded afterwards with the events or the characters development. Also, didn't like this weird post time-skip thing they did. Still an okay watch, got to see more of Byun Jung Soo.
Flashy with no substance. This is another prime example were MDL ratings are skewed af. From the end of eps 8 it was gone beyond any redemption through the classic "brain-dead law enforcement" route. They had to because they had 8 more eps to go.
6 
This drama won't give you anything you want. It will always go against the viewer's desire. Jarring and distasteful turn of events for switching the love interest in the last quarter with little to no reasonable justification. The ML 'Do Yoon' was bland like a brick of stone, absolutely no chemistry with FL. They were trying so hard pushing him forcefully down our throats. Then you got the SFL In Joo/Yun Woo who broke some laws, committed some crimes and was morally corrupt yet she was loved and awarded at the end. She was losing constantly and then she suddenly got good at the end and won, the writers really wanted to give her a pity win. The interactions between both female leads were mostly awkward and emotionless, like two robots reading a script.
Anyway, the ending was ass and the writing was poor.
I recommend watching "Pasta (2010)" over this one, Pasta is better in every single aspect. I can't believe this got a higher rating than Pasta :/
Writing and comedy can use some help, it can get stale at times. The plot is a bit small for the decided runtime. Needs a better natural progression for the romance, it is a bit random, it starts around the middle then stops for few episodes then continues around the last few episodes and ends it with no kiss :/
On another note, we got no update on Sun Hee after she snitched. Also, the ML's father is one of the stupidest characters out there.
I have seen a lot of Kim Sun Ah works so far and it's amazing how unique and memorable every single one of them.
Hated all the relationships, the brothers, the CEO, both love interest and the love square. Awful progression for both FL leads. Yoo Kyung is a wuss and Mi Sun cannot be seen other than a mere comedic relief sidekick. Yoo Kyung got married for revenge but what kind of revenge was that? The lamest revenge ever, what a waste of a character.
Ma Jun changing last minute and it's all brotherly love? Sisters having a change of heart and excepting their brother after 15 years? A switch was flipped and everyone was happy-go-lucky at the end? Never tasted an artificial sweater this artificial like this one before.
Then you got the pacing. The last few episodes are empty while the last episode packed with 20x more content speeding up like crazy.
TBH younger Krystal was bland, the more experienced Krystal nowadays is much better.
At least she has been picking up good projects since Prison Playbook.
At least it's not that long. Some jokes were hilarious. Decent watch.
Yeah, it's bad, really bad. One long troll in the form of a drama. I will re-watch it after 699 years, who knows I might change my mind.
Both leads pulled a great performance with loads of chemistry, although I wanted to see a little bit more emotions at the last few scenes instead of a hug.
It would be much better if both couples were to reconcile or even part ways and move on instead of switching. Remove the last episode and let it end on 15 with some scenes were everyone had moved on. Anyway, it's passable at best 5/10.
First episode was made purposely too flashy to lure you in but soon enough you realize it's just a generic revenge story with little to no creativity. Although it had a big cast yet it feels the cast was small due to the lack of interesting characters. Needless to say the writing was average with some seriously stupid illogical bits. At least it's polished visually.
PS this shouldn't have the romance tag or even the political tag, it's purely drama/melo.
There were also two driving elements to the story that were done poorly. The unjustified stubbornness of ML father, he is terrified of what people would think of him if his son married FL. And the unfathomable greed of FL step-mother, she sold her soul for materialism. There were a few things to like too. The main couple long journey was satisfying to see flourishing. Some characters got nice development, although it was strange how FL tolerated Ra Ra for this long.
Anyway, it was an interesting watch about Gisaeng. Proceed with caution 4.5/10.
I really hated that double 1-year time skip on the last episode, it's the writers' way of telling you that they got stuck on how to wrap it up.
Anyway, it started great then got weak when the love rival appeared. Didn't like how it proceeded afterwards with the events or the characters development. Also, didn't like this weird post time-skip thing they did. Still an okay watch, got to see more of Byun Jung Soo.
This is another prime example were MDL ratings are skewed af.
From the end of eps 8 it was gone beyond any redemption through the classic "brain-dead law enforcement" route. They had to because they had 8 more eps to go.
Also, too many products placement.