While it may have had a gripping introduction and an attractive selection of cast, however, it couldn't maintain its momentum later on. It started off as a fully fledged political drama then added a mix of other genres and cliches with an overpowering flavor of Netflix-esque type of production. Within a few episodes, it quickly lost its creative edge and began to recycle and re-skin the same attacks and counter-attacks between the involved parties. It made the scoop of the drama quite limited for its +11 hours runtime. It's a female centered plot so naturally the spotlight was on them. Each received decent characterization, good introductions, showcased interesting dynamics, and donned fashionable attire. However, by the end of the drama, all of them blended into a bland and vexing mix, losing their initial allure. The drama may have been alright but it's not quite there. At least it didn't stretch for the typical 16 episodes so that's a small win. On another note, the superheroes slo-mo walking shots were cringe. And the brief teaser at the end for a potential 2nd season was tasteless.
I despise, with every atom in my being, the loathsome trope of interrupted intimacy upon any physical approximation in a semi-romantic setting—of which this drama kept repeating endlessly and shamelessly for 14+ episodes before committing to what it was trying to do. Cringey levels of cringe! Despite attempting to address important themes of justice and societal issues, the drama struggled to properly address these subjects and instead turned them into a background noise to service their jokes. Why bother then? While the cast may have been fine but their characters remained uninteresting throughout the drama. Basic characterization, none of them stood out.
The drama had all the makings of a captivating drama—a stunning setting, charming characters, and a dash of romance. At first glance, the vibrant cinematography and the chemistry between the leads were apparent. But as the story unfolded, it didn't quite live up to its appeal, dare I say, it flopped. It would have been fine if it had retained only the slice of life fluff but it resulted to cheap melodrama antics to build tension and climax which always have had its toll on the viewing experience. The other 2 male leads Yoon Sung & Byung Yeon were treated poorly by the writers, half-arsed development and even a worse conclusion. The ending also faced something similar with it being unclean, unrefined and loose.
The drama was mostly a slice of life drama with minimum story. The concept is fairly simple and was done before, "Save the Last Dance for Me (2004)" comes to mind immediately. The leads had a good characterization and received an equally fulfilling performance by their cast. Which also why the leads had a good dynamic going on. However, its biggest problem is its lack in variety. Since it's a slice of life, the cast felt limited in size while jumping between the same few members of cast. They also lacked a unique variety in their archetypes to help keep the drama lively and vibrant. The same thing can be said about its lacking length of 75min x 16 episodes. There were too many slow and uninteresting sequences that dragged each episode too far. A slice of life doesn't equal boring when they're done right. If this drama were to be cut down to 6-7 episodes it would have been much better.
This is one of the best examples I've came across to what I like to call a "cosplay show", it had little to no serious consideration for its proposed era. The trend continued when the drama started to get preachy from a modern society point of view while being in no position to allow it to attempt such a thing. These could have been avoided if the drama was a parody, of which, it was not. There were obvious other problems and inconsistencies too, but what stood out the most was the mundane sequences filling the biggest portion of the drama, these were a real brain rot.
What did the drama want to be? A social commentary, a political play, a profession spotlight, a slice of life, or a light romcom? It never embraced any aspect of fully committed to a theme. Whenever it tried to delve deeper, it pulled itself back up to the surface. Unsuccessful mix, regardless. There were other points to be made about the cast, chemistry, and romance but I don't feel like repeating myself.
The drama had so much potential, but never managed to break through. The pacing was inconsistent for its elongated cool-down periods and its redundant flimsy 24 episodes. One moment you're going at a steady pace and the next, you're like, "Come on, let's get moving!". These long breaks in between didn't even serve a meaningful purpose like to develop the characters or build up for what's next. It should've been cut down to 10-12 episodes while cutting off the nonsense and focusing on the politics. The story slowed down and became less interesting in the 2nd half when the prince went into the palace. On another note, Go Ah Ra, she didn't fit her role at all, too fragile and soft looking. Strangely, her character (Yeo Ji) got demoted to a guest character in the 2nd half, little to no contribution or screen time. If I have to take a guess, the character didn't really fit the narrative to begin with, so it was hard to keep her around in the 2nd half, which also explains the attempted romance, the writers were desperate.
The drama felt like it was held together with duct tape. There was this missing spark to make the twins plot work. How are we supposed to buy into this twin dynamic when there's no connection?Somehow, the dead twin had a better chemistry and her replacement twin never worked despite being the same actress. The romance as well suffered because of that, incompatible by design. Out of all the ideas that can be spun from a twins plot, they kept it very simple while doing the bare minimum to fill the episodes. Which also resulted in long draggy uneventful events. On another note, out of all of Jin Se Yeon historical roles, this is her weakest performance yet.
Some soundtracks were brilliant and went hard while other ones were pure rehashed garbage picked up from your local free-licensed store. However, the drama itself suffered from being painfully long-winded, with excessive and unnecessary long shots that reflected negatively on the cinematography. Especially when the chemistry was average at best. Plot-wise, it fell into the trap of being extremely formulaic, treading familiar ground seen in many dramas with the girl/prince trope. It didn't dare to try anything new or to spin its own twist. The male lead made the whole experience significantly uncomfortable and challenging, his personality didn't exude any attractive qualities in the slightest; in fact, I found his behavior to be quite repulsive, appalling and off-putting, catered exclusively to the fan-fic obsessed mindset, which may explains its ratings.
The way they handled things was just all over the place. This loathsome love triangle infested its core amidst everything else. Forcefully pushing it in our throats around every single detour. It got trashier the longer it kept going. The drama was covered with palace politics, as always, but it was impossible to care about anything because they just obsessed over who's in love with whom, overshadowing anything the drama tried to offer. The pacing followed through in that regard—slow moments that dragged on forever for what could have been a quick tale. The drama fell way short of establishing a watchable narrative. It was like biting into a cookie and finding out it's all crumbs.
Realistically, the drama was mostly about the backstory, the queen for 7 days turned out to be the queen for 7 minutes. The spoiler/teaser introduction and that first episode in general left a bad taste in my mouth. There was no need to show moments from 18 episodes later this early, if their intent was to try to hook the viewers by showing spoilers then they failed. And don't even get me started on that loathsome love triangle that seemed to stain the entire drama. The pacing was all over the place—slow moments that dragged on forever and irrelevant sidetracking. The whole sibling rivalry angle was given a generic development. The not so good brother tried to justify himself but the writer didn't put an ounce of effort into that. Really frustrating writing towards the end.
The spoiler/teaser introduction and that first episode in general left a bad taste in my mouth. There was no need to show moments from 10 episodes later this early, if their intent was to try to hook the viewers by showing spoilers then they failed. And don't even get me started on that loathsome love triangle that seemed to stain the entire drama. The pacing was all over the place—slow moments that dragged on forever and irrelevant sidetracking. The whole sibling rivalry angle was given a generic development. The not so good brother tried to justify himself but the writer didn't put an ounce of effort into that. On another note, Yoon Shi Yoon looked weird with his baby beard.
The drama, on paper, had potential. A mix of historical and contemporary narratives sounded intriguing, but the execution fell flat. The pace was slower than a snail's crawl, and the plot dragged on without significant development. The portrayal of the female lead's life in the past often felt overshadowed by the mundane occurrences of the present, causing a lack of focus and direction in the storytelling. While attempting to blend history and modern storytelling, the transitions felt disjointed, leaving me disconnected from the characters and their journeys. The drama's portrayal of the protagonist's life and the historical context lacked depth and failed to evoke a genuine emotional connection. The overall quality felt subpar—amateurish directing and filming made it hard to believe people were doing their jobs professionally. It's like they were clueless and just pretending. Such a shame that a big budget ($18+ millions) ended up wasted on this drama. The poor broadcast ratings weren't surprising at all. They even chopped off two episodes, probably to cut their losses. It shouldn't have been longer than 12 episodes max. It's almost like Lee Young Ae went on a very long hiatus to the point, when she returned, she no longer had any negotiation power and her agency just picked up whatever project they managed to get.
It's safe to say I hit a wall around episode 9-10 of that drama. Everything felt like a lullaby—monotone and sleep-inducing. Later on, things didn't improve much, but I guess I sort of got used to the dreariness. However, that last episode was a total distaste. It crammed in so much last-minute chaos and then ended with an unsatisfying departure that seemed like an afterthought. There were two things I hated in particular about this drama that were too glaring to ignore and subsequently detracted a lot from the drama, not that it was gonna be something spectacular without them anyway. The gags/comedic-relief moments accompanied by the unpleasant comedy cue made going through the episodes just a tad bit tougher than it already was. The other reason was Sung Ji Hun in general, the man sucks on a cosmic level, both the character and the actor. It would have been infinitely better to completely strip the drama from this deplorable attempted romance. Any love triangle that involves Choi Tae Joon is usually an unquestionable bad time right out of the gate.
The drama started off promisingly but took a nosedive after a pivotal moment around episode 7 when the plot took an unfortunate turn with the very conveniently timed amnesia break. This narrative choice not only broke the momentum built up until that point but also shattered the drama's coherence. After this abrupt twist, the series struggled to regain its footing, and the attempts to recover its initial momentum proved futile, leading to a disjointed narrative and a noticeable decline in quality. While attempting to portray the struggles of the oppressed, the series fell into repetitive cycles, as expected. The romantic elements felt forced and superficial. Rather than enhancing the storyline, the romantic subplot felt out of place and failed to integrate seamlessly into the overarching plot. It felt like they had to give the lead a girl, any girl. Would have been better if his siblings occupied that gap instead of being wasted on the love interest. At least the drama didn't end like Hong Gil Dong (2008).
What might have seemed an interesting premise on the surface turned out to be the farthest thing from that, it crashed and burned in flames. The cast? They might as well have been cardboard cutouts. Pretty faces without a soul. Do Joon gave nothing but extremely uncomfortable creepy vibes made my skin crawl! The characters were like shape-shifters, their motivations changing faster than the weather. I couldn't latch onto them or the storyline. The drama also featured one of the worst love triangles with the highlight being the abomination of this female lead character.
Nothing to see here, just another failed adaptation/remake of the original My Sassy Girl to be added to the list. It ended up being a parade of tired clichés and an absolute rollercoaster of inconsistency. You have to abandon the most basic display of homosapien intellect capabilities before going into this drama. The leads were useless which made the baddies invincible and the only thing that was able to stop them was the production reaching its end. The leads' relationship was as if someone threw them together and said, "Okay, now act like you're in love!". It was one of the most unnatural displays of affection and progression which, subsequently, killed their romance, in this supposed "rom-com". How many times did the male lead roll to both sides and sighed while being doubtful of his feelings like a child being teased for liking girls?
A strong, solid and gripping introduction that captured the expected theme perfectly, accompanied with thrilling gambling scenes. Choi Min Soo instantly pulled all the attention to himself. He did such an amazing job embodying this harsh intimidating king. However, it wasn't all sunshine and roses, most of the glamorous elements that made the drama attractive were evaporated after 3 episodes. A handful of useless characters may come and go. The gambling became a secondary plot device. Stretching the drama thin and long by introducing three mini-bosses like an anime arc. The main lead was equipped with impervious plot armor eliminating the tension and risks. He may suffer irrecoverable fatal damage just to be resurrected from the depths of hell because the drama can't continue otherwise. A handful of other writing problems that kept holding the drama back sprinkled throughout. The only character that remained interesting was King Suk Jong, waiting desperately for his next scene of which they were scarce for a main lead. Yeo Jin Goo should stop picking up king/historical roles, he might be one drama away from being entrapped in typecasting hell forever.
Yeah, this goes mostly for the first half and for both leads' performance. I think it's still worth it even for…
If I remember correctly, the plot went on tangents losing direction, characters started to get out of their "character" for no reason, some characters that were interesting didn't have the same contribution later on and they ended up left in the background and were replaced with generic characters to fill the story. And the ending was a little out of order, whether it was historically accurate or not. Really everything can be boiled down to not having the same quality and consistency.
This drama was like a rollercoaster ride without the thrills or the rails. That first episode was unbelievably bad and a huge turn off to kick start the drama but I kept going regardless. The whole mystical shaman vibe in a historical setting turned out to be quite an unsuccessful combo in this case, it felt like they slapped on those elements without any real thought. The entire story felt so limited and restricted, even the cast, when taking into consideration its length. All of that was accompanied by poor pacing, you can imagine how they were trying to push it to reach the 20 episodes mark.
6 
What did the drama want to be? A social commentary, a political play, a profession spotlight, a slice of life, or a light romcom? It never embraced any aspect of fully committed to a theme. Whenever it tried to delve deeper, it pulled itself back up to the surface. Unsuccessful mix, regardless. There were other points to be made about the cast, chemistry, and romance but I don't feel like repeating myself.