6
Queen: War of Love
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.Was this review helpful to you?
Magic Knights!
I wanted Lee Kwang Soo to take on a meatier role in that drama, but alas, he was just there as a guest. I usually like Choi Won Young in serious roles but I hate Choi Won Young when he pretends to be looking serious which was what he went for in this drama. Don't expect a 20-episodes worth of content, it was mostly a boring slice of life cosplay-drama with little to no story. As shallow and thin as the slice of pizza you would get from your teacher shared between 40 students. You technically ate, I guess? The gags, the tomfoolery and the pizazz that filled its content were all unpleasant to watch. The romance and the relationships aren't even worth talking about, a total joke!Was this review helpful to you?
Decent enough
The drama had a weak and uninteresting start but it managed to pick itself back up after some time. Some patients' stories didn't blend well with what was going on and it passed off as an interruption. It shares a lot of similarities with Jewel in the Palace (2003) but with a less attractive cast. Not only that but it also shares the same problems Jewel in the Palace (2003) had had. You may refer to my comment there. In comparison, I would nudge this one slightly higher since it had a more raw feeling to it. The drama also had a modern remake back in 2013. There was no specific fundamental issues with the base story to prompt a remake. There were too many identical copy-pasted scenes and jokes, they don't take any creative freedom with the core story/scenes to make the remake worthwhile. Although the remake is longer but this came at the expense of its pace since the extended content was poorly utilized and made it a worse experience overall. A lot of over exaggeration/dramatization and a lot less human. I hoped the remake would have a better written ending but no, it was identical frame by frame to the original. I prefer this version over the remake for its roughness, rawness and concise cut, it makes for a better watch.Was this review helpful to you?
A steady downward spiral
It had a strong first episode that made the drama seems promising and interesting but turns out that the first episode was its peak and the subsequent episodes were heading in a steady downward spiral to never recover after that. The story was barely functional for a full length 16-episodes drama. The writer should be embarrassed to label this as a comedy but that wasn't even the worst part that goes for the romance. The drama would have been slightly better if they were to cut out the romance without changing anything. Not only our leads were lacking in chemistry but the romantic moments were tasteless.Was this review helpful to you?
Decent
The earlier parts were dreadful to get through, they did an awful job trying to hook the viewers but it got a lot better later on. Around episode 5-6 it started getting interesting and enjoyable. However, that didn't last for too long as there was a big downtime and disconnect in the story after episode 12. Meanwhile the ending was good enough but I hoped for something better. On the other hand, the drama had a decent selection of cast but I wish we got to see more of the support cast like Park Won Sang instead of filling it with redundant scenes. The drama was promising and good enough but it left a lot to be desired.Was this review helpful to you?
Disappointing
The drama biggest problem is its both male leads. Both were incompatible, had zero chemistry and looked way older than their real age and compared to female lead. Regardless of anything else, the drama failed to nail the most basic elements of any romance. The romance itself was poor, awkward, emotionless and dull. Again, the lack of chemistry/connection isn't helping either. More or less, the comedy/entertainment value was equally problematic. This drama was a disastrous romcom from the very beginning and there was no saving it. Almost any other Choi Ji Woo drama from that era was better than this one.Was this review helpful to you?
.
The scuffed production from the beginning wasn't a good sign for what's to come but I was willing to give it a chance. However, it quickly became apparent that this level of writing was clumsy at best. The writer pulled a poor attempt trying to create a mature drama about complicated adult relationships but all these relationships came off as amateurish and bland. The sever lack of chemistry between the characters didn't help either.Was this review helpful to you?
There are better melos out there...
Cheap melodrama, its narrative shortcomings are somewhat forgivable due to the inept writer's apparent limitations in using other means to occupy its duration. However, the same can't be said for its conclusion, which regrettably left the viewers with a palpable sense of disappointment. The only thing you'll be getting is a stinging sour aftertaste.Was this review helpful to you?
.
Kim Jung Hyun plays a character with limited time who also had to drop out of the drama earlier than planned for health reasons which leaves this weird gap in the last 1/4 without the lead actor. This also led to a problematic ending and send-off of the character which was suppose to be the climax of series! Almost unwatchable after that. There were a lot of other problems but this one seems to be the most prominent one.Was this review helpful to you?
.
The premise of this "top" team is absurd and to make this story a functional and coherent one with such a premise would be a monumental task which this drama obviously failed to achieve and ended up being trashy. There's a lot of mystery going on but this one was the bad kind of mystery, not really a proper mystery anyway. Everyone slipping all the time, the culprits were kinda obvious, and the revelations were lame. Everything was over explained as if the viewers were toddlers. The flashiness and pazaz can be easily classified as cringe. Speaking of which, Lee Jang Woo throughout his entire acting career seems to be a very reliable cringe magnet, so no surprise here.Was this review helpful to you?
Poor!
When it comes to teenage/school dramas, bullying/hierarchy/classes and school pressure aren't doing it for me unless they take an interesting angle of which this drama failed to do. It fell into the endless pit of vexing mediocrity. On another note, sloppy writing that is sincerely flawed and only focuses on the shininess of teenage fluff and antics, further demoting its poor efforts in creating a story. On an unrelated note, I wonder when Kim Hyang Gi would graduate from playing student roles, it's getting stale. Also, it's a waste for the adult cast to be involved in such drama.Was this review helpful to you?
Good
A nice little drama. Everyone is a lead in their own story, at the same time they become support characters for other stories. I kinda liked how the stories were independent instead of parallel while having different directors/writers at the same time. There's an overall melancholy theme going on especially with the last story. It's a little different from usual drama but it's a decent watch. Also, young Bae Doo Na is amazing as always.Was this review helpful to you?
Good enough
It took forever to get to the spicy bits but the comedy was really good. At the same time, some of the tangents were seriously boring. It's a light infidelity drama, it doesn't get too serious and melo. Neither of the couples got too far but the damage was done. There was some pacing issues as well, it didn't need 22 episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Very bad!
The usual nipple twister makjang except this one take a wonky unfavorable route because it thinks itself special. At least other daily melo can deliver "something". Even if we disregarded the ending, the drama was infested with retardation throughout its run. I detest this piece of garbage with passion. The one thing I hated the most is whenever Moo Yool & Yoo Jung looked at each other or muttered a single word, Soo Hyuk would instantly spawn out of thin air and screech like a pig. This is definitely Choi Yoon Young's & Sung Hoon's worst drama they starred in.The creepy obsessed Soo Hyuk ended up with Yoo Jung. It would have been infinitely better if she ended up alone or if she died or anything!! Soo Hyuk's father killed both Yoo Jung's sister and father, then his mother tried to kill Yoo Jung's mother too! Still, they ended up together and had a kid. On the other hand, initially, Moo Yool's predicament with Yoo Jung seems very simple. He used to date Yoo Jung's sister when they were teens +10 years ago before she died.
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Failed delivery
Jung Hee the dullest character in the drama, would be better to remove her. The story was too shallow to function and the younger cast ain't helping either. I wanted to see more of the older cast and less of the younger cast. It also had too many plot holes to ignore.Was this review helpful to you?
