So bad that I felt the need to write a review
A horrendous script that became increasingly nonsensical as the drama progressed. Characters were very 2D. They want to portray the female lead as a near-perfect character who isn't afraid of anything, and the result was watching an actress who knows she has plot armour, and thus, there was no tension or suspense whatsoever.The case-solving aspects were appalling and had numerous leaps of logic and reasoning that would have given Sherlock a conniption. This poor writing made the leads appear idiotic and incompetent at their job.
Why even bother with the period setting when the characters behaved as if they came from modern times and barely observed any etiquette or conventions of the time? If they want to write about characters that defied conventions, then I need them to bump up against disapproval; instead, it was smooth sailing, and nearly everyone fell into line with the leads. I don't even want to get into praising the female lead to high heaven because she's "not like other girls/women". Urg!!! Can we not with this?
If you mainly focus on the romance, then this may be for you, because the leads were all loved up and flying that green flag romance. I came for the crime-solving with romance thrown in, so this fell off the cliff.
STRONGLY DO NOT RECOMMEND.
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Should have been called: Romance of the Female General.
Lazy storytelling that prioritised cheap, tropey romance over creating a good story and character development.The first episode was choppy and poorly put together. The backstory of the female lead is crucial to the rest of her character's motivation and actions, and yet, they chose to gloss over it like an afterthought. Instead, the next dozen episodes were devoted to endless scenes aimed at selling the romance. Worse, they chose to do this by sacrificing logic and falling back on the most overused tropes in drama land.
The female lead was trying to pass as a man; she should be cautious and vigilant around the male lead and try to keep her distance from him. Yet, the script had her acting coquetishly, falling and clutching him and other ridiculousness. Are they so lacking in imagination that they couldn't write female-male romance in any other way except to fall back on the same old cutesy, girlish characterisation when it doesn't even make sense for the character and situation? I like romance. I also like tropes. However, it should not come at the expense of logic or characters and should be used sparingly for maximum effect.
The rest of the plot points are more of an afterthought, to serve the romance rather than the other way around. The result is that moments of emotional highlight came across as unearned because they were barely set up for the audience to feel the emotional weight of the scenes. The drama also suffered from the "tell, instead of show" mistake, overutilizing voice-over to explain characters' thoughts and actions rather than just allowing the behaviour to speak for itself. The writing shoehorned in themes of female empowerment with preachy speech and clunky scenes that again felt unearned because they were, again, poorly set up and relied on "tell, not show". This is a shame, because I can see the potential in this story and the female lead to speak well on this theme, if they had cared to write and develop it properly.
The moments of spark in this drama just emphasised how far short it falls from what it could have been.
Watch it if you want romance. But nothing else is to be taken seriously because even the people making the drama didn't take it seriously.
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Entertaining? Yes, somewhat. Good? Absolutely not!
This drama was an entertaining watch, but the script was not good, and the subpar acting compounded the problems.The scriptwriters must have been on some good stuff while writing this; it has a frenetic energy that drags you along and masks the illogical plot points and shallow characterisation. The seeds for a good story and interesting characters are there, but they were sacrificed for cheap plot twists and preachy social commentary that was poorly set up and executed.
The subpar acting by the main leads didn't help. Scenes of confrontation between the two leads that should have been tension-filled fall short. You can see the script is working to build the tension leading to the crescendo, but the female lead, looking like she's trying to remember how to act, combined with the male lead's blank face, means that it never quite gets there. Special mention goes to the actor playing the female lead's father. I don't know whether it's bad acting or a deliberate acting choice, but he comes across as such a caricature that it was difficult to take his villainy seriously.
Overall, if you want to be entertained, then this might do the job. But lower your expectations.
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