sunflower63

After having watched more than 500 dramas (514 to be exact) in 10 years I have to say that probably typical romcoms like this one have definitely lost their charm for me.
I agree with the comments below that the first half was much better than the second however on the whole it was totally flat and there was really nothing special in the plot at all. My favourite characters were Hae Jin and Gwang Nam and I couldn't feel any chemistry between the OTP at all even when they finally let their guards down.
I have always been a great fan of PMY even if she has played many similar characters in her latest dramas but this time it was so painful to see how skinny she was that it kept on distracting me from her acting. I can't rate this drama with more than a 6 and hope to see all the cast in better projects in the future.

This was a pleasant light hearted watch for me. I have to say that I chose it because I knew the great acting skills of the main leads and I agree with the comments below that with this kind of script they seemed a little wasted.
However I understand that it's nice for both LSG and LSY to have a break now and again from demanding plots so this drama was probably easy going and enjoyable for them to perform in and for us to watch. The secondary cast was also very entertaining. My rating is 7.

I agree with many comments here below that this drama should have been mostly a romcom without the detective part. Indeed towards the end the whole plot became predictable and also quite unrealistic in many parts ( for example...do we still believe that someone who gets badly stabbed in the stomach can be perfectly OK after a couple of hours and walk around as if nothing had happened?). What I enjoyed most was the good chemistry and acting of the group of four improvised detectives, and some great comedic moments in the first half. I am rating it with a 7 and would recommend viewing it as a relaxing filler in between better dramas.

My memory is really weak as I watched this drama two months ago, however if I remember correctly and as I wrote above it's mainly a revenge themed drama, so I would say one big case.

This was a really beautiful historical drama...one of those Chinese dramas which are cleverly written, magnificently acted and perfectly developed overall. However, it needs a lot of patience to get into as the first episodes are pretty slow and not exactly easy to understand (which is why I really appreciated the little bonus at the end of these episodes).
Once the story starts to unfold everything becomes clearer and it is very easy to get involved although there are overall many long war dialogues going on which I let totally go over my head. Nevertheless the plot was engaging and straightforward until the end although I was left bitter with the ending.
In any case, brilliant and definitely the best historical of 2022 watched so far. My rating is 9.5.

What an amazing drama this was!! I enjoyed every minute as the writing, the acting and the directing were pure perfection (yes maybe there were some plot holes here and there but the overall quality was above any little flaw).
I have to say that sometimes I am lucky to come across such incredible Chinese historicals which also help me to understand and learn a little bit of China's past (although of course I am aware that it was heavily biased in this case).
There is really nothing much more to say but to hope that there will be more and more dramas at such a level and as involving and fascinating as this one. This gets a well deserved 10 from me.

Unfortunately Kdramas have started following the western trend of making sequel seasons. The reason why I preferred Kdramas to western series was that the stories started and ended in one season, which is also why I skipped other K dramas for which it was known beforehand that they would be developed in sequels.
I was therefore greatly disappointed that in this drama we were left hanging without any idea of how it would all develop. Yes we had a few closures but definitely not enough to be satisfied.
All I can say is that as usual Ji Sung did a great job of portraying two different personalities and overall the whole cast performed really well. Also the setting of that amazing house was impressive. In any case I can't rate this with more than a 7.5 because it's only the first part of a story.

Great article and very useful too! Thanks for writing it. I started my drama watching in 2011 with J dramas exactly with Long Vacation and Zenkai Girl and for a whole year I watched only those until I discovered Kdramas. I have many favourite classics such as Nodame Cantabile, Saikou No Rikon, Jin, Tonbi, Nankyoku Tairiku etc. and I also loved asadoras such as Massan and Hanako to Anne. Unfortunately in recent years I stopped watching J dramas as they seem to be always the same genres such as school life, medical, thrillers, horror and so on and I am not finding anything original or different that suits my tastes any longer.

I just discovered, by reading the reviews here below, that this drama was written by the same writer as Saikou no Rikon and Quartet which explained why I enjoyed it so much. It is indeed very peculiar and fun at the same time and, as most Jdramas, so representative of the real world. The relationships between the three husbands and the female lead felt so natural and warm and the slice of life aspect of this story was incredibly refreshing. So glad I chose to watch it and my rating is 9.

Thanks to the comments here below I realized that this will have a follow up season as I was quite bewildered when it ended with so many unanswered questions. I enjoyed the story and since everyone is raving about the book I will eventually read it as well.
On the whole it was good, although my concentration was constantly interrupted in following the plot by the continuous and abrupt time changes which were very close to each other and rather confusing. Also I understand that the lighting and the colours here were dim because of the close representation of the time period, but often everything was too dark and quite hard to follow.
Brilliant acting anyway so my rating for this first part is 8.

This was yet again another Kdrama with a 'revenge themed' plot which seems to be a favourite trend in recent months in Korea. With the added repetition of casting exactly the same exact actor, i.e. Lee Kyung Young, to play the part of the villain, which is becoming bothersome.
Indeed this drama plotwise was nothing original or particularly outstanding (I would have avoided some unnecessary makjang towards the end) however I appreciated the great acting skills of the female lead and the cast in general. My rating is 7.5.

Can't wait!

I was amongst those who were eagerly waiting for So Ji Sub's comeback and I wasn't disappointed by his performance in this drama.
Indeed the writing wasn't spectacular and Jayden (Shin Sun Rok, another actor I really admire for his incredible acting qualities) stole the scene, but on the whole I was satisfied with how the story was developed. I agree that there wasn't much chemistry between the ML and FL but it seemed it wasn't really the focus of the drama which was more on the revenge theme.
I would say that overall it wasn't bad but SJS can give much better performances when heavy makjang or witty comedy is involved and not when the plot is lukewarm. My rating is 8.

This is the first really BAD drama that I watched in recent years as I usually manage to steer clear of what I don't enjoy after the first few episodes.
Indeed from the very beginning the plot seemed unrealistic (OK it's fiction so I could live with that) and I literally hated the FL (very unusual for me!) for being so clumsy, spaced out and untalkative. However I held on as Yoon Kye Sang is a great actor and his dramas never disappointed me before.
By the time I reached the last two episodes I was totally fed up and, furthermore, they were the peak of nonsense for me, and I really had to grit my teeth to reach the end!!
I understand the plot was taken from a webnovel so probably the writers had to stick to the original plot but ugh, how stupid this all seemed to me.
I am rating it with a 6 only for the effort of the cast whose acting was good, but I consider these 12 hours as a total waste of my precious time.

This is the second Chinese business/romance drama which I have seen and enjoyed lately and both were really good (the first one was The Ideal City).
I found the slice of life part believable and involving and I really appreciated the character growth of both of the leads and a few secondary characters.
Yes the beginning of the story is quite frustrating but the writers were clever to entice the viewers into being patient and waiting for situations to evolve. Thumbs up for great projects such as this one and I hope there will be more to enjoy in the future. My rating is 9.

I'm glad Korea is coming back to really good traditional saeguks such as this one after a few years in which they were mixed with other genres such as fantasy, horror, comedy and so on. As many others have written, this drama was extremely beautiful to the eye because of perfect directing, photography and filming.
I also found the story itself to be pretty original because the king was a schemer himself, whereas kings in saeguks usually bear the consequences of all those who scheme around him. Furthermore, I enjoyed the political aspect of this drama because both the King's beloved, Yoo Jung, and his worst enemy, Gye Won, had strong personalities and were extremely clever and motivated.
I also appreciated the ending which left the viewer with many questions as to how the future of the leads will unfold. A great saeguk which deserves a rating of 9.

All I was commenting on was if there is proof that all of this was done ON PURPOSE to hurt the horse (also the issue of ignoring the suffering of the horse for a week!!!). But let's leave the discussion at that and keep our own reasonings to ourselves. This is all in the past,and like everyone elso I am sorry that the horse died (although I would have never dreamt of dropping a drama because of that) and I am sure they will have all learnt their lesson.

So what do they do in the zillion of other fictions around the world when they have to stop a horse from running in a scene? Do they use a different method that won't hurt the horse or do they use CGI? I wonder!! I wasn't there to witness if this whole issue was done purposely to hurt the horse or if they simply carelessly did that without realising what the conseqences would have been. Plus I wasn't there to witness if they carelessly left the horse to die for a week. Is there proof that all of this happened willingly? If so I understand that it could have been an issue but again not to hinder months of hard work of many people who were not involved.

You didn't bother me at all. I thought the reference to 2 years ago was concerning the death of the lead actress and not referring to the broadcasting of Oh My Lady. I probably watched them in reverse order but it wasn't the only drama that I found had a very similar plot so I stand by my judgement of that time period (infact now I don't remember it at all as so much time has gone by, LOL!). I appreciate and respect your opinion, however as you can see we can't all be the same. ;)

Funny to find a comment after 9 years of writing this, but I will reply saying that the two factors are not in any way connected. I rated the drama lower simply because I found the plot unoriginal as very similar to many others I had seen (and I am free to do so right?). The fact that I found out that the actress had died (it didn't make any difference to me when she died) actually made me appreciate the drama more!! Is everything clearer now?