Reviews

one of the best bls of 2026

I had high expectations for this series and i’m glad that my expectations are being met!
I love how it shows what actually happens behind the scenes, it reminds us that at the end of the day fans only see what they are allowed to see. The industry is competitive and hurtful, one day you’re loved the other you’re the number 1 public enemy because of a rumor. I’ve read the novel and all I can say is that I can’t wait to see how things will turn out in the drama considering they did make some changes.

auausave’s chemistry is incredible and the acting is great ! i like the cast a lot !

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Good story

If you don't look superficially, if you have read enough, analyzed the literature, the characters, their internal conflicts, you will see that series is good. It's drama with elements of comedy, but don't let the comedic moments fool you. The main characters carry their own traumas, inner turmoil that they try to hide from others and from themselves. My favorite characther is Dean, who I think hides insecurity and sadness with laughter and cynicism. Moth also has his fears. When two such characters are attracted to each other, drama is inevitable. I don't know how their story will end, but I would like them to overcome their fears together, and for thei love to make them completely open up to each other and enjoy that love because they are both hungry for love, no matter how they hide it deep inside. Music top ten. Acting too.

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I'm in love with the series. The production, the chemistry, the visuals is amazing. DeanMoth being red flags in their own ways, Dean just having fun and going on date with Moth only for his friend so that he can get his crush while Moth just dont want his friend Pun to fall for him and don't want to ruin the friendship so he plans date with Dean so that Pun might finally realize. Now i would love to know what would happen if they come to know that they have been just using each other for the sarke of their friend. What if they actually fall in love? Oh I so cant wait for the next episode.

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Good, but could have been better

I was excited to see Maxky and Bas in something a bit lighter than Fourever You, but the oomph of chemistry was missing in this. There was too much time wasted on Praew's bet with Soh, almost a whole episode of pretend when that time could have been spent deepening the relationship between The33 and Soh, or even Arm and James.
Soh did develop more self-esteem, but I just think by the end he should have been more confident and tad more agressive in his and Thr33's romantic interactions.

There was just a lot of unresolved plots that left an unsettled feeling. Who stole the bear head? Thr33?
If Ten is moving to Vietnam what happens with his relationship with Jack?
Why is the team not going to continue to play for the next year's championship?

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started strong, lost its way

I was hooked from the beginning. I loved the FL's craziness and the office vibes. It was fun watching Nam Da-reum as a devoted fan of Lee Chan while slowly starting to fall for Kang Ha-gi. The fangirl-turned-employee premise was fresh, and the early episodes had a chaotic energy that kept me entertained. But suddenly, the story started to get messy. It became too cliché, and I had to start skipping scenes.

In the end, I dropped the drama at episode 8. The show had a promising premise—a fangirl landing a job at her idol's company only to clash with his best-friend CEO—but it lost its charm along the way.

If you're looking for an idol drama, I'd recommend Idol I instead. It's a mature relationship drama without unnecessary dragging, and the conflicts are resolved within an episode.

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Scandal or Human Greed

The Acting: A Psychological Masterclass the collective acting in The Scandal is nothing short of breathtaking, anchored by a screenplay that swaps drawing-room drawing blocks for heavy, unspoken Joseon era subtext. Unlike typical historical dramas that rely on sweeping royal political machinations, the conflict here is intimate, psychological, and profoundly interpersonal. The entire ensemble treats the script not as a narrative to recite, but as a chessboard where every line of dialogue serves as a calculated maneuver. The overarching brilliance of the acting lies in the duality every performer must manage: maintaining the flawless, rigid decorum required by high society while letting raw malice, desperation, or forbidden desire crack through their polished exteriors. The cast strikes a delicate balance, transforming standard melodrama into an atmospheric, high-stakes game of emotional survival.


Cinematography: A Lavish, Suffocating Canvas visually, screen into a rich, moving canvas that juxtaposes breathtaking aesthetic beauty with thematic confinement. The frame compositions heavily employ internal architectural framing—shooting characters through the layered sliding doors of hanbok estates, dense bamboo thickets, and ornate silk screens. This constant visual boundary serves as a reminder of the suffocating societal structures enclosing these characters, particularly the noblewomen. The lighting changes drastically alongside the characters' descents into corruption; bright, soft morning light filtered through paper walls eventually gives way to amber-lit, shadow-heavy night sequences dominated by deep blacks and rich jewel tones. The camera moves with a slow, predatory grace, frequently lingering on microscopic details—the untying of a traditional norigae, the subtle tremble of a hand pouring tea, or the heavy rustle of silk layers—which amplifies the show's intense erotic and psychological tension.

Music: The Haunting Resonance of Tradition musical score,, is an audacious and brilliantly executed component of the production's identity. Rather than settling for a standard orchestral or sweeping contemporary ballad soundtrack, the musical direction prominently features pansori (traditional Korean musical storytelling) and deep, solo string instruments like the geomungo and haegeum. The pansori elements function almost as a Greek chorus, with low, guttural vocals scoring moments of deep betrayal and emotional undoing. The percussion is minimal yet deeply impactful, utilizing traditional drums that mimic a rising heartbeat during the show's most suspenseful seduction sequences. By using raw, unpolished traditional instrumentation against such a polished, high-gloss production, the music directly echoes the underlying savagery hiding behind the characters' sophisticated aristocratic masks.

Ji Chang Wook: The Charming Playboy Undone ji Chang-wook delivers a career-defining performance as Cho Won, the most notorious, alluring playboy in all of Joseon. Stepping far away from his familiar action-hero or sweet rom-com archetypes, Ji commands the screen with a lethal mix of arrogance, effortless charisma, and underlying vacancy. In the initial episodes, his performance is wonderfully fluid; his posture, the casual tilt of his hat (gat), and his silver-tongued delivery perfectly embody a man who views seduction purely as a sport. However, Ji's true brilliance emerges as the wager spirals out of his control. His transition from a cold, detached manipulator into a man thoroughly shattered by genuine, uninvited love is agonizing to watch. The subtle shift in his eyes—from calculated amusement to absolute vulnerability—shows a remarkable depth of restraint, solidifying this as one of his finest dramatic turns.

Son Ye Jin: A Relentless, Brilliant Matriarch Son Ye-jin commands the screen with terrifying grace as Lady Cho, the brilliant noblewoman pulling the strings of the entire narrative. Making her long-awaited return to the screen, Son sheds her "nation's first love" image entirely to play a deeply complex, resentful, and strategically brilliant antagonist. Bound tightly by the suffocating gender constraints of the Joseon era, her Lady Cho channels her immense intellect into weaponizing the desires of those around her. Son plays the role with an icy, calculated posture and a sharp, calculating gaze that can shift from a warm societal smile to chilling indifference in a single breath. She prevents Lady Cho from becoming a one-dimensional villain, embedding her actions with a palpable, tragic rage against a patriarchal society that refuses to grant women an independent voice. It is a tour de force performance of calculated malice and deeply hidden pain.

Nana: The Heartbreaking Fragility of Virtue nana turns in a staggeringly emotional performance as Hui-yeon, the deeply pious and fiercely chaste young widow who unwittingly becomes the target of the central wager. Stepping into a role that requires profound vulnerability, Nana serves as the emotional anchor and moral compass of the entire series. Her performance beautifully tracks the slow, painful cracking of a woman's lifelong defenses. She portrays Hui-yeon’s internal conflict with excruciating clarity, capturing the precise moment where terror of societal ruin gives way to the undeniable awakening of repressed passion. Nana's chemistry with Ji Chang-wook is electric yet tragic; her expressive eyes ground the high-stakes melodrama in genuine, human stakes, making her inevitable heartbreak feel deeply devastating.Praise for the Supporting Cast beyond the central trio, the supporting cast elevates The Scandal into a truly rich ensemble piece.

Han Sun-hwa shines brilliantly in an original role created specifically for this Netflix adaptation—a shameless, upwardly mobile woman fiercely obsessed with wealth and status. Han injects a chaotic, vibrant energy into the otherwise tense atmosphere, playing her character with a perfect blend of wit and desperate

Shin Yoon-ha: The Breakout, Multi-Layered Catalyst as So-ok—the young woman intended to become a concubine and the secondary target of the central wager—rookie actress Shin Yoon-ha delivers a true breakout performance. Her character is a complex linchpin in the narrative, and Shin navigates these shifting allegiances with a maturity far beyond her years. She plays So-ok not merely as a passive pawn, but as a young woman trying to discover her own desires and agency amid a web of elite deceit, marking her as an exciting talent to watch.Lee Ji-hoon: The Suffocating

Kang Chan-hee (Chani): The Anchor of Naive Innocence playing Kwon In-ho, Kang Chan-hee provides the necessary moral contrast to the cynical games played by the central characters. Chani is widely praised for his remarkably earnest, grounded screen presence. In a narrative dominated by manipulation, his portrayal of wide-eyed, youthful sincerity serves as a tragic reminder of what is at stake. Reviewers highlight his ability to convey deep vulnerability through minimal dialogue, ensuring his character’s slow realization of the corruption around him hits with genuine emotional weight


Overall a good watch

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Zhou Ye and Xu Kai have more chemistry than the entire periodic table!

Initially, when this drama was announced and they cast Zhou Ye and Xu Kai as the leads, I knew right away I had to watch it. So, out of sheer curiosity, I decided to read the novel, and I’ll admit, I was a bit hesitant. The novel is a bit "slow-paced" with very little focus on romance, but later on, I learned the screenwriters would be making some changes, which put my mind at ease.

Shen Run was the character who surprised me the most. Xu Kai played him masterfully, and I must admit I was charmed by his seductive yet realistic personality, which is not the least bit off-putting. As for the female lead, Qing Yuan, she is just like in the novel: a young woman seeking revenge for her late mother, yet able to hide her true intentions, executing her vengeance without any remorse. Something very realistic about Qing Yuan is the fact that she cries out of anger. In some of her dialogues with the Nanny, a single tear would roll down her face, and I felt that brought a much more realistic touch to her character.

The cinematography and sets are perfect. The supporting characters are remarkable and deliver a very solid performance.

There are still many episodes ahead, but so far, this drama has completely won me over.

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Fantastic green flag chemistry

This series easily has the best romantic chemistry between the leads of any drama I've seen so far. What starts as a high school crush slowly develops into a very believable romantic love between equals without any of the negative tropes that are too often injected into romance dramas. Yang Yang and Dilraba do an excellent job of conveying the love and respect that develops between their characters as their romance deepens. Their hugs and kisses look authentic – not the all too usual one-sided, loose grip hug and tight-lipped kiss. And their banter is fantastic - exactly what you'd expect between two people that truly enjoy being with each other. Finally, the way their faces light up when they call, text or see each other after a while apart perfectly conveyed the feelings their characters have for one another.

I also really appreciated that this was a relationship between equals...each a star within their fields with the other respecting that and fully supporting their partner in their endeavors and accomplishments. This especially is demonstrated by how they deal with each other's extended absences. Rather than being a source of conflict, they find ways to stay connected while separate and make the most of their time together.

Probably the most surprising yet perfect aspect was how their friends and colleagues supported their relationship. In other dramas featuring an celebrity & non-celebrity romance, the celebrity's management team usually introduces unnecessary drama and roadblocks...here they are completely supportive. They realize the potential issues and work to help the couple rather than create problems themselves. The same is true for Yu Tu's friends and colleagues. When paparazzi's get caught photographing Yu Tu's restricted workplace, his bosses are supportive and deal with the situation rather than giving the couple a hard time.

If you are looking for a romance drama with a lot of negative tropes and energy, this won't be for you – it has none. What it does have is a depiction of two people that truly love, support and trust one another.

All that said, there are aspects of the series that some will certainly find slow, boring or otherwise not interesting. The first third of the series spends a lot of time with the Honor of Kings MOBA...it is the story line that bring Yu Tu and Jingjing together. The middle third (and last couple of episodes) does delve fairly deeply into Yu Tu's aerospace work and highlights China's accomplishments in aerospace technology. I enjoyed these aspects of the drama as I'm an avid online gamer as well as very interested in science and technology but if neither interest you, it is very easy to skip over these parts without missing any of the romance story. And what you'll be left with is an excellent positive story between two people whom you'll truly believe are deeply in love.

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