This drama......

This drama will leave you laughing, infuriate you, and totally KO you emotionally.

It started very strong. ML and FL met when they were both young, had quirky and funny interactions and a quick romantic development. Unfortunately, the romance plot, while having a fun beginning, started going in circles to the point of frustration. San chased after Deok Im (DI) begging for her to love him when he was the crown prince and he continued pursuing her and begging her to love him after he became the king.

At some point, I wanted to see DI get a promotion, an upgrade, to move up in life which would've also given a chance for San/DI to develop further aside from just being a king and his maid. But, she did the same things for the entirety of the show and had awkward interactions with San about their relationship, which made the pace and story development a bit stale. Her consistently rejecting him, because she wanted to lead her own life, would've made sense if DI actually had plans to leave and move on after he found a concubine, but she kept coming back to be his maid, which went against the entire premise of her wanting to lead her own life. This plotline needed to either wrap up a lot sooner or the writers should've written more story to avoid the round-about "love me!!!" by San. And, frankly, them always having the same conversation became really boring.

The other plot lines with San living in the shadow of his "traitor" father and having a love/hate relationship with his abusive tyrant grandfather was very well written and made San an extremely sympathetic character. The transition between him being a crown prince and a king was also very well done showing him transforming from a scared little prince to a decisive king who wasn't afraid to get rid of anyone who opposed him, including family members.

I was going to write about the treatment of women, but it would be redundant considering that this is a period peace. It doesn't matter which period and which country. It always sucked for women everywhere until 100 years ago. Enough said.

The ending broke me until it didn't. After DI accepted San and became his concubine, the story quickly switched gears and showed that their love wasn't happy at all. For the majority of show, San was broken-hearted from being continuously rejected by DI, and DI wasn't very happy being San's concubine because she was forced to wait for him, was at the mercy or his schedule, and had to share him with other women. The scene of DI telling San on her deathbed that she didn't want to meet him in the next life really drove the tragedy home and showed the awful predicament women back then. Even a woman who was well loved and lived in privilege had nothing of her own and was just another thing a man owned.

Just as I thought that my depression couldn't get any worse, it turned out that the ending was San's dream. Waking up in cold sweat and realizing that DI was alive was a second chance of sorts for San to appreciate what was truly important to him. I wasn't particularly thrilled with that twist because it messed up the chronology and made the story more complicated than it should've have been. And, it felt emotionally draining after having to witness DI's death and San's loneliness and longing for years to come after he lost the one woman he ever loved. Nevertheless, this was a beautiful love story.

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Really good

Season 1 (episodes 1-27) had slow start. It took a whopping six episodes for Shaoshang and Ling Buyi to finally meet face to face. Before that, nothing was happening aside from Shaoshang showing absolute disdain towards everything and acting like a spoiled brat. She was supposed to be a neglected and abused teenager who was left as a baby with her relatives while her parents served in a war. The writers didn't do a really good job flushing her out her character at the beginning. She stumbled between being portrayed as a neglected teen to acting very whiny and entitled. In every scene she would go out of her way to act out and complain about everything, instead of trying to reconnect with her parents. Fortunately, the writers didn't let her fester into an unlikable shrew and her character development picked up nicely. It turned out she loved to learn about how things worked. She was very sympathetic to other people problems. And she was a great problem solver.

Her mother's actions were very confusing. For someone who was a seasoned general, mom showed extreme shortsightedness when it came to parenting. She knew very well about her daughter's accomplishments, but instead of looking at the big picture and appreciating the fact that Shaoshang did not grow up to be shallow and spoiled, mom always fixated on her daughter's smaller problems - a lack of education and etiquette. Mom's inconsistency showed even more during Shaoshang's engagement. She did not want the marriage with Lou Yao because he was unintelligent, weak, and wasn't able to protect Shaoshang. Mom also picked up on the fact that Ling Buyi liked her daughter. However, when Ling Buyi proposed, mom immediately put her daughter down to be some awful and unintelligent simpleton who was unworthy of anything. It was no wonder Shaoshang wanted to get away from that house. The icing on the cake was mom's favoritism towards the cousin, instead of trying to reconnect with her daughter.

I really wanted to see the mom and daughter's relationship grow where Shaoshang realized that her mom wanted to prepare her for the adult life and teach her how to navigate society. In return, mom would realize that Shaoshang was a very special and beautiful person and finally got over her fixation on Shaoshang's upbringing. There were some very good moments where I thought mom and daughter would finally grow close - the one where mom slapped one of the ladies at Lou Yao's house. But then there was the scene with Lin Buyi's proposal where mom was a total let down.

The way the Cheng family was portrayed as a "military" family was odd. General Cheng was a general, just like Ling Buyi. But General Cheng didn't seem to have any kind of influence or power at all. At 21, Ling Buyi had an awful lot of power and influence, and even an army to command. General Cheng was nowhere on that level even thought he spent his entire life fighting and was at least twice as old as Ling Buyi. The only person who seemed to have any kind of military discipline in the Cheng family was mom. The two brothers, who were with the parents when they were away, acted like spoiled and pampered aristocrats, instead of military children. They also looked like they never handled a weapon in their lives.

Some storylines needed serious cropping, like the very long engagement to Lou Yao that wasn't going to work out anyway. Shaoshang and Ling Buyi playing catch up with each other could've been sped up a little bit too. I wanted to see more of them hang off the roof together instead of watching Lou Yao bringing her snacks.

There were also some very great scenes showing the build-up of Shaoshang and Ling Buyi relationship. The scene where she pulled an arrow out of his chest was hot and very intimate.

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Waste of time

I really really really was looking forward to this drama solely for Lee Jun Ho because I loved him in the Red Sleeve. But, the show was so utterly underwhelming and frustrating.

This is a cliche rom-com where a rich guy falls for a working class employee. It would've been interesting if the writers treated the characters like adults, instead of high school students, and gave them mature interactions and meaningful conversations. Instead, the drama was filled with overused tropes in the most inappropriate moments and teenage bickering. They are standing in the rain. He is dealing with his trauma and she is dealing with hers. Instead of getting them to have an adult conversation about their problems and develop a bond, we get a trope where she trips and falls and he catches her. And this happens in every episode. They go on a business trip, get stranded on a ship, and spend a night in a cabin. He sends her on some stupid arrand, she gets lost in the woods in bad weather, he heroically rescues her at night riding a helicopter. This type of nonsense was completely overused in dramas like Hana Yori Dango and it was already pretty stupid back then. In mature adult romance where characters are thirty, these tropes should not exist because they completely cheapen the plot and make characters look immature.

It also seemed like the writers didn't quite know how to develop ML. The show started out with a sophisticated and rich bad-boy skydiving in a suit and landing on a helicopter pad James Bond style. Later, we find out that he was nothing more than a nepotism baby with no social awareness, no competence, no charisma and existed solely to pine after FL. Even his feud with his sister was forced because he didn't do anything other than chase after FL. He finished his MBA at the beginning of the show, which could've been a nice plot device for him to start serious work in the hotel to pave way for him to eventually become the owner, while competing with his sister for control of the company. No, he was a director in name only and didn't really do anything or showed any particular interest in work. Even his employees had to spell it out for him that he needed to gain power and support in order to succeed, instead of spending too much time pining after FL.

Some story arcs were laughably ridiculous, like the one with the Arab prince who started acting like a total simp for Sarang and competing for her with Gu Won. There was no reason for it other than manufacturing tension. Even in a fictional story, this is utterly asinine. And the arc with the flight attendant friend wasn't interesting enough for me to care about because she was a pretty minor character.

Overall, the show felt like a high school drama filled with overused cliches, rather than mature adult romance. Characters had no motivation and there was no real plot. Pass.

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The main actress ruined the show

Shin Sae Kyeong (SSK) ruined the show. With a good actress, even the most ridiculous plotlines would've made the show exponentially better. SSK just can't act. She has one facial expression and her mouth is always open. If the sound was on mute, we wouldn't known whether Mongwoo was happy, sad, horny, or constipated. She had no personality and her face always looked the same because of SSK's stiff acting. Half-way through, it was impossible to ignore her overbite and teeth always showing. I don't blame the actress because it was the director's or producer's, or whoever was in charge, responsibility to manage her and to tell her to keep her mouth closed. I am absolutely flabbergasted that they thought her mouth being open in every scene was ok. Even Jo Jung Suk, being the superb actor that he is, couldn't save the show. When one person spills his heart out and the other one just stares blankly, it completely kills the chemistry and any romantic mood.

Let me emphasize that the gender bender/cross dressing trope is ridiculous and outdated. It is also very suspect. Dramas where a man is trapped in a woman's body and has a romantic/sexual relationship with another man get ruined by bad endings because the producers try to make them less gay. But, apparently, it's not gay at all to have a man liking a woman pretending to be a man. Totally not gay, because he is actually a she, right? Not really, considering that the guy who is having a crush thinks he is interacting with another guy and keeps questioning his own sexuality. If the show was set today, poor king Jinhan would be erratically taking internet quizzes to convince himself he was not gay.

The king should've found out that Mongwoo was a woman after she came back from the dead to eliminate any bias and identity crisis. This is not to mention that SSK was completely unconvincing as a man, as most women are. There were plenty of opportunities for Jinhan to find out early that she was a woman, like when he grabbed her hand and commented on how delicate it was. His ridiculous conclusion was that she was from a rich family, instead of questioning her gender. Any sane person at that point would've already had a pause, but the writers insisted he remained in the dark to drag the tension out for as long as possible.

The revenge plot was also nonsensical. They spent half the show talking about revenge and not doing anything. It was unclear why they even wanted revenge and what the king did for them to seek revenge. Mongwoo was portrayed as an intelligent person, but her motivations were very narrow-minded. I have no idea why she disliked Myung Ha. All he did was love her and wanted to marry her. Even forging the confession letter was done to protect her from being tortured. It seemed that she judged people's character based solely on their ability to play baduk, which made her very shallow and elitist.

Overall, bad acting, stupid tropes, and a boring and badly written plot make this drama a hard pass.

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Cringe fest

Clearly, the show didn't know whether it was a comedy or a drama. The plot had very serious elements relating to mental health, trauma, and PTSD. And, then we had Jeong Woo rolling in bed and throwing temper tantrums in every episode. If that was supposed to be comedy, it was cringey as hell.

The romance didn't feel very organic. "Strong Woman Do Bong Soon" set the standard too high, so everything else with Park Hyung Sik will inevitably be compared to it. The chemistry was just too good. In this drama, it was kind of meh. I wasn't sure why because they did have some cute moments. Maybe because it took them half the show to finally kiss. Maybe because the funny scenes looked stupid and extremely overacted, mostly by Park Hyung Sik. Maybe because their trauma was undermined by immature behavior that was completely unnecessary. If a man acted like Jeong Woo in real life, no amount of good looks would make him attractive to women.

The villain who caused the medical incident was also badly written. His motivations were just so very shallow. He decided to punish Jeong Woo because his mom didn't let the villain see his dad and dad died. So, Jeong Woo, who happened to be his best friend and who did nothing wrong, had to be put through hell and back for the villain to feel vindicated. Crappy reasons, motivation, and extremely lazy writing.

I like Park Hyung Sik and I was looking forward to this drama, but it left me extremely disappointed. I am going to take a break from him and watch something else for a while.

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Good story with some pointless characters

A lot of people criticized this show for casting older 40+ y/o actors to play teenagers. This is the least of the show's problems. Although I like Zhang Ziyi, she is not an extraordinarily beautiful woman as Wang Xuan is supposed to be, and of whose unmatched beauty we were constantly reminded throughout the show. There are plenty of prettier and younger actresses who would've been more suited for the role. For this reason, I think Ziyi was miscast. Everyone else was on point. It was very refreshing to see a more mature actor playing the role of a battle-hardened, undefeated general, instead of a 20+ y/o idol with mediocre acting skills and baby fat still intact.

** SPOILERS **

The titular Wang Xuan/Awu "rebel princess" hit her peak character development half-way through the show. She matured from a care-free and spoiled princess to a level-headed young woman who learned the meaning of duty and country and was able to skillfully navigate through the court intrigue. Wang Xuan wielded the power of the Wang clan to shape the course of the empire and produce future kings. Unfortunately, after Ma Zilong took the throne, her character was reduced to nothing more than a beautiful object of men's desires with an abnormally large number of braindead males chasing after her. Even the mighty Helan Zhen regressed from an arrogant warrior to a lovesick fool bringing her wedding dresses and begging her to love him. One of the most ridiculous twists was Song Huaien going through a 180, becoming a traitor and wanting Awu to be his "empress". What a way to turn an interesting character into a cliche. The drama basically dumbed down from a political thriller-ish to an uninteresting soap opera regurgitating the same old tropes.

One of the dumbest things about the drama was a complete lack of insight from most characters. They either wanted Awu or to kill Xiao Qi. Wanting to kill Xiao Qi was an especially ridiculous plot idea because he was the only honorable and loyal subject who was the less likely to usurp the throne. Yet, all of the royal inbreds continuously plotted against him thinking he wanted power, which backfired in the most ridiculous way. Some of Wang Xuan's motivations were also very confusing. She tried to sit on two chairs at once - being Xiao Qi's wife and a member of the Wang family, which led to some questionable choices. One of those questionable choices was her fraternization with Helan Zhen, drinking and dancing with him, something that was completely inappropriate and put a wedge between her and Xiao Qi.

Zitan was one of the least interesting characters and the biggest waste of screen time. Tony Yang was an absolute eye candy to look at, but his good looks weren't able to save the character from being unbearable. The writers could've done so much with him instead of reducing him to exist solely to pine after Awu. And even that was comical because he had one chance at the beginning of the show to be with her and he completely squandered it. Even Awu had to spell it out to him why he was unworthy because he had no spine and couldn't care less about anything other than his childhood crush. And, that hasn't changed throughout the show, which later led to a lot of people getting killed just so he could get into Awu's pants.

Contrary to the criticism, Wang Xuan and Xiao Qi's big production in the throne room to get Zitan to confess his crimes was actually quite clever. I did not particularly enjoy her spending so much time with Zitan afterwards trying to save him, but I attribute it to her still caring about him as her childhood friend and not to some lingering romantic feelings. This was later confirmed in her conversation with her father when she told him that her love for Xiao Qi and Zitan was "different".

The most complex character was Wang Lin. Cynical, pragmatic, and unrelenting, he understood the complexities of ruling a country and the responsibility that came with it. Usurping the throne wasn't just his blind quest for power but to also remove an incompetent ruler and to bring stability to the empire. He was truly the only person who was fit to sit on the throne.

The drama did a good job at characterizing the relationship between Wang Xuan and Xiao Qi. This is probably due to the fact that the characters were played by mature actors and not idols. Their relationship had chemistry, meaningful interactions, mutual understanding, and respect. The drama did a good job at flushing out why Wang Xuan fell in love with Xiao Qi and let go of her childhood love for Zetan. Zetan represented her care-free childhood. Xiao Qi was mature love where she learned duty, loyalty, and the hardships of life. She appreciated Xiao Qi for his bravery and heroism and looked down on Zetan's continued callousness and immaturity. I appreciate the fact that the drama did not go down the cliche route creating a love triangle between the three of them.

The ending was ok, although I wanted to see stricter justice served against the characters who committed crimes. Overall, the drama was very entertaining for the first half and for the last 10-15 episodes, but it could've gone without some storylines. And, I definitely wanted to see more of Xiao Qi, instead of the abominable Helan Zhen arc and Zitan's forlorn expressions.

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Not great

I like Hana Yori Dango even though certain plot lines are problematic. It's a little disappointing that a live-action remake has yet to show any kind of romantic chemistry between the characters, including this one.

This drama is supposed to have a great love story, except the characters have no chemistry. She is already in love with him but acts like she wants to run for the hills every time he comes near her. I understand the story is about teenagers, so the writers have to be careful about how much sexual tension they put into it. But dear god, their romance is just so dry. This is one thing I hate about Asian dramas - so many of them have very little romantic/sexual chemistry between couples who are supposed to be madly in love with each other.

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Too long

The drama would've been monumentally better if it was cut down to 40 episodes, 50 at the most. When something was happening, it was interesting. The rest of the time, it was draggy and boring. There were too many scenes and conversations that should've been edited. Watching characters interact in a regular home environment was not interesting even if the drama was portraying a more realistic family life. It's still a TV show.

It took ML and FL 40 episodes to get married. Before that, it was just her dealing with family members and her childhood love interest. ML was off somewhere being in the military with the story rarely focusing on him. Instead, the story spent too much time on FL's family members. After she got married, the sisters mostly disappeared from the show making me wonder why the writers gave them so much screen time. It would've been way more interesting if the drama was more narrowly focused on ML and FL growing up and finding their way to each other, instead of pointless characters.

Another thing that was frustrating was the fact that none of the villains were really punished. The evil stepmom burned the house down and died in the fire. The evil aunt got stabbed trying to kill FL. The fourth sister just continued on with her life after scheming against FL. There was no actual punishment that they truly deserved after all the evil crap they pulled.

Overall, this was a one time watch for me. If I had to do it again, I would skip about half of it just to get to the part where they got married.

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Too long and boring

Another Chinese drama that unnecessarily dragged for twice as many episodes than necessary. There wasn't any actual plot, but a loosely put together romance/slice of life story.

Everything that made the show interesting, SWAT action and disaster rescue, quickly fizzled out into a mundane slice of life story. Kelei and Mika, who were the only couple worth watching, got together early in the show and had an extremely vanilla relationship without any ups and downs to show plot and character development. All the couples had no dynamic or sexual chemistry. The show often looked like a real life documentary just filming people hanging out.

Kelei/Mika were the most wholesome, but they acted like an old married couple. There was no tension, conflict, or sexual chemistry. Many of their scenes did not have any direction. They just bantered and played around. If they were a real life couple, they would've been a joy to watch. But this is a TV drama that needs conflict, especially for a young couple. They kissed a couple of times at the beginning of their relationship and that was the height of their romantic chemistry, never to be seen again. It was pretty unbelievable that the writers thought it was a good idea to write a young couple spending so much time alone and never making out.

Wenbo/Qingxia were plain toxic. She arbitrarily started liking him after meeting him maybe twice and began pursuing him. He also liked her, but for some stupid reason kept rejecting her. Instead of moving on after being repeatedly rejected, she kept pursuing him and he kept rejecting her. His lame explanation later on revealed that he was rejecting her because he thought she was better matched with another guy. Seriously? And, this tripe lasted for 30+ episodes. When they finally got together, I couldn't care less. I actually ended up skipping most of their scenes because their bickering was exhausting.

Chief Shao/Sister Keyao were just ok. In most of their scenes, they spent time together without any romantic chemistry. There was nothing interesting about them at all.

Overall, the drama would've been a lot better if it was cut by half and had a lot more conflict and romantic chemistry. Instead, we had to watch scenes upon scenes of young people acting like they've been married for decades. The story was boring a lot more often than it was exciting. There were a lot of filler scenes of characters just doing mundane things. I ended up skipping through a lot in the last ten episodes just to get it over with. The last three episodes with the hostages were interesting, everything between the beginning and the end was a snooze fest.

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Mediocre

The drama was underwhelming, like a big sneeze waiting to happen but never happening.

The story couldn't decide whether it was a crime drama, a political drama, a mystery, or a romantic comedy. The writers threw everything into the plot turning it into an incoherent mess. Starting out as a romantic comedy, it quickly devolved into a very complicated mess of political intrigue, mystery, murder, conspiracy, and extremely boring romance. All the characters were uninteresting. ML would apologize to FL in every freaken episode after supposedly withholding information from her. The love triangle between the crown prince, ML and FL was pointless and really really boring. The plotline with the underground alcohol distillery was not even the main story, the main story was political conspiracy.

The show would've been so much better if the writers just kept it simple, a romantic comedy with the inspector trying to uncover an illegal alcohol business during prohibition with FL being the ring leader. Instead, we got this mess. What a waste of potential that could've been a really fun drama.

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Good show

The show was well paced with a very well developed plot centered around political intrigue. All the male characters were interesting, and, thankfully there weren't any convoluted plotlines and cliche tropes. My favorite relationships were between Ha Seon and the Chief Royal Secretary, Eunuch Jo, Guard Jang, and the villains. However, the show should've gone without the romance.

This was probably the first drama where I couldn't care less about the romance. It felt like an afterthought. Nothing against the actors. Everyone did a great job portraying their characters. Big props to Yeo Jin Goo being so young but already so talented. He did a fantastic job playing two completely different characters. However, the romance was lacking. Yeo Jin Goo next to Lee Se Young looked like a younger brother rather than a romantic partner. Their relationship was completely uninteresting and the chemistry was bland.

The ending was odd. Ha Seon was "killed" by a bunch of thugs who supposedly wanted to avenge the queen dowager, following by a two year time skip just for him to return and reunite with the queen. Why? That was a stupid writing choice that contributed nothing to the plot but dragged the final episode and killed off some cool side characters, making it all about the boring romance story between Ha Seon and So Woon, which wasn't that much of a plotline to start with. The bromance between Ha Seon and the chief royal secretary was way more interesting.

Overall, the show had a few crappy writing choices, but other than that it was good. The story was about friendship, duty, country. If you are watching it for romance, you will be disappointed. The show would've been exponentially better without it, the messy ending, and unnecessary deaths of some really cool characters.

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Bland

The drama was exciting in the beginning few episodes and in the last few episodes. Everything in between was boring.

I did not like any of the characters. ML and FL had no chemistry or dynamic. Both characters were bland with no personality. The crown prince had a resting bitch face 90% of the time. And FL had one surprised/confused look with pouty lips. When he confessed his feelings for her, he had the same expression as when he complained about being uncomfortable.

There was no growth or character development either. The writers could've done so much with Yul's character when he lived in the village with amnesia. He hardly did anything but still complained a lot.

When I read the synopsis, I was excited about the plot. The story ended up being boring and uninspiring.

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Good acting and production overshadowed by a messy plot

This show had tremendous potential. The premise was very interesting and seemed to be a coming of age/revenge story of a young man getting married, finding love, becoming mature and responsible, and finding his calling in life. Unfortunately, that wasn't the actual plot. I don't know what the plot was.

The romance was ok. It only took Jiusi and Yuru 28 episodes to kiss and consummate their marriage. Other than that, they had affectionate and cute interactions with almost no sexual chemistry. But, when they kissed, they made out on screen and it was hot. This makes me totally confused about the logic behind Chinese censorship.

The revenge plot was a big deal at the beginning. But, then it completely fizzled out into nothing. The evil magistrate, who killed Jiusi's family, got stabbed to death by a girl. So, what was the point of that storyline at all? I guess halfway thorough the show, the writers decided to switch the direction from revenge to political intrigue.

The whole drama could've been completed in 25 episodes. After the rebels were defeated and the new emperor took the throne, the story should've reached its logical conclusion, but the writers dragged it for another 10+ episodes to meet the maximum allowable threshold of 40 episodes. On top of that, the drama had long draggy conversational scenes about nothing. I didn't care about everything a character was feeling at a particular moment. I zoned out through most of the conversations or fast-forwarded through half of them.

I ended up skipping the last 10 episodes and just watched episode 40.

The music was good, the acting was great. But all the positive things were completely overshadowed by a totally incoherent plot.

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Fun show

This is not a historical drama. This is a drama set in a historical period while applying modern concepts of female empowerment, which will never work in ancient China. Take this drama for what it is - entertainment, not an accurate representation of history.

The acting and chemistry between the characters was great. The relationship between Yin Zheng and Li Wei was endearing, wholesome, and very cute. They were the whole package - mutual respect, understanding, devotion, and love. Yin Zheng was unspoiled and dutiful. Li Wei was optimistic and loving. Even the side characters were fun.

The only minus is that the drama did not really have a coherent plot. I guess the central idea was the relationship between ML and FL, except most of the story centered around female characters and sisterhood. At the beginning, ML and FL met and started liking each other. Then the story switched to female characters, making the romance kind of a side story. And, towards the end, the story switched back to the relationship between ML and FL. Some characters wholly disappeared after they reached a certain milestone. Song Wu was completely written off after she got marred, even though she was a constant semi-annoying presence at the beginning. The same was with the second prince after he was exiled. It seemed the writers were not too focused on the conflict. Nevertheless, the drama had a pretty good pacing, character development, and wholesome relationships. This is one of those rare stories were women do not undermine and betray each other for men and power, but instead, help and uplift each other.

If you are looking for a feel-good story without a deep plot, this is it.

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Overrated

Interesting premise, definitely something new. I really enjoyed the first half with fun cases and all the whales. After episode 12, it was time to wrap up.

The romance needed work. Firstly, it's already difficult to write romance between an autistic and healthy person. Secondly, the romance between FL and ML was rather shallow. He started liking her after he saw her in a wedding dress. It was hard to root for them because there were more red flags in that relationship than the positives. Yes, he at first listened to her talk about whales, but it became apparent that he was getting tired of it. The recurring theme of her having no social cues and consistently disregarding his feelings was not looking good for them. Perhaps, breaking up or just having a platonic relationship would've been better for the plot. Young Woo showed no signs that she could adapt to his emotional needs and he was increasingly hurt and frustrated by her disregard of his feelings. They broke up, then they got back together and that was it. The writers showed no growth in their relationship or her fundamental understanding of how to treat her partner. That would've been an interesting plot idea to teach an autistic person how to navigate relationships.

And what was Joon Ho's position with the law firm anyway? He wasn't a lawyer. A paralegal? A secretary? An errand boy? While Young Woo was running around with other lawyers solving cases, he was mostly in the background getting far less screen time than everyone else. The romance felt like an afterthought.

The acting was really good. Park Eun Bin did a very good job portraying an autistic person. Kang Tae Oh is also talented and very very hot. I want to see more of him in major roles.

Overall, the legal procedural was mostly fun, although it became kind of boring after episode 12. The romance was pretty underwhelming.

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