Cliched.

Pros - pretty faces, aesthetically pleasing drama

Cons - Everything else. Everyone is talking about sizzling chemistry but I found it forced, predictable and cliched. If you have seen a couple of romcom kdramas there is nothing new to appreciate here. Even the secondary characters and plotlines were quite predictable - the usual granny, close best friends of the FL, one confidant of the ML, screwed up childhood dynamics of the ML with a sad/traumatic past. And so many product placements. Also so many close ups, slo-mo zoom ins and repeats of key moments which felt artificial and took me out of the drama and roll the eyes rather than enjoy it.

Also the leads get together relatively early and after that it kind of lost steam. There just wasn't enough emotional investment to keep watching it.

This drama may work for first time rom com kdramas watchers. For everyone else, a timepass eye candy drama with FF button coming in handy.

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Not a satisfying watch

This is going to be more of a rant than a review so those who like this series please skip reading.
What worked well - the beautiful cinematography, ost music, new concepts being explored.
However instead of a feel good romantic drama as one would expect based on the title, this one turned out to be melancholic and weepy. Most of the time the FL is seen crying or silently ruminating. Sun Oh who was the main FL in the first season is understandably angry, confused and upset, unable to move on from the sudden end to his first close relationship - he never got closure from JoJo despite repeatedly approaching her to understand. All he wanted and was entitled to was an honest conversation with JoJo so that he could make sense of the past and move on in life. Kim JoJo was an immature coward, that too a selfish one who didn't care to give any explanation. Sun Oh was always kind to her and saved her from public humiliation by openly offering his hand to her in the classroom in the first season. However towards the end she is seen publicly humiliating him by showing that her alarm does not ring for him any more, despite having her own selfish reason she never clarifies why nor cares how much heartbreak her decision and lack of closure would cause. I couldn't empathise with her idiotic decision as Sun Oh had been nothing but kind and supportive of her all the while, and an honest conversation with him him would have been enough to keep the relationship alive.
As for Hye Young, he was the only character which had some development. From being a creepy stalker kind of person who loved JoJo without even being on speaking terms with her, he went to openly expressing his interest and courting her. He was also a lousy friend to Sun Oh, cutting off all ties with him and moving out of home without even informing him.
I felt all the sympathy more for Sun Oh character more than the JoJo or Hye Young. He lost his love, his friend, his smile and his girlfriend in between because of lack of open communication from JoJo. If JoJo could be excused for her fears, why couldn't Sun Oh be excused for his justified anger? If JoJo could love someone again, why didn't she choose Sun Oh who was still in love with her, someone she is attracted to and had left in the lurch. Why go for Hye Young?
Using the sword and the shield for selfish reasons is cheating. Hiding the reason from someone you like is also a kind of betrayal. I wished both Sun Oh and Hye Young had walked away from her towards the end and taught her a lesson to be honest to deserve a relationship with either of them.
The only satisfactory part is that Sun Oh deserved a warm and honest girlfriend rather than JoJo and therefore in a way it was good he didn't end up with her. The gloomy reticent JoJo and the morose glum Hye Young deserved each other.

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3 unlikeable sisters in a convoluted messed up plot

I went into this drama thinking it would capture the lovely interrelationships, warmth and support among 3 sisters. Kdramas are masterful at evoking the feel good emotions this show had all the potential to bring.
Instead I found myself absolutely disliking all 3. The eldest sister was constantly foolish and greedy for money which never belonged to her. Her only redeeming factor was that she loved her sisters and was loyal to her friend. But the crazy decisions she kept taking constantly put her family in danger.

The middle sis was a reporter with supposedly high moral integrity and yet she became an alcoholic drinking on the job. There is no story arc on how she gave up being an alcoholic, she simply decides that she would quit drinking once it cost her her job and boom, just like that it is resolved. She is supposedly highly intuitive and senses people's feelings and yet can't understand the heart of the long term friend who is a boy right next to her. She couldn't understand her elder sisters decisions or her younger sisters dangerously misguided ambitions or the source of wealth of the great aunt she had been brought up by since childhood.

The youngest sister was the most despicable of them all. A thoroughly dislikeable spoilt selfish brat, supposedly so guilty about her sisters love and care that she snubbed them all the time and publicly chose sides with the rich crazy family the whole family is suffering from. Even towards the end there is not even a reunion among the sisters. It just shows them all planning their lives separately.

Only Mr Choi and the mystery of his character and intentions kept the drama going for me.

The blue orchid arc was a fantasy element which seemed to add an interesting story arc in between. It was supposedly going to reveal the innermost desires of the person smelling it, or reveal visions and hallucinations. It served that purpose for a couple of episodes then this arc seemed to be just dropped towards the latter episodes and it was all about the psycho lady and political games and criminal activities.

The villians never really get what they deserve. They didn't even get to see the public opinion about them change, suffer a day in jail or feel a loss of power or their corrupt money taken away from them. They just suddenly conveniently died without fuss in a matter of seconds in the final episodes. So unsatisfactory.

This show packed a lot of unbelievable and ridiculous twists and turns but felt heavy and frustrating as there was no investment in the lives of these three frustrating sisters. I'm not even going to talk about the sheer number of plot holes and especially a dead person coming back to life and the ridiculous explanation given for it.

Thank God there were only 12 episodes. Even watching them in 1.5 speed made me feel bored and restless to get it over with. This show taught me that I shouldn't get misguided by it's name and if I didn't like the characters by the first 2-3 episodes it would be wiser for me to drop the series than suffer through it.

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Adorable and addictive

This is one of the best friends to lovers kdrama I have watched (FFMW comes close but this one is even deeper and more mature). ML and FL are absolutely gorgeous and cute. Their 30 years of friendship felt so tangibly real with every conversation, look, silent gesture, simple acts of caring, open discussions, bickering and outright arguments. I love slow burn romances where the heart is already lost to the person but the head is yet to catch up on it. This one has so many adorable scenes where the viewers catch the relationship much before the leads get aware and therefore can't wait for the pair to finally realize already. Much hilarity and heart flutters sigh! The conversations feel genuine, honest and deep. Side stories do take a lot of screen time but it somehow feels organic to the show and worth the time. Something with infinite rewatch value for every scene where ML and FL appear together. The OST is apt and catchy. If you are a sucker for the ambiguous zone in M/F friendships where the emotions are confusing, heart fluttering, hilarious, hot and teetering on the line then you will love it. This drama stole my heart so unexpectedly.

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Felt promising but under-delivered

Maybe they went for crisp story telling and edited a lot to fit it all into 8 episodes. Maybe they didn't have the budget. Whatever the reason, although it felt like no cost was spared to show a sophisticated, high class world and a highly emotional drama, it somehow failed to evoke any strong connect to the leads. Even though they gave enough back story for the FL and ML, their interactions and connection didn't feel so genuine

Some thoughts and cribs..
1) There were some scenes where the ML feels attracted to the FL, and his son wishing she could be his mother. But there was no scene where the FL is shown as falling for the ML at any point. She seemed completely distracted by her ruined life and a determination to get revenge by exposing the female villian with zero plans on how. She even tells the MLs mom that she never had plans for remarriage and yet we find her getting married in the last episode.

2) There is not enough explanation on what happened between the Rex owner and SML, how the SML chose to hand the bride over to the CEO at the end, or whether he managed to get his father's assets.

3) Although they managed to expose the adulteress in the party and get her dragged to jail for embezzlement with solid evidence, she got out so easily with no explanation as to how the politician influenced her freedom. It felt like poor rushed story telling and frustrating to watch her show up again and again with no damage whatsoever. There is no explanation why she targets the FL's daughter except that she is evil, and this seems out of character as she doesn't take any risk without some big reward in line.

4) Not enough closure on the creepy lecturer who wanted to sleep with the FL after the first date, or the manipulative professor lady who wanted to marry the CEO and how he replied to her proposal.

5) This show had several make out scenes for the ones having affairs and yet didn't show a single kiss between the main leads until the very end! There was absolutely zero chemistry between the FL and either of the leads. The MLs played their part but the FL just alternated between a gloomy self absorbed look or a bewildered damsel in distress look most of the time. If it was a pure revenge drama they should not have tried to include a romance angle to it without making it believable.

6) The SML had much more back story and history with the FL and would have even been a better fit for her at the end. Just because the CEO also had a kid and it was convenient for them to become a family, did they need to get married? Atleast the CEO is shown to have feelings for the FL, but the FL seems to be only making calculative decisions until the end. She seems vaguely pleased and pleasantly shocked at the end, but there is no genuine love or gratitude in getting married to him.

7) The CEOs mother didn't want her for a DIL until the end, yet we find her smiling at the wedding.

The ending felt flat, rushed, unfair on SML and just sad and bewildering in a way. Happy for the ML but neutral towards the FL and very sad for the SML who was really supportive all through the series. All in all, it felt unsatisfactory and definitely not worth a rewatch. I doubt if i will see season 2 if there is one, as I didn't feel connected enough to these characters until the end.

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Entertaining drama with disappointing ending

I just finished this series today and came to MDL to see who else felt as betrayed by the ending like me. This is a rant rather than review.

*****SPOILERS******* DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE SERIES*******

From the beginning we know that there is a male inside the queen's body and so I was wondering how the romance aspect wàs going to play out. Kdramas are known to deliver beautifully constructed plotlines to slowly transition the viewer through the journey of romance and ensure a sweet and fair ending. This is where this drama felt like a let down.

Many parts were never addressed till the end - The king never gets to know he fell in love with a male from the future, he just sees the queen as 'a unique personality different from anyone from the Joseon era' whereas the transmigrated one knows very well he is infact slowly falling in love with a male king. He in fact progresses from absolute disregard for the king to grudging admiration and then friendship and love and finally even fine with the idea of continuing with the life in the queen's body and carrying the king's baby! And it was so sweet to see the transition and the chemistry between the leads that i was rooting for them till the end.

But then in the very last episode, when BH risks even his life to save the king, he suddenly wakes back up in his own body in modern Korea and doesn't even get to know what happened to the king. And he has to run to a bookstore to find out. Heartbreaking.

The king saying 'it feels like something is missing' - because he is yet to figure out the person he fell in love with is no more in the queen's body. He fell in love with this unique, quirky, brash and unconventional person for whom he created a whole new dictionary, but has to live the rest of the days with some other person who just looks like his lover. It's like marrying the wrong twin! Again heartbreaking.

It is sad for the queen as well. As sooner or later the king is bound to realise that the unique personality is totally gone and now this is just a conventional queen carrying his baby, who may slightly use swear words more often but can't be a match for the crazy and creative guy who lived in that body! The king is not in love with her and it feel weird to see them smiling at each other in the last episode. One doesn't realize that his lover is gone and one is hiding the fact that she is not the one the king fell in love with.

It feels like betrayal to make the viewer root for a unique ML -ML love story all thru the series only for it to be snatched away at the last minute. We don't even know the original queen, her character was not given any screen time except that she wanted to commit suicide, and was rude to her staff and had random people whipped just coz she couldn't find her identity in the palace(!) And still she gets to live with the king for the rest of the life?! While BH who risked his life to find the king (also helped him through many struggles, boosted his confidence and gave him military and political ideas, saved his banquet, saved his throne..) is just ejected from that time with no recognition, and even the king doesn't even know he was there, did all that and was gone. So unfair to both of them.

In my head SB WAS the queen in a past life and in trasmigrating to that life their personalities got intermixed and that's the reason CJ could still love the queen at the end. I would have been happy to see CJ reincarnated in modern Korea and meeting SB again..sigh! What a horribly rushed and unsatisfactory ending to this entertaining series.

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Dropped as rom-com transitioned to sad and serious

I had high expectations for this romcom after watching the initial episodes.

The first few episodes had a quirky humour and some creative ideas which kept it interesting. By and by it started getting repetitive, very unfair on the SML and kept the ML a soft, weak, foolish and naive king who was stuck in the past leaving the country to suffer for 7 years! We come to know that every year there has been murders of women inside the palace and the king has not been able to move beyond his grief to even investigate this seriously! He seems to have backstabbing ministers in the leadership positions and powerless to do anything against them. Who would want to root for such an ML?

The FL felt refreshingly energetic and creative in the beginning but began to irk me down the line. She cons people without conscience and doesn't hesitate to cheat the king himself, even when he starts to fall for her she doesn't confess to faking her way into his heart. She knows full well the SML was her fiance and has feelings towards her yet she is secretive about her past with him too, stays close friends with him and gets rescued by him constantly. This is lazy writing as it makes the viewer pity the SML and resent the FL.

There was zero chemistry between the leads. Even the confession scenes felt bland and lacklustre. As per kdrama trope land they would probably end up together but I lost the interest in following it through to completion, as I don't expect good comedy or romance from further episodes. The characters are not likeable enough to invest further time in this.

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Not rom enough for its genre

Started out great with a spunky FL and cute ML, enjoyable despite the cliches. But once they started developing feelings for each other it all became too serious and melodramatic. The main story got side tracked with side stories - car accident secrets, business power dynamics, dysfunctional family dynamics and so on. Although a lot was going on, it felt like nothing much was happening to the main story. The important secret of the SML never got handled with grace but just conveniently announced in the end with him all of a sudden developing a spine after years of running. There was no character growth to be experienced along the show. The ML also became way too serious and sad, only a handful of the same expressions till the end of the show. All in all, something that started out so entertaining but fizzled out somewhere around ep9 and then was just a chore to watch till completion.

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Cute but expected more

Maybe I went into this drama expecting too much. The leads were super cute, the bromance and friendships were sweet and awesome, OST was catchy, chemistry between the pair believable, plenty of cute and fluffy scenes, keeps reinforcing the message that being healthy internally is the best way to define beauty.
BUT.
Although the first few episodes were so feel good, funny and uplifting, slowly the drama started to veer towards sadness, ad placements, cliches and drama just for the sake of drama. The second lead couple were mostly annoying despite their back stories. Family dynamics on the ML side was absolutely messed up and never get to understand why the father was aloof, why the second wife and brother were treated so badly, why the chairman let the greedy uncle get away with so much, why the ML's mom was never shown. It doesn't explain why he needed to endure his childhood treatment alone and without love, although his grandmom was dearly fond of him.
Episode 13 was the most illogical development, with ML getting into an accident and deciding on completely stopping all communication with the FL because he decided to not let her in on his pain or to watch her suffer. This could have been digested as an immature decision if the ML was in his 20s, but a character in his 30s and holding a Director position of a conglomerate, a coach who has endured a lot of pain and helped others out of pain, deciding to behave this way felt unrealistic and immature.
They could have wrapped up the series by episode 12 or 14. The last 4 episodes had a lot of cliched moments and flashbacks which felt unnecessary.
Couple of things I felt super annoying and overly done were the FL's excessive use of flashing her dimples, the ML repeating that the FL's body was his, and repeated mentions of the FL being Daegu Venus. The final reveal of the FL again becoming fat at the end in a very short time, totally undoing every health message over the series didn't work as comedy for me. Also why would the ML who recently reunited with the FL go on volunteering work abroad leaving fiance, business, ailing father behind was a mystery. All in all, in trying to be too cute this series became a bit tiresome for me. It is an enjoyable one time watch but gets tiresome in binge mode.

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One time watch ensemble drama

I went into this drama expecting it to be more of a workplace romcom. The actual drama turned out to be much more than the romance between the main characters. It has family sentiments and more interesting secondary character arcs, which sometimes feel more interesting than the main arc!

The ML was great in looks, expressions and acting,
and he basically carried the romance. I didn't find the FL interesting, and at times actively disliked her for some of her decisions and lack of communication with her ex as well as her current love. She seemed to think only from her perspective and didn't try to get a proper closure or even explanation from her ex, although she spent 2 years in a relationship with him. For her own sake she should have had a proper talk with him instead of shutting him down and falling in love with her junior! Instead she had her pride hurt so much that she doesn't want to even hear his side.

I could understand the ML having feelings for the FL but nowhere does the drama show how or when the FL falls for the ML. He was there for her at a very vulnerable time but so would a friend or brother behave. So I didn't feel any sparks or chemistry in the main romance although the drama sprinkled a lot of cute scenes between the leads. Most of the time I watched it thinking the ML was too good for the FL.

The initial episodes try to show the ML as protective but it felt like an intrusion into the FL's privacy almost to stalker levels at times. I couldn't accept how the FL allowed her junior to cross so many boundaries suddenly, like wiping the lipstick off her lips! Kdramas are usually so skilled at showing the gradual blossoming romance between the leads. I felt this drama didn't measure up to that expectation as the ML is already in love with the FL when the show begins and i didn't get to see the FL falling in love with the ML as well. It just felt like she lost her ex and decided to love the next protective male who had feelings for her. What she shared with the ML seemed more like a cute senior - junior camaradie and later he became a trusted confidant. She realised that the ML was going to ignore her completely if she didn't reciprocate his feelings and did not want to lose his company hence decided to have a relationship with him. Throughout the drama it feels like the ML actually loves the FL more.

Side characters were very interesting. Both sisters of the ML had interesting story lines. The elder sister's love story with the ML's boss was adorable. The other sister's story was even more interesting although I expected to get some closure on what happened to the chef by the last episode. The little girl was adorable and wise beyond her years. She was a breath of fresh air amidst the melancholy.

The ex ML and his SFL storyline was highly irksome and toxic for most of the episodes. I was glad how they closed it in the final part.

The FL's mom arc was added to create more depth to the FL but it made her seem more self centred than caring for most of the time. However it was an interesting dynamic among the mother-daughter and brought to life very realistically on the screen.

All in all this was a one time binge watch romance Melo (mostly watched at 1.25 speed). It has eye candy and pleasing aesthetics (it was bit of a mystery how the ML's house was quite posh when he was still working as junior position while the senior FL shared a middle class flat with a friend. One of his sisters is well off with her own business while the other is a housewife). The drama succeeds in getting you interested in the life of all these characters whether you personally like them or not. Watch it once without any expectations and it will feel like a decent watch.

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Missing the feel good factor

This was a messed up melodrama with more tears and negativity than I expected. Many of the characters are hardly likeable. Their thoughts and actions are despicable, small minded, selfish and short sighted, but the director has really done a good job of bringing out why they would think and behave that way. The angst, jealousy, pettiness, rage, self pity and loneliness of the leads were well brought out. Would have liked more feel good friendship scenes in the beginning so that the bitterness of the final episodes were balanced out. A redeeming factor is that all the leads are easy on the eyes, and since they are well off, the aesthetics even indoors was pretty.
I didn't like how the parent characters didn't get the usual closure we expect from kdramas but I guess they wanted to keep it closer to reality. What happened to Sae Joo's mom lying in the hospital? How did the parents wedding get cancelled amicably? Did the father and son finally get along after both recovered? There are a lot of dragged out episodes where simple honest communication among friends and parent-child would have brought clarity and peace of mind to both sides, so this made it frustrating for me as a viewer.
The shortness of the episodes kept me watching an episode now and then until it got over. Definitely not rewatch material, but a one time watch, first melo genre for me. I now feel like watching a typical romcom with likeable characters and all the cliches possible (butterfly moments, umbrellas, back hugs, cute jealousy, arm grabs and heartfelt confessions), just to erase out the negative emotions brought out by this melodrama and remind me why I started watching kdramas in the first place!

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Except for the male lead who was consistently charming, the rest of the characters including WeiWei were extremely one dimensional and selfish in their own ways. The girl BFF was overacting in a cringey way, and they dropped a sweet second leads romance in between and got someone entirely different for her as well.
Weiwei was initially charming and sweet but her repeated bad choices through too many episodes, dragged out scenes of her feeling lonely and drowning in self pity were a bore and an irritation to watch, to the point i started wondering what in heaven's name Che Kehuan even saw in her besides her looks. He already had a caustic relationship with another one dimensional FL and now fell for Weiwei who remained stubbornly faithful to an unbelievably cheap, clueless and heardheaded boyfriend.
The show had some steamy scenes but eventually the tension between the leads was lost through the episodes that finally when they did get together there was no joy. They did share a good chemistry and the drama could have used it better. Unbelievably illogical plotlines like the old gf becoming a wedding planner and then the executive secretary of the chairman were absolutely ridiculous to watch and cringey.
Overall, this show was meh. It had potential, good chemistry, an interesting plotline and yet somehow didn't manage to stand out as a memorable one in the end. The ML deserved better, for the consistent friendship and care he showed, they didn't show enough reciprocation from the FL until the end.

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Watch this if you want a drama unlike any other ones out there. Totally different and interesting premise and plots, makes you wonder how anyone can even come up with such unique concepts. Wonderful OST and visual effects. The whole drama is a visual treat. Both male leads have such classy, mysterious, cute characters to play and the bromance between them is so adorable. I liked their bromance chemistry better than the chemistry between both romantic pairs. The FL is a bit too young to accept as a match for the 939 year old goblin, thankfully there were no cringey romantic scenes and they show a decent emotional connect between them with no vulgarity. The drama has so many unexpected turns and twists, many joyful and many very sad as well. Nevertheless it kept me engaged and curious to know how it all turned out in the end. I would like to rewatch it down the line but will certainly be skipping all the sad parts, at times it felt like there were too many of them. 10 points for the drama and -1 for so all those crying moments that made it heavy watching every now and them. It would have a high rewatch value if they had made it lighter and more fun overall.

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I expected this one to be a light hearted rom com but this ended up much more emotionally impactful. Plot line was nonsensically illogical but if you are willing to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the drama for the sake of it, you will find yourself getting attached to all the characters. The ML is ridiculously charming and FL absolutely cute as a robot. Their acting skills makes you want to continue watching irrespective of the giant holes in logic. Middle episodes are a lot heavier for this kind of storyline, it was so saddening and maddening to see the ML betrayed and understandably upset for several episodes but again somehow the show makes it all worthwhile and binge watch worthy. Side characters are typical of kdramas and become a found family for the ML, this makes for heartening scenes. The Agi-3 robot finding her way home will tug at your heart strings. OST is apt and sweet. Watch this if you want to suspend reality and escape into an emotional fantasy romcom.

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Cute although unrealistic

This is just a 4-episode series of 30 minutes each. So those who want a break from heavy dramas can go for binging this like a movie on a single sitting. The series manages to convey a lot of moments, back stories, emotions and events within a short time. Chemistry between the leads felt believable.
The only thing I didn't like was the 1 year time skip at the end where the FL ditches the ML as well as her pet, then one day she suddenly walks back into his life and nothing has changed. He doesn't even feel overwhelmed on seeing her..just accepts her back in life! I don't understand the need for such a long time skip, and the ending felt underwhelming. But it is nevertheless a cute drama to pass the time with.

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