I am innevitably comparing this to the immaculate webtoon and it falls short

The drama is not bad at all, there are quite a few entertaining parts here and there. The acting is okay. Nothing outstanding to be honest but nothing unrealistic.

I think the issue I have with this drama is that it just meets expectations when it could have easily surpassed them. I don't think everyone who has watched this drama understands what they are missing if they haven't read the webtoon. The source material it's just so much better paced, written and heartfelt. Yes all of these pieces are still somewhat here in the drama but they're a bit scattered. Like the writer wanted to hit certain moments of the webtoon then move along to the next plot point.

This is mostly an ensemble drama with the ML being a really quiet soldier that is used from time to time in order to favor other new characters like the firefighter. I had no issues with the firefighter to be honest. The actress is great and all, but I like her more as a side character and they made her the protagonist almost, when in the webtoon this role belonged to the musician girl. A lot of the characters personalities that in the webtoon provided internal conflict here the characters are just there. So there's no inner conflict between the members of the appartment complex. The characters in the comic were just more layered instead of yes men. You hated them but you understood their humanity. In this drama everyone is basically holding hands and sometimes arguing but doing as they're told. In the comic most of them were a time bomb. You were always worried one of them might screw up and kill everyone. It was much more thrilling.

Towards the end the thugs appear pretty much out of nowhere and this plot point is really rushed, when in the comic we had to struggle a lot to get rid of them. I think I'm remembering correctly but in the webtoon it was the thugs not the firefighter that defeated the muscle monster outside. So the appartment members had one problem solved by a bigger problem. It was so instense.

All in all I think things just go too favourably for the people at the appartment here. And they're already adapted most of the really thrillign events in the comic so I'm afraid where this will go. But this drama was not bad... it had some moments of weird pacing and dragging in the middle but I will probably watch the following season.

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Absolutely not

Let me be clear in saying I'm not the target audience for this drama. I haven't been in that age range for a good fifteen years. But I do enjoy the charming if cringy teen comedies from time to time. I'll also say this is my first real experience with this plot since I've never watched any of the versions of this story. And now I'm glad I hadn't.

This drama is just plain frustrating. Am I supposed to root for ANY of the F4 when they're obviously abusers, bullies and even condone rape attempts from the get go? Sweet Lord can someone please arrest these motherfuckers? Yes I'm including the sad boy artist here. I don't care how sad he looks when the rest of the school and his friends are assaulting this poor student on scene one, he still didn't stop it. It just bothered me so much that the one time he intervened during the red card treatment was when someone he was interested in was the victim. In fact all the F4s do that. They never genuinly feel bad about all the trauma and pain they have caused others, no they think with their junk.

I was rooting for all of them to die. That first episode is simply unforgivable in terms of character likeability. They are all just pricks that the show wants to manipulate you into liking by making them laugh and run around like children. Did you know the Nazi guards in charge of concentration camps have a bunch of pictures smiling and having a great time just next to the death camps? Same energy. As if I'm going to forget they were marching into that abandoned stadium smiling and feeling like kings about to brutally torture one of their subjects.

Yeah no. None of the MLs is redeemable after that.

FL... FL started out like conflicted, scared yet righteous interesting character. She had all the boxes to become something great. Unfortunately as soon as artist ML shows her his wallet we lost all of that and she becomes a love interest that screams at ML but smiles while being literally pushed around by him. Holy shitshow batman. This character makes absolutely no sense. This chick claims to be disgusted by ML's actions but still leads him on and goes on a date with him before he has even apologized? What? And she feels bad for leaving him out in the rain? Girl this man is directly responsible for people abusing you, you almost got raped... wtf run for the hills. I just- I am so frustrated. Whatever likeability this character had, has gone down the drain with her brain along with my patience and her common sense.

It's been five episodes and no one has apologized, but characters still act like they can be good friends after literal abuse and the victims are all smiles instead of creeped out. This pacing and writing is ridiculous and this drama is just wrong but wants to paint itself as charming. I have no idea how it got this rating but I wouldn't let anyone watch this problematic, toxic, shitshow.
I could have forgiven this if it were an older drama, but this is a remake and I had hoped they would have fixed dated issues but they just put on cute BG music and hope you don't notice. What an insult to its audience.

Nope. Just no. Absolutely not.

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This is a show that I know it's probably better than what I'm giving it credit for. But this is a personal review so it is entirely my preference.

Honestly it was a very hard to watch show because of the subject matter. The twisted religious aspect is pretty uncomfortable to watch. Add bullying, suicide and child molestation and you got yourself a realistic horror on screen. The situations that are presented on screen are terrifying and it is just not an enjoyable experience. But if you have no problems with this sort of content I think you might enjoy this drama more than I did.

I do have to say, the acting is brilliant. Everyone did such an amazing job to bring their characters to life. I think that's why I had such a hard time watching this show. The villain characters are sick and scary in a realistic way. They are twisted, disgusting and frustrating to see on screen. That is a job well done by the actors but I'm not sure it's a very enjoyable experience for the viewer. The hero characters are somewhat frustrating to watch for a lot of the drama. With the exception of Dong Cheol, I wanted to slap almost everyone on screen. When you have quite a few threatening villains but only one competent hero accompanied by a group of useless stupid boys who are terrible friends, it's a combination for a very frustrating experience.

The pacing of the drama is really slow for a lot of the first half. Once the set up is done and we get to the cult part I hard to watch at fast speed because they drag these uncomfortable scenes so much until we finally get to the active ML part. For a lot of the drama Sang Hwan (ML) is a reactive character and when he pursues a more proactive role, he is quite frankly useless and stupid. This is a ML that I found it very hard to root for for a lot of the drama. I think he is a well written character, the actor does a great job, but I just don't think he's a very likeable character. And so whenever a scene with him popped up I was hoping it would end and give me another Dong Cheol scene (the actual good boy we need).

FL plays the role of a victim for a lot of the drama. Her character has a strong personality though and you can see she is actively trying to fight back but she's just not strong enough to really accomplish much. In the first half her scenes are pretty hard to watch because of this. But it gets more bearable after the midpoint. The actress portraying her is haunting and brilliant.

From episode 9 onwards things become easier to watch and I had a more enjoyable time. The drama picks up speed and becomes better. But the path to get there is really draggy in a torture porn kind of way. The ending was a bit rushed but nothing I can't forgive. I wished they had given us more time to enjoy the karma part of the drama when it came to the villains. A lot of them do terrible things and we don't see them suffer enough at the end so I felt a bit disappointed that so much screen time was dedicated to torture FL but we only got to see some of the worst people getting arrested and nothing more. It was a bit of a let down and it made it feel like all that time we had to watch them make FL suffer was for nothing.

All in all I think this is a solid drama if you are into dark, horrific, twisted stuff. The story is frustrating and scary and it accomplishes what it's set itself to. If you can stand a lot of screen time with that you will probably have a better time than I did. I personally am not going to rewatch this one. The acting is extremely solid but most of the characters are frustrating so it is not a very enjoyable time.

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I enjoyed this one. Without it being some groundbreaking edge of my seat drama it was entertaining enough with likeable characters, decent acting and an intriguing plot.

I really loved ML, he is actually pretty adorable in personality and I loved his growth overall throughout the drama. FL is pretty sweet too, maybe a tad too serious at times but her story was pretty compelling and most importantly she is pretty competent. The romance between the two was a bit of a weak point. While they did have a connection on screen I felt it leaned more towards the friendship side of the spectrum. But they're cute and well rounded characters with specific motivations so I was okay with them being a couple.

The side characters were pretty solid too. But honestly not very outstanding. They're not something I haven't seen before so they just fall under the good job umbrella. 2ML has a pretty interesting story, but I wish his perfomance was a tad bit more expressive.

The drama had some draggy moments that I wished had picked speed and I unfortunately didn't feel a lot of the urgency towards the end. So the thriller aspect of it is not very thrilling... which is a shame considering the story itself is solid and the acting is pretty nice here so I think it's a bit of a pacing/storytelling problem.

Overall an enjoyable watch. But not something I am going to replay a lot. This is probably a one time watch sort of drama for me.

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The math isn't mathing... except for Woo Do Hwan that man's math mathes everyday

So I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed the setup and even the middle of this show. It's entertaining, fast paced and has just the sort of tropes I like. The issue I have with it it's the story's resolution and most of the characters.

While there are no hateable characters. I found most of them to be pretty average. ML is okay I guess. He's a little bit flat in his delivery, but I think that's because he's this royal person who has to be stoic... but still, because he had some childish behaviors at times I didn't think he was completely stoic so it was odd. I found it hard to connect with him most of the time because of his lack of expression.

FL started out great, but ends up becoming a bit too dramatic. She honestly just cries for no reason at times, every time ML showed up she cried. Girl, this man hasn't been hurt once and ALWAYS came back for you, what made you think he was going to stay away? This dynamic just became tiring. If they had given us reason to worry about ML I would have bought FL's worry, but hoenstly? He's never in any sort of real danger. We know it, they know it... so the crying FL became unnecessary and just annoying because it kept happening after a certain point in the drama and it took a lot of screentime.

On top of that, the love story went from zero to a hundred. Maybe I'm more used to slow burn, but in one episode FL is annoyed at ML or at least she acts rudely towards him. (Understandable btw- the guy seemed crazy) And the next one she's confesing her LOVE? I understand if after proving he's not lying she decides to give him a chance but instead she confesed love? That escalated quickly.

However the love story is not awful, they do have chemistry on screen and the characters are okayish most of the time. All in all the love story has its cute moments at times, but it was more draggy than lovable. The leads are not entirely unlikeable , in fact I think I like them more when they are separated. They are much more interesting characters apart than together.

I really liked ML when he had to deal with the treason part of the plot and the FL when she had to do cop stuff - also the cop team is nice. I think my favourite was the "ganster" cop who was actually so soft and liked macaroons. What a jem.

The rest of the characters are okay. But there's a shit ton of them and I gotta be honest I lost track of whose mother suffering for her son I was watching at some points. Just how many crying moms are there in this drama? There was also a pregnant lady who got replaced by her counterpart in one world and that plot line went nowhere. There's just so many side plot things that go nowhere. Everything gets fixed somehow in the end by pure magic.

Honestly the saving grace this drama has and the reason for this rating to be above 6 is Woo Do Hwan. This man can act and he carried every scene he was in. He is a joy to watch on screen as both his roles and his characters are the most fun. I wish Jo Youngand Jo Eun-Sup were the protagonists instead... I flipping love these boys a lot. Their stories seemed to have the most heart in my opinion, and the most personal stakes. Young's undying loyalty and also respect for his friend the king and his duty as a personal guard... or Eun-Sup's love for his family and his relationship with his little siblings and Na-ri. Give me this drama instead. I loved how by the end Young became a bit more open towards people while Eun-Sup became a bit more professional. These two actually learnt from each other and became friends... and then--- those memories got erased. Lmao.

Ok here's where it gets tricky.

The writer tried to make this really convoluted plot involving one of the trickiest tools to pull off because it can create a lot of plot holes --- time travel. Now I'm all in when it comes to time travel, when it's handled well it creates majestic, adrenaline inducing stories that just leave you in awe and feeling extremely satisfied. When it is not well handled however, it creates time paradoxes and obvious plot holes.... this one, I am afraid, falls in the second category.

You had me until ML went back to fullfill his destiny and save himself as that was the start of the show. Brilliant. Saw it coming yes, but loved that things came full circle. THEN you lost me when he did it AGAIN to kill antagonist before he run off to the other world. Sir, are you aware that creates a huge paradox that means ML wouldn't have gone back in time in the first place to safe himself if he never had gotten the half flute thing? Are we just going to ignore that? Ok sure. Oh what is that? We're also conveniently have the two leads remember everything despite the huge sacrifice this impossible deed just did? Of course, no consequences. And also lets make most of these characters we care about forget about everything we just watched.

Heavy long sigh.

Look I'm all in for happily every afters, but they need to feel earned. This one just felt like plot armor for the sake of the love story. Simply put, the writer wrote herself into a corner and used time travel magic to fix everything, deliberately erasing everything from the reality we just watched but from ML's and FL's memories... also Young's at least he gets to keep his memories.

Towards the end things got unnecessarily complicated. The drama is not terrible, but it's very infuriating. There is some brilliant acting from Woo Do Hwan and some really good moments, but nothing that can make me rate this one higher than a 7.

TLDR; Watch it with low expectations and suspend your disbelief. Throw logic out the window and you'll get a tropy enjoyable time.

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I enjoyed this one as a fun action packed bromance to get the adrenaline rushing and the sudden need to hit the gym.

I was actually biting my nails a couple of times because the combination of music, staging and suspense just worked in a lot of moments of this drama. The tone is very solid overall. The two main characters are so lovable! And the actors portraying them are so charismatic! Yes. Give me a solid bromance any day of the week. Their chemistry was off the charts!

This drama is just plain fun, thrilling and action packed. But it also has heart with the wonderful bromance between the two male leads. There was not a moment that was draggy for me, which is a common issue with some dramas of this nature. I love that this is a shorter series that knew exactly what it was. It never tried to be some ridiculous super complicated drama that has tons of unnecesary plot twists for the sake of surprise. No. This drama is a simple, bloody, action good vs evil type of show. It is entirely self aware and not afraid to cut it short when it needs to. As long as you're aware of it before watching it you'll be happy.

It even goes as far of sending one of their main characters away when she is no longer needed in the story. I am probably in a minority but I applaud this decision. The FL was not bad but from a writing perspective she had nothing to contribute at that point of the drama and the writers just sent her off somewhere else. You know it was the right decision when you don't even miss her. The heart and soul of the drama are the boys anyways, so it's ok. And I actually prefered the end of the series FL that replaced her. She had so much more chemistry with the boys and was a breath of fresh air. She was not presented as a hinderance and was used sparingly, not taking unnecesary screentime away from the boys like the previous FL.

All in all I enjoyed this one a lot! It's a nice not very complicated show that made me smile, scream and cheer at my screen more than a couple of times. Well worth watching!

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This drama is okay. But I'm not going to lie, I had to force myself through a lot of frustrating scenes.

The drama has 2 modes. It's either this lighthearted comedy with silly gags or darker than night horrific violence, death and torture time. They switch so suddenly from one mode to another, it's jarring. It starts out as this cute rom com with crossdressing and a solid mystery that I actually found myself intrigued by.

I wish this part of the drama had less filler though, there's just quite a lot of unnecessary scenes that become repetitive very quickly at the widow village and I was very disappointed that most of them involved the FL. She's a good actress but her character is incredibly unlikeable during this first half. She's rude, entitled, selffish and let's be honest she's not very smart. Her plans to kill the king are ridiculous and not well thoughtout. She has been planning her revenge for years and shooting the guy with an arrow is the best that she could come up with? My boy Nokdu decided to kill him in an afternoon and had a better, more solid, plausible plan within the hour.

Once we reach the midpoint, we get a wonderful villain in 2ML and the king. They're both very complex characters and I wish they had shown more of their backstory rather than their relationships with both FL and ML. SML is deliciously evil, but I wish we could have seen what drove him to that point. He does a complete 180 from good boy during the first half to it's murder time in the second.

FL becomes even more dumb and annoying during the second half. She goes on her own with her same bow and arrow strat - spoiler it doesn't work - and is also rude to ML and 2ML (granted he is a murderer but he's competent girl, the man gets the job done and what do you do besides falling into a hole?). She manages to get a job at the palace but this goes knowhere because she achieves literally nothing from it... in the end she goes back to dressing up as a man and trying to shoot the king undercover.

She also doesn't TALK to ML whenever they obviously need to have a converstaion, instead she goes on her own and messes things up even more. The amount of miscomunication or lack of comunication got pretty frustrating and old by the middle of the drama. And by the end when FL finally does things right it feels like a redemption rather than the moment of audience rooting for her. It felt more like at least you didn't screw up this. All in all she is not the worst FL I've watched but she was incredibly frustrating to root for. As a consequence of this I did not enjoy her romantic moments with ML that much. I wasn't against the couple... but if FL died I'd be ok with it.

The side characters are hit and miss for me. I actually loved the widows and the sword master and that Lord that helped them. As well as the dad. But the little girl got on my nerves more than once. Her character had some funny moments but a lot danced the line of annoyance at times. The brother is the worst and I wanted him to die.

I wish we could have gotten more interactions between ML and the queen. I loved the few instances when they talked but ML couldn't tell her who he was. I needed more of that. Also more interactions between Kind and Queen. Overall I would have loved to see more of the royal family lore rather than the annoying FL shooting arrows at a tree.

ML is incredibly likeable, kind and smart. I love his problemsolving skills. He's one of those MLs that think outside the box and even if he's not a genius he manages to outsmart his opponent. He's also humble and just a joy to watch. He had chemistry with everyone on screen and he's the reason to watch this show. I loved his interactions with the king and could feel the personal stakes at every single moment of screen they shared. It was painful and wonderful to watch. I wish the drama was about their story instead of this romance with FL that feels less pressing or important.

Overall I felt like this drama was a bit too long and the FL was unnecessarily frustrating, this is not because of the actress but the writing. But it was still enjoyable at times.

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A beautifully elegant tale about motherhood

If I could describe this drama in one word it would be elegant.

Just everything about this drama was approached with so much class and dedication, from the acting to the soundtrack to the cinematography. Everyone involved deserves every praise.

This is a loving story about not one but multiple mothers and how far they're willing to go to protect their respective children, as well as a coming of age for the princes and your typical palace conspiracy. It's a unique combination that makes this story stand out on its own.

Despite not having the usual sort of 'extra' feel that most kdramas have, I found this one to be equally enjoyable, even if it was a more serious watch. I think I can compare this drama the best to one of my favourite western tv shows "Downton Abbey". It has a lot of the same feel and down to earth tone. It's more realistic than other stories in this similar category, without being boring. It is quiet and subtle but vicious, heartbreaking and exciting when it needs to be.

The characters are realistic and most importantly human. It's very hard to actually make the audience understand your villains, but my goodness does this drama does it well. Everyone felt like a person in this story, and not a character that served the purpose of telling a story. I loved how everyone had their own little agenda from the ruthless Queen Dowager to the little prince that likes snacks a little too much (this little man is relatable and a joy).

It's personally not something I would rewarch every day like other dramas, mainly because this is a drama that one comes to appreciate as whole instead of in parts if that makes sense. I'm the sort of person who revisits specific memorable moments in a drama, and I think this one deserves to always be rewatched as a whole to fully enjoy it. But when I do rewatch it in some time I'm sure I'll binge the whole thing instead of just little parts like I do with my other faves.

Overall I thought this was a wonderful piece of art that is grounded, mature and very heartfelt. I would recommend to anyone who wants to see a wonderful story about family, acceptance and growth.

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I think that if this series had been shorter I would have given it an 8.

The drama has its funny and satisfying parts. Even some parts that become quite addictive to watch, smile from ear to ear moments. But those last few episodes are so incredibly frustrating and not in the good way.

I want to say that I think the drama suffers most from the writing of its characters.

I could never for the life of me root for FL one. This is not the actress' fault, the character started out as an incredibly mediocre and even corrupt cop, going as far as to hide her own crime against ML. As she progressed she became more of a nuisance than someone I wanted to succeed. She is not a passive character by any means, but my gooness there were times when I just wanted to estrangle her because of incompetence. By the end of the drama when she is put in danger after achieving a whole lot of nothing (I think she forgot her cop training and prefered to watch as ML and antagonist fought it out instead of REACTING and trying to escape... granted she did escape but girl took her sweet time). I was honestly rooting for the amazing likeable villain to just off her and do the world a favor.

ML... ML is on and off for me. At the start of the drama he's this doormat annoying character. I sometimes felt sorry for him, but the way he acted just rubbed me off the wrong way at times... he was too over the top with his depression and sadness that I could not buy it. I personally think the tone of making him a comedic character and addressing themes such as suicide and abuse with comedy was not the ticket... I started rooting for him when he gained confidence and started behaving like a psycho and I consider these scenes the most entertaining ones out of the drama. I wish that sort of character development had stayed... as soon as he "kills" the informant he completely reverts back to his dormat over the top self and it just goes downhill from there. Because his acting when he's the pushover is so exaggerated to the point of satire, I could not take his genuine tragic situation seriously. He also had a tendency of not using logic at the most important of times for plot convenient reasons and that frustrated me to no end and not in a good way. There's nothing worse than an incompetent protagonist. He is not as useless as FL though, so I'll give him that. I also think this is a writing problem... and partly the actor's interpretation of ML when he's on doormat mode. It was just too ridiculous for me and it pushed me out of the story.

Main antagonist was a joy to watch. 10/10. I was rooting for you dude, next time pull the trigger faster. Awesome character and such a charismatic actor. YES. Absolutely.

Surprisingly, the side characters were more likeable than the 2 leads. I think they were used properly. Some of them were a bit annoying at times but because they were not on screen all the time they grew on me.

All in all this drama is not terrible... it gave me some genuine laughter at some point but it drags so much after the midpoint... should have been shorter by like 6 episodes.

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Enjoyable as a chick flick

If you're going into this drama expecting a super deep convoluted plot with twists and turns and grand moments of satisfaction this is probably not it. This drama is mostly a cute romance with some intrigue happening in the middle and not a lot of suspense.

I think I've become a bit used to these Joseon period dramas to have a more thriller vibe so that's why I was a little taken aback when things turned out to be pretty simple. This does not mean the drama is not enjoyable. It's actually a well acted and visually gorgeous, but the story itself is predictable and pretty straightforward. It's something to watch on a lazy sunday when you don't want to think much.

That being said awesome job to the cast for making all the characters lovable with their acting. I think ML is the star here, his character could have been incredibly unlikeable from the way he's written especially at the start, yet he has a charm and a presence that drawns you to him. He has a good mastery of micro expressions that tell you that not everything his "rude" characters says is what he means or comes from the heart and whenever he acts like an ass in those first episodes you can tell there's more to it. FL is pretty good too. She's brave, lovable and kind, though towards the end she became a bit tiring for me to watch her as her decisions were a bit too self-sabotaging and that is one of my pet peeves.

I do have to give especial kudos to every side character. I'm personally not a fan of side characters usually but this is one of those dramas that made everyone so lovable so they upped the drama and raised the raiting for me. Just awesome job.

Overall this drama is enjoyable and a fun watch.

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A bit dated but cute nonetheless

I love time travel stories so I was incredibly excited for this one. I might have given it a higher rating if I had watched this as one of my first dramas. Unfortunatelly having some other material to compare this one to I have to say more than a time travelling story this is a cute romance and some time travel shennanigans happening in the middle, the time travel plot is not very well constructed, as the rules change for plot convenience, so you have to suspend your disbelief a little.

That being said the leads own the screen. They are both so incredibly adorable and lovable. They're both the best part of the drama and I had a blast rooting for them. The same unfortunatelly cannot be said about the rest of the cast. The side characters from the present are an inconvenience at best and an annoyance at worst. I especially couldn't stand the female manager and the ex boyfriend and both of their selfishness and toxicity. I think I can excuse the exboyfriend character because he's written for the specific purpose of being a foil to ML and he is supposed to be an ass. The female manager best friend on the other hand? She's a terrible friend, who is whinning most of the time and only cares about FL staying away from scandals rather than her friend's happiness. Every time she was on screen I had to fast forward so I didn't have to deal with her.

The Joseon part of the story is the better world from both of these, with that storyline being more interesting and compelling than the weird present times. Though there are times when the present is exciting like the airplane scene, there are little to no consequences for the present world as things get constantly fixed by time travel magic and everyone forgets about ML and any laws he may have broken.

The characters from the Joseon period are just much more interesting and the stakes over there are real life and death situations. I enjoyed that part of the story a lot actually.

One thing I have to say is that the visuals for this one are a bit jarring, with the weird editing, saturation of some parts going over the roof sometimes it's hard to make out what's happening on the screen. But I have to let this go because this is an older show and I do remember the aesthetic from the 2010s.

All in all the drama is not entirely grounded. There are some genuinly interesting parts that I enjoyed and the two leads, along with the Joseon people steal the show. Overall a decent watch without being some masterpiece. Just a fun rom rom without much logic going on in general. But still a satisfying ending, so it was ok overall.

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Aigo! I've been stolen as well

What a wonderful journey this drama was! I was not expecting to like it this much, but this story is so incredibly well crafted from beginning to end. The characters are fantastic and every single actor and actress do them justice. The music is hypnotic and it fits this story so well. Every so often in these types of stories the music feels too modern and out of place, this is not the case with Rebel. The music is a character of it's own and you'll find yourself enchanted to those melodies in critical points of the story.

I will say something for the drama, the first ten episodes are mostly about the MC's father. It is a wonderful story that we need to know before watching the main part of the story, but it does take a bit to get going. So keep that in mind when you start this drama. The background story is very interesting and builds up the tension for the sure pay off you will get by the end, especially to set up the villains. But you do have to be a little bit patient with this drama. It's not slow by any means but there's a ton of backstory.

That being said everything worked perfectly. The acting, the characters, the story, the resolution. This drama is full of moments of satisfaction and moments of tension and false victories that will have you feeling frustrated and excited at the same time. The acting and character writing are out of this world, you genuinly feel for everyone on screen at one point or another. The villains even made me feel sorry for them at one point, and they're terrible people.

Seriously, beautiful work of art. I would totally recommed if you like epic adventure, found family, bromance and a little bit of violence.

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It's been a while since I found a show that hits all the boxes in terms of character, storytelling, pacing, soundtrack, emotion, but man it is good to be back. I've been looking for a drama this addictive for a while! My only gripe is that it's not more known and recommended. This one needs and deserves more attention.

This drama is excellent, it keeps you engaged to the story from episode one and it doesn't let go. It makes you care so much for every hero and despise every villain. Every victory is a moment of pure satisfaction and by the end of the drama you're left feeling satisfied. Just chefs kiss to everyone involved, especially all the cast. But I have to say ML is the star here. He's fantastic in these roles! I could tell which king he was portraying just by his eyes.

Also every character is written wonderfully. I especially loved ML, our Clown/King. He's such a great active character that you can't help but root for. Simply put, he's a good guy but not a perfect guy. He always defied my expectations of his next move and was such a joy to be constantly surprised by him. His chemistry with FL is wonderful as well. Side characters are amazing too and they do not feel overbearing or without purpose.

This is one of those shows that I'd recommend to anyone just not Kdrama fans. Beutifully written, cast and produced. One of my ultimate favourites for sure!

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Wholesome and deep

Surprisingly deep and chracter driven!

Seen the movie it's based on and they did an amazing job exploring the characters and diving deeper into their backstories and adding more characters that compliment the narrative. Everyone felt more real and with actual problems detached from the leads which I appreciated. The leads didn't solely exist to fall in love again. They felt like real people with problems outside of their romantic relationship.

The dad feels were the best part of the drama for me. The family dynamics are very strong in this one and what kept me going. I do wish we could have seen even more backstory for the 2 main leads while they are younger parents. I loved those moments the best and wish we could have gotten more of that instead of: the love triangle, the friend and teacher cringy + draggy love story.

Towards the end things felt a bit more calm. Like there was no big climax in the story. Things just slowly and quietly fell into place without any struggle. Which is fine, but to me it dragged the excitement of the earlier episodes and stole some of the satisfaction I wanted to feel at the end. I think if things could have been condensed a little bit it would have been perfect. It also felt a bit episodic from time to time, like first with the gym teacher then with the stalker guy, then the love triangle, it was a bit like a bad guy of the week situation, which is acceptable but not my personal favourite. If you run out of conflict just end the drama early, there's no shame in it. The side characters' stories felt a bit draggy from time to time.

Other than that this drama was really charming, enjoyable and gave me all the feels. If it had been shorter it'd be perfect!

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Everything was going according to plan until it wasn't

This drama had the right pacing up until the last episode. Now I will spoil things here so please don't read if you want to go in completely blind into this show.

The premise, the characters and twists were so incredibly fun to watch. This was a true binge worthy show, as in I couldn't help butt click next episode from the start.

ML is just impossible not to root for. At the start he's just a good guy, if a bit naive, in a bad situation and you genuinly feel for him and want him and his family to be ok. He actually stays genuinly good just not so gullible anymore. That is just so refreshing to see. It would have been so easy to make him become an evil crimelord but he stayed true to his nature and I loved that. In fact I have no qualms that his ending is not 100% happy.

But the ending of this show was just really rushed. The resolution of all lose ends was presented to us, the audience, in a sort of montage right after everything went wrong and it felt jarring. I wish they had given us a proper resolution of things. Because even if the loose ends were tied up in some way or another, because it's just a series of scenes presented to us, we don't have time to process or feel satisfaction. It was like having this delicious entres and when we were ready for the main course they just shoved it down our throats in like five minutes. It was truly a failure in 'show don't tell'. This was what we were waiting for, for every bad guy to lose and us to saviour it. You made us watch poor ML suffer, get beaten, tortured, drugged, kidnapped, framed and lose the most precious thing to him and you're not going to let us see the motherf responsible people rightfully get their just desserts for more than 2 minutes? Um no. I want to see that happen in slow motion, thanks.

This rating is because of everything that happened before the resolution. The series is good, and I overly enjoyed it. I do not think the ending ruins it. But it could have been another Flower of Evil level sort of series if they had handled the ending better. Just so close it's upsetting they missed the mark by a bit.

Overall this show is so so good and addictive and every character is amazing, but that ending, even if it's positive was not handled properly.

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