2026

Watched it bc I was bored and I've seen references to it in variety shows.

It's so bad it's kinda good. Awful acting at times, and the effects are also not great. But I was 100% entertained the whole time

I almost loved it, but it felt rushed.

Certain part of the story got more focused than it should've and the more important aspects, like the connection with the main leads, almost got rushed. I loved them together and wished there was more episodes to truly flesh out the story.

I really liked this one.

I'm still not a fan of 'daughter looks exactly the same as her mother' trope, so the plot twist ruined it a bit for me. The mental illness route was I also not the biggest fan of.

Liked the main leads and it was an interesting story. Very beautiful cinematography.

It was enjoyable, a bit generic but fun. Lost me a bit by the end tho

What a fantastic show. Koo Kyo Hwan, the actor you are.

Did not expect to love it as much as I did. I know I'm a sucker for levelling up stories, but the mix of humour and heart in this one just sold me. One of my favourites from this year!

I liked it, but wasn't wowed. Kinda lost me at the halfway but picked itself up by the end. Had some interesting ethical moments. The actors/actresses weren't great but as they are almost all nugus it's understandable.

Ngl thought I finished this one a long time ago, but had missed the last episode. It was okay. Nothing amazing but enjoyable watch

Fantastic! Loved all the dilemmas and ethical/moral discussions. Hated one of the side plots, but the main lead together with Lee Sung Min was *chef's kiss"

Did not expect to get completely obsessed with this one. Loved the first 2/3 of the show, the last part was kinda meh. It dragged out unnecessarily. Beautiful cinematography and the OSTs are one of my favourites.

The east palace is probably one of the most visually stunning kdramas I've watched. It is straight up gorgeous most of the time (some bad CGI ruins it at moments. The story itself in the beginning feels interesting and almost refreshing. I'm not the biggest historical kdrama fan (tho lately been enjoying them) but a more fantasy themed drama with focus on ghosts seemed refreshing. In the beginning I did find myself thinking "Ah they got inspired by stranger things but their take is very interesting". But at the half-way point the story just takes a dive. It felt like the screenwriters went "oops we only have 8 episodes to tell the story, we need to chop chop some episodes". It became quite an abundant amount of "tell not show", and for a show that have marketed itself has an historical fantasy action, that kinda sucks. You get told information, that should rather have been showed. And I felt myself get very annoyed multiple times, especially with any "plot twists".

The characters themselves did also suffer from the lack of episodes. Most felt like they lacked depth, and some felt very one dimensional. Even the main characters I felt like I kinda stopped caring for. The actors and actresses did their best, but the old queen and the king kinda outshined the rest so everyone felt kinda bland. I liked Nam Joo Hyuk's performance in the beginning, but that was before I realised that his character and performance felt very Namkoong Min coded for me . Roh Yoon Seo did a decent job, but her acting was very stiff, especially in the more emotional scenes. But the drama itself wasn't like complete shit. It had some action (not greatly choreographed) and are for the most part a very visually beautiful drama. It just felt like they cared more about how good it looks and not how good the story is.