Unfortunately the plot is becoming stale, soapy, tropey and predictable. I'd really have preferred if it focused more on various ghost stories, but looks like it was tacked on here mainly to show how lonely and miserable FL is, and that only ML is able to understand and live with it.
It's completely my personal view 🙏 Call me old-school when it comes to mysteries... Having grown up on Agatha…
This cdrama has one of the tightest plots, trust me, it doesn't waste your time with empty talk or useless characters. There are lots of overhyped historical detective cdramas that are way too draggy, unfocused, with too many Captain Obvious moments or are just plain boring, be it because of the plot or characters.
And again, comparing it to Agatha Christie is funny - those oldies were very procedural in their plot structure, to a point of being able to tell who's the bad guy straight away after reading some number of them, because of how samey they were all written. And they always had some long winded explainer at the end of the mystery to explain everything to the audience. Anything resembling those old stories' structure is overdone and boring nowadays. Nowadays they try to explore cases along with investigators, sharing thoughts with the audience through other characters on the go, instead of showing some smug main lead keeping their conclusions to themselves until the villain is caught.
Another romance genre lover unable to sit through even a couple of episodes to appreciate the intricacies of a good story, non-front loaded characters' exploration or unconventional male leads.
And yeah, leads don't have equal status, but somehow nobody complains when it's a male lead who is of higher status. Double standards? Their past experiences and workplaces left a mark on their personalities, making both of them calculating and reserved - can't survive palace intrigues without acting smart. There are eyes and ears everywhere in the palace - this drama even had a scandal involving the leads, where they were framed for alleged improper behavior while investigating and were almost forced to get married. FL is hellbent on revenge and has no time for romance, but their slow burn relationship progresses very naturally, without forced bs you often see in romance dramas. The qualities that she lacks, ML here complements perfectly. Her self-harm issue stemming from survivor's guilt, he understands well and helps resolve. He's not a fighter, but saves FL a lot here. And nowhere in this drama ML or SML are treated as inferior to the ladies, it's all respectful and historically correct. But of course, if you dropped this drama after the first few episodes, you're not gonna understand anything about them, giving this very superficial review.
And especially funny is comparison to The Wanted Detective, where ML truly was relegated to a sidekick role because he was on his deathbed for most of the drama after being gravely poisoned - annoying FL and ML's colleagues were doing most of the investigative leg work in that drama. Not to mention other problems it had plot wise... And don't get me started about the over the top The Double with it's blood pressure raising caricature villains. It wasn't a detective drama, it was pure mysoginistic hate wrapped in revenge plot.
This drama's all about men and women learning to cohabitate together in marriage and not try to one up each other in a relationship. It starts rather fresh, without too obnoxious villains or usual political intrigues, but by the second couple's story (1st sister+scholar) it devolves into some sort of moronic circus, full of convoluted bs and very unnecessary decisions, like noble idiocy, for the sake of angst. And by the second couple you can start seeing a certain plot pattern. The plot goes on a loop akin to this till the end: - one of the sisters' gets yet another smug, unlikable guy in her crosshairs; - they go round in circles until getting married through tricks; - the guy mistreats that sister and threatens with divorce to a point of actual divorce; - she goes crying to her family; - the family concots schemes to turn things around and make the guy come crawling back converted into a docile husband material; - in parallel, the family is also battling some stupid villains who are after their money, husbands or just to bully them.
I also didn't appreciate how women and marriage here were presented like selling and reselling cattle. No, I think people treated their cattle better than some of those women.
P.S. Also, why the ef everybody slept here wearing their full get up - dresses, hairdos and accessories? It was fkn ridiculous 🤣.
yeah & she was dragged for her own actions i,e bragging about her generational wealth which was amassed by…
You're talking as if she herself collaborated with Japan. But it was her grand! grand! father, ffs. This is real bs and people who are dragging this on and on are ridiculous. You have no choice in which family you were born to, you're not responsible for someone's sins done 100+ years ago. Wtf is this? It all smells fake, performative and begrudging because a person is a public figure and every troll and their moma wants to drag them through the mud and end their career. And these scandals always happen when some actor's drama just comes out and is successfull. Some people who have nothing better to do are just laying in wait to throw shit into a fan for their fked up pleasure.
It might appear so to some who were never on the receiving end of injustice . Her family amassed their generational…
You're ridiculous too. What, they should give away their assets, earned by several generations, start kowtowing everywhere and flogging themselves because of her grandgrandfather's (sic!) alleged shady past? How far down the generations it's gonna go until people stand up for themselves and stop apologizing for something they had nothing to with and had no say in? And if you wanna dig into other people's family trees that far, you're gonna find dirt everywhere, even in your own. It just perpetuates generational hate and radicalizes youngest generations who had nothing to do with their ancestors' misdeeds. Doesn't matter if it's Japanese invasion, American slavery or holocaust.
This looks like your typical targeted attack just to shit on an actor's success in their recent drama, happens all the time.
1
And again, comparing it to Agatha Christie is funny - those oldies were very procedural in their plot structure, to a point of being able to tell who's the bad guy straight away after reading some number of them, because of how samey they were all written. And they always had some long winded explainer at the end of the mystery to explain everything to the audience. Anything resembling those old stories' structure is overdone and boring nowadays. Nowadays they try to explore cases along with investigators, sharing thoughts with the audience through other characters on the go, instead of showing some smug main lead keeping their conclusions to themselves until the villain is caught.
And yeah, leads don't have equal status, but somehow nobody complains when it's a male lead who is of higher status. Double standards?
Their past experiences and workplaces left a mark on their personalities, making both of them calculating and reserved - can't survive palace intrigues without acting smart. There are eyes and ears everywhere in the palace - this drama even had a scandal involving the leads, where they were framed for alleged improper behavior while investigating and were almost forced to get married.
FL is hellbent on revenge and has no time for romance, but their slow burn relationship progresses very naturally, without forced bs you often see in romance dramas.
The qualities that she lacks, ML here complements perfectly. Her self-harm issue stemming from survivor's guilt, he understands well and helps resolve. He's not a fighter, but saves FL a lot here. And nowhere in this drama ML or SML are treated as inferior to the ladies, it's all respectful and historically correct.
But of course, if you dropped this drama after the first few episodes, you're not gonna understand anything about them, giving this very superficial review.
And especially funny is comparison to The Wanted Detective, where ML truly was relegated to a sidekick role because he was on his deathbed for most of the drama after being gravely poisoned - annoying FL and ML's colleagues were doing most of the investigative leg work in that drama. Not to mention other problems it had plot wise...
And don't get me started about the over the top The Double with it's blood pressure raising caricature villains. It wasn't a detective drama, it was pure mysoginistic hate wrapped in revenge plot.
And by the second couple you can start seeing a certain plot pattern. The plot goes on a loop akin to this till the end:
- one of the sisters' gets yet another smug, unlikable guy in her crosshairs;
- they go round in circles until getting married through tricks;
- the guy mistreats that sister and threatens with divorce to a point of actual divorce;
- she goes crying to her family;
- the family concots schemes to turn things around and make the guy come crawling back converted into a docile husband material;
- in parallel, the family is also battling some stupid villains who are after their money, husbands or just to bully them.
I also didn't appreciate how women and marriage here were presented like selling and reselling cattle. No, I think people treated their cattle better than some of those women.
P.S. Also, why the ef everybody slept here wearing their full get up - dresses, hairdos and accessories? It was fkn ridiculous 🤣.
It all smells fake, performative and begrudging because a person is a public figure and every troll and their moma wants to drag them through the mud and end their career. And these scandals always happen when some actor's drama just comes out and is successfull. Some people who have nothing better to do are just laying in wait to throw shit into a fan for their fked up pleasure.
This looks like your typical targeted attack just to shit on an actor's success in their recent drama, happens all the time.