WM

Immediately after she learnt the truth about him, he started to corner and threaten her, so in the end, of course, it will be one big love. Lol.

Rewatching this for some reason after a few years- it's possibly the creepiest, the most disturbing and terrifying drama I've ever watched; in big part because of the amazing villain's performance.
The ass-kicking gangster was great as well.

I don't watch K-Dramas, so it was disappointing to learn that the leading actress was blacklisted, as she definitely could act and obviously was very pretty.
However, regarding her character, I was quite tired after some time when she still tried to reason with people inside the sect. For that reason, I don't think it needed 16 episodes, as 12 would make it even better.
The YT streaming friend was irritating as hell; however, the chubby one was not only a very good friend, but also was super smart.
Also, I wonder if there is any Korean drama where Police is portrayed in a positive light, lol :).

This drama is full of typical Korean tropes, but has one very, very strong point - Son Jong Hak playing Chairman Kang is one of the most charismatic and scariest villains I've seen in dramas anywhere.
What a great actor!

For whatever reason, I've decided to re-watch it... and it didn't seem as good as I thought.
Interesting premise, strong opening episodes, some strong acting moments, but the further in the story, the more ridiculous it went.
And of course, really depressing; from the school bullying to grown-ups and police incompetence.

The main villain from the school was a really good one; with a very punchable face and some clever ideas, but also a lot of "plot armour" for people to continue believing his lies (female lead, I'm talking to you), and he also broke the law so many times that I really can't believe he wasn't arrested, dad police's commisioner or not.

Also, the ML's fighting scenes were surprisingly good (the karaoke scene was amazing), even the female lead's school fight and hip toss throw were executed very nicely. I guess they had high-level stunt replacements.

If you enjoy overrated and overhyped shows , you should also try "The Double", "Legend of the Female General" and "Pursuit of Jade", although the latter is actually decent; just not the 9.1 decent.

Well, they already established their guards as useless when the ALMIGHTY ML sneaked into her bedroom to threaten her when she woke up following rescue from the fire (by one of the other princes).
I guess they were partying at that time.

You really need to adjust your expectations to stuff like that.

I remember watching "Princess Weiyoung" some years ago, supposedly a badass female lead based on a novel, who in the Drama was rescued sometimes even twice in one episode by the ML, with the female watchers (supposedly fans of the capable female characters) screaming "Ooooh, what a lowey-dowey couple".
Blah.

It's like a f'n plague. And it's not getting better.

End of my rant :).

Why? Why? Why?

ROMANCE!!!

At the expense of making the female lead (leads, as it's a popular trope, unfortunately) look incompetent and unable to save herself.

In rare dramas, where female leads aren't bothered by pestering Princes/CEOs, they somehow can figure things out on their own and save themselves. WHOA!

I recently finished watching "Kill My Sins" - the female lead there had much weaker cards to play due to her low status compared to the one here; yet she was able to succeed against some powerful nemesis without getting rescued every 5 minutes? And she even didn't have a dog's nose to achieve it.
Why?
Because it was rare, non-romance, female-centric drama; so no creepy Prince/cold CEO to swoop her in her arms every time she has a weak ankle syndrome or some other creep tries to kill her.

Comments are all over the place on this one, especially regarding the female lead. Ugh.

This has to be the most depressing synopsis ever.

I had to double-check if this really has a 9.0 rating on Douban, and it really does.
But a "villains having upper hand all the time" would probably frustrate the hell out of me...

Well, many of the "strong and independent" types crave power/success, and it's pretty much impossible to climb, for example, the political ladder without those traits.

Lu Songli (from the novel/vertical drama world) was fairly normal 95% of the time, but since she was conquering the world, she also had her cruel/mean moments.

I asked my 3 nieces about him/her, and they had a tough time deciding the gender of the actress and the character; it was quite funny :).
The voice is by far the biggest reveal factor when actually watching it. But when picturing only? It's not easy.

You should watch "Kill My Sins" then.

There are also many anti-Japanese war dramas with this starting point; some of them are actually watchable.

It's hard to ignore ratings- full-production dramas are a huge time investment, so minimising misses in choosing the one to watch is hugely important.

How about trying a vertical drama then?
There are a lot of village-based ones, just not sure which one has the romance, as I typically try to avoid them like the plague :).

Well, he/she asked for something light.
I would like to be warned in his/her shoes.

Hah, it would be actually true if the village arc didn't end in an absolutely horrific massacre.

If everything were 9.0, then 9.0 would lose its meaning.
It's depressing to think that if not for haters or downvoting bots, MDL ratings would be even more inflated.

I was just surfing Douban and realised it has a 3.8 rating there. "Rebirth" is unbeatable this year in terribleness (2.9), but this one looks almost as diabolical.

It has 3.8 rating at Douban, which is Diabolical, almost on Rebirh (2.9) lewel.
Disaster-territory.