Never got revenge against your trifling ex? Then you need to watch this drama.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”.

The deets:
The story opens with a heavily pregnant Empress who has devoted her entire life to her Emperor. As a general, she has fought numerous battles for him and helped him to gain the throne, never once wavering in her devotion—even when he took her half-sister as concubine. What should be a joyous occasion turns into a tragedy as the Emperor exposes his true self during her childbirth causing to both her death and the death of her unborn baby. Now in the real world, that would be the end of it, but that’s why we love dramaland because she wakes up as herself five years before on her wedding night. This is not her wedding to the Emperor but to his younger brother (a wedding the Emperor—then just a prince—arranged for her so she could be a mole in his half-brother’s household). Instead of repeating the mistakes of her previous life, she takes advantage of this second chance to destroy her former lover by partnering with her first husband to take down both her two-faced ex and her scheming half-sister.

Things I liked:
This was really a great little drama. Once betrayed, our FL never wavered in her mission to destroy the SML. Once the ML and FL start to trust each other, they work together without fail to get revenge. In fact, they were both so heartless towards the SML/SFL, I’m kinda surprised censorship let it through.

Things I did not like:
There wasn’t much beyond the few inconsistencies that are inevitable in a mini-, low budget drama, like, for example how, as an unfavored, illegitimate daughter, our FL rose to be such a famously talented general with so much military power (or the fact that she appeared incapable of defending herself despite being such a powerful warrior; oh well, this drama was more about mind games anyways).

Final thoughts:
I just happened to stumble upon this one on YouTube. I found it in both Spanish and English. I highly recommend it if you need a short, sweet watch with a satisfactory ending.

PS. Because I saw this on YT, there's no point in rating the soundtrack b/c half the time its either absent, or they're using some '70's music of some sort because of copyright.

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An interesting romance drama about a female-dominated society.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”.

Things I liked:
That it portrayed a female-dominated society. It made for an interesting twist. I liked the chemistry between the leads—especially Shen Ye towards Shu Cheng (gave me some Ye Hua after he found Bai Qing again vibes). I loved the sis-mance between Murong Wan Qing and Shu Cheng. I liked that the Crown Princess and Shu Cheng worked together in end. I liked that Shu Cheng stood her ground against Shen Ye about what she wanted for her life and refused any other option. I liked that Yuan Hao was the ML in this—its actually why I started watching it b/c of watching The Romance of Hua Rong (though if YH is going to wear a wig, it MUST be a sides-braided one like the one he wore for RHR, because…well, just watch RHR and you’ll know why *fans self, contemplates cold shower *).

Things I disliked:
That it portrayed a female-dominated society as if it would mirror a male-dominated one. As in, the only difference in the portrayal of the society was the gender of who was in charge. I would have liked to see a bit more creativity and critical thought going into what a truly female-dominated society would look like.
The MF little bits of hair in front of the ML lead’s face! OMG! Why do that do that? I spend every second fantasizing about cutting them off. The only thing that saved it (I have literally refused to watch dramas [I’m talking about YOU Novoland Pearl Eclipse!] where they do this to the ML’s wig because it bugs me so much) is that when he was in his role as her husband, his hair was different.
I didn’t like that the two servants always with Shu Cheng were treated like background pieces—in that they had no roles other than to stand there and to obey without question. I get that is how many servants were treated in the historical setting this drama was based upon, but they had so much screen time, it would have been nice for them to have actual personalities and interactions.

Final thoughts:
I ended up watching this twice. The first time on YouTube and then again when it came to Viki. I enjoyed it both times. It’s a good pallet-cleanser. I could put it down when I needed to go do something else, but I never left it on hold for a long time, either. I’m curious to see the four main leads in other things. 

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A less stupid version of the “Journey of Chong Zi”

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a "liked"/“meh”.

The deets:
Two preteens have a destined encounter that results in the preteen version of our ML (a crown prince) being framed for murder. He is smuggled out of the palace by his would-be baby daddy to go be a novice in a pugilistic sect instead. Our preteen FL, devastated that she was the cause of the crown prince being accused of murder, sends a prayer to the heavens that he will rest in peace which inexplicably causes a curse to be placed on our ML (wtf!?). The curse will not come to pass if he does not meet with her again before his 18th birthday. But, of course, just before he turns 18, she finds her way to his isolated valley within the sect’s territory. Lots and lots of hijinks ensue…

What I liked:
Getting to see Alen Fang in another drama. Though I’d like to see him as an ML for once instead of the eternally doomed SML (always the bridesmaid, never the bride…). I liked that many of the male leads were easy to look at (an not one of them had the stupid thin and long hair pieces in front of their face). I liked Zhu Yan’s character. At first, I wasn’t sure, but she grew on me. I liked that the younger prince got together with his love despite everyone’s best attempts to keep them apart. I like that the General finally got his girl in the end and she (Bai Xue Lu) turned out to be a decent person in the end (I wonder how tall that actress is?). I liked that this was a xuanyuan/wuxia/xianxia because I’m not into historical reality (much less inaccurate history because that, in many ways, is worse by ‘whitewashing’ history; though if I’m going to watch a xuanyuan with Xiao Zhan, can we please just have a season 2 of DouLuo Continent?). I liked that there were distinct sets and costumes as you went to the different ‘kingdoms’ across the land.

What I disliked:
I totally could have done without the would-be baby daddy character (the sect leader [seriously is there some sort of law in China that Han Dong must be cast in at least 50% of active productions at all times!? That dude is in like every other drama out there]). He didn’t know wtf he wanted and kept messing around with the ML’s head in some bizarre effort to get revenge for ML’s mother (his lost love) and then gave up and went and did it himself. He knew that ML wanted to live like a monk but decided to foist a trifling girl (Bai Xue Lu) upon him, hoping that she would somehow inspire enough feelings in him for a cause the ML had no interest in taking up that he would be able to survive an ordeal that literally no other sect member had ever survived before. When ML displayed interest in another woman, at first Sect Leader tried to separate them and hook him back up with the trifling girl. Then he gives up on that and decides that our FL will do. But then as soon as the ML develops real feelings for our FL, Sect Leader decides that its time for our trifling girl to come back upon the scene and take him back. *sigh *
I didn’t like that the trifling girl’s only goal in life seemed to make a powerful marriage. The way her character was written, she was intelligent enough and strong enough not to need a man to get her what she wanted—yet they forced her into the role of b@t$*** crazy jealous woman and made her spend 2/3rds of the drama going after dudes she didn’t like and ignoring the one she did.
Minor point of dislike: If you didn’t know what “shifu” meant, you will by the end of the drama, since its every third word that Zhu Yan says.

Final thoughts:
I stand by the title of this review: If you were disappointed by Journey of Chong Zi and/or found Journey of Flower too much of a case study in toxic relationships, I recommend this one instead. It’s basically the same idea but involves a lot less yelling at the screen.

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Wanru’s Somewhat Rambling Journey

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this started as a “liked” but ended up a “meh”.

Spoilers ahead b/c I didn't follow the rules of writing a review. :D

The deets:
Young woman with a mysterious past (with hints that she’s been transmigrated from our world into an alternate one) who lives on the streets and makes money by scamming people tries to scam the wrong person and ends up being forced to take on a false identity. She apparently is identical to a developmentally delayed daughter of a powerful pugilistic clan. The lady of the clan has decided to sacrifice the life of the developmentally delayed daughter—who is the daughter of a concubine—in exchange for healing son by blood. But since the lord of the clan really likes his daughter, she decides to replace her instead with our FL. Our ML notices right away that something is not right with his half-sister and quickly figures out she is fake (which helps with the ”ick” factor of him falling in love with his half-sister’s face and name; they were also raised separately so he didn’t grow up with her, either). The half-sister is betrothed from infancy to our SML (more costume/period dramas with Deng Chao Yuan please!) who turns out to be a very decent guy. All three meet up at a pugilistic academy for young people where about half the action takes place until the plot kind of falls apart and they spend a lot of time hiding out in luxurious bamboo houses in the woods while they fight the machinations of various powers-that-be in the pugilistic world.

Things I liked:
The story started out very interesting. It’s a short drama, ~30 minute episodes with a total of 24. For being relatively low budget, it kept me very interested basically until the end of the “academy” arc. The fight scenes were really well done. I didn’t have any objections to the way the three leads were written, they were all decent people, their motivations seemed solid.

Things I did not like so much:
This drama could not decide if it was a BL between our two male leads or a reverse-harem between all three leads. The most believable chemistry was between the two male leads and the chemistry between the ML and FL was a bit forced. The ML went from really disliking her to suddenly liking her and she went from crushing on the SML to suddenly falling in love with the ML. As if the script writers and director were suddenly like “oh crap, this is becoming a BL, we’d better put a beard in there STAT!” The storyline kind of fell apart after they left the academy to try and run their respective clans in the pugilistic world. It got draggy and asked one to suspend one’s disbelief A LOT! The FL supposedly had minimal martial arts yet could hold her own against trained killers whenever necessary—but only until the point it was time for a male lead to rescue her. Seriously, were the heroes live-streaming all their actions!? The evil guys ALWAYS knew what they were up to and yet the heroes were always relying on pigeons that magically found their target to matter where they were. And also, everyone could apparently travel huge distances in a couple hours. I get that in a wuxia you have to suspend your disbelief a little—all the flying round & stuff—but there’s a limit. The ending is happy but ambiguous as in the FL never really settles on her choice of male lead.

Should you watch it?
I found it free on YouTube. It’s relatively short. The male leads are easy to look at. The FL is sweet with a good heart and not a complete idiot. It was pretty decent at first and by the time it gets less interesting, you don’t have that much farther to go to get through it.

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Maid’s Revenge 2.0

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “meh”.

Spoilers ahead b/c I didn't follow the rules of writing a review. :D

The deets:
Young woman is forced to marry a comatose young man to “bring him luck” mainly so she can be blamed when he dies. This comatose person turns out to be the younger brother of her boyfriend (SML—though MDL has him first in the list after the FL. To me the SML is whomever DOESN’T end up with the FL) who is also getting married that same day to her cousin. This is supposedly the best she can get because, through absolutely no fault of her own, she was roofied and assaulted (by said ‘boyfriend’ in the hopes of forcing her to be his concubine—however ML interferes with the aftermath of this plan and SML never gets to “take responsibility” for his actions). However, in the classic manner of all patriarchal societies, it is of course, somehow, the girl’s fault whenever this happens. Anyways, ML does not die and turns out to be a decent chap. There is plenty of framing/blaming/torturing of the FL during this time—including causing her to have a miscarriage. SML succeeds in knocking off ML (or so we think…) and takes FL as his concubine (because she wants to stay in the family home and find out what happened to ML). There is lots of back-and-forth framing/blaming/torture between the SML’s three wives (and we’re expected to believe that SML only made FL sleep with him once more) while SML tries to gain control of a lot of local businesses and essentially makes a lot of dumb decisions and gets himself into a hot mess of debt. Our ML reenters the scene, totally not dead and having grown some huevos during his absence. After only a brief period of doubting our FL’s intentions, he works with her to bring down the SML in a dramatic showdown.

What I liked:
The FL had some steel in her the whole time. She wasn’t an idiot, didn’t take blame for things that were not her fault, and always got revenge. I liked that the misunderstanding between the FL and the ML about why she married the SML was short-lived and that they worked together equally towards a solution. It had a happy ending. I liked that it was a short drama. I liked that the costumes appeared to be a well-intended effort at historical accuracy (I find that, for especially the Western clothing, the attempts are half-@$$ed at best with accurate costuming in Republican-era dramas).

What I disliked:
The assault for one. They did a decent job of not showing a blow-by-blow, but it was still there. Mother-in-law was an awful person, yet both the ML and FL were nice to her and mourned her loss. This drama also asked you to dispend disbelief a great deal and to just trust that things had ‘magically’ happened in a certain way.

Should you watch this?
I don’t know. It was short, the male leads were easy on the eyes, the FL was not a brainless idiot. I only watched this because I watched Maid’s Revenge (…speaking of brainless FLs…) and I wanted to see Dai Gao Zheng in something else. If you’re in a dry spell and can handle the fact that the FL has the trauma of assault in her past, then it’s a quick watch.

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This drama hasn´t lost me yet!

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”.

The deets*:
This is a xianxia/xuanhuan with a random mix of immortal and mortal living together without a great deal of explanation as to why. A “young” deity is hiding out in a small village mostly populated by mortals, living as a man despite being a woman. They imply that she actually IS a man, but I’m pretty sure censorship made the writers deliberately keep that part vague. Some other immortals move next door and one of them turns out to be her cousin because our young deity is actually a long-lost princess with a tragic backstory. She recognizes her cousin right away, but he has no idea who she is despite the fact that he’s supposedly a powerful immortal and she isn’t—and despite the fact that the other MLs almost immediately recognize that she is female (despite the fact that she, actually, for real, is not). During this time she rescues an immortal male descended from fox demons and attracts he attention of a blood-sucking nine-headed demon (the aforementioned MLs whose girl radar was NOT broken, unlike Cousin’s). For some reason, our FL is desperate to stay away from the notice of any of her relatives and then decides, “nevermind, I’ll go back to being myself”. Hijinks ensue as she returns to her role as the eldest princess of an entire kingdom while also being the granddaughter of the king of a neighboring kingdom with an ambiguous relationship with her cousin who wants to inherit their grandfather’s throne.

*I know it says not to do this, but how else is someone who doesn’t know if they want to watch this understand the rest of the review?—those descriptions on the main page aren’t always accurate.

Things I liked:
OMG has Yang Zi been wasted before! I have been unable to complete her previous three xianxia dramas because she literally played the same character each time (naïve, vacuous, with a heart of gold)—and I have pretty low standards for xianxias so its saying something if I can’t get through one. But she had some serious acting chops hiding in there this whole time! She’s practically unrecognizable and her portrayal of the different versions of the FL appears effortless. It also doesn´t hurt that all of her MLs are easy on the eyes. Please check out AvenueX´s initial impressions review on YouTube for other positives about this show as I agree 100% with her assessments.

Things I did not like so much:
Who, exactly, is the love interest here!? I mean, at least from the FL’s point of view. Obviously, it starts with Tushan Jing (seriously, who forgives and forgets with after YEARS of torture!? C’mon, there´s kindhearted and then there´s just stupid). Every time demon boy gets a little vulnerable, he does something cruel and stupid to chase her off. Cousin is literally, well, her cousin. I get that in the ancient societies this story is based on, marrying one´s cousin was not considered incest in the way it is today, but it still makes me hesitant to root for him. Finally, there´s Chishui Feng Long, who out of all of her options has the least amount of baggage which, of course, makes him the least exciting choice. lol. The only other thing I struggled with was the huge gaps of time. I get that the leads are immortal, but as a puny mortal myself, I have trouble considering 300 years to be the equivalent of the passing of just 3 years.

Should you watch this?
If xianxia/xuanhuan is your thing, definitely. If you´d like to see Yang Zi break out the box acting-wise, definitely. If you´re not into fantasy, then this won´t make a whole lot of sense or be interesting.

Myself, I´ll definitely be watching Season 2!

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Not exactly “legendary” but not bad, either.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”/ cheerful “meh”.

The deets*:

Noble family gets framed and betrayed, tons of folks die leaving only a daughter to avenge them. The only thing that saved the daughter was her engagement to the crown prince who, despite being an preteen, apparently had already met the love of his life and couldn’t bear to see her killed. Daughter gets banished to a temple, crown prince grows up and declares he won’t marry anyone but our female lead (the daughter of the framed/destroyed family). Jump forward many years and a brash, outspoken pirate shows up on the scene and declares her undying love for the crown prince. Crown prince tries desperately to be faithful to his lost love, but finds himself falling for the pirate instead. A woman claiming to be the long-lost daughter of the framed family shows up, but she is so incredibly different from what our male lead remembers that he mourns the fact that he must marry her (due to his promise) and not the pirate who reminds him so much of his childhood sweetheart. Hijinks ensue…

*I know it says not to do this, but how else is someone who doesn’t know if they want to watch this understand the rest of the review?—those descriptions on the main page aren’t always accurate.

What I liked:
At first, I was put off by the trailers. I’ll freely admit that I have some implicit bias against pushy female leads (for example, the female lead in “The Legends”) but I force myself to put it aside because I realize that just that: implicit bias. But in reality, the story is much more complex, and the female lead is far less shallow than she seems. There is some decent depth to the plot, the leads are all nice to look at (I think our SML is actually 6’2” if my metric-to-imperial conversion is correct!?), and there were some impactful scenes (like when the FL exposes the royal family’s treachery against her own family). The leads’ chemistry was believable, and their relationship did not set of any red flags of toxicity. It has a happy ending which, if I’m wasting all those hours of my life on a drama instead of what I should be doing (my dissertation), a happy ending alleviates my guilt somewhat. Lol.

What I did not like so much:
It kinda bogged down in the middle. I think the “truth” was revealed a bit too early and the show kind of lost steam afterwards. The CGI was wretched, especially during the sea battles. There were some pretty unbelievable parts like, for example, a female lead who has the unswerving loyalty of 40,000 troops yet never actually spends any time with them and the trope of falling off a cliff and surviving (seriously, if someone falls off a cliff in ANY Chinese or Korean drama its almost a guarantee of survival. Note: if you ever find yourself in a fictional universe and your life is threatened, go jump off a cliff. You’ll be fine). The whole enemy prince and princess ark turned about to be pointless because they didn’t exploit it like they could have and in the end the prince just sort of turned himself in (dude, if you’ve just been threatened with being heinously tortured to death, don’t just walk off calmly with the guards, fight to the death!—at least that would be a better end!). That could have been a great cruel romance, but they failed to take advantage of that plot line.

Should you watch this?
I started this at the same time I started season 1 of “Lost You Forever” and it kept me from gobbling down all of those episodes at once. It never pissed me off so badly that I had to stay away or drop it. I guess it depends on your level of tolerance—my standards are relatively low for period/costume dramas that are not placed in any historical reality.

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Someone please send the director to film editing class…

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “meh”.

First major dislike: That with some decent editing, this could have been a really good mystery drama. It had everything it needed already: naïve housewife relies on husband for everything only to find out he’s been embezzling money and she’s now millions of won in debt; hints that someone else died in his place and that he’s really still alive; a mystery to be solved; a tall, handsome, and mysterious man who offers to help; most episodes ending on a cliffhanger. The problem is that it was soooooo slow! Completely unnecessary amounts of detail. For example, there was one scene where someone rings the doorbell. The camera shows the FL pouring herself a glass of water, then walking to the door, then opening the door—all in real time. All of that could have been cut out—all you need is the sound of the doorbell, jump cut to her opening it, 10 – 20 seconds saved. And that happened all. the. time. Maybe some kind netizen will re-cut this. That’s really all it needs to be a decent mystery.

Second major dislike: I get that it was a romance…but…someone who was deeply in love with her husband for 10+ years then has to go through discovering a ton of things he hid from her is sooooo not ready to be in a relationship with someone else right away. She needs to take, like, 2 – 3 years to herself to get her $%&# together. This is probably the one drama where the a lead taking off for a couple of years in the last episode then to come back and be ready to be with the other lead (while they lovingly waited for them) would actually have worked.

This is one of my few reviews that mentions the soundtrack: I actually liked it! In fact the credits song for the first 10 or so episodes is quite good and they used it well throughout the drama. Usually I find soundtracks tiresome after awhile, but this one I enjoyed.

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A cute adventure story with romance

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked/cheerful meh”.

Things I liked: Yuan Hao in a pirate costume. Period. I think that is 99% of the reason I watched this a third time when it aired on Viki (previously on YouTube). I liked that there was a reasonable progression of character growth. Our ML learned not to be self-centered and possessive while our FL gained a great deal of maturity. I liked that the FL stayed strong throughout—yes, she was annoyingly immature and stubborn at times, but she grew on me. For example, in the beginning of the story her mission is to leave the island and she does not let anything get the way of it, not even marriage. I liked the side characters (eyebrow guy was the best!) and that the SML got his own happy ending with one of the SFLs. There are cute and funny parts to the show that I enjoyed.

Things I did not like so much: Don’t go into this expecting a great deal of logic, it’s not so unbelievable that I could not stand it, but you do have to suspend disbelief. I did not like that the only time the FL and ML slept together was when one or both of them was roaring drunk. There wasn’t a huge among of depth to the “evil” characters, but like I just said, logic really isn’t this drama’s strong point. However, I, personally, have no major objections to this drama.

Need something light and fluffy with a handsome ML to admire? This is the drama for you. Enjoy well-written, gritty reality and historical accuracy? Don’t touch this one with a ten-foot poll. :)

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I laughed, I cried—no, seriously, totally did. I’m not being sarcastic.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “loved”.

What I liked:

I loved that this was a comedy—and not just slapstick/fart-jokes comedy, but actual, laugh-out-loud comedy (omg, the scene where the SML was pretending he didn’t know how to fight and kept wounding his brother…I was rolling!). I honestly don’t think I’ve ever watched a c-drama before that made me actually laugh out loud with tears in my eyes, rewinding to watch the scene again. I loved that all the relevant characters were very three-dimensional (why did you have to do that to my Man-Man!?), the evil-knievel kings of the Void and Celestial Realm excepted. I was rarely tempted to fast forward through any of the scenes not involving the main couples. I loved that nearly every female character was strong and there was only one b@tS*** crazy jealous woman; she had a minor role (and in fact, was written out about 2/3rds of the way through). I loved that the character who caused all the trouble at the end did out of deep seated trauma and desire for revenge—not because she was hopelessly in love with an ML! Even though the drama threatened to start with the dreaded (to me, at least) stoic ML trope, he turned out to be a very emotive character—and not sure why there were complaints about his real voice, but I liked it (I’ve never understood the dubbing thing anyways…). As someone with good relationships with her own sisters, I loved the relationship between the FLs in this one—cried so hard!

What I did not like so much:

Not much, really. For a very good review of what could have been better about this drama (& all the good stuff, too), please check out AvenueX’s YouTube channel—but I have much lower standards than she does (tee hee). Okay so the ending could have been done better, but other than that, there wasn’t really anything that made me scream wtf!? at the screen.

Definitely going to rewatch. I highly recommend if you like fantasy and/or comedy. And after suffering through Journey of Chong Zi, I’m glad there was another xianxia out there to restore our faith in them.

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Dumb and Dumber’s Not-so-excellent Adventure

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “meh/nah”.

Things I liked:

That I had zero emotional investment in any of the characters. Like literally did not care of they lived or died—especially Dumb (our ML) and Dumber (our FL). Except for Qin Ke who was like the only decent and smart person in the entire show (except for liking Dumber for all those years, but no one’s perfect…) Then why not drop it? I’m not entirely sure except that it was loading faster than “Our Starry Love” and I didn’t really have much else to watch. Plus, it was kind of an interesting train wreck. One that just kept on wrecking, and I was interested enough to see what the next wreck—ahem—episode was all about. I liked that Si Ma Miao Yuan and Ting Xue got what was coming to them. The CGI and world building was decently done. I liked that there was a short epilogue that wrapped things up and the leads got to live happily ever after—even if I didn’t actually care whether they did or not. Jeremy Tsui does look good in this (though they really need to pair him with actresses his own age, thank you) and that was why I started watching it in the first place.

Things I did not like:

Clearly a lot since I can’t decide between “meh” and “nah” for a rating. I didn’t like how tropey this was. It was a trope wrapped within a trope wrapped within a trope. A “trope-ducken” if you will. Stoic ML and stupid but cheerful FL? Check. B@t$*** crazy jealous women? Check. Irrationally prejudiced old dudes? Check. Supposedly wise set of characters who constantly made REALLY stupid decisions? Check. ML who fell head over heals for FL without really having any reason to? Check. The only thing missing was them falling on each other and accidently kissing.

Dumber was so unlikeable during her “second” life (where she was a beggar come disciple) that I was glad when she died. I could not understand why ML fell for someone that dumb and unruly. She promised to work hard as a disciple and proceeded to be as lazy as h*** up until her death. Third-life Dumber was, actually, not quite so bad but Dumb being, well, dumb, did so many stupid things! Like naming her Chong Zi (but oh, no, she’s not the same person! Pffft!), constantly leaving her vulnerable to attack by others (I’ll just leave her alone in a PRISON for three years and not bother to check on her—surely nothing could go wrong!), giving her the same weapon as before…sheesh. He was so dumb that every time there was some ridiculous misunderstanding that kept them apart, I did not even mind. I was like ‘yep, that sounds about right that you would believe that or do that.’

The plot—what there was of one—really fell apart once she became a demon. The Demon King’s motivation was never explained—though they kept hinting he had some sort of meaningful back story. Oh—and while I was glad Councilor Sage died in the end, I really wish he would have gotten a really good @$$-kicking first! From both Dumb and Dumber!

Should you watch it? If you’re going through a dry spell or need something to keep you from sucking down a really good show all in one go, this one is a good option. Just set your brain on the shelf whenever you hit “play”.

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Still mad about the need for a second season but not mad at the second season itself.

I will start out by saying that I did not think this was as good as the first season. This felt more like a really long epilogue to the first season. If they had just dumped the conflict, this could have been nothing more than a couple more episodes added to the end of the first season (as in skipped all the inspection and Princess drama, brought Seo Eun Woo to the royal palace as a female Royal Physician so she could save the Queen’s life and get awarded her annulment).

However, as second seasons go it was not truly disappointing, either. I do like that they gave Seo Eun Woo and Yoo Se Yeop their happy ending (btw: why all the complaints in the comments about their lack of chemistry? I thought they were adorable. Chemistry doesn’t have to be all smoldering, passionate looks. Their chemistry was the chemistry of two compatible minds and souls).

I cried for Granny especially since she’d been done so wrong by her own family (seriously, wtf blame victims/survivors for the horror that befell them!?). I did like that the Royal Physician decided to be a good guy in the end (seriously, how tall is that actor?). I liked that the clinic got to go on with its happy workers away from the drama of the royal court.

If you watched S1, watch S2. Or at least the last episode of S2 to get everything wrapped up nicely. ?

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Meh…

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a ”meh”.

What I liked:
Despite the low budget, they did a decent job of settings and costuming; this was one of the few Republican-era dramas where I felt the costume designer did an okay job of historical accuracy with the Western clothing. They did not try to do things with their low budget that they couldn’t and kept to only three or four sets. I liked that though our FL seemed silly and naïve at first, she actually had a bit of steel running underneath, and it developed over the series. As shallow as this is, I also liked how nice both MLs looked. ? I hope to see both of them in more productions. Dai Gao Zheng did a good job of portraying a bad boy with a heart of gold and Vincent Wei did a good job of playing the opposite.

What I did not like so much:
There were some simple things that even a low-budget drama could have done better. For example, the way Fang Tian Yi’s subordinate handled his firearm, he would have accidentally shot himself and others a long time ago (e.g. reholster your gun before you carry your drunk or injured master around!). The scene when the ML shoots the guilty men could have been done better—I just don’t see that many people going so quietly and calmly to their death. I also would have liked to have had a better idea of how much time passed. For example, they implied that the FL had been the maid for the ML for quite some time, but they never give you an idea of how much time really had passed. I would have liked to have seen more of their interactions during that time. I know it was a mini-drama so a lot of detail just isn’t given, but it would have helped. I was not mad at the ending, either. I would have been fine with a happy ending, but I wasn’t mad at the sad one—which is strange since I usually prefer happy endings. I do not think the sad ending was necessary, but I liked that the FL took over the ML’s role as governor. I did not like how Granny was always happy to have a servant beaten to death but then we’re supposed to see her as a sympathetic character at the end. No thanks.

Content notification: There is assault. Its not shown beyond enough to give you an idea of what happened, but it still happens.

I did not find this drama to be a waste of time, but I don’t think I’ll watch it again.

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Thank you for making up for the ending of Season 1 but…

…I’m not sure why this couldn’t have just been tacked on to the end of Season 1. Season 1 was 20 episodes, Season 2 was half that. It could have just been one complete season of 30 or so episodes, and it would have flowed just fine. But I guess they had to get our hopes up so that we would excitedly watch S2 and drive the Netflix ratings up?

Anyways, now that the whole shebang is complete (I hope--though a next generation sequel might be interesting or a prequel, set 200 years before when the whole ice stone problem started), using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a (one my rarely-given) “loved”. This is taking the two seasons together.

What I liked: That they figured out a way to make a happy ending for Naksu without her having to push someone else’s soul out of their body (well she sort of did that, but it was okay—just watch it if you need more explanation). I don’t think S2 was quite as good as S1 (which is why I wish it had not been a separate season, just the last ten episodes of one, single season), but it was satisfying. Evil lost, good won, Master Lee watched it all with a knowing smile.

What I did not like so much: I wish they would have given the Crown Prince a bit more depth of character, I really thought he’d been playing Jin Mu the whole time, but turns out he really wasn’t and seemingly made an arbitrary decision to go with the good side based on what appeared to be a trivial reason--but I'm glad he made the right decision in the end. I also wish they would have given a hint about who his queen would be and that it would be a smart, capable, and very sassy person :D. Mama Jin made me so angry with the way she treated Naksu. Even the assassin did not deserve that kind of treatment (e.g. being trapped in a room and then the plan to turn her into nothing more than a sow in a gestation crate—omg, those episodes before Jang Uk rescued her made my skin crawl). Matriarch Jin knew Naksu’s history and. sure, Naksu was the one who had killed her husband, he wasn’t exactly a stellar person in the first place since he was the reason beloved first daughter was drowned in the first place! And let’s not forget him deliberately placing a fake in the household with the intention of letting Jin Mu get control of the Jin treasury by soul-swapping the fake queen with Matriarch Jin. Anyways, any points of dislike of mine are minor irritations at best.

Should you watch this? I would recommend watching S1 & S2 as a complete season, which of course is possible because Netflix has them both. If you’re a fantasy person like I am, then I think you should watch it. Its well done. If you prefer hard, gritty reality then you won’t like it—or you could try stepping outside of your comfort zone and seeing what you think. (But I totally understand if you don’t want to because I don’t want to go outside my comfort zone, either, lol!). :D

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I hereby award this drama one of my very rare “loved ratings”…

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “loved”.

What I liked: Thank you to the writers, directors, etc. for opening this with a disclaimer that was the equivalent of “in a galaxy long, long ago and far, far away…”. Setting this up as alternate reality gave everyone more freedom to enjoy this drama since it, in many ways, had nothing to do with historical reality. So if you’re one of those complaining about the lack of historical accuracy, I respectfully refer you back to the first five minutes of the first episode. Kim Young Dae is just as adorable in period costume as in modern attire. He did a great job of portraying a range of human emotions without ever overdoing it or making his character seem inconsistent. The character of Ye So Rang was great. She was funny and smart—and best of all, stayed that way throughout the entire drama instead of suddenly becoming dumb to make the ML look good. Lee Shin Won was adorable from start to finish and I love that, at the end, they hinted he would get to be in a relationship with an amazing woman, too. I loved the head lady and head eunuch—they were fun to watch, as well as the shaman. In fact, I pretty much loved all the supporting characters, except of course, for the evil ones (is it just me or did the main evil guy always looked stoned!?). There were some great scenes, too, that I had to rewind and watch at least once more: the scenes of the boys reading erotica for the first time (and the one of YSR jumping up and down to get all of the books out from under her skirts…lol!), when the King went to rescue YSR from jail, any scene where the King was being awkward or unsure, when LSW rescued YSR first and they’re both all “aren’t we missing someone?...” and more.

What I did not like: There was not really much. I was not interested in the side romance between the writer and the waitress at the tea shop—though his side kicks were hilarious—but that’s a just personal “meh”. Any objections I would normally have with a lack of historical accuracy were solved by the opening disclaimer and since I prefer fantasy over reality in dramaland, I was relieved not to have to worry about it. I did wonder how such an independent woman like YSR would take to being queen (like I did the FL in 100 Days My Prince), but they even addressed that on her wedding day so I was satisfied. Other than that, nothing horribly obvious comes to mind.

Would I recommend this? If you’re like me and prefer period costume dramas over historical drams, then yes. If you like a happy ending, then yes. If you cried during the Red Sleeve and need to make it up, watch this. If your cup of tea is gritty, dark reality, then no, this will just make you mad. :D

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