Askalon
Story: 8/10
One of the things that I loved most about this drama is how much I learned from it--all of the historical events were incorporated very well into the story. I'm sure the show took liberties with some details, but the majority of the characters and events were real (based on my research while watching it). It gave a wonderful insight into the introduction of Western medicine, Joseon era social classes, and the international relations of Korea at the time.
The story's progression felt very natural throughout and moved at a good pace. All of the main characters had intriguing stories that converged in their efforts to become doctors. Hwang Jung struggled with hiding that he was born into the "untouchable" class of butchers, Yoo Seok Ran struggled with sexism and the limitations of being a woman in 19th century Korea, and Baek Do Yang struggled mostly with himself.
Near the end of the drama the focus started to turn more and more to events with Japan, and less on medicine. This is the main thing I didn't like so much about the drama--I wish they had kept the politics a secondary theme through to the end. Because of this I became a little disenchanted with the final episodes and while I wouldn't say the last episode ended with a whimper, it certainly didn't end with a bang either. The most climactic events in my opinion came some episodes earlier.
Acting + Characters: 10/10
Quality acting all around in my opinion, Park Yong-woo in particular. In the beginning episodes I wasn't a huge fan of how Baek's character was done (so much sneering!), but that quickly changed and he ended up being my favorite character.
One thing I have to say I really appreciated was that they found white people who could act well, since that seems to be a rarity in Korean dramas. Dr. Allen in particular was a very memorable character. While I found it a bit odd that a man born in Ohio in the 1850s looked clearly half Asian, I still find that preferable to white actors with little acting ability.
While Hwang and Yoo were interesting for their stories, the characters themselves were more straightforward: they were both good-hearted, strong-willed, and progressively minded. Baek, on the other hand, I found to be a much more complex and interesting character, not to mention the one that undergoes the most development on a personal level.
At times I hated him, and at other times I loved him. Baek was a character that took a long time to figure out, and once you think you understand him, he does something to turn that upside down. He's driven by jealousy and rivalry, but at the same time he's driven by a desire to save people through medicine and to modernize his country. He struggles with his feelings of inadequacy and jealousy when he's constantly sidelined as "second best". His ruling class status more than once proves to be an obstacle during his medical training, which causes him to be conflicted between maintaining his superior position in society and fulfilling his ultimate goal of becoming the best doctor in Korea. He is enigmatic and unpredictable, and in my opinion it's his character that doesn't make Jejoongwon simply a good drama, but rather an outstanding drama.
Jejoongwon has its faults, but the rest of it is so well done that I can happily ignore the imperfections. It's a superb drama that deserves far more recognition than it ever got.
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The show has two facets in my mind: the serious side, that's a story about the troubles our hero and Joseon face as they battle corruption and wizardry. And then there's the funny side, which is Cha Tae Hyun going around being hilarious. The funny side is brilliant, but the serious side is just so-so.
STORY: 6/10
The plot wasn't the show's strong point. At times it went around in circles a bit without much actual progress in any one direction. Later in the drama I felt like some episodes got too wrapped up in government affairs, forcing Woo-chi out of the spotlight temporarily, which was not something I enjoyed much. The show was at its best when Cha Tae-Hyun's characters were front and center.
Throughout the drama new wizardry rules were introduced whenever it was convenient. It felt a bit TOO convenient for a character to be near death... and then surprise, someone casually mentions a rule that affects how they can use their wizard powers, and thus the tables are turned or someone's plan is foiled. A bit too much of a deus ex machina for me. I wouldn't have been too bothered if it had only happened once, but it seemed to be a recurring issue.
Overall the plot wasn't horrible--the issues I had with it were always momentary and it kept a good pace most of the time. It could have been a lot better though.
ACTING + CHARACTERS: 7/10
There are a whole bunch of really, really awesome characters in this drama. Cha Tae Hyun's characters of course steal the show. Between his two characters, I honestly preferred Lee Chi (his alter ego)--his character was much more amusing in my opinion. Woo-chi was certainly funny as well, but at times he was playing the role of the serious and principled hero, which I didn't find quite so entertaining.
Bong Gu was a thoroughly wonderful side character. As were Hye Ryung, Chan Hwi, So Chil... Far too many great characters in this show to name them all. I would have liked it if we'd gotten a chance to see more of some of them, but nevertheless they were strong supporting characters.
Unfortunately some of the main characters I don't think were so great, Mu Yeon in particular. I have no complaints about Uee's acting, but I have no idea what the writers were thinking when it came to Mu Yeon. For the first half of the show she was mostly just unconscious--hard to develop a character much when she's asleep in half her scenes. When she's finally conscious, she just faded into the background and became more of a side character than anything. She had a few moments in the spotlight, but that's about it.
As for the bad guys, Ma Sook I also think could have been done better. At one point in the show we get some interesting insight into his motivation for doing evil stuff... but then it's pretty much never mentioned again. It could have been a really good way to give his character more depth, but instead they just tossed out a quick explanation and decided they were done with it. He then follows Mu Yeon's lead and fades into the background.
Kang Rim I found a more interesting bad guy in the beginning. He was doing evil stuff, but he still had traces of a conscience and and uncertainty in what he was doing. It made him a great character and even made me sympathize a bit with him. But then, God knows why, a switch is flipped halfway through and he becomes a one-dimensional bad guy that totally lacks the depth his character had in the beginning. How boring.
OVERALL: 7/10
One more thing that I find worth mentioning is the special effects. It's not something I really want to judge the show negatively for, but they were so bad that I almost stopped watching before I'd even finished the first episode. Thankfully I grew accustomed to them as the show went on and they stopped being so much of a distraction, but I wish they had prioritized the special effects more for a show that uses them so heavily.
Despite my criticisms of the show, it's still something I'd recommend watching if you're a fan of comedy and/or Cha Tae Hyun. The drama is mediocre in a number of respects, but it's sure as hell funny.
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STORY: 8/10
The plot follows a similar set up as VP and TEN: the mystery of the day taking up the bulk of each episode, and then a mystery of the season that develops little by little. The seasonal mystery I found quite compelling, so I have no complaints there.
The mini mysteries I found to be much more straightforward than both VP and TEN, which I found to be both a good and a bad thing. As much as I liked the other two dramas, they often left me utterly confused trying to figure out what was going on. God's Quiz I was able to understand without the headaches though, which was a nice change.
At the same time, I felt like I wasn't really drawn into each episode as much as I was with VP and TEN. There were fewer twists and turns to keep me glued to my screen, and the guy that you thought was the bad guy in the first 15 minutes often turned out to be just that. There were still a few twists (usually in the form of diagnosing a disease), but overall I felt the drama was a bit lacking in this area.
ACTING + CHARACTERS: 7/10
Han Jin Woo was wonderful in my opinion: an interesting character and well acted. VP and TEN both have your typical serious and totally badass main characters with tortured pasts. Han is their polar opposite. He's lighthearted, bumbling at times, childish, and tends to speak first and think second, but at the same time he's clearly a medical genius and rather adept at doing detective work as well. He still has his own dark secrets, which makes him all the more compelling as a character given how different he is on the outside.
Kang is the only other character that gets significant screen time, and I wish I could say as nice things about her character. I never really connected with her character, and I felt she was lacking in personality and depth. She seemed like some generic detective character: rather serious, a little cold, and that's about it. It seemed like she was just there out of necessity--there needed to be someone investigating the crimes, and there needed to be someone for Han to interact with. I wish they had developed her character more considering she played such an important role.
Despite its shortcomings, I highly recommend watching this drama. It has its strengths to make up for its weaknesses. It was definitely good enough to convince me to watch the next two seasons, which I'll be doing promptly.
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The drama was way longer than it needed to be, first of all. It would have been a better drama if they'd cut the number of episodes in half. Often the story went around in circles, with no real plot development happening. You get sick of seeing the characters doing and saying the same things for the umpteenth time. It got incredibly boring to watch after a while.
As the story clunked along, it increasingly became awkward and lopsided. I found it difficult to really believe or understand the motivations for the actions some of the characters were taking, since they often seemed inconsistent with the character. One of the main actresses apparently bailed before the end, and her character gets an awkward sending off, leaving a very obvious void for the remainder of the drama.
At times scenes were overacted to the point of just seeming ridiculous. Exhibit A: when you're emotional and talking to your brother, you simply yell each other's names back and forth for no apparent reason. "Hyung!" "Dong-wook-ah!" "HYUNG!" "DONG-WOOK-AH!" "HYUUUUUNG!" "DONG-WOOK-AAAAAH!" (rinse and repeat). Likewise, when you get angry with someone, you're supposed to yell their name angrily and then silently stand there, staring intensely at them. If you watch this drama, you'll notice the precise same intonation every time someone says Shin Tae-Hwan's name: "shin Tae HWAN!"
Despite the overacted scenes, I don't think most of the actors were outright horrible (when they weren't yelling someone's name, at least). With one exception, that being the White Guy. White Guy could not act his way out of a paper bag.
By the time I reached the last episode, I was thoroughly sick of the drama and had lost any empathy I'd previously felt toward the characters. So the bad news: it's not the happiest ending in the world. The good news: if you're like me, by episode 56 you wouldn't care if all the characters took a flying leap off a cliff.
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