I find this review hard to write because of how beloved and sacred this show is. To me, watching this show the whole way through is like a rite of passage into being a "contemporary Kdrama" watcher -- it's usually hailed as THE series to watch with its elements lauded as being perfectly executed. But unfortunately, I did not feel the level of positivity about this show that most people seem to have.

To be clear, it is a good drama: the cinematography, acting, story, music, set pieces, costumes, and everything have high production value and all lean towards the positive side. The story has an internal logic to it. The actors/actresses seem to be giving their all -- if you are Hyun Bin fan, then of course that itself is an amazing plus for you. The OST is comprised of well known, proven musicians like IU or Davichi.

And this show is very "Kdrama" -- you're going to have ridiculous, fantastical situations like the tornado that blows the main female character into North Korea. You're going to have rich heirs/heiress (Chaebols) that cause infighting -- in my opinion, you even have the rich guy/poor girl trope here, except that it's reversed (Yoon Se-Ri is the hyper rich South Korean Chaebol and Ri Jung Hyuk is the poor North Korean by comparison). You have short-lived love triangles (quadrangle?) with side character, second leads and stabilize into a second couple.

But to me, this show is lacking an X factor to elevate it into greatness. The premise of the main female lead being blown into North Korea means we get to spend time as viewers in that setting, which is novel. But if you strip away that premise, what do you have? Just a very typical KDrama. This is my main issue with this show -- nothing about this felt particularly special. The romance was expected and average -- Yoon Se Ri is your misunderstood, Chaebol brat who transforms into an outwardly kindhearted soul and she falls in love with prototypical, perfect male lead Ri Jung Hyuk who is fiercely kind, loyal, brave and caring -- but nothing about this screams match made in heaven to me, but rather just a typical Kdrama setup. Some of the side plots felt predictable too: good Chaebols beat bad Chaebols. True family values beat insincerity every time. Bad guys that do bad things get what's coming to them and good guys get justice or closure.

The absolute highlight for me was small moments of funniness with the side characters: without going into spoilers, I'll vaguely mention that it involves scenes in South Korea and includes the experience of "daily life" such as playing video games or eating South Korean food.

It's said that this drama is an excellent way to introduce non-Kdrama watchers to Kdramas because it does not contain anything oppressively exotic to someone not used to Kdramas while introducing them to some of the typical elements like Confucius values that find their way into a lot of Korean storylines. I agree with this statement, but to me this is exactly what makes this show so average -- it is just really safe and not notable.