EtoileNoire

I kind of sort of half expected Yeo Hwa's brother to be alive because once he was dead it made no sense for Seok Ji Sung to keep her alive. I wonder what his rationale was for not sending her off a mountain in a widow's "suicide" 14 years ago?

It seems to end well for the Councillor after all. LOL

Two seconds in (no subtitles) and I want to muzzle the Councillor and throw him in the dungeon. I am not understanding the King at all.

In a more fair & just world, Yeo Hwa would have been Left State Councillor or another top Minister instead of languishing for 15 years mourning an un-dead husband. That sexism & misogyny cause such a waste of human potential is a travesty.

In a modern era, the equivalent of the Capital Defense and the King's men would have investigated Jeong's disappearance & return. Law enforcement should find his amnesia story extremely suspicious. Plus the son of the top minister in the country posed as a merchant who didn't reveal himself to his family straight away. Instead, the King and Yoon Hak are pretty much working blind.

If the son did drink the tea and die, that would have put Councillor Seok in a position of strength politically as a father mourning because of a cruel & unjust king. Giving the tea to Seok himself would have worked better: either exposing him or killing him, but seemingly even the King and Lady Oh didn't realize the depths of Seok's depravity.

Fortunately, the tea party semi-flopped. I'm hoping the King doesn't get discouraged. He & Yoon Hak must continue to make decisive moves, putting pressure on Seok.

Overall, the writers are doing a pretty good job with the political intrigue and I find it quite riveting. I'm actually hoping for more seasons.

ETA: I wonder what Park Su Ho learned from Kang that he tried to interrupt the tea party to tell the King?

I hope in the melee that the King and Secretary Park talk to Seok Jeong about his father pretending that he was dead and willingness to kill him for real. Even though as a viewer I know the Councillor has no fucks to give about his son, it was still shocking to see the father willing to let Jeong die like that. That scene was incredibly intense. You know it's a great show when you don't need the dialogue to understand what's going on.

Episode 11 with subtitles is up on the Kocowa website.

This drama was bit of a slog to get through. The story could have been better told with shorter episodes. Much of the story felt repetitious.

Overall it is a good series showing how a marriage can and does fail because love on its own cannot sustain it.

Other random thoughts:
- don't couples go to marriage counseling in Japan?
- why did Michi keep falling down? Was it supposed to say something about her, i.e. physical & emotional clumsiness? inability to stand on her own two feet?
- Michi & Yoichi had great chemistry.
- no wonder Yoichi had ED with his wife: he didn't want children. Although I liked his character, his dishonesty about something so fundamental to Michi was even more divorce worthy than his one-off infidelity IMO. He pretty much tricked her into the marriage.
- I was really indifferent to the plight of Makato & Kaede plus the actors had zero chemistry leading me to wonder what the characters ever saw in each other. Even their home lacked color & personality.
- Kaede works for the worst-run business ever. Unless you're on-call to save lives, there's no need for non-stop phone calls about "emergencies", not in fashion magazines anyway. Get real.
- Michi's co-worker (Hana?) is a great friend; we should all aspire to be like her for someone near & dear to us.
- Mishima's serial attractions to unavailable men could be the topic for another series. She's a train wreck, bless her heart.

Yeah, I think my screen would combust. I usually shy away from romantic K-dramas because the leads generally have negative chemistry, but this show is a notable exception.

Three episodes in and the most positive thing I have to say is that Lee Jin Wook is very handsome. We'll see...

1.84 m is pretty tall. Lee Ki Woo is a giant at 1.93 m. No wonder he dwarfs everyone else in the cast.

The site owners should put a big badge on the page when a show deals with sexually mature themes or allow users to completely hide/block 18+ programming. That way viewers who don't like dramas because of said content can keep it moving and not be annoying.

The King just wants to give up at the first sign of an obstacle. No wonder it's taken him 15 years to investigate his father's death. Where are his people? He should have a network of operatives & spies telling him everything that's going in the kingdom. He is too isolated.

At the moment, Seok has the upper hand on everyone (except his son). #Depravity

I don't understand Seok's willingness to have his son killed. It's not like he has a spare.

"The most important possession for a Korean family was the firstborn son, or jangja (장자). ... It was so important that no man could die without having a male heir. If they were unable to produce one, they had to adopt (from the same lineage)." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Joseon

Whatever happened to Yeo Hwa's uncle who arranged her marriage into the Seok family? He appeared once and hasn't even been mentioned once.

Jeong is much more pleasant than his sister and highly intelligent. Might he become an ally in the mission to bring down his father?

It's always the quiet ones you have to look out for. Park Su Ho is a goner. The only person who can stop him from being with Yeo Hwa is Yeo Hwa herself.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%EB%B6%80%EC%9D%B8

Baiting Kang is another in the list of Lady Oh's dumb moves. I'd be surprised if she lives to tell the tale of Lord Seok's treason & murder.

Speaking of Lord Seok, his dialogue with the King was so incredibly chilling. How the King managed to hold himself back from stabbing Seok in the chest is a miracle. Then Seok practically ran away in fear when the Queen Dowager offered him Lady Oh's tea. Despite his bravado with Lady Oh in eps. 8 and his lowkey threats to the King's face, Seok is getting desperate. He's going to get careless and bring himself down.

I love how masterful Secretary Park was in this episode. It made him look sexy. Plus he trusts Lady Cho's intelligence enough to not insult it. What a boss.

As for the romance, the gift giving was cute and all (it really was), but the way Yeo Hwa & Su Ho bonded over the idea of killing Kang was delightful. Shared murderous rage >>>>>> sweet treats. LOL

Every single detail of this series is absolutely brilliant.

The romance could have been cut completely and have a series about the line of women through the ages. That would have been fascinating.
Still, it wasn't a terrible series and Ki Do Hoon looked especially fine in his suits.

I agree; their age, class, and power differential is more striking to me than that between Yeo Hwa and Su Ho.

This isn't a bad series, but the romance was unnecessary (the leads had no chemistry). Other than the FL and the ML's sidekick I thought the acting was outstanding. The actors really elevated what was just average writing. Still, it is more than watchable thanks to Woo Do Hwan and the villains. It can fill the gaps in between better shows.

It was the flashback that made me consider Seok Jeong as a suitor. He seemed quite serious about his love and very determined. He does act frivolous 15 years later but maybe it's just a facade or inconsistent characterization.