Heracin

This rom-com centred around a fictional contemporary south korean monarchy started pretty well : it was entertaining, a royal-commoner romance with a good cast, solid OST and obviously a good production budget.

However, if I had fun at first, the drama totally lost me in its last third. The pacing of the story was all over the place, with a finale arc that felt both sluggish but still not spending enough time on properly setting up the evolution of the main characters and of the antagonists.

In addition to the weaknesses of the scenario, I regret the lack of imagination regarding the royalty concept and the lore. It was a bit explored at the beginning, but overall it felt superficial in its approach, making the endgame feel void of sense.

I enjoyed the acting and found that IU and Byeon Woo Seok had a good chemistry, even if their characters did not evolve has much as I would have expected. I really also want to salute the performances of Steve Noh and Gong Seung Yeon. They did a lot of heavy-lifting carrying some over-the-top arcs. I also really enjoyed Yoo Soo Bin and Lee Yeon, that both portrayed my favorites characters of the series, playing support roles, as assistants to the leads.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a rom-com with some sparkles and visual appeal but that are not looking for something very deep. If you don't mind some overused overdramatic tropes, and you love royalty romance and/or one of the cast member, it might be worth to give it a shot, despite the weak writing.