Well I'm very much the minority here, but I've written a long comment about it below... Had to put the spoiler…
This is what I already talked about in my comment. This show has a good romance but it has completely failed in showing how much turmoil the country and how unfair the whole system was.
Well I'm very much the minority here, but I've written a long comment about it below... Had to put the spoiler…
Well I slightly changed my comment so that it's clearer. It just irks me how everybody's rambling about Phob's betrayal when Tinn did exactly the same thing. The only thing is Phob's survived by luck because they ended up changing the date of the revolution... and that's it.
If it had gone as planned, Phob would be dead now.
So everybody's lamenting on poor Tinn and everybody's forgetting that Phob almost ended up dead when Tinn gave…
This is a very Disney like series where the suffering of the people over the hands of the royals is barely shown. Even if Tinn's family wasn't the worse of the lot, the simple fact that they support this regime is a sin in itself. It's easy to be "nice" when you've been born with a diamond spoon in your mouth and act all and mighty and generous when in fact you shouldn't hold that much privilege in the first place.
Are we supposed to be grateful for foundations or whatever goodwill these rich people grant us when they barely pay any taxes?
Look at what happened in other countries, when the people revolt, it never happens without bloodshed. They should be happy, the military didn't just off their heads.Tinn's father is acting all high and mighty when he just ordered to shoot Phob two episodes earlier, what a joke.
Tinn is collateral damage and it's normal at this point that these two can't be together but let's be clear, it's only sad on an individual level. On the grand scale of things, this would never have happened if the royals were truly serving the country as Tinn's father likes to pretend. People don't like political instability even if the regime is shitty as fudge because it makes it hard to plan for the future. They only revolt when things have taken such a dark turn that they can no longer survive.
As much as the romance in this drama is good, they've only shown servants in "privileged situation", It failed to show in how much turmoil the country was before this revolution happened and how the lack of education of the population helped maintain the country in poverty.
But hey, education?
Never a good idea. Once people get educated, they start to see how incompetent and selfish these elites are, and it becomes difficult to control them... Hence the fact that you only give education to a few, who will pledge loyalty to your ass and contribute to maintain you and your descendants in place... And make them be grateful for it. As Phob said, why the f*** should he feel grateful for getting scraps? The Prince should never even hold the power to choose who is or isn't allowed to get an education in the first place.
It's a whole lot of talk about how the country needs to change but they failed to show the brutality of the regime in place or how much people had it hard. The scene were they interrogate the two soldiers is pretty laughable. As if they were questioned like that. Both dude were tortured, let's be real. It wasn't a nice chitchat in front of a table but the drama has no balls so it doesn't show how nasty it was behind the scene.
Is it because it has to remain family friendly... or because the monarchy is still part of the fabric of the political system in Thailand?
Anyway, this is why everybody is crying over Tinn and Phob's betrayal instead of how this regime just had to go. Most of the empathy goes to Tinn, when it should go the people.
In my country, royalty hasn't existed for centuries, yet these nobles' descendants are still wealthy, still holding properties still building wealth thanks to the wealth their ancestors got from exploiting others.
They only cry because they no longer have as much as before. Cry me a river.
Right now, losing Phob seems like the end the world. Neither Tin nor his family has ever experienced any hardship, let them taste even a hint of what the people of this country have been through and you'll get that your little love story is but a vague souvenir when there's no food on the table and your children are condemned to suffer the same fate generations after generations because unless your "masters" are nice enough, you'll never get any education to rise above your condition.
I like Tinn as an individual, but he is so into his privileged life that "poverty" or "harship" are just concepts in his head. He understands their meaning but they don't carry weight. Otherwise what Phob did wouldn't appear like a "betrayal" but a necessity.
'Course Phob could have told him... but in that case either he helped him and if it failed, he would have been implicated at some point and executed for betraying the crown, or he would have betrayed Phob...
WHICH... he actually did. I don't remember if Tinn ever admitted to Phob giving him a fake schedule for whichever day they'd initially planned the revolution... He knew it was fake... AND YET he gave it to Phob. He had doubts about Phob's stance and YET HE GAVE IT TO HIM.
Everybody is playing the amnesia card on that. Now he was forced by his father? Sure. Well Phob didn't want to use Tinn either... Sadly he's not doing it for his personal privileges but to build a more egalitarian system.
Thankfully they didn't go with the plan that they had initially designed, otherwise Phob would actually be dead and Tinn would be the one crying because " Oh I should have understood him..." or whatever. The mere fact that Phob is still alive is sheer luck... while the military's coup has been made to avoid as much bloodshed as possible. Not to say they're saints but still the Royalty executes rebels , the Military doesn't kill the royals.
Anyway, neither of them has been the perfect lover in this mess so nope sorry. Tinn is not the most wronged party here. Your father and your brother are always treating the man you love like sh***, I'm still waiting for you to tell them that Phob is not an animal but a human being that deserves respect.
As for Phob's mother... The royal brainwashing worked wonders on you. Go lick their feet if you want, I'm glad your son has managed to get the pride and dignity you lack.
I was so busy picking my shattered heart up off the floor yesterday, that something suddenly occurred to me. Myself,…
Well I'm very much the minority here, but I've written a long comment about it below... Had to put the spoiler tag though because it's too long, but it does develop that point and others a bit more.
Is it wrong to laugh out loud at the bullies getting a dose of their own medicine?
I can't help it but on the other side it makes me feel like I'm a bad person to rejoice at their sufferring. I mean... They definitely deserved what they got... But it just feels like I should be "satisfied" but not "happy" about it... But... well. Can't say I'm not happy about it... Gah... I don't know...
Xie Wei has the nastiest temper ever. I watched shorts online full of red flag romantic tension... but my God watching the show, even I couldn't root for him. Well I'm sure spending most of your life being raised by a tyrant threatening your life after being raised by a snake can mess with your head... But any sane woman would have fled in the other direction...
I think he deserves happiness so I'm glad Ning'er is nuts enough to embrace him... But I don't necessarily approve of the whole process.
Hopefully "off camera", he learned to control that nasty temper of his.
On the other hand the death of *insert character* was completely unnessary. I got "The Prisoner of Beauty" trauma... Do I now have to consider that in these C dramas, because now they're mostly avoiding tragedies and giving us HE, they feel required to kill the most likeable characters?
I'm tired of getting attached to characters that are bound to die near the end due to the "we need to give them a bittersweet ending" rule.
EDIT: AH! I forgot... I know Chinese love their dramatic scenes but come ON' guys! The last episode is ridiculous! You have several things happening at the same time near the same place, yet one side has thunder and rain POURING with an overall completely grey and cloudy sky and the other has a bright blue sky...
Not even grey... Bright blue... I was like WTF? Sometimes it happens, two places next to each other have different weather but hey, there's no walls in the sky... If it's raining here and not there, usually the sky is a uniform grey everywhere, not bright blue here and grey there.... Suspension of disbelief has its limit you know?
Also I REALLY want to know what type of fiber Ning Er and Xie Wei bodyguard's clothes are made of. They were literally drenched as if they had swam in a swimming pool but a couple of minutes later, they're all perfectly dry like nothing happenned. That's fantasy level at this point. I happened to be drenched myself a couple of time and sadly when you're still wearing the clothes in questions, it takes a couple of hours to be completely dry (especially the underwear) so I WANT TO KNOW, what kind of magic is this? (On a side note there's also Ning Er's make up but well at this point...)
The spidey sense: Well you have a point here. I myself have forgotten it. Maybe it only works on physical danger…
Well actually not a fight for me either, but nobody knows how to talk on MDL anymore obviously. People get offended for no reason. I've given up walking on eggshells to talk. If disagreeing or pointing out the fact that it's a bit unusual for somebody to seek out a comment made a week ago hurts your feelings, just block me, I don't care.
The drama never explicitly explains what's happening. I don't think the reincarnation theory is proved or disproved.…
Well I 'm not saying the reincarnation theory is wrong. My take is it's a mix of reincarnation and time-travel. I think personally that the simple fact that Se Gye dreams about his past, proves that he is indeed the reincarnation of the Grand Prince.
I personally think people are being overly dramatic in the comment section. Sure, it could have been more explicit in the explanations, but I don't think the whole drama should be thrown under the bus because of the last 4 episodes... I personally wish we had gotten a bit more silliness in the last 2... and it was mostly contemplative for sure but no it doesn't deserve a 5. But again that's just my opinion.
I don't think the writing was sloppy but some things could have been done better for sure.
Hmm... I had this wild theory when 4 or 6 episodes were out that Seo Ri and Dan Shim had switched place in their childhood and that the Prince had fallen in love with Shin Seo Ri... not Dan Shim... The theory went like this. Shin Seo Ri was indeed the reincarnation of Dan Shim but their souls were " in the wrong time", they both had switched when Seo Ri had "the event that happenned in her childhood" ( at the time we didn't know her parents had attempted to take their and her life, we just knew something traumatic had happened and she had lost her acting ability) but thanks to the commet, both could return to their "own time"... It didn't really matter if the Grand Prince fell in love with Seo Ri instead of Dan Shim because ultimately, they share the same soul hence they're the same person. So if it ended like that, it was coherent with that theory and the end was fine.
It ended up being slightly different, as Seo Ri travels to the past AGAIN, saves the Grand Prince and by some weird magic goes back to the present AGAIN. And for some mysterious reasons, Dan Shim back in her own time remembers she has befriended the Prince? That's a bit... err nonsensical? While the Prince falls in love with Seo RI/Dan Shim it makes, sense he's in love with her but it doesn't make sense that Dan Shim is in love with the Prince or that she acts like Seo Ri with the same spunk... After all though they share the same soul, they don't necessarily have the same personality but whatev'.
But since everybody was insisting on the reincarnation thingy, and there was nothing that proved my theory was more plausible than the classic reincarnation trope... I gave it up at some point... There was also some strong arguments playing in favor of the reincarnation trope, so I caved in. Only to find that my "wild theory" that I had written weeks ago, vehemently argued against by some members ( not complaining here, we're here to discuss different ideas) was indeed the "right theory".
Well... Lesson for the future: Next time, I'll only trust myself instead. I might be completely wrong, but better be wrong because I guessed wrong than be wrong because I followed everyone. Especially since it gives a satisfying ending on my part, though this ending might be understandably frustrating for some viewers.
Anyway I really loved most of the show, but I do think it lost some steam for the last 4. Still, a solid 8.5 for me in spite of some plot points given up halfway and some illogical nonsense. It was still mostly entertaining so I'm giving it a pass. It was great for 10 episodes... Mid for ep 11- 12 and some good and meh for ep 13-14... Didn't finish with a bang but still left me with a smile.
"Nah Se gye is fighting... They've hinted at it when we see him being questioned at the police station. He's hinted that somebody is behind his misfortune and proposed a deal with the policeman... We've never seen the aftermath of that. Also, a couple of episodes again while talking with his secretary they mentioned the fact that they're gathering evidence but that now wasn't the right time to use them or that they didn't enough at the moment. "
So exactly what hapenned. Not that Se Gye wasn't doing anything. The show had already hinted that things were happenning in the background,.. unlike what you wrote actually, saying Se Gye wasn't doing anything... So I don't really understand this answer of yours... It's got nothing linked with the spidey sense you talked about... and for the other part you were actually wrong.
2. I haven't watched the last two episodes yet and have avoided this page to avoid spoilers so far. Fortunately, I don't remember which comment you're talking about . Could have been a big spoiler on your part... I can deduce you were disappointed though...
Well. I'd argue that the show was overall pretty nice in spite of a less than stellar ending. It wasn't enough to ruin the whole experience ( or so I hope since at the time I'm watching this, I've yet to watch the end).
Honestly I liked that for once I didn't have to commit to 40 episodes for a C drama and also the fact that appart from the two first episodes, each episodes is around 30 minutes, opening and ending included (except episode 8 which is 40mn if I remember well).
It's a solid 8 for me... Most ratings on MDL are inflated but this is one instance where I think people have been pretty unfair with the show ( to be fair 7.6 isn't a bad rating per say, but given the ratings habit of the MDL community, no drama which overall rating is below 8 can be considered "good").
I liked it though I'm removing 2 points for episode 10 to 12... Too rushed, had to rely too much on suspension of disbelief with one character taking weird decision given their profile, another surviving God knows how etc. I felt that for these 3 episodes, they should have made the episodes longer, or add 2 or 3 to make it more coherent...
I also didn't like the fact that one character was carrying guilt they weren't responsible for. One such guilt was never truly clarified with the other so their stance at the end was a bit weird.
All in all, for a 12 episodes drama, they did pretty well but the drama would have been better with a slightly longer length.
Still it was different from your usual C drama fare, so just for that, I would recommend it if you're craving something fresh and short.... Just be aware that although it ends with a hopeful message, most of the stories in this show are pretty tragic, so don't watch this when you're feeling a bit blue.
Well just started this one so I'm holding judgement until I've completed it. It's been a long time since I no longer bother with MDL ratings esp. on C dramas.
I love my C drama historicals and wuxias but it's nice to get something different from time to time. It's sad China doesn't produce more of those but I guess it's more difficult to navigate censorship with that genre.
If we're going to speculate, then yes, the casting was most likely finalized months ago, probably around the time…
Your first answer, as well as lanya's and the previous comment that was erased is missing the point of my initial comment which I detailed in my following answer so I won't repeat what I already wrote. Your second answer is more on point and while I agree when you write:
___________________
"What I disagree with, though, is the idea that a breakthrough hit automatically means an actor should only take main lead roles from that point onward. That's not really how the industry works. A successful breakout project creates opportunities, but what matters just as much is what comes after it: the quality of the projects chosen, the directors, the scripts, the genres, and the long-term career strategy.
In fact, choosing a more serious historical drama with heavier and more tragic themes can be a much smarter career move than simply taking the first available main lead role. Not every lead role is equally valuable, and not every supporting role is a downgrade. Strategy matters."
__________
The truth of it is... while it's theoretically true, most actors who have a breakout role tend to stick to first lead roles. Rare are those who are going to still go for 2nd lead roles unless the whole casting is made of A list stars ... This is regardless of how the role has been written, i.e the 2nd role being more interesting or not.
As someone who got bullied through middle school (though not as much and as terrible as the bullying I've seen in countless K and J dramas)..I have to say... NO WONDER people love this drama. It is SO SATISFYING to see. Almost wish this could exist IRL.
What I mean is they just confirmed the cast officially but it probably was confirmed months ago. It's just that these press releases are timed to have the best effect.
Announcing that Heo Nam Jun is part of the cast as he's enjoying the same type of rise that Byun Woo Seok has gone through ( i.e a drama which success people didn't expect that steadily got more viewers through word of mouth and a character that viewers just love) is bound to raise more interest for the drama in question.
If they had confirmed the cast before the success of My Royal Nemesis, lots of people wouldn't necessarily have tuned it. Heo Nam Jun is the current "it" guy that everyone is talking about so it makes sense to confirm his casting now.
BUT, his agency would probably have not accepted A lead role for this drama instead of THE lead role ( doesn't matter that his character is a fan favorite, he's not the main love interest and that's it) if he had been casted now. They would have waited carefully for his next project as a lead. He probably signed the contract for this drama before MRN aired.
EDIT: Btw, I guess you can't put the same drama twice in your "drama challenge" because MRN does countain of truck of doom already...
They just announced the cast, but it probably had been decided WAY BEFORE. Otherwise I doubt Heo Nam Jun would have taken a 2ML role. It's fine.... Probably one of his last role as a 2ML. He's only gonna get lead roles from now on. Next time, the only chance he acts as an 2ML again is he acts next to Hyun Bin or Lee Dong Wook.
Wait, do people actually get put under general anesthesia for wisdom teeth in Korea? In my country they just use…
I think it depends on the size of the operation and on how difficult the operation is. In my country, most operations are done locally for teeth. I did 4 heavy operations with local anesthesia... BUT for my wisdom teeth, all of them had to be removed in my case and they did general anesthesia back then... That was more than 20 years ago though, so I'm not really sure my country's current health system would still go for general anesthesia this time.
EDIT: Also Se Gye is filthy rich, and hospitals in SK aren't free, he can afford to pay for general anesthesia... I don't think people with less money are given a choice.
If it had gone as planned, Phob would be dead now.
Are we supposed to be grateful for foundations or whatever goodwill these rich people grant us when they barely pay any taxes?
Look at what happened in other countries, when the people revolt, it never happens without bloodshed. They should be happy, the military didn't just off their heads.Tinn's father is acting all high and mighty when he just ordered to shoot Phob two episodes earlier, what a joke.
Tinn is collateral damage and it's normal at this point that these two can't be together but let's be clear, it's only sad on an individual level. On the grand scale of things, this would never have happened if the royals were truly serving the country as Tinn's father likes to pretend. People don't like political instability even if the regime is shitty as fudge because it makes it hard to plan for the future. They only revolt when things have taken such a dark turn that they can no longer survive.
As much as the romance in this drama is good, they've only shown servants in "privileged situation", It failed to show in how much turmoil the country was before this revolution happened and how the lack of education of the population helped maintain the country in poverty.
But hey, education?
Never a good idea. Once people get educated, they start to see how incompetent and selfish these elites are, and it becomes difficult to control them... Hence the fact that you only give education to a few, who will pledge loyalty to your ass and contribute to maintain you and your descendants in place... And make them be grateful for it. As Phob said, why the f*** should he feel grateful for getting scraps? The Prince should never even hold the power to choose who is or isn't allowed to get an education in the first place.
It's a whole lot of talk about how the country needs to change but they failed to show the brutality of the regime in place or how much people had it hard. The scene were they interrogate the two soldiers is pretty laughable. As if they were questioned like that. Both dude were tortured, let's be real. It wasn't a nice chitchat in front of a table but the drama has no balls so it doesn't show how nasty it was behind the scene.
Is it because it has to remain family friendly... or because the monarchy is still part of the fabric of the political system in Thailand?
Anyway, this is why everybody is crying over Tinn and Phob's betrayal instead of how this regime just had to go. Most of the empathy goes to Tinn, when it should go the people.
In my country, royalty hasn't existed for centuries, yet these nobles' descendants are still wealthy, still holding properties still building wealth thanks to the wealth their ancestors got from exploiting others.
They only cry because they no longer have as much as before. Cry me a river.
Right now, losing Phob seems like the end the world. Neither Tin nor his family has ever experienced any hardship, let them taste even a hint of what the people of this country have been through and you'll get that your little love story is but a vague souvenir when there's no food on the table and your children are condemned to suffer the same fate generations after generations because unless your "masters" are nice enough, you'll never get any education to rise above your condition.
I like Tinn as an individual, but he is so into his privileged life that "poverty" or "harship" are just concepts in his head. He understands their meaning but they don't carry weight. Otherwise what Phob did wouldn't appear like a "betrayal" but a necessity.
'Course Phob could have told him... but in that case either he helped him and if it failed, he would have been implicated at some point and executed for betraying the crown, or he would have betrayed Phob...
WHICH... he actually did. I don't remember if Tinn ever admitted to Phob giving him a fake schedule for whichever day they'd initially planned the revolution... He knew it was fake... AND YET he gave it to Phob. He had doubts about Phob's stance and YET HE GAVE IT TO HIM.
Everybody is playing the amnesia card on that. Now he was forced by his father? Sure. Well Phob didn't want to use Tinn either... Sadly he's not doing it for his personal privileges but to build a more egalitarian system.
Thankfully they didn't go with the plan that they had initially designed, otherwise Phob would actually be dead and Tinn would be the one crying because " Oh I should have understood him..." or whatever. The mere fact that Phob is still alive is sheer luck... while the military's coup has been made to avoid as much bloodshed as possible. Not to say they're saints but still the Royalty executes rebels , the Military doesn't kill the royals.
Anyway, neither of them has been the perfect lover in this mess so nope sorry. Tinn is not the most wronged party here. Your father and your brother are always treating the man you love like sh***, I'm still waiting for you to tell them that Phob is not an animal but a human being that deserves respect.
As for Phob's mother... The royal brainwashing worked wonders on you. Go lick their feet if you want, I'm glad your son has managed to get the pride and dignity you lack.
But I'm not commenting on this website.
So nope, neither of them is worse in this relationship... More on that below.
I can't help it but on the other side it makes me feel like I'm a bad person to rejoice at their sufferring. I mean... They definitely deserved what they got... But it just feels like I should be "satisfied" but not "happy" about it... But... well. Can't say I'm not happy about it... Gah... I don't know...
I think he deserves happiness so I'm glad Ning'er is nuts enough to embrace him... But I don't necessarily approve of the whole process.
Hopefully "off camera", he learned to control that nasty temper of his.
On the other hand the death of *insert character* was completely unnessary. I got "The Prisoner of Beauty" trauma... Do I now have to consider that in these C dramas, because now they're mostly avoiding tragedies and giving us HE, they feel required to kill the most likeable characters?
I'm tired of getting attached to characters that are bound to die near the end due to the "we need to give them a bittersweet ending" rule.
EDIT: AH! I forgot... I know Chinese love their dramatic scenes but come ON' guys! The last episode is ridiculous! You have several things happening at the same time near the same place, yet one side has thunder and rain POURING with an overall completely grey and cloudy sky and the other has a bright blue sky...
Not even grey... Bright blue... I was like WTF? Sometimes it happens, two places next to each other have different weather but hey, there's no walls in the sky... If it's raining here and not there, usually the sky is a uniform grey everywhere, not bright blue here and grey there.... Suspension of disbelief has its limit you know?
Also I REALLY want to know what type of fiber Ning Er and Xie Wei bodyguard's clothes are made of. They were literally drenched as if they had swam in a swimming pool but a couple of minutes later, they're all perfectly dry like nothing happenned. That's fantasy level at this point. I happened to be drenched myself a couple of time and sadly when you're still wearing the clothes in questions, it takes a couple of hours to be completely dry (especially the underwear) so I WANT TO KNOW, what kind of magic is this? (On a side note there's also Ning Er's make up but well at this point...)
I personally think people are being overly dramatic in the comment section. Sure, it could have been more explicit in the explanations, but I don't think the whole drama should be thrown under the bus because of the last 4 episodes... I personally wish we had gotten a bit more silliness in the last 2... and it was mostly contemplative for sure but no it doesn't deserve a 5. But again that's just my opinion.
I don't think the writing was sloppy but some things could have been done better for sure.
It ended up being slightly different, as Seo Ri travels to the past AGAIN, saves the Grand Prince and by some weird magic goes back to the present AGAIN. And for some mysterious reasons, Dan Shim back in her own time remembers she has befriended the Prince? That's a bit... err nonsensical? While the Prince falls in love with Seo RI/Dan Shim it makes, sense he's in love with her but it doesn't make sense that Dan Shim is in love with the Prince or that she acts like Seo Ri with the same spunk... After all though they share the same soul, they don't necessarily have the same personality but whatev'.
But since everybody was insisting on the reincarnation thingy, and there was nothing that proved my theory was more plausible than the classic reincarnation trope... I gave it up at some point... There was also some strong arguments playing in favor of the reincarnation trope, so I caved in. Only to find that my "wild theory" that I had written weeks ago, vehemently argued against by some members ( not complaining here, we're here to discuss different ideas) was indeed the "right theory".
Well... Lesson for the future: Next time, I'll only trust myself instead. I might be completely wrong, but better be wrong because I guessed wrong than be wrong because I followed everyone. Especially since it gives a satisfying ending on my part, though this ending might be understandably frustrating for some viewers.
Anyway I really loved most of the show, but I do think it lost some steam for the last 4. Still, a solid 8.5 for me in spite of some plot points given up halfway and some illogical nonsense. It was still mostly entertaining so I'm giving it a pass. It was great for 10 episodes... Mid for ep 11- 12 and some good and meh for ep 13-14... Didn't finish with a bang but still left me with a smile.
EDIT: OK. Now I remember the comment in question and that I told you I answered below and what did I wrote? :
https://mydramalist.com/788412-brave-new-world#comment-26449640
"Nah Se gye is fighting... They've hinted at it when we see him being questioned at the police station. He's hinted that somebody is behind his misfortune and proposed a deal with the policeman... We've never seen the aftermath of that. Also, a couple of episodes again while talking with his secretary they mentioned the fact that they're gathering evidence but that now wasn't the right time to use them or that they didn't enough at the moment. "
So exactly what hapenned. Not that Se Gye wasn't doing anything. The show had already hinted that things were happenning in the background,.. unlike what you wrote actually, saying Se Gye wasn't doing anything... So I don't really understand this answer of yours... It's got nothing linked with the spidey sense you talked about... and for the other part you were actually wrong.
2. I haven't watched the last two episodes yet and have avoided this page to avoid spoilers so far. Fortunately, I don't remember which comment you're talking about . Could have been a big spoiler on your part... I can deduce you were disappointed though...
Well. I'd argue that the show was overall pretty nice in spite of a less than stellar ending. It wasn't enough to ruin the whole experience ( or so I hope since at the time I'm watching this, I've yet to watch the end).
Honestly I liked that for once I didn't have to commit to 40 episodes for a C drama and also the fact that appart from the two first episodes, each episodes is around 30 minutes, opening and ending included (except episode 8 which is 40mn if I remember well).
It's a solid 8 for me... Most ratings on MDL are inflated but this is one instance where I think people have been pretty unfair with the show ( to be fair 7.6 isn't a bad rating per say, but given the ratings habit of the MDL community, no drama which overall rating is below 8 can be considered "good").
I liked it though I'm removing 2 points for episode 10 to 12... Too rushed, had to rely too much on suspension of disbelief with one character taking weird decision given their profile, another surviving God knows how etc. I felt that for these 3 episodes, they should have made the episodes longer, or add 2 or 3 to make it more coherent...
I also didn't like the fact that one character was carrying guilt they weren't responsible for. One such guilt was never truly clarified with the other so their stance at the end was a bit weird.
All in all, for a 12 episodes drama, they did pretty well but the drama would have been better with a slightly longer length.
Still it was different from your usual C drama fare, so just for that, I would recommend it if you're craving something fresh and short.... Just be aware that although it ends with a hopeful message, most of the stories in this show are pretty tragic, so don't watch this when you're feeling a bit blue.
I love my C drama historicals and wuxias but it's nice to get something different from time to time. It's sad China doesn't produce more of those but I guess it's more difficult to navigate censorship with that genre.
___________________
"What I disagree with, though, is the idea that a breakthrough hit automatically means an actor should only take main lead roles from that point onward. That's not really how the industry works. A successful breakout project creates opportunities, but what matters just as much is what comes after it: the quality of the projects chosen, the directors, the scripts, the genres, and the long-term career strategy.
In fact, choosing a more serious historical drama with heavier and more tragic themes can be a much smarter career move than simply taking the first available main lead role. Not every lead role is equally valuable, and not every supporting role is a downgrade. Strategy matters."
__________
The truth of it is... while it's theoretically true, most actors who have a breakout role tend to stick to first lead roles. Rare are those who are going to still go for 2nd lead roles unless the whole casting is made of A list stars ... This is regardless of how the role has been written, i.e the 2nd role being more interesting or not.
Announcing that Heo Nam Jun is part of the cast as he's enjoying the same type of rise that Byun Woo Seok has gone through ( i.e a drama which success people didn't expect that steadily got more viewers through word of mouth and a character that viewers just love) is bound to raise more interest for the drama in question.
If they had confirmed the cast before the success of My Royal Nemesis, lots of people wouldn't necessarily have tuned it. Heo Nam Jun is the current "it" guy that everyone is talking about so it makes sense to confirm his casting now.
BUT, his agency would probably have not accepted A lead role for this drama instead of THE lead role ( doesn't matter that his character is a fan favorite, he's not the main love interest and that's it) if he had been casted now. They would have waited carefully for his next project as a lead. He probably signed the contract for this drama before MRN aired.
EDIT: Btw, I guess you can't put the same drama twice in your "drama challenge" because MRN does countain of truck of doom already...
EDIT: Also Se Gye is filthy rich, and hospitals in SK aren't free, he can afford to pay for general anesthesia... I don't think people with less money are given a choice.