Knavery

I don't really like either of the leads after 1 episode. I'm not really sure if I should continue but probably won't.

Leads are fun to watch and there should be enough of a plot for 30 episodes. We'll see.

She's a supernatural being that takes on human form. She is basically like a 'plant' in that she can manipulate and shoot out branches/vines at will. The show is called 'Rattan' which is a type of vine and you can guess where the name of the show comes from.

She is brought back to life by a car accident that 'kills' the male lead. She saves him but he is bonded to her and incapable of leaving.

There you go. I 'spoiled' the set up of the first ~2 episodes. All of this is subject to future change in subsequent episodes but it gets you an idea.

The male lead obviously wants to escape this scary, powerful supernatural being that is lets say... domineering but he is physically incapable of doing so. She uses him to adjust to the world and help get what she wants (but at this point I'd be spoiling actual plot).

So if I was writing the synopsis I would drop the "alien" and change it to supernatural being or something and likely clean up the backstory as it will be revealed over time and is not really necessary for the synopsis beyond "she was from the 1930s and reawakened" or whatever the exact year was.

It's a synopsis that tries to reveal as little as possible and some of the word choices are poor. I'll write a little 'spoiler' down below that reveals the first few episodes.

I read down below this was cut from 70 episodes to 36. You can really feel that. It's disjointed.

I'm at episode 6 and so far so good. Still 8 episodes to go. Will be interesting to see if they keep a good pace.

This was tough to get through. I don't think I hate the female lead but she just goes around in circles too often for my liking. And she does it so many times before there is any movement on the overall story and plot.

You don't get a romance for most of the show. You don't get a story for most of the show. You get a soap opera. Female lead is happy around male lead, the 'relationship' is sabotaged or she misunderstands something and sulks for a few episodes. Repeat this over and over. The fake pouting she does gets old fast. And what makes this so frustrating is that they aren't in an actual relationship beyond their fake marriage.

I appreciate this is supposed to be a comedy but this was at best boring and at worst frustrating for me. I feel like this show could have been 8-10 episodes instead of 29 and it would have been just as funny, just as romantic and have a stronger story.

And the fact I feel so much could be cut because it was irrelevant speak to why some people think the female lead is dumb. The writers have her character make decisions to draw out the show. There was a clear lack of substance.

All in all, if you like a happy ending and don't mind characters having moments instead of a larger story, plot and consistent romance... this is a good drama. It's definitely 'fluffy' and 'light' as others have said.

I gave up around the time she sacrifices herself for the male lead and gets married to the bad emperor(?). It's been a while but I think that is what happened. Is it worth coming back to or are they going to 'love each other at a distance' and I shouldn't bother?

I still really love the pairing and I think Hoo Ja is funny.

The plot isn't the strongest but it doesn't have to be for slapstick humor.

It has been so long I forget. I wouldn't really recommend the show. If I remember right the show focuses more on him being a delinquent than anything.

Finally got around to watching it. It's OK but like a lot of Thai stuff it's a little naïve in how it resolves problems

I tried, I made it a couple episodes in but knowing the ending and the obnoxious laugh track... I gave up. What were the writers, producers and directors thinking? I am glad that laugh tracks seem to have mostly disappeared.

As Swiftler said - to get around Chinese censorship of time travel dramas... this show is someone writing about a modern character that travels back in time. And the big reveal to end season 1 is that the writer looks identical to Ning Yi. And the writer wrote something along the lines of 'the end is near for Ning Yi'. But he's the writer so we could get a scene where he deletes the line from his word document or he writes a twist so that Ning Yi survives.

From what I remember she was not specific about how her father and family died. It was more "that department killed him!". I suspect it's not as simple as she was told. Maybe what she was told was lies? Maybe someone was trying to set up the department?

In terms of Xi Gua in the show I personally think she is a better fit for Ning Yi. Tan Er kind of fell off a cliff. She started strong as a businesswoman willing to blackmail a man into marrying her so she could continue to rise in her family. The romance was cute, no doubt. But he's clearly more outspoken, more forward and has a modern world view. Xi Gua is also outspoken, forward and has a somewhat modern world view as well. She's a bandit, sure but you can tell she has many more modern sensibilities and views than Tan Er.

I like Xi Gua the character and the actress who players her. I hope she gets leading roles.

The problem for me is that it wasn't very compelling especially when the 9th lord finally gives in to his feelings and mopes every other scene for ~10 episodes. The court drama was silly in a lot of ways where the female lead and Wei Wu Ji would be experts at navigating politics but then could easily be taken advantage of to serve the plot and final episodes of the show.

I don't mind a "bad guys win" or "corrupt empire continues on" but the drama needs to do a good job of setting it up and offer us SOME payoff like the worst of the worst suffering in some way. This one did not. I know some people will be happy with a happy ending where the couple walks away alive but I wanted more and did not get it.

While I definitely like the concept of modern world kingdom (I loved Kings on NBC for example), I feel like Goong is dated... I appreciate it will be adapted as attitudes have changed over 14 years but I think the less faithful they are to the original, the better and I have my doubts that they'll stray too far from the original.

I love Son Ye Jin and I don't mind the raw emotion and angst feeling within this drama. I don't even mind there's very little payoff with the non-romance portion.

The last 4 episodes and especially episode 16 were bad. Episode 16 in particular just makes you feel like you wasted the previous 15 hours. The writers really screwed this up. It feels disjointed, silly and made me want them to not end up together.

Here's one minor problem I had: the mother finds out and spends the remaining half of the show threatening, pressuring, abusing people to get her way. And what is the resolution to this arc? They cry and hug it out with less than 20 minutes left in the finale. What? Why is this even necessary? The mom should just be bad or the writers should do a better job showing the mother coming to terms with her daughter's decisions.

I'm just shocked at how well they set this up only to completely destroy it in the last 4 episodes. I don't have a problem with who the characters were or even their decisions. My problem is with how this was paced, the scenes they decided to show and scenes they decided could be referenced through dialogue. "We broke up".... yeah it would have been nice to see more scenes to explain how she ended up with the businessman and then how she broke up with him. And I don't mean drama it could be as simple as the two of them acknowledging they're not a good fit.

I'm starting to rant here. I just don't understand how they set things up so well and then did such an awful job from episode 12-16.

It's not clear. I don't think the holy master or whatever he's called is shown again. There is no references to him either from what I remember. So you could assume the promise was kept I guess or maybe season 2 will bring the bandit characters back... who knows. The actress playing Xi Gua deserves some leading roles of a similar type where she's the outgoing type.

She finds out she is betrayed, wants to get her master and 'father' back but eventually leaves the capital city after Ning Yi promises to keep him alive and she is given a letter from her master telling her to leave.

I guess I'm not as negative as others about the bandit arc. I would have preferred he get into more significant action than administration for a bunch of bandits but I think the dynamic between him, the other matrilocal husbands, the daughter of the bandit leader and her right hand man was pretty good. But that being said... this is only 36 episodes and the bandit stuff feels like it should be a side story on the journey to being an advisor in the imperial court or something.