L13

This is actually more fun than I expected so far... I wasn't sure about the leads' dynamic and the potential for plot development after the first episode, but both leads have grown on me since then. They're both annoying in different ways--Jae-hee with her snap judgements and one-track mind and Han-joon with his faux nonchalance and childishness--but in eps 3-4 we're seeing both of these facades start to crack. HJH is starting to suspect there's more to NHJ and the story of her brother's death than meets the eye and NHJ's deeper motivations are starting to come out.

I like the humour and exaggerated mannerisms, reactions, body language and sound effects too. They lend a cartoonish air to the story that makes me more forgiving of plot holes and cliches.

Least misogynistic MDL comment.

I think he's supposed to be a cadet at the police academy in that scene, not a full-fledged police officer.

I've only seen the first two episodes, but I'm already thinking of dropping this because there are no likeable characters. The Cheng household's grandmother and her daughter-in-law and her maid are cartoonishly evil, Shaoshang's mother is cold and aggressive toward the daughter she hasn't seen in 15 years, Shaoshang herself is manipulative and self-absorbed and Ling Buyi doesn't have a personality. Might give it another couple of episodes, but the fact there's no one whose scenes I look forward to is a bad sign.

That’s not the official poster, which was released a few days ago.

I didn’t even notice that, but if her name is different, she must have changed her identity later IMO.

Is Lee Elijah confirmed for this? She's not on the official poster.

Yes, it did, the premise was creepy.

I think he might have been a cadet at the police academy at the time, since they also wear police uniforms (or at least I hope so, though his girlfriend at the time looked quite mature, so who knows). But the actress playing Jae-hee's younger self certainly doesn't look 15 to me! I thought she was, like, 11.

The situation is very different from Backstreet Rookie's because there was no romance between Jae-hee and Han-joon in the past. Still, it simply doesn't compute for me because Jae-hee implied she was over 30 when she introduced herself to her team. Even under the most generous assumptions, her age difference with HJ is probably 6-7 years, which usually shows when both parties are in their 30s, yet JH and HJ look around the same age.

It stretches credulity for me, so I wonder what reason they had to make JH so much younger than HJ. The only reason I can guess at is that if she still looked like a kid when they knew each other, he wouldn't recognise her as an adult? But she already quoted his words to her back to him and he had no reaction, so how much is he going to care when he finds out that they knew each other? Or did he already know?

I wish they were closer in age. This age gap is distracting if only because of all the calculations it's asking me to perform to work out the drama's timeline, plus it adds additional imbalance to their relationship dynamic, which is already unequal with HJ portrayed as this flawless schemer who's always one step ahead of JH.

I know, right? I hope JK acknowledges him later on.

He couldn’t refuse a direct request from the king, so I don’t blame him, but when we were first shown that scene I also thought he would never get his body back.

What stumps me is why Uk is supposed to be the king’s son. It’s true the king’s soul was in JK’s body at the time, but genetically, Uk should be JK’s child. I guess that’s where magic comes in.

I'm on episode 11 and I'm liking this a lot so far. It's mostly serious and mature, but it has some genuinely funny, clever gags; it's not just a romcom in the sense that it's stupid and fluffy. It's so rare to find a romcom that really makes me laugh these days.

I really like the two main characters and their personalities too; the way their younger selves are used to explain their personality types and the differences between them is well done and really carries over to the main narrative in the present day. In other words, the flashbacks at the beginning of almost every episode serve an actual purpose and improve your understanding of the characters.

I find Liu Jing most relatable on a personal level, but surprisingly I like Fang Xin and her love story the most. Fang Xin is a really well drawn character; she's supposed to be this beautiful naive princess who always gets everything she wants and doesn't understand how the real world works, which is usually a very annoying character type--as the drama openly acknowledges!--but her characterisation is so detailed and well fleshed out that you really see her as a three-dimensional, likeable human instead of a stereotype. Plus, the drama uses her to show the dark side of being a beautiful woman in a sexist workplace. Despite her timid, non-confrontational personality, she finds ways to stand up for herself and doesn't compromise with her strong sense of justice. (I really liked the scene showing how she can't lie at all and would rather face humiliation, despite her self-consciousness, than do something underhanded. It really presented this as a character trait, like she just couldn't lie because it wasn't in her nature and would rather face the consequences, rather than as more proof of how noble and pure she is.)

As I said, I like her love interest and the way their story is progressing the most too. I hope we see more of them in the coming episodes. (And that the creep who harasses her at work gets his comeuppance.)

The secondary characters, like Song Chao and Lao Gao and Wang Jicong, Wenwen, Liu Jing's mother, etc. are all compelling too. What I like is that each of them gets a moment to shine under the spotlight; Lao Gao when he demonstrates his talent as the Zhuge Liang of nightclubs, Wenwen when she expertly manipulates her father in front of Liu Jing, etc. Even when they serve to advance the character arcs/subplots of the three main characters, the more minor characters get trademark character moments that are often funny and memorable.

I think Xia Meng is an interesting, well drawn character, but so far she's the one whose story least excites me. Her arc has been all about her personality flaws so far and she hasn't done anything to address them. Her ridiculous lies to Lu Bin are also keeping their relationship from progressing, so their scenes together are not that interesting yet.

I was quite put off by the abrupt shift in the leads' relationship in the middle of episode 4. They went from rivals in one scene to working together in perfect harmony in the next and then to drinking late-night wine in their sleep clothes without any transition or explanation. Like, what even happened? Their relationship development could be much better.

She's 13 when they first meet, then there's a time skip until she's 20.

In the webtoon, there's a larger age difference between them because Sookwang is already a university student (I think) while Seulbi is a sheltered 13-year-old, and even though it's obviously not romantic at that point, their first meeting has bad vibes IMO. So I am really glad they changed Seulbi's age for it.

I think her behaviour is explained by how sheltered and lonely her upbringing was. She's not acting like a child; she's acting like someone who was kept away from society for the first 22 years of her life.

He was trying to convince her that some stranger was too old to be called oppa. That’s not concern; it’s jealousy. Same with the overreaction to her song and outfits.

Also, finally, and this isn't a spoiler, I really like how soft Sookwang is with Seulbi. He takes care of her in the webtoon too, but Na Inwoo has added some great flourishes to Sookwang's character here. He tells himself he has no desire to get involved with Seulbi but keeps treating her with so much care. It's only been a few days and he already thinks of her as part of his life. It's really fun and romantic IMO.

Minjoon is more of a help to Seulbi and Sookwang at this stage of the story (as far as I remember), and more interested in proving himself to his father. In the webtoon, he kinda goes with the flow, but here he has this desire for his father to see him as capable of making his own luck that wasn't present in the webtoon. I think this change makes him a more interesting character and I'm curious to see how it will affect the plot. He also covers up for Seulbi and Sookwang more.

Seulbi can influence people's thoughts by touching them as opposed to simply seeing their future and giving them luck. So there's more to her powers here.

Seulbi's mother had a romantic history with the chairman at some point and he betrayed her feelings. In the webtoon, she had a brief romance with one of the chairman's underlings in her youth. Also, she's pretty physically energetic. In the webtoon, she's so spent from using her powers to help the chairman that she can no longer walk.

The secrets surrounding the chairman's brother and father and the fact the father is still alive apparently are also new, I think. I think the chairman's nephew/Minjoon's cousin (I forget his name) is being set up to become a bad guy/catalyst for plot development. The drama is placing a lot of emphasis on his ambition and his conflict with his father.

In general, I think the drama will make more of this shaman thing than the webtoon did. Seulbi's mother can use magic to find Seulbi, for example. Again, as with the brainwashing touch thing, it seems the webtoon has given these women additional powers.

I'm halfway through episode 3 and I'm already noticing some small differences from the webtoon storyline that were presumably introduced to make the story better and more complex (since they still have to fill up 13 episodes and they've already covered a relatively big portion of the webtoon--both the secondary characters and the main mystery need to be enriched to make a whole drama). I'll list some points of departure from the webtoon that we've seen so far in a spoilered comment below:

It might depend on your country of residence. I know some Netflix dramas have dropped all at once after airing in some countries.

She has a new agency and is reviewing scripts for a potential comeback! That's great news. I'm curious to see what drama she picks and hope she has some good choices.