Worth the watch -a spoilerless review.

A drama the hits all the points needed

Characters that have clear motivations and are fleshed out, flaws and all...mostly

A secondary, third and fourth story lines that don't disappoint or end without conclusions.

An OTP that seem to genuinely like each other, realistically tease each other and talk out their difficulties

Music that doesn't overwhelm a scene

Female characters that talk to each other beyond what the men are doing and are shown as equal in capabilities across the whole.

What I didn't like

That ending though.....Come on C-drama land....make up your mind. Take my advice and don't watch the last 5-6 minutes of the ending episode. Just say "The End" and it's perfect.....lol

They should've made one standout character a eunuch, sterile or gave a reasonable explanation for his decisions towards the end because what they were working with, ain't it.....You can't change my mind on this

Dude that shows up with his little almond eyes......is typecasted af.... you know his character is up to no good because it's him and that's all this dude plays......boooooo!

A few first episodes that bog you down with the "intrigue" that isn't. I know where they were going with this and it was more of a good riddance in execution instead of appreciation of an up-front plot twist and red herring because they nearly bore you to death with it. I know many dropped the drama because of this...lol and had to be pulled back in when things start revving up.

The worst date night option before a big "we all might die battle" in the history of drama land....try to change my mind in the comments...lol. I don't see how they didn't get tired with all that pounding and pounding and heat and sweat...OMG!

A second lead without any growth and doesn't make sense.....It's like yea yeah we get it, now you get over it, we're all over it and then wait you're doing it again and getting everyone shot in the a$$....wth. It's like they wrote the character as a catalyst for some other stuff to happen gave him growth and forgot, then shoehorned the BS in when IT IS NOT NEEDED!
Legit not needed at all, they're at war, the setup is already there, bad luck and bad things happen. they could've left it at that. But no, no no, they got us saying "really brah?" and for what?.....and then it happens again. Make it make sense

I wanted the cat to be part of the group, where is the cat!

Some of us watched this like crack while it aired, you can read the drama's page on MDL to support that...lol
Rewatch value...hmmn, I don't know. You may find yourself going back to episodes for special moments or to remember what was mentioned while watching further episodes.....but that ending though....lol

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When Actors Out-Act the Script

Unpopular opinion: Don't watch this, like don't

Kudos to the cast for working through the material that they had. Everyone from the youngest child to the senior citizens brought their A-Game to make this work......and it doesn't.

I hate this for the leads, though this is definitely NOT the worst dramas that any of them have been in...It's the most ambitiously produced.

This drama would've fared so much better as an experiment in the actors ad-libbing the ENTIRE thing. No joke, the whole drama in its entirety based on whatever the actor felt the character would've said in that moment.

Lore, tribal conflicts and faction power fights all get messy in the worst way as more characters and additional problem setups continue to add on up to the final episodes.

You'll experience moments of spontaneous "who the heck is he?" along with "again?"

A hero that doesn't seem all that convincing as to what and whom he's being a hero for and why....lol.
A fortress with the worst security ever
A prophecy that is only 10% truth, with it's chosen mouthpiece and participants being in on the joke and adjustments follow.
A big bad that isn't really in the end.
A whole species setup that's literally made unimportant...like meh, ya'lls like Ego-takes or whatevahs...lol
A setup for a 3rd season, that makes no sense in motivation, I have a feeling none of the actors will sign up for without some serious compensation.
Bad camera angles in "chaotic mob" scenes....literally 20-30 people in huge spaces. There are ways to shoot these to give the feel there are more people than that.
When you're in the middle third of this you realize all of the conflict could've been handled with out all the fighting.
You get sick of hearing Tagon's name.....
And are the Neandathals speaking spanish? And they only had makeup for 3?....lol. I can't with this drama
At least they have plenty of leftover rags for a historical drama.
....mask boy was better masked and without speaking, holy cow a missed opportunity there and would've made his story more impactful.

If you insist, watch without sound or subtitles. the episodes do sooooo much better without whatever they think is supposed to be happening.

Last but not least....mask boy was better masked and without speaking, holy cow a missed opportunity there and would've made his story more impactful.

D-
because there are worse dramas out there

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One and Lonely, Meh, double Meh.

It's a solid 7 and I'll tell you why.

I finished this series an hour ago and It's not as good as I thought it was.

The story and plot is okay, I don't know why they insisted on giving us actual time indicators as someone who should've been in their mid to late 30s is also said to be of the same age as a character that was clearly a child or tween during earlier events. And just when you forget the ages don't natch, here it comes again in dialogue that something happened X amount of years ago when this person was X age.

It was entertaining.

But this is why it's not a 10
No clear Big Bad, a wishy-washy cowardly troublemaker without clear motives, except a "might as well" attitude that starts the body count towards the end.
I don't know if they meant for us to feel sorry for this character or the actor's contract conflicted with him being full-on anything.....There's just no intensity there, none. His motives are half-baked to the point that even when he's probably going to be living his best life without much of the past worries, he goes all-in with (just about) a person that annoys him to death. When, the easiest choice would be to stay still and this person wouldn't be in his way anymore.

I finished another drama of the ML that aired recently and I can't help but notice he plays the same character in each of his recent roles. Pouty with occasional smile in a suit, pouty with occasional smile with a wig and sword, then watch him kick something.

The older actors brought the A game as usual

The monk was a waste, I was waiting for him to hulk out towards the end but, the promise of earlier scenes isn't fleshed out beyond being our sounding board for the tragic hero.

And he is tragic, tragically honorable when the game changes and all bets are off. Seems to me earlier logic and "contracts made" could be changed due to circumstance but not, for him.

Cheaped out on costumes because there are two men in the crew that I got confused with as the styling was the same and they have similar builds and wide faces.

What do you call a disciple that doesn't get taught anything really? A glorified housekeeper? They couldn't teach her to defend herself? Even the one weapon she can use is never shown to be used during a pivotal moment.

The stories of some of the side characters aren't given the time they deserve, even when they seem more interesting than the Main character's arcs.

A double crossing cockroach that brings trouble every time he crosses the screen, for no reason but to cause trouble. It's over and I still don't know what he wants.

THE FL and the Monk are the most disappointing characters in this thing, even though the acting was okay. They didn't give the FL much to work with but she did have 3 scenes that were able to showcase skills.

So, this is a 7, because there's worse offerings out there right now but would I say it's something with rewatch value, nope.

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Watch Bin Bin lips move...and that's pretty much it.

Stealth bomb crap. A slow-burn workplace romance drama that forgets it's supposed to be a workplace romance drama by being overly ambitious about the work, without a foot in reality, while boring itself to death in the process.

Don't believe me?
I dare anyone to watch this up to episode 17 after reading this review.

The Cons:
A spin- and repeat of a jealous supervisor that's willing to risk it all for a Bin Biscuit (LMAO)
Mass misogyny from all the genders in the room.
Who needs enemies if you have friends like these.
Poor girl really needs to stay on top of those health checkups, 'cause 'erybody fallin out.
Watered down Sex and the city vibe that can only be explained as: someone heard about Sex and the City by way of third party belching and decided to have a go.
Who da'f decided that one of the guy's voice dubbing was good to go....Aww man I got it in my head again
Kangaroo court investigations
Whole as Presidents/CEOs with thousands of employees being ridiculous on live Tv.
Every other man on screen is a different variant of cockroach, they just keep coming back.
We ain't going to apologize for terrorizing you for 2 days and humiliating you on the 3rd because of 72 hours and all.

The Pros:
Bin Bin's Lips move
In a suit,
In a car,
At the bar,
On the street,
and he eats.

There you have it, on a scale of "watch while folding laundry" to "don't blink"...It's a don't watch at all.

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Meh....Lee Dong Wook does a bunch of stuff in cosplay sometimes and not enough.

This is only for the Lee Dong Wook fans out there....watch it.
Absorb LDW like cocoa butter on freshly washed skin and slip yourself into those fuzzy socks some random cousin gave ya for Christmas some years ago.
See him cosplay whatever he was supposed to be and forget the disappointment of not seeing him swinging around 9 actual tails.
Write fanfics about a love triangle including his live-in veterinarian butler minion that looks like a fresher but, water down version of Gong Yoo.

The story hooks you in then forgets what it's supposed to be about.

Weakest links and total wastes of time:
1)The villain,
2)Main chick's parents and everything involving them after the first 5 or so episodes.
3)Main Boss God!!!!! Like WTF
4) LDW hair as in Gumiho mode.... I said what, I said!
5)The whole half thought-out universe of "gods and minor deities" they just threw on the wall and hoped would stick or the viewers would be to enthralled by LDW licking things and saying "MMmmm" to care.

The Strongest point:
LDW ability to commit to the character when nothing and everything starts making complete 0, zero, sense, his cute minion and puppy boy.

Don't watch this mess.

They could've made it awesome if they went complete camp af with it and didn't try to take itself seriously. There were some promising hints of this in the first two episodes but then they forgot what dram they had planned. Or maybe there was no plan because that's how'll you feel as soon as the "big bad" is revealed.

Disappointed. I want my time back.

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See, what happened was.....

Yeah, the scriptwriter turned in their rough outline of this drama then, never came back...

You got a bunch of stuff hinted at that never has the plot concluded.

Why anyone from the "countryside" would be this naive. Like you've already had sex with the dude, why are you still kissing like a blind person that's never been kissed just gave you advice on how to do so, 2 minutes ago?

This drama is not worth the time, not even to waste time.

Your life is valuable, don't do it. Not even if you're curious.

Like, don't
You've been warned.

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All fun and games 'til someone loses an arm then you want many characters to die....No, Really!

How do I forget thee, let me count the ways.....

This drama is guilty of having the first few episodes written by one writer to hook you in, then makes fun of itself towards the middle-end. After watching this you'll forget what it's about.

The setup is the same ultra-special super premier and seemingly only wizard/pugilist/sect-driven school where only the best of the best from each clan/sect/martial art style, that sometimes hate each other, gather to be taught by the best of the best.

And as we know the best of the best, teaching the best of the best always get their butts handed to them when the looked down upon bad guys that weren't invited to the reindeer games show up and do bad things.....

The List
The teachers suck and can't protect anything
The mean girl gets away with everything, publicly even with the sacred and strict rules centuries unbroken rules.
You'll remember only how this drama started and forget what it was about.
You'll wonder why some of these students were let in in the first place after all the buildup.
If someone is so super special high kungfu, why do they need to enroll in the school anyway?
Did I say the teachers suck?
Someone loses an arm and the stupidity doesn't stop there.
You'll be able to pinpoint which episode you'll start to not care anymore.
Worst use of Eeyore's power not power that includes noble idiocy that was clearly meant to be an emotional moment but, leaves you staring with your mouth open in disbelief. Then, you'll laugh instead of cry or maybe do both, in hysteria because you wasted your time on a well-acted crap drama but you're already more than 24hrs in.
Not a good drama for body positivity. They could've left two of the characters in the so-called "less desirable" state and made a statement.
I can't remember, but, what are escorting guards and soldiers for?

The highlights
1. The leads commit to the nonsense, especially the male lead. So glad he's not making "money for momo (or whatever) anymore. But, then you never know there might be a part 3 of the other drama he did twice.
2. Comic relief friend and smirky smurf steal the show.
3. The first episodes, hell anything leading up to before they enter the school. In fact, skip the school and think of any other drama like this were main chick is constantly setup, challenged, or harmed. Then watch the last two episodes.

Recommending this to anyone who needs something to watch in between their currently airing ones to use up some time. I finished this drama a week ago and forgot there was an unwanted marriage involved. That's how forgettable this drama is.

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Enjoyable for what it is, just know that going in

I kept my expectations low and was happy that way.

This is fluff nonsense. The same that keeps being pumped out on the regular every season. Which leaves you with a story that's instantly recognizable and unpredictable.

As you watch it, you'll know what comes next like one of those books read by kids that let you choose "if "A" happens then "D" will happen or if "B" happens then "C".

What it does well is set-up a been done storyline in a way that takes itself seriously enough without taking itself to seriously wit a tighter script than some other much-hyped pieces of the same genre.

Complaints:
The supporting cast acts circles around the main leads. Especially, the ML in the initial episodes as his plastic surgery may be the culprit and his face need bigger emotional expressions to translate....anything. This doesn't happy until the boy starts getting happy and that takes a while.

Annoying plant deities that aren't worth anything, when we already have another annoying tagalong in the "spirit" realm.

2nd leads father and all the opportunities he's given to cause havoc, even after escaping an automatic death sentence.

First time I've seen the Off to Lead a Battle march needing their horse to be guided by someone else.

A "kingdom" that's almost as low budget as the show. "Herbal Lord" seems to have too many job duties.

Pros:
Tight enough writing, that allows you to forgive its many shortcomings.

No long, overly drawn-out scenes of bad guys performing bad things, to then discuss the foiled plans of bad things.

ML smile

Plenty of kisses

How they work in the humor at the innocence of the FL without being icky. Though they forget she's not supposed to know about how such things are conducted towards the last episodes. This is one thing that stuck out for me.


Final:
This was the okayest waste of time I've had in a while. Could I watch it again? Maybe if between dramas or episode days for something else. Would I recommend to someone new to Cdramas? No.

The rating is for what it is, a good crappy drama, and that's okay.


















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This was cute and easy to watch. Just leave your brain behind and you won't be disappointed.

A universe is setup that leaves a lot of questions with unsatisfying answers to most while others are forgotten.
The transition from comic scenes to off-stage was well-done and thought out. It is almost a character itself as it lends the tension needed to drive the feeling of unpredictable and unfair world these characters inhabited.

Near the ending episodes you'll wonder why you liked it as much as you did.

Skip it if the teen scene isn't your thing and read the manhwa instead.

Watching once was enough. I honestly don't remember the ending. Totally forgettable.

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Okay,
A lot of people slept on this drama because the writer is a complete nut that is infamously known for wack plots and nepotism. But, this easily in my top 20 and one of the 10 I recommend for anyone dipping their toe in the kdrama world for the first time.
Bad stuff first:
Slow start. Give it the necessary 8-10 for the real fun to start.
There's a F-ing ghost and not a good one, like why?.... The writer, that's why.
Dumb af birth secret you realize you don't care about and then they give you another one.
Sung Hoon's acting, most are more than a little green be he stands out as the worst in the beginning.
Eeyore gets a hairdo and it ain't pretty.
Her other choice of ...~cough~ partner...~gross~.

The good stuff:
Sung Hoon takes a shower.
Chock full of madness to make you yell at the screen and tell off the jerk of a male lead who really gets pulled through the wringer, deservedly so.
Sung Hoon takes his shirt off and starts yelling about how much he loves you and wrong for everything.
The male lead actually shows growth as a character without just waking up one day with a change of heart.
Sung Hoon crashes your Skank-wedding, sorry "Courtesan-Wedding"
The lead female isn't a doormat either.
Sung Hoon is all Boo-hoo at your feet begging you to take him back.

Rewatch factor: High.
I have found myself rewatching this one when I'm in a drama slump or I need to wash the sting of a disappointing drama from my mind. So at least 5 times that I've watched this one.

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A must-watch if you're a fan of any of the actors and want to say you've seen every work in the catalog.
The actors were excellent with the material they were given.
Missing older sister, though tragic, small part was super cute and realistic.
The story makes you care until you don't care anymore; you'll know the exact moment when that happens.
Lot's of "Duh" moments. Like, if someone can hack your computer why wouldn't you think your phone is not hacked also? Or assume you aren't being followed? Like gee, let's get a clue.
Completely forgettable and can be watched in between waiting for episodes of another series.

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Watch if you like pretty colors and want to mark one of the ML's works off your list.

What I liked
I can't remember even after watching several episodes as they aired.
Loved the FL voice, I thought she was another actress (w/ chin surgery, my apologies to both)

What I didn't like
The discussions on age were and honorifics was a reliable trope for humor but, gets old quick when you realize everything else lacks.
The colors. Seems like 85% of the dramas are doing the "peachy, turquoise" Instagram filter on everything this year.
The second female lead actress is completely wasted here. She is a good actress and by the time they gave her something to do besides repeating the same lines over and over, I dropped it.
The vintage items to represent the 90s(mainly the last half) was laughable. I sell vintage for a living and also lived through the 90s on very modest means so, no, we weren't running around with walkman's that played cassette tapes.
People forget the Matrix was out and we used Cds and DVDs.

Avoid this one unless your folding laundry or want something on while studying.

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I didn't know MV's are supposed to be a movie or 9 episode drama.

This is 70s romance novel gets a fanfic makeover on wattpad and then someone decided to make a screen play...sort of.

Made into a movie and drama. Why? Because someone let them.

It's a crap drama with actors that can act that somehow becomes entertaining because, you can't believe you're still watching this crap.

So it works.

Dude with no chill, seeks revenge and silly doormat lets him.

Peter Ho never looked uglier or greasier.

Wack-to the A, editing. Like woo, dudes did ya'll try?

Low budget costuming. I never understood how they can play up how much money someone has....but, they have only one or two ill-fitting outfits. And on the flip, I was confused that the person who couldn't afford to food had more clothing changes. Like maybe you should by a chicken instead of a lace blouse?

Funniest lines in the whole thing
"She's dead!" and "I'm fine".

It's okay to laugh through the last 5 minutes of the movie and drama.

It's not a must watch.

But, yes I've watched it more than once.

You'll see a lot of Thai offerings in the recommendations, I suggest you watch any of those instead.

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This is a mall brand cupcake drama. A Korean drama in Thai Lakorn cosplay that plays it safe...enough.

Those cupcakes with two inches of swirly pastel gooey nonsense, topping an inch's worth of dry af cake.

But you know you're going to enjoy it anyway.

Most laughable moment:

The birtdate of the male lead's parents. If they were born in 1966, they must've had him at 8-10 years of age. How they're thinking to pass this man off as someone born in the late 80s; what a joke.

Actor most likely to be typecast after this:

Poor Yoon Se Ah. This woman can act but, keeps getting hired to make bug-eyes.

I would watch it again, if, I were in between dramas. But, wouldn't recommend to anyone new to Korean dramas.

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