Mediocre show with some intereseting moments, overabundance of sweetness and domestic bliss as well as suprising amount of brutality.

Storyline and characters are mostly mediocre, the level of intrigues by various baddies far from intelectual masterminds. This doesnt have to be a bad thing - a charming proof of their inteligence. Sometimes they felt like a necessary trope to add - e.g. evil concubine. Othertimes, the capricious nature of the bad guys was almost refreshing or on occasion even felt realistic (man in high position who are not eveil mastermind but rather short-sighted scared fools making lot of emotional decisions).

Unfortunately, the shows starts quickly favouring telling and not showing, which leads to tiresome amount of expository monologues or various repetitive dialogues used as characterisation tool (not always supported by the actions of said characters).

And then there is the blasted ep 17 that made me furious by its sheer idiocy. Well, if it was to be a proof of their youthful ignorance, I apologise.


SLIGHT SPOILER - mostly angry rant about the level of idiocy this show can try to present as sound economical thinking

Family moves to a different region for various reasons with the intention to reestablish their business and redevelop the region in very modern sustianable manner - crating a proper infrastructure that would make trading easier, creating various job opportunities in this new underdeveloped region etc etc etc. Yay.
There is lots and lots of talks how thousands of people depend on their business. This relocation is done not just by the main family, but the branches and all their affiliates. Then, suddenly, the main couple gets possesed by the spirit of student communists from the early 20th century and decide to give their wealth away to the governemnt (and you know the government is good because the local homeless community doesnt complain about them - naturally, why would they complain about governemnt that cannot provide them with shelter and food despite their refugee status) as a pennance for their sins of being evil burgoise merchants. This action is framed as something to help the region. Because, naturally, one-time donation accomapnied by aforementioned thousans of people who followed the main family to this new region with promise of jobs and home and are now without said jobs and home (their employer deciding to quit) is the way to go when one tries to improve underdeveloped region.

end of spoiler rant


Acting - nothing to keep you glued to the seat but not bad. Just be prepared for endless talks. Romance between the main couple - tooth-rotting sweetness, be ready for the most pleasant of diabetes.

And to cleanse your palate, you have the cruelty of the bad guys and rather brutal depiction of war and its consequences (at least in contrast to the harmonoius romance strylines) - which is a refreshing alterantive to the usual heroism. Given the drama´s tendency to grand motivational speeches, one tries to see some idea behind this and for the sake of my nerves, i decided to go with pacifism (a good thing). or maybe it´s just a tool to up the drama and hardships of the good guys. Most likely both are correct, even though not both delivered with the same strenght.

Overall, it´s not a bad show, if you concentrate on the romance and the domestic bliss and dont bother to think too much about the grand narrative and economical or societal theories presented here. :) and are fine with charming amount of ageism (mother-in-law is fortyfive and can´t stop whining about being old and useless. Well, at least she is not in her thirties, so some progress has been made!