When this came out I was looking forward to it. Period dramas are usually a little too melodramatic for me (and I'm still recovering from Scarlet Heart Ryeo ), but this seemed like it might be a little more hearted and hey...eye-candy galore, right? I watched part of the first episode and decided that it just wasn't what I was interested in watching at the time.

I came back to this because I just recently finished watching Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, which I loved, and I saw that Park Hyung Sik was one of the main characters. I adored him in SWDBS and I thought he had terrific chemistry with the actress in that drama. I thought I would probably enjoy him in this and figured I could handle a case of second-lead syndrome if need be.

Second-lead syndrome was not a problem here. Honestly, I didn't really care which couple wound up together, which is unusual for me. The moments that should have been toe-tingling and heart-fluttering...weren't. I don't know if it was just that I didn't care about the characters or none of them had any chemistry together, or what. I've seen both male leads in other dramas and loved them and thought they had wonderful chemistry with their female leads. I never imagined I'd be uninterested in whether or not either of them wound up with the female lead in this drama, but I absolutely wasn't.

I think the main problem with this drama is they had maybe 12 episodes worth of material and stretched it out into a 20 episode drama, which was a mistake. There was waaaay too much time spent on navel-gazing, introspection and flashbacks. Flashbacks are great if used carefully. But with this drama...instead of flashing back to scenes involving the characters' pasts, which would have been far more interesting (and they do a few of these, just not nearly enough of them), we would get a scene with some kind of conversation or conflict between some characters and then they would go their separate ways and then each character by him or herself would rehash that scene or conversation again alone. Yawn. And this happened multiple times in every single episode, so by the time you hit episode 14 or so (or before, if your tolerance is lower than mine), you start hitting the fast-forward button in order to actually get to the point where *something* happens again.

I watched it to the end. It wasn't painful, it was just...meh. The second couple is cute, and I was interested in what happened with them, moreso than the main triangle. I wish more time had been spent on Ji Soo's background or Won Young's background. I also wish they had spent more time on developing the Hwarang and cementing the bonds between those characters. Doing more with the Won Hwa might have helped, too. They introduced the concept late in the show and then don't really go anywhere with it other than use it as a plot device that really didn't make a lot of sense.

The OTS was ok...but it got repetitive after a while, especially for 20 episodes. The acting was ok. The story was...just ok. It had a lot of potential that just wasn't ever realized. Strong start, bogged way down in the middle, okay wrap up in about the last 2 episodes. I was never on the edge of my seat dying to find out what happened next. Rewatch value is poor, and I'm someone who loves to revisit favorite dramas; there are a number I've watched multiple times. Not this one. One and done. If you like period dramas, like any of the actors in particular, or just want to be entertained by pretty people for a while, give it a go. You might enjoy it more than I did. If you have a low tolerance for repetition, don't bother, you'll just be bored and frustrated after a few episodes.