This review may contain spoilers
Star stunning cast, wattpad fiction plotting!
As one of, if not the most anticipated romance drama with a star studded cast and a promising summary, let's rip the bandaid off with my honest opinion of finishing Perfect Crown.
With a wattpad-esque premise of a rich business woman and the charming bachelor prince, it was right up my alley. IU and Byeon Woo Seok was an interesting pairing, and I will actually point towards the pacing and plot as two of the issues for the show.
The visuals are very much stunning and grand, but the pacing is sacrificed for long montages or clips that do nothing to evolve the storyline. K-dramas are known for long scenes where the charaters just stare at each other, so it felt somewhat nostalgic to have a feeling of watching a drama from ten years ago. Long montages of walking, dressing up or walking into parties are part of showing the worldbuilding, but it suffers when the characters, nor the plot, haven't been built up to stand on their own.
It was actually all fine until the last couple episodes of the show. Multiple attempted murder-plots, a super villain rising under the original "villain" as well as the political tension regarding the main couples romance just snowballed into an absurd mess. All of the actors did a splendid job with what they had, the camera team as well! It felt absurd, and especially IUs character that was supposed to be a badass, cold-hearted business woman failed to assure me of the character the writers had started the show with.
Whilst I enjoyed the wardrobe of the Queen Mother and the Prince, our main lead IU had a somewhat turbulent fashion that made me question their mood board for her characters fashion sense. Whilst it felt like a fashion take made to withstand the era of 2026, it felt somewhat outdated in certain choices.
Is this a bad show? Not by any means (if you count anything except the beige press on nails IU had on for the entirety of the show that did not even fit her nails). You can see how much effort they put into the production, visuals and the outcome. Did it somewhat feel like a story of a k-drama from 2016? Absolutely. I was here for a good time, which ended with a lukewarm fanfic-esque ending (and a rage regarding ill-fitting press on nails on lead actors!)
With a wattpad-esque premise of a rich business woman and the charming bachelor prince, it was right up my alley. IU and Byeon Woo Seok was an interesting pairing, and I will actually point towards the pacing and plot as two of the issues for the show.
The visuals are very much stunning and grand, but the pacing is sacrificed for long montages or clips that do nothing to evolve the storyline. K-dramas are known for long scenes where the charaters just stare at each other, so it felt somewhat nostalgic to have a feeling of watching a drama from ten years ago. Long montages of walking, dressing up or walking into parties are part of showing the worldbuilding, but it suffers when the characters, nor the plot, haven't been built up to stand on their own.
It was actually all fine until the last couple episodes of the show. Multiple attempted murder-plots, a super villain rising under the original "villain" as well as the political tension regarding the main couples romance just snowballed into an absurd mess. All of the actors did a splendid job with what they had, the camera team as well! It felt absurd, and especially IUs character that was supposed to be a badass, cold-hearted business woman failed to assure me of the character the writers had started the show with.
Whilst I enjoyed the wardrobe of the Queen Mother and the Prince, our main lead IU had a somewhat turbulent fashion that made me question their mood board for her characters fashion sense. Whilst it felt like a fashion take made to withstand the era of 2026, it felt somewhat outdated in certain choices.
Is this a bad show? Not by any means (if you count anything except the beige press on nails IU had on for the entirety of the show that did not even fit her nails). You can see how much effort they put into the production, visuals and the outcome. Did it somewhat feel like a story of a k-drama from 2016? Absolutely. I was here for a good time, which ended with a lukewarm fanfic-esque ending (and a rage regarding ill-fitting press on nails on lead actors!)
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