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Secret Royal Inspector & Joy korean drama review
Completed
Secret Royal Inspector & Joy
1 people found this review helpful
by michelleoc
Feb 15, 2024
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Not enough romance for me

Disclaimer: this is my own opinion. Everyone's tastes are different. If asked, I wouldn't tell anyone to run away from watching it, but it was a disappointment to me. I think it was the writing that let this show down for me. It was drawn out, and often uneven. Was it a comedy? A drama? It couldn't seem to make up its mind. The story was somewhat interesting, but, in my opinion, could have been improved with some editing.

What I liked:
Kim Hye Yoon as Kim Jo Yi. I really like this actress, and her voice is great. I liked them turning the tables and making a woman in a historical show be the strong one. She was strong, outspoken and was willing to fight for what she wanted. Sometimes her wide-open, doe-eyed looks were overdone.

OK TaecYeon as Ra Yi Eon was okay here. I've never been blown away by his acting (I think I need to watch Vincenzo), and he managed to portray a wide-eye innocent well here. Some of his expressions were over the top, which worked when they were trying for comedy, but not when they were attempting seriousness. The scene with him and the bad guy (one of the MANY bad guys) on the edge of the cliff was seriously overacted.

Choi Tae Hwan and Park Do Soo. Hated him with a passion, which was the intention. This was a character that was definitely a hamburger short of a happy meal. Absolutely no conscience, he kind of lived in his own psychopathic world. His smiles at absolutely inappropriate times were chilling.

The friendships. The sidekicks, the friendships made along their journey, found family. I liked watching these relationships develop.

What I didn't like:
Way too much palace intrigue. I was surprised, because by all the clips I'd seen, this seemed like it was going to be very light. It started out that way, and then turned pretty heavy for most of the rest of the episodes. And how many scheming bad guys does one show need?

The romance felt like it was added as an afterthought at times. We got some cute scenes of them realizing that they liked each other, then episodes full of neither one of them wanting to get married, then a rushed, unsatisfactory ending.

They talked about how all he wanted to do was cook, that's what he wanted to do with his life. Suddenly, it was forgotten. We never got to see evidence of that passion until the very end, and even then, I didn't think it was portrayed correctly.
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