I try not to write reviews of dramas I haven't finished, but this one needs a comment. I bailed out in the middle of episode 4, because I couldn't watch another minute of the stereotypical uptight emotionless CEO and the goodhearted but clumsy, always needing to be rescued woman who works for him. Haven't we seen these two in numerous dramas before? Sung Hoon might be able to act, but you can't tell from this, with only a couple of programmed expressions to choose from. The whole thing was vacuous and shallow. I'm sorry, because I have many friends working in the game industry, and this certainly didn't mirror anything about that work experience. Waste of time; you might as well go and cut your toenails - more entertainment value.

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Until last year, I lived in Silicon Valley, where I had friends working at Google, Yahoo, and virtually every other tech giant. This drama totally sucked me in by finally being about a group of people I could relate to. The work conflicts they faced were very real to me. The fact that women were shown as the ones in power was a huge plus. I never like the music in dramas, but even the music here was excellent.
The acting was outstanding, and in spite of focusing on the female leads, there was plenty of male eye candy to keep one happy. Overall, this was the most engaging drama I've seen in a long time. Bravo!

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This has the same kind of structure that you would find in a typical but first-rate 100-episode drama. Predictable story lines, good cast, great characters. And it does it in 20 episodes, which means no meaningless repeats, less padding, no wishing they would all die and get it over with.
The big draw for me was the character development. I loved the various personalities, all believable and acted excellently. There were no chaebols, no one screamingly evil (well, the mother was a real loser), just the kind of people you might have as neighbors. There are really no surprises, plot-wise, but in a season of really unengaging dramas, I appreciated this understated set of performances by a great cast. If you get involved with the people who inhabit dramas, you might enjoy this. I did.

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I adore Shin Sung Rok, so anything with him is a must-watch for me. His first love in acting is musical theater, which calls for a more dramatic style than TV, so you can expect that anything he's in will be slightly - or a lot - over-the-top. In this, he crafts a conflicted character who is evil, loving, tortured and a victim as much as an evil-doer. If you are watching this because you want a fluffy romance, you're in the wrong drama.
I don't understand people who complain that some scenes are unrealistic. It's modern Korea with an Imperial family - you are looking for realism? Don't be silly. It's a fantasy and a melodrama. Keep your expectations within the parameters that the author has set, and you'll be fine. If you hate makjang, look elsewhere.
The story is intricate, with the expected plots within plots. It's easy to lose track of all the women in the Emperor's life. But even if you miss some threads, it clips along at a good rate and doesn't drag things out unduly. Typical palace intrigue.
The cast is outstanding. Jang Na Ra is a perfect counterpart to the Emperor, with humor, ethics and strength to spare. I don't think there's a weak performance in the lot, and 7-year-old Oh Na Rin is a winner as the crown princess. If you're addicted to second lead syndrome, you will like Choi Jin Hyuk, although he wasn't my cup of tea. Shin Eun Kyung as the Dowager Empress gave a good performance as the stereotypical woman mad with power.
The music wasn't annoying, always a difficult thing to find in K-drama, and a lot of it was good. Instead of trying hard to create an OST soundtrack that will appeal to the K-Pop set, the music enhanced the drama and rarely called attention to itself, blending carefully into the fabric of the whole.
The ending was surprisingly satisfactory. I expected to be disappointed as the Emperor ended up being a horrible guy to the end, but there were great nuances to his development; it was a nice example of why I love Shin Sung Rok.
Overall, I enjoyed it immensely - it was pure entertainment, well crafted by all. If there was something this engaging every season, I'd be a happy K-drama addict!

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I usually have pretty low expectations for a rom-com with a mostly unknown cast, so the bar was pretty low for this. It was better than expected, but even so I nearly dropped it at around ep. 8 - the only reason I finished it was that it would be over in 12 episodes. And, also, I was bored. :(
The biggest problem was pacing. There was far too much time spent on persecuting the chicken restaurant owner, a nice guy although really a bit simple and too trusting. The plot finally expanded far into it, but as interesting plot lines developed, it was over. As a result, the whole thing wrapped up in a big hurry in the 12th episode, although to do the sub-plots justice it needed several more episodes. A typically rushed K-drama ending. The character development was simplistic and shallow. The plot had promise but the whole show felt like a throwaway that everyone had lost interest in by the end.
The music was really annoying. A couple of songs have been lifted from Boys before Flowers, and it was jarring to have them inserted here - one minute I was in a chicken restaurant, and the next I was back in time with images on Kim Hyun Joong and the rest of the cast, going to a snobby private school. I should have just watched BBF again!
The acting wasn't terrible, given the material they had to work with.
Don't waste your time here unless you are in the middle of a K-drama drought.

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This moves at a glacial pace, interspersed with more flashbacks than you can imagine. It seems that the writer felt that we needed to see every scene at least twice to get the ideas. After 4 episodes, I felt bored by these slow moving, over-thinking and indecisive people and didn't really want to see any more. The sub-plot with the little boy was more engaging than the romance;I'm sorry I don't have the patience with the main story to follow through to see what happens there. Perhaps this slow, turgid pace was intended to be artsy. but it simply made me annoyed. Not for me, but YMMV.

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I really wanted to like this, because like so many people who have enjoyed KHJ's work in the past, I'd like to see him get his career back on track. But this won't help.

The story was confusing. I found myself losing track of what was going on over and over. There didn't seem to be a clear destination for the story. The acting was not outstanding. Let's face it, KHJ has never been the greatest actor but he puts his all into everything he does. He was served badly by this dull, emotionless character with none of the vigor KHJ usually brings to his performances. By the 7th episode, I found that I had almost given up on understanding where it was going, I skimmed through 9 and started 10 - and gave up at a scene with a lot of leaden people sitting around a bed having the dullest, most lifeless conversation imaginable. I didn't care about any of them.

I hope something better comes along for KHJ in the future. He deserves more than this limp story.

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This was supposed to run 40 episodes (i.e. 20 hour-long episodes) but it got cut to 16 hours because once again, someone in planning/scheduling apparently didn't realize that Chuseok was coming, or that there might be sports events. So if you enjoy dramas with lame endings, unresolved threads, and having that familiar feeling of "That's all? Seriously, that's ALL?" at the end, then this drama is a must watch. If you would rather see something far more satisfying, look elsewhere.

The plot is OK, and the actors did a good job. i didn't particularly care for the lead couple, but that's a matter of personal taste (I'm really tired of emotionally constricted men and "I can't do anything right" women). I did love the airport security couple, they were played to perfection. I hope there is more of Kim Kyung-Nam and Lee Soo-Kyung in the future. Ro Woon also created an delightful "guy who won't get the girl" character. (If you think that's a spoiler, you haven't watched enough K-drama!) So no complaints about the cast. The writing was engaging, and the plot was promising and almost certainly planned to have a better ending.

I didn't notice the music especially, which means it was at least not annoying. But overall, I think the best character was the airport cleaning robot, at least he got some decent closure at the end - even if it was pretty tacky.

My apologies to the cast, the writer and the director, who got really screwed by whomever decided to chop this off.

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I've said before that I would cheerfully watch Lee Min Ki butter toast for an hour, but it was hard to stick with this. He's still (IMHO) the sexiest actor on the planet, but it really wasn't enough to carry this. His co-star, Seo Hyun Jin, was equally excellent. But the story was absurd, dragged on far too long, and was filled with poor information about Prosopagnosia. I know two people with it, and they don't go get operations to get fixed!

The acting overall was excellent, The music was good, especially the song by K. Will, whose voice has the capacity to make you want to weep no matter what he's singing about. But it was spoiled by over-use, and by the end I was sorry I had downloaded the song. Maybe I can listen to it in a couple of years.

Some people seem to really like the show, others, like me, found more to dislike. IF it weren't for Lee Min Ki, I wouldn't have lasted more than a few episodes. YMMV.

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This took me by surprise. I didn't think it would hold my interest, partly because. although So Ji Sub is an excellent actor, he has never been a favorite of mine. But the combination of outstanding acting, excellent writing and spot-on direction turned this into an engaging story with characters it was easy to like and care about. There were ample laughs without it becoming a farce, and by the end of it I was eagerly anticipating each episode. It's a great balance of romance, espionage, humor and drama, And I can't say enough good things about the cast. Watch it of you want something that will not depress you and you will find yourself truly entertained.

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Between shows, I forget what an awesome actor Yoon Shi Yoon is. We've had a couple of twin dramas where the twins are pretty indistinguishable except for glasses or some other physical clue, but Yoon Shi Yoon creates two totally different people with facial expressions - i was halfway through this before I noticed that the clue was which side the hair was parted on, because it was so easy to tell which character based on body language. Overall, the cast was outstanding. Special props to Kim Hye Ok, who portrays a mother whose exceptionally bad parenting almost destroyed one son, and her realization of what she had done - it's a totally believable character.

This is much better than the typical courtroom drama - there's plenty of action outside of court, and the court sequences are crisp and to the point - it doesn't drag, there are multiple mini-plots, mostly romance, but also a bit of good versus evil in the form of spoiled rich kids. It's a well-textured drama.

The main romance is sweet and all the plot lines wind up nicely. The story is interesting and kept me engaged. The music has highs and lows - some bits are completely overblown (really, we know something important just happened - you don't need to blast up with a full symphony, heavy on the strings, to make the point). I don't think I'll want the OST.

For me, the main draw was the quality of the acting. Sung Dong Il is always a treat to watch, and all the guest appearances were wonderful. If character development is important to you in a drama, this is worth your time.

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I love food-related dramas, so I was really eager to see this one. Initially, it reminded me of Happy Home. Alas. it fell behind quickly. Happy Home developed wonderful characters but mainly the complex and well planned plot line carried them through 51 engaging episodes, and I was sorry to see it end. Although Wok of Love stated strong and had excellent actors bringing interesting characters, the writing was scattered and indifferent, Plot lines came and left - at one point, I wondered if they had forgotten that Jang Hyuk was even in the drama. To say that he was under-used is an understatement - they took one of the best actors in K-drama and treated him like an afterthought. He's the only reason I stayed with it to the end. Overall, this was a waste of talent and a waste of my time after the first few episodes - they even forgot to cook very much.

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