poisonmochi
This review may contain spoilers
It didn’t need 20 episodes
This drama really didn’t need to be a 20 episodes one. Started strong with potential but became flat at the end.
It is supposed to be more romance-centric yet there isn't enough romance after the first half of the drama. The focus shifted to some weak power struggles and became unnecessarily draggy.
The last 6 episodes especially, the storyline really gets dragged out. Suddenly there’s an addition of Ha Kyung and her one sided love towards the king (whom she doesn’t know is a lady). The whole ha kyung + king story is really a bad filler, with no value adding to the whole storyline.
Towards the end, the drama tries so hard to inject more complications and depths by bringing in lord Wonsan (who wants the throne), forcefully putting back lord changun (who came back from afterlife briefly and died once again) and injecting more “power struggle” plot into it but imo has failed terribly. The petty little acts to expose the FL as a lady by lord wonsan and people around her just seem… lame? Instead of putting in more power struggle plays with bigger plots and schemes, they focused on the whole exposé of the FL’s gender.
The whole “evidence collection” to bring down lord sangheon also gets so dragged out and got very slow which after a while began to feel exhausting to watch.
The ending? I don’t even know where to begin. The writer could include pointless brief scenes like the dream of FL & ML getting married but they can’t even be bothered to explain why the FL survived the “poisoning” scene but her grandpa died. We can probably infer from the earlier scene that it most likely got to do with the pill she ate before drinking the tea, but isn’t it important to include a short explanation to bring the whole story to a full circle?
I also cannot grasp why they didn’t expand the backstory of ML’s dad (inspector jung seok jo) a little. Granted, the ML's dad is not the lead and this drama is to be more of romance but I mean throughout the drama, there were many parts where they hinted that there’s more to this than meets the eye regarding why the ML’s dad is so cold hearted and so compliant towards lord Sangheon? If they are not interested in expanding his character then those scenes were quite pointless. There were many scenes that hinted viewers about his past, where he mentioned about how the choice is only available to people born in nobility and not people like him. And how he showed sadness when his old friend commander yoon got killed (he even told his subordinates to stop firing those arrows)??? And the scene where he was dying, ML SAID HE HAS STH TO TELL HIS DAD THAT HE HAS NEVER GOTTEN TO, but there were go again, it stops there and the ML NEVER got to reveal what he wanted to tell his dad? What’s with all these little missing details???
The bodyguard character and his backstory also showed so much potential. Kim Ga On got close to the FL (&her father, the ex king) to assassinate them to revenge for his father (the royal preceptor whom the king and crown prince (FL’s twin brother) had loved back then) who was framed for treason and executed due to lord sangheon’s schemes. After finding out that the king and the FL’s twin brother had loved his dad, he ditched his assassination plans and helped the FL instead. The initial build up to him was interesting where there was some mystery to his identity but the final great reveal really fell so flat.
But then again we have time to go through Ha Kyung’s life as a commoner at the end… for? By this time I’m sure most viewers already forgot about her existence since she has already been granted leave from the palace after her dad has been found to have colluded with lord sangheon. But no, the writer HAS TO include her again where she mentions about why she prefer being a commoner??? This bit of airtime could have been used to help other stories develop / come to a full circle.
In all, the drama started rather strong and showed great potential with but ended up getting flat towards the end.
I did enjoy the first half of the drama though. The kid actors did well with their acting. The king’s chubby eunuch was a joy to watch too!
The goods:
- great main FL, they really casted the FL well. She’s a major girl crush! She can look so fierce and suave in male clothing and then so beautiful in her female clothes!
- good OST
- first half of the drama was well paced
- they managed to keep good characters like court lady Kim & bok Dong from dying
- consistent support provided by lord jaeun who stayed true towards FL
In all, if you Stan rowoon, and appreciate good acting and great FL, this is a drama that you can pick up but probably need to bear with some draggy parts towards the end.
It is supposed to be more romance-centric yet there isn't enough romance after the first half of the drama. The focus shifted to some weak power struggles and became unnecessarily draggy.
The last 6 episodes especially, the storyline really gets dragged out. Suddenly there’s an addition of Ha Kyung and her one sided love towards the king (whom she doesn’t know is a lady). The whole ha kyung + king story is really a bad filler, with no value adding to the whole storyline.
Towards the end, the drama tries so hard to inject more complications and depths by bringing in lord Wonsan (who wants the throne), forcefully putting back lord changun (who came back from afterlife briefly and died once again) and injecting more “power struggle” plot into it but imo has failed terribly. The petty little acts to expose the FL as a lady by lord wonsan and people around her just seem… lame? Instead of putting in more power struggle plays with bigger plots and schemes, they focused on the whole exposé of the FL’s gender.
The whole “evidence collection” to bring down lord sangheon also gets so dragged out and got very slow which after a while began to feel exhausting to watch.
The ending? I don’t even know where to begin. The writer could include pointless brief scenes like the dream of FL & ML getting married but they can’t even be bothered to explain why the FL survived the “poisoning” scene but her grandpa died. We can probably infer from the earlier scene that it most likely got to do with the pill she ate before drinking the tea, but isn’t it important to include a short explanation to bring the whole story to a full circle?
I also cannot grasp why they didn’t expand the backstory of ML’s dad (inspector jung seok jo) a little. Granted, the ML's dad is not the lead and this drama is to be more of romance but I mean throughout the drama, there were many parts where they hinted that there’s more to this than meets the eye regarding why the ML’s dad is so cold hearted and so compliant towards lord Sangheon? If they are not interested in expanding his character then those scenes were quite pointless. There were many scenes that hinted viewers about his past, where he mentioned about how the choice is only available to people born in nobility and not people like him. And how he showed sadness when his old friend commander yoon got killed (he even told his subordinates to stop firing those arrows)??? And the scene where he was dying, ML SAID HE HAS STH TO TELL HIS DAD THAT HE HAS NEVER GOTTEN TO, but there were go again, it stops there and the ML NEVER got to reveal what he wanted to tell his dad? What’s with all these little missing details???
The bodyguard character and his backstory also showed so much potential. Kim Ga On got close to the FL (&her father, the ex king) to assassinate them to revenge for his father (the royal preceptor whom the king and crown prince (FL’s twin brother) had loved back then) who was framed for treason and executed due to lord sangheon’s schemes. After finding out that the king and the FL’s twin brother had loved his dad, he ditched his assassination plans and helped the FL instead. The initial build up to him was interesting where there was some mystery to his identity but the final great reveal really fell so flat.
But then again we have time to go through Ha Kyung’s life as a commoner at the end… for? By this time I’m sure most viewers already forgot about her existence since she has already been granted leave from the palace after her dad has been found to have colluded with lord sangheon. But no, the writer HAS TO include her again where she mentions about why she prefer being a commoner??? This bit of airtime could have been used to help other stories develop / come to a full circle.
In all, the drama started rather strong and showed great potential with but ended up getting flat towards the end.
I did enjoy the first half of the drama though. The kid actors did well with their acting. The king’s chubby eunuch was a joy to watch too!
The goods:
- great main FL, they really casted the FL well. She’s a major girl crush! She can look so fierce and suave in male clothing and then so beautiful in her female clothes!
- good OST
- first half of the drama was well paced
- they managed to keep good characters like court lady Kim & bok Dong from dying
- consistent support provided by lord jaeun who stayed true towards FL
In all, if you Stan rowoon, and appreciate good acting and great FL, this is a drama that you can pick up but probably need to bear with some draggy parts towards the end.
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