Kate

So when are we getting a spin-off focusing on Xiao Sheng and Lan Jiang?

Expectations can ruin this drama. They definitely made me enjoy it less than I could have. With the angsty set up, I did expect the show to be a bit more dark, the stakes to be higher and the leads to be in constant danger. What I’ve got was a light version of that.

The tone of the show was probably what I found the most disappointing. The number of times the plot hit the point when they could have easily leaned into a more serious and angsty story, yet more often than not it was used for comedic undertones. Why?

What’s more, I honestly did not care that much about the “big picture”. Separate cases were interesting, well written and engaging, but the overall plot and the mystery I could not care less about. They kept the bad guy in the dark for too long so when he was finally revealed I was like “okay” and then shortly after that the drama ended. Last episode was basically an underwhelming podcast - all talking, no action.

The separate investigations were interesting, told in an easy to follow, but engaging manner. With every story we’ve got some info about the overall plot too. They were setting it up close to perfection. Loved how they were morally not clear - the victims being perpetrators, the abusers becoming victims. They left a lot of room for reflection and many uneasy feelings. Sadly it’s like having great materials, but the final design needs improvement. Separate stories were great, the final main plot was mediocre.

Then we have the romance, which was fine, but not really enticing. Surprisingly more in the background than I expected. I don’t mind, since it was the weakest part of the whole drama. If it was in the front and center, I’d probably drop the show mid way through. I think the moment that Pan Yue started to develop feelings for Cai Wei with her new face is unclear and questionable. They did hint at him being confused about his feelings and starting to develop them before he found out the truth and it honestly bothered me. He was devoted to one girl from his childhood, but now shortly after what he thought was her death, he starts to warm up to a girl whom he remembered to be an awful human being and had zero interest in? Even with her reminding him of his lover, it still did not make much sense for me.

Casting wise… you do not put the stronger actress to first portrayal the character that will be replaced by the actual leading actress. It took me around 15 episodes to truly warm up to Ju Jing Yi. I felt like there was no communication between her and Zheng He Hui Zi about who the female lead is and how she should be played. Cai Wei from the first two episodes is not the Cai Wei we see in the rest of the show.

I don’t really have much to say about Liu Xue Yi. He looked extremely fine throughout the drama, but Pan Yue was such a mid character with not many ups and downs I was getting bored. On the other hand Li Ge Yang completely stole my heart as Zhuo Lan Jiang. The way I wished him and Wu Jia Yi were the leads, the way I found their story to be more engaging and interesting. They were criminally underused.

Visually speaking, I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve seen a few dramas that tried to make every shot visually stimulating, and it does get exhausting. Here they kept it well balanced - highlighting specific moments with more grand visuals, while keeping the rest pleasant to the eye, but not overwhelming.

Overall, it was a fine show. The first half was for sure better than the second. The more they focused on the main mystery, the more boring it became.

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“Just let your instinct guide you. That way you won’t get lost.

The moment you throw yourself into the unknown, you’re not adrift anymore. You become a drifter. ”

Imagine you are having a truly awful day, nothing works out, you feel like crying and giving up... and then you hear a really dark joke that is like a final blow to your misery, but somehow it feels liberating - this is how this drama made me feel.

I didn’t really like much about it, but it was a strangely appreciated experience. The characters were well written, but also awful for the most part. We are left with them taking the first steps to self-improvement and it’s unsatisfying , but hopeful at the same time. And yes, that includes Eo Heung, who also had a lot of issues he had to figure out.

The romance was a mess, the characters were a mess, the plot was a mess and it perfectly captures the essence of the drama and it makes sense. Why? Because more often than not life makes no sense and we are just powering through complicated emotions pretending like we know what we are doing, making awful choices and trying to handle the consequences.

That said, I for sure liked the second half of the show more. I liked how the characters started to create one cohesive picture instead of everyone doing their own thing. Wish we’ve got more scenes between Hae Jo and Eo Heung - these were for sure some of my favorites and probably some of the more impactful ones. I guess I would love to see Eo Heung catch up to them faster - less chasing, more bonding.

A lot of plotlines were left on a truly uncomfortable end for me. Especially in terms of the leads’ parents. It did feel like a deliberate choice though, not a “we ran out of screen time” type of a deal. These endings were unsatisfying for a drama, but understandable for real life. I guess if someone watches dramas just for the pure escapism, this show would slap them in the face with reality.

For the performances - Woo Do Hwan and Oh Jung Se for sure shined the most. Both performances were rather raw when needed, but witty and uplifting when the scenes required. I am honestly amazed how Oh Jung Se could portray the character that by all means would be seen as a country pumpkin, clueless and naive idiot, but with this performance he had so much depth, warmth and drive to him.

Funny how I was the most excited about Lee You Mi as Jo Jae Mi, but with every episode I started to lose more and more interest in her. I feel like all the characters had clear motivations except for her. Till the end Jae Mi was shown as a character put in the context of other characters, and not once as an actual individual.

I don’t think I have that much to say about the production quality - it’s your typical Netflix production that looks pretty, but nothing really stands out that much.

Overall, I feel like it is mostly a show about overcoming your fears, whatever they might be. I might need to discuss it a bit with friends to form more in depth opinions about the themes, but I have to admit, it’s a drama that invites reflection.

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Would I be able to see the person behind the crime?

It took me 3 days to finish this movie, it simply made me uncomfortable - not because of the content presented, but rather my thoughts, ideas and values. It made me think about a lot of issues and reexamine some of my opinions.

Many of us like to pretend the rehabilitation of the criminals is the goal, that the justice system should strive to make sure they can reenter society and live normal lives. At the same time, we don’t really treat said people in the way that would support what we think. The punishment for their crimes does not really end with their release from prison - they only face obstacles after obstacles even after regaining even partial freedom. How can they start living like humans, when they are not treated as such?

And that’s what the movie focuses on. What is more important - punishment or rehabilitation? How long should criminals pay for their crimes? Agawa Kayo tries to see the best in people, she believes people deserve 2nd chances and that they need support to live an honest life. And that’s what she strives to do working as a probation officer - be that one person support system. We observe her interaction with different parolees, how these interactions change both her and the people around her.

Arimura Kasumi and Morita Go delivered amazing performances that could break one's heart. The amount of pain, fear, but also hope - all so natural and clearly visible through their acting.

Overall, it’s not an easy watch if you watch it while reflecting on your ideas and values.

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When lack of communication skills is your whole personality.

This is not a sweet rom-com. This is a frustrating journey that will test your patient, and I have no idea why I enjoyed it.

It’s a story of two people who love jumping to conclusions and never verbalizing their feelings and issues. Female lead was slightly less frustrating than male lead - she was at least aware of her own feelings, which cannot be said about the other half of this infuriating couple.

All these miscommunications were blast to watch though. Why? Thanks to all the supporting characters, who had some of the best and most reasonable reactions to all the childish shenanigans going on. I appreciate how it was established that it’s not the writing that is stupid, it’s the main duo only, and it’s done on purpose. I can go on board with it.

Female lead had little self-esteem, male lead had no self-awareness, I had no business using my brain watching it. Love triangle of poor character traits - best relationship between the drama and the viewer.

The performances were great. Seino Nana somehow made Akiha a character worth rooting for and Sakaguchi Kentaro was able to calm my distress caused by Shu’s character with his cuteness. I also love Kursahina Kana and her portrayal of Miharu - probably one of my favorite characters in the whole show.

Production wise - this is your typical rom-com. Nothing bad, nothing good. Standard quality, nothing to complain about. Bless them for having the cat though, he was amazing.

Overall, this was entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

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Feel-good sports slice of life that made me feel old.

What did this show have? Great characters, beautiful bonds and friendships, motivational messages, well delivered comedy, great acting, beautiful visuals. So why did so much of it feel like fillers? If I skipped the majority of the villagers' stories, it would be an easy 10.

The heart of the story are the Racket Boys and their friendship. It’s undeniable that they were the best part of the drama. Personally, I just loved the reckless Hae Kang and mentally adopted him as my son. His personality was so vibrant and even if at times annoying, he was still extremely adorable and endearing. That said, even though I had my favorite, each and every boy was lovable and brought their own unique personality to the table to give me this fun and enjoyable ride.

Some of the dynamics I liked the most were Hae Kang and In Sol, Woo Chan and Yong Tae and Yoon Dam and Han Sol. What’s more, I appreciate how the drama showed how you can be both rivals in sports and loyal friends outside of it. Many times we have seen different teams enjoying their times together between the competitions - I love his healthy portrayal of rivalry.

Sadly, I was truly not that invested in most of the adults’ stories. I wouldn’t say I disliked them, I was just completely not interested. I think the issue was the initial presentation of the characters - most if not all were introduced in rather negative light so it was hard to connect to their stories as the drama progressed. This small “plot twist” where the characters are not what they seem like at first is a great touch, but not when it is applied to all the characters - then it becomes exhausting.

The only side story outside of the teens that I cared about was the new married couple in town and Phil Ja and Song Hee’s development of friendship.

About the acting, I have nothing, but compliments to say. The young cast did a phenomenal job. I’m extremely impressed with Kim Kang Hoon - such a young boy, but was able to deliver a lot of depth and raw emotions in his performance. I’m a little bit on the fence about Choi Hyun Wook though. Did he do a great job here? Yes. But it’s the 3rd extremely similar role I have seen him in, so I hope he is not an actor of one role.

I’m also impressed with their badminton skills. Do I know anything about the sport? No. I am sure though, that even an inexperienced person can tell when someone really sucks at a sport they are supposed to be good at. I’m certain there was a lot of work put into the training before the filming which contributed to the believable matches, but I also have to compliment the filming and editing.

It’s always hard to talk about production value in kdramas. Why? Because most big studio productions have more or less the same high quality, and most kdrama do not stand out either in positive or negative ways. The standard quality is just that high. It’s the same case with Racker Boys - great scenery, great directing, great editing, great set designs. Everything is great, just like the majority of SBS shows.

Overall, amazing watch, but would have been perfect if it was 4 episodes shorter and only focusing on the kids.

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It's 4 episodes if you skip all the walking.

This show left me in a state of complete confusion. What happened? How did it happen? Who approved it? At some point I was 5 episodes in and I could not comprehend how there are 3 episodes left. How dumb will they make the characters to fill that screen time?

I’m not kidding when I say nothing made sense. The investigation was laughable - the worst I have ever seen in any drama. The killer was just mediocre and was able to kill for so long only because everyone else was so imcompetant The male lead… I don’t even want to talk about him. Each and every choice he made was making me question my sanity. Not to mention Bae Tae Jin who was there to add “spice” to the typical story, but failed to do so.

I am honestly impressed by how bad this show was. It can fool you during the first 2 episodes - they are generic, but not tragic. How fast it changes though. The longer you watch, the dumber it gets. Protect your brain, don’t watch it. And if you like to suffer like me, at least don’t binge watch it. Your brain could fry.

The characters don’t even share one brain cell. There are no brain cells being used by anyone in this show. Zero brain cells. Negative brain cells energy. Basically a black hole for brain cells.

Sure, the acting was goodish, the production itself was not bad. But no amount of technical aspects being done well can save this project.

Overall, why does it exist?

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One could mistake it for a censored romance.

I want to start by saying this review is written by an extremely casual viewer of the Tomb series. One that does not care for the release nor chronological order and never even attempted to try to grasp and follow the overall story. I watch it for a fun, easy to binge watch adventure, nothing more, nothing less.

What I liked about the drama? The characters and the dynamics between them. While this Wuxie did not seem enough “Wuxie” to me (compared to other Tomb shows I have seen), he did grow on me and his interactions with other characters were some of my favorites.

Zhang Qi Ling, or as I call him Emo Boi, was the visual cherry on top. Let’s get real - the character has not much to offer in terms of depth. Even if his story is interesting and complex, because the character himself does not really show much reaction to it, or to almost anything around him, what we are left with his looks, fun fighting scene and the (bro)mance with Wuxie. I am not complaining though - because of his extreme personality, his interactions with character are always fun to watch.

Hei Yan Jing and Xie Yu Chen were the other heavy bromance duo - at times their bromance seemed more like a romance even when compared to Wuxie and the Emo Boi. This dynamic was one of the most enjoyable to follow. They were both confident and skilled, which made them true aces of the drama. Not to mention the perfect compatibility of one wanting money and the other having enough to spend.

I do believe they did Ah Ning and Xiu Xiu dirty, and they could have been a more vital and important part of the plot and the story. Technically we know they are capable, but somehow they were always put on the sidelines…

On the good aspects - quite an improvement in terms of CGI. Not gonna lie, I actually like the bad special effects in earlier Tomb shows, but getting a bit more visually pleasing ones this time is a nice change. Especially appreciate the mixing of practical and special effects - this is the best way to get good results.

I can’t really talk about the plot in terms of good or bad, because I honestly did not pay enough attention. Wu Xie was looking for the uncle and following the clues, while at the same time trying to discover the past of his (boy)friend Zhang Qi Ling. Others getting involved, because they are either loyal, want money, get dragged into it or are searching for immortality. Basically the same story all Tomb dramas have. It is one long journey, so it makes sense.

That said, I know close to nothing about all the details about each Tomb and the importance of specific journeys. Did it bother me? No. I simply gave up trying to follow the story for various reasons (change of the cast makes it hard to remember the characters, the shows drop not in chronological order, some shows overlap timeline and it makes it hard to understand what happened when) and just enjoy each of these dramas as a stand alone ride.

The acting was good. Zeng Shun Xi did great, especially with more emotional scenes. The chemistry between the whole cast was top notch. I did at times feel like Xiao Yu Liang was a few times quite close to losing it and at least smiling, during the more funny scenes - the disadvantages of playing an extremely stoic and detached character.

Directing was one of the most spoiled ones I have seen in Tomb shows so far. I enjoyed the way they presented the lore with the drawing like animation and I’m sure I would appreciate it even more if I actually cared about it.

Overall, it was a fun ride. Ultimate Note can be easily watched as a stand alone show, and I’m sure it holds even more entertainment value if someone grasps the Grave Robbers universe as a whole, at least on some basic levels.

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Fairytale quality with disappointing reveal.

I have to say, I enjoyed the whole movie quite a bit, up until the end. Love the mysterious aura the movie had, the complex and hard to grasp relationships and interactions between the ladies, the obvious ominous undertones. And yet, the ending was disappointing.

What started as an atmospheric drama with horror elements that could potentially evolve into a fantasy dread, ended up underwhelmingly cheap. It’s like eating in a fancy restaurant, but for dessert they give you plain bread.

Saying it gives a censored romance vibe would be correct. Whatever was going on between Joo Ran and Yeon Deok definitely was more than just friendship - be it romantic feelings or just codependency.

The moment they started to explain all the “behind the scenes” and the cause of all the unexplained events, the movie started to get worse. When the villain has to almost spell their motivation with the dialogue, it means you did a poor job with showing the viewers what they want in a natural and gradual way.

I still enjoyed it though. The performances were truly strong. Not the last time Park Bo Young played a timid character - she gets the roles for a reason, she aced them.

Overall - beautiful visuals, decent scares, though number could be higher, great performance and well built characters. Sadly - weak ending.

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Was it a nice romance show with bits of slice of life? Yes. It had some awesome characters, even pacing, good messages and fun moments - it was just not tight enough.

I have no idea why writers still like to pretend shows like that can be 40 episodes long and it makes sense - especially if the episodic elements of the plot ain’t that good to carry the show in-between the main plot moving forward.

I greatly liked the relationship between Mika and Ke Lei - before and after they got together. It’s rare to see a couple in a drama actually act like a couple, being silly, joking around, all the great and fun domestic business. The show did lose some spark after they officially started dating, but that’s because the writers kept keeping them apart. All the scenes they actually shared were great.

That said, do I think Mika and Ke Lei are good as individual characters? Not really. Mika is a saint - the good, moral, hard working, forgiving, flawless. I truly cannot think of one bad trait she had that would allow for some nice character development. She was truly boringly perfect.

Ke Lei was a bit better in that aspect. Still ridiculously good, but at least he showed lack of assertiveness when dealing with people he knew… a few times.

On the other hand, I had exactly the opposite issue with the second and third couple - they did not work that well together, but they were more interesting individually. Qing Xia was fun and a little bit spoiled, Wen Bo was an honest and reliable guy, also clueless af. Ke Yao and Dr. Shao felt the most realistic out of all the characters, but their interactions together were also the most boring.

Truth to be told 2 duos I like the best to watch were Ke Lei and Ke Yao, and Mika and Dr. Shao. Positive family relations and uplifting mentor-mentee pairs are some of my favorite aspects of the shows.

There were also some annoying side characters that deserve no redemption, and yet it was given.

For the plot, except for the romances blooming left and right and some nice slice of life elements, the show does not really offer that much. Majority of the work related plots and scenes were either boring, or poorly developed - sadly they took quite a bit of the screen time.

Everyone delivered in terms of acting. I did question some crying scenes from Ma Si Chun, but it was not bad enough to complain about. Wang Yang was my favorite - I am biased though, I love this man so much. He is just natural and he makes every role he plays a worthy performance.

Production value was nice - surprisingly many aesthetically pleasing shows. Editing was also nice. Liked the set design, even if at times it felt ridiculous how these people can afford the places they are staying at. For the soundtrack, I honestly do not remember one song from the show.

Overall, it’s a decent show. Nothing amazing, but serves as a good chill after work watch.

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Your enjoyment will strongly depend on how much you will buy into the atmosphere the movie tries to create. Sadly, I did not buy it.

The 8th Night has this simplistic, sharp, cold, grainy texture to it, which you’ll either like or dislike. At times it might even feel borderline cartoonish or gimmicky. The directing and editing style does not fit my preferences, hence I did not connect well with what was happening on screen. It seems to cater to a specific type of audience, and for those who like this type of styling, it will for sure be an interesting and entertaining ride.

The opening narration serves as an exposition, but crosses the line of telling us the general plot of what’s to happen. Later, as we follow the main characters, the story gets expanded and the details are added.

Surprisingly, I chuckled a few times as I was watching. Some scenes were clearly intended to be funny, some were unintentionally hilarious. I might be desensitized to horror, which leads me to have rather unexpected reactions to scary or disturbing scenes, so keep that in mind.

Even though it was a miss for me, I have to appreciate the fact they stuck to the vision and ideas they had, without trying to please everyone.

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The cast did well, the characters were entertaining, villains not that bad, production value was obviously high... so why didn't it work out? Not enough brain power was used in writing the plot.

Fantasy set in modern times should explore the unexplained, but never go against what we actually know and contradict the reality. When they dropped the "I got resurrected in a new body, but my DNA stayed the same" I was extremely close to dropping it again. Honestly, I did not think it could go any more illogical.

Sadly, the lack of logic was a prominent part of the plot. Characters, depending on the given situation, turned either smart or dumb. The show used exactly the same plot lines over and over again. How many times can I watch Hee Jin's mom being kidnapped? Or Se Yun being in the same type of danger?

The ridiculousness of the script made it entertaining though. There is one secret child, and then there is another... and third. Cross-dressing Cha Min DEAD BODY and putting a wig on it, so the killer can bring him back to life... And the weird plot twist in the end with god (?) showing up, just to give us that sweet forced happy ending.

I'm sorry, but when Cha Min started disappearing Thanos style I laughed like crazy. How nice of the Abyss to start from the bottom to the top, so he had these few seconds to say goodbye. The rules of Abyss make no sense; that's the conclusion.

Also, at some point I wanted to (┛ಠ_ಠ)┛彡┻━┻ after hearing all the "Se Yun is not as pretty now, she looks average" jokes and comments. It was laughable with how beautiful Park Bo Young is.

So, did I like anything? Yes. I'd say the cast did an amazing job portraying the characters and the chemistry between the leads was truly great. The thing that caught my attention was how natural the skinship was.

Overall, I kind of enjoyed the experience of watching, simply because my expectations were as low as possible. My forehead hurts from facepalming.

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Negative correlation between Prince Jing’s looks and the number of his working brain cells.

It took me 3 attempts and “harassment” from a friend for me to finish it. I said it once, I will say it again - this drama could be a podcast. I don’t quite vibe with the tell not show style of directing I’ve got here. I did not really watch the majority of the events unfold, I watched characters talk to each other about said events. While I did get more invested closer to the end, it was not because of the clever shenanigans, but because of the entertaining clownery.

While the journey of me watching it did not become enemies to lovers for me and NIF, enemies to partners in crime, calling out everyone for being dumb, for me and Su might have been a more fitting conclusion. I feel like I went through a whole ass character development and existential crises while watching this drama, since complaining about it was part of my mdl personality for the past 5 years.

Do I think it's a masterpiece? Hell fucking no. I still think it's a podcast dressed as a drama. It should have been around 10 episodes shorter. They should have shown more, talked less. I want to see shit happen, not people describe it to each other as they sit in their fancy homes sipping tea spiked with poison. I WANT TO SEE THE TEA HAPPEN!

Is Chang Su a master strategist whose IQ is higher than the combined IQ of all of humanity? Maybe in that universe, but it's not hard to be a genius when everyone around you has a negative number of brain cells in their head. And yet, strangely I think I’ll miss Chang Su, even though I found his well organized plan to be more of a quick reaction to whatever issues other people created and the conclusion to his character being shockingly ridiculous in presentation. This man mastered the art of judging other people’s stupidity and I aspire to get to that level at some point in my life.

The whole court power struggle and the “who’s gonna be the crown prince and future emperor” question was for me dumb for a simple reason - the country would be doomed whoever wins. Prince Yu in his fancy attire was too egocentric and prone to conspiracy thinking while also being way too naive to rule, and Jing Yan and Jing Xuan were, to put it simply, dumb and dumber.

Jing might have been hot, but also had a surprising level of brainlessness at times. He was not connecting any dots whatsoever. Clueless. I was waiting for him to march with clown makeup at some point. You want to give him the country to rule when he cannot even control his own emotions? More often than not he needed to chill, relax, drink some tea and touch some grass.

Personally, I believe Jing's mom should have become the ruler and no one was even close to being as qualified as she was. Patient, smart, observant, good at manipulating people around her for her goals, taking good care of her people, and loyal. None of the men got anything on her.

The biggest issue I had was the fact I just did not care about any of the characters, I didn't care about who would sit on the throne, who would survive, if they would get the revenge. I just do not care. The tiny underlying love line between Chang Su and Ni Huang I should care about because why? They went full on melodrama on their 3rd or 4th meeting, while I still knew nothing about their past - so why should I get emotionally invested? Add to that some unexpected moments like a cameo from Bigfoot or Fein Liu fighting against gravity and winning, and you truly have a whole clownery making the watch entertaining, but lacking emotional stakes.

All that said, I truly did enjoy watching the last 10-15 episodes. Things finally started happening, all the characters were fully established, I understood their motivations and I could enjoy them proceeding with whatever plans they had in mind. The tea was spilling and it was scorching hot. I accepted the flaws of all the characters, tuned my brain to the level of brain energy the drama presents and just went on the final ride with a smile on my face.

Overall, I am completely incapable of objectively judging this drama. Truth to be told, the 5 years journey I had with it makes me incapable of judging it even subjectively - I don’t REALLY know what I think about it and how I feel about it. I don’t think I’ll ever know. My opinion is painfully blurred by the fun interactions I had with users about me struggling so much. Watching these 54 episodes became literally a memorable long term project/event in my life, and for that I know I am grateful.

Some of my favorite quotes:

“I said you are simple. Do you really not use your brain?” - said by the Emperor. Reach of him to say that when he himself had maybe half of a brain cell working.

“You have loyalty and honor, but why do you not have a brain?” facts Su said to Jing and I’m questioning why he wants him as the future emperor.

“The reason you lost to me is because you are stupid”

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Why do we still have child-like leads?

Three completely different dudes randomly at the same time decided to pursue a vanilla child-like lead, after simping from him without him knowing for months/years. What even?

Yoo Do Ha is honestly poorly written. There is a massive difference between being innocent/shy and being child-like. I have no idea why some writers are obsessed with making leads (be it male leads in BLs or female leads in romance dramas) act so much like a clueless toddlers with empty big eyes stare and not 0.000000001% of assertiveness in behavior. It just makes the drama unrealistic.

I am sure there are men who like this type of a partner - there is a type for everyone. But I also refuse to believe there are so many people into this type of behavior to create a love square out of it.

Not that the suitors were any better. All 3 were frustrating for just "keeping their crush a secret" and never doing shit to get Do Ha. Why the stalker behavior?

Not that the drama was tragically bad, but it was also not really good. The first half was better, but only because we did not yet know how shallow all the characters and the plot was - I was still excited to find out more. There was no “more”.

Acting wise we had some good, decent and bad examples. Cha Se Jin easily delivered the best performance. Both Cha Yu Hyun and Lee Do Han were decent in the roles, but Jung Su Bin - my guy for sure has better presence and financial expressions on stage. Maybe the issue was the writing of Do Ha, but the whole characters felt extremely… empty.

Overall, kind of waste of time, kind of decent for a background watch. I wanted to give it 6.5, but the last two episodes had too many weird, random and dumb moments for me.

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How to fail your main characters…

By making them the most boring part of the show. Quite honestly I found every aspect of the show more interesting than the leads, their individual stories and their romance.

As always, the biggest issue is the fact nothing was truly well established for them. We barely know who they are before their journey starts, they fall in love with each other out of the blue with no real reasoning either. They don’t have any real flaws they need to overcome, there is nothing to improve, nothing to change. They were painfully stagnant.

On the other hand, there were quite a lot of supporting characters with more interesting personalities and plots. Yu Shi San with his playboy, but good nature persona mixing goofy and surprisingly mature takes in an excellent manner. Yuan Lu, the loyal boy whom you just love and care for - the only one who had well established real stakes that made you worried. Li Tong Guang with his unhinged psycho motivations, who had to learn how to control his feelings and desire and mature for the role he was supposed to take. Even the Empress Wu and Prince Danyang who had barely any scenes were more interesting than the lead couple.

And then we have the true queen and main characters of the story - Princess Yang Ying. This is how you are supposed to write your characters! Having a lot of strengths and good points, but also flaws that need to be worked on. A character that develops with the plot, whose motivation changes as they gather more information. One that slowly establishes their goals and needs to fight many different setbacks and accept sacrifices to reach them.

Putting aside poorly written leads, the second crime this drama committed was not doing a good job presenting the danger and the stakes. Even when shit started to hit the fan by the end of the show, I felt nothing. Everyone miraculously survived too many times, now I actually just wanted everyone to die. You cannot make the drama feel like there are no real threats and then expect me to care when something actually goes wrong. They filled the show with fluffy flirty dates of Ru Yi and Ning Yuan Zhou instead of putting some effort into adding more details to the story and the characters.

The acting was good. I don’t think Liu Yu Ning is the strongest actor out there and putting that with mediocre character, it’s a fail for me. Liu Shi Shi is amazing and extremely beautiful, acing the role for both the badass and the vulnerable scenes. At the end of the day though, He Lan Dou did steal the show in all aspects. The character was cute, funny, moving, badass, desperate, motivated, devastated, brave, scared, angry, sad, happy - you name it and she gave it.

The production quality was fine. I did enjoy a lot of fighting scenes, I enjoyed less at times excessive slow motion. The editing in the first few episodes was trash though - I felt borderline motion sickness, but it did get better as the drama progressed. I don’t remember one song - nothing memorable I guess.

Overall, at least 50% of the drama was a whole bunch of nothing that felt like filler scenes. I wish they spent more screen time on the Wu court plot, because the final shenanigans just felt flat. Less cute bickering and flirting, more character development. They had 40 episodes and they did not use them wisely.

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Simplicity with a twist that will keep you engaged.

Technically speaking it’s a really simple story with a simplistic presentation of complex issues, and yet it works so well and it does not feel boring thanks to the refreshing and fun characters.

What you think you’ll get is a shy nerd who does not care for romance and a confident playboy who will try to win him over. What you get is a confident and at times sassy nerd and socially awkward “playboy” psycho who cannot say no. These two gave me some of the most enjoyable and unexpected chemistry.

Personally I loved Kim Jin Woo from the start, but Jung Ki Sub is a sneaky one, slowly making me fall for the character more and more. There was something irresistible about this character, it does not matter how annoying he might have felt, you kind of craved more of his screen time.

While I understand the appeal of the supporting couple (who does not like some angst in their lives?), I was not quite sold on their journey. I really like Balgeum, I did not care much about In Ho. That said, even if I was not that into them, the couple did deliver one of my favorite scenes in the whole show.

Plot wise - simple is the best. Were the issues at times presented in a comically simple way? Yes. The message was clear though, the story was not confusing and all the aspects got a closure. With short dramas like that, I could not ask for more. I appreciate the introduction of the topics like unintentional neglect, trying to please people and losing yourself in the process, being scared of your own feelings/not understanding your own feelings. The shame one can feel about their economic situation and how it can affect all aspects of a person's life.

The acting… I’m definitely a can of both Kim Sung Hyun and Nam Shi An now. Kim Sung Hyun did great with presenting both being rather cheeky and confident, and completely vulnerable with his feelings. Nam Shi An just… what an emotional journey we witnessed with the character he was presenting and how he slowly put away the positive mask and started to show more and more real emotions - that progression was perfect.

What’s more? The ost is just amazing. Silent goes straight to my playlist and I’m gonna play it on repeat for quite some time. Do It Over? Fun song perfect to start your day on a good note. I Will delivers great vocals and Isolation the best melancholic vibe.

Overall, I kind of want to rewatch it right away. It was sweet, fun and really entertaining. The characters were great and I would not mind either second season or a longer version (with the same cast, obviously).

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