A mockery and travesty of justice! With possibly the most whitewashed ending I have ever seen.

This could have been an excellent drama had it stayed true to its original spirit, premise and accomplished it's goal of seeking justice and closure. I think there was a running theme in the drama on how a criminal act could never really tell the entire story. We got that on the numerous crimes that were commited in this drama and investigated by Lan Jue and his band. And I agree, the criminals in this show through the investigations of our leads were caught, confessed their crimes, and explained their motives. Everything was brought to light. Yet what happened in the end?

For a drama that begun on the premise of searching for truth and justice. In the end we got a giant cover up in the guise and in the fake mask of doing the greater good and choosing the lesser evil. What a bunch of intellectual nonsense!

For once I wanted the meddlesome and scrupulous Zhang Ping in the early drama to come back to at least expose this charade. Nope we didn't get that in the end. Zhang Ping joined Lan Jue in abandoning all manner of ethical considerations, honesty and objectivity. Instead of revealing the truth they covered it up. I'm sorry justice was not done in this drama. Yes the Dowager Empress and his real son who turned evil got their deserved end but the real truth of the conspiracy was never revealed. And that for me is the true injustice. Everyone was faking it in the end. Our leads got their benefits and rewards. An impostor in the throne is now free to call the shots. In the the end the truth was buried for good. There was not an ounce of honesty and sense of justice remaining in our leads in the end.

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Started out well then turned into some pointless romantic drama.

Chemistry and romance are fine and good but it shouldn't be the core of a truly good historical. Sadly this one is precisely that. A barebones romantic drama dress up as a historical. If you are expecting an engaging story from start to finish then prepare to be disappointed. This one had a good and interesting start. Sadly the writer lost any sense in writing a proper story and instead it became some lousy romantic drama with LYF playing the "I'm always right" Miss Perfect female lead to the hilt. She had great chemistry with ML. That is obvious but it's clearly not enough to warrant for this to be considered a truly good drama.

I was expecting this drama to reach heights but it never got more exciting than the first few episodes. The writer tried to write in an all encompassing and mysterious under current but even that fizzled in the end and became a complete fluke. From the first moment one would expect a great political conflict brewing in the imperial court. It look like it was headed that way, sadly it never materialized. We did get the Gao girl acting outrageously, screaming at the emperor to plead for the FL. That scene was probably inserted to quench the thirst of those yearning for political drama. I was rolling my eyes at that nonsensical and ridiculous scene. In the end all that scheming in the imperiaI court was just use as a plot device to get rid of the FL's former fiance who turned evil. I was waiting and waiting for the story to move forward and it never did. The poor attempt at court politics they managed to throw in the end was a sad excuse for not writing a complete story that was consistent with the story they started.

I was not envisioning for the story to turn out this way. Just literally meddling for most of the drama and then they suddenly remembered they had a story to finish. What was the purpose of introducing all these characters of the imperial court when the writer had no intention of fleecing out their story and roles properly. The sassy waitress, the joker guild leader and his fat sidekick got more airtime than I had expected. They had zero relevance to the overall backstory but got extra time because of the writer's laziness to build up this drama to a good end.

The writer was just obviously time wasting and extending episodes until they got to the end. Three quarters of episodes spent on pointless business drama and the FL acting mighty and standing on a pedestal towards everyone. Cross her or you'll be sorry. If the writers thought they could get away with relying on her romantic entanglement with the ML to carry this drama they are really big chancers. Sorry I am not so gullible to be satisfied with how the story went about and ended.

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Another run of the mill Korean court drama.

I never got around seeing this drama when it first came out. It turns out I didn't miss much when this was all the rage. This is another standard Korean court drama with useless and powerless CP/King versus evil court ministers. It seems Korean writers only ever know this tropey plot. Gosh, I think I'm exhausted just repeating that. I've said that complaint many time and it looks set to continue.

What is it with sageuk court dramas and this trope? My eyes have gotten white and bored to death trying to process this kind of thrash and overused plot.

I would have been fine with this if not for the fact the Crown Prince is an inept and absolutely useless ML. Fourteen episodes in and he has not manage to take down a single opponent in the court. There is this rat face minister that has evaded punishment after punishment because the writer thought it was a good idea to make the ML look like an incompetent regent who can't control and punish corrupt ministers. Can the writer at least develop and add character to the ML at this stage of the story?

The only success he has at this point is sass backing Minister Kim every time they meet and getting into catfights with the queen over the FL. The queen may be a capricious, power hungry and vain woman but I fail to see the value of spending so much time and giving importance to her confrontations with the ML. The ML is not some freaking telenovela actress to have these types of arguments with his stepmother.

In reality the ML has done nothing NADA! I can't emphasize that enough. If constantly saving the FL from the Queen's petty conspiracies is considered being a reliable and strong male lead then I'll give him a small clap. The only one who's actually been able to protect the FL from the conspiracies in the court have been the 2nd ML. He is at least decisive and level headed unlike the unreliable and inept CP. The crown prince is at episode 14 still sulking and pining for the FL who left the palace. Yet still has no concrete plan and can't do anything useful. He can't even prevent ministers who are mocking and conspiring openly against him and the FL.

The FL is not any better. From a confident, smart and outgoing start as a love counselor, she became a lovelorn and meek eunuch who's only existence is giving lovey dovey glares and spending sweet scenes with the ML. I don't find it believable to see two level headed and practical people like the second leads to ever be so attached with these two hopelessly in love Rome and Juliet pair.

Seeing this for the first time and six years after it became a hit. I can't help but compare it to Scarlet Heart that came out at the same time. A well written, engaging, unique and original story. Not really original but a remake of a brilliant Chinese drama. Scarlet Heart might not be the first of its kind but it was still a fresh story. An entirely different concept unlike this garbage mashup of K-drama sageuk tropes.

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A good drama with superb acting and characters except for the ML.

My review is more of my rant on the ML who ruins this great drama. I dropped this the first time because I couldn't stand the ML's character. It took me a while to restart it but I persevered this time to finish this one. First of all the ML isn't smart. That would be the last thing I would use to describe him. He had the fortune of being born with knowledge unfamiliar and unknown to the other characters in this drama so I would describe him more as lucky than some once in a century talent. The Zhuge Liang of his era. The drama really tries to portray him as this all knowing persona who has come to enlighten the backward feudalist people yet most of the time he just come off as gullible, arrogant and superficial. The entire first 10 episode is wasted on finding Fried Chicken Girl who ML wants to marry. He literally turned the capital upside down and implicated people so he could break off engagement with someone the emperor picked so he could marry the very beautiful maid wearing expensive gown and jewelry AKA Fried Chicken Girl . *Spoiler alert* Well not really a spoiler. It turns out very beautiful girl wearing expensive gown and jewelry was not a maid but a princess, well duhhh! and was actually his betrothed, even more duhhh! Even a half wit would know that.

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Could have written more mature characters.

Peng Xiao Ran is lovely as always but this story could have done with a better ML and the FL to have better people around her. The ML and his gang are arrogant pricks, her maid is an annoying tw*t, her cousin and her lover nag all the time. I can get through with one or 2 annoying people but when most of the so called protagonists are irritating as hell then watching it becomes a chore. She basically left all the good people in her hometown. Her sister is at least a sane and realistic woman. Her ex husband plays the anti-hero to the hilt and has more nuance and character growth than the stale and annoying ML. Her cousin she had a sham married with is far more likeable than the ML. I don't understand why they made Ning Gongzi look like a dead end from the start. I wonder what drove the writer to consider the ML as the unquestionable choice when there is literally zero chemistry between the two and their back story is a big yawner in the first place. A totally pointless pairing.

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An Idol sageuk drama with a recycled, common, unoriginal plot.

Korean royal court dramas will usually start out with a premise of a useless king controlled by powerful ministers and the story develops on how he regains power and punishes these evil officials. This drama is obviously one of those, this time it's an idol drama dress up as a sageuk. I could probably feel sympathy for the king who lost the love of his life because of court machinations but what I cannot stand is how he never did anything for 7 years to investigate the queen's death and the deaths of women who were killed to intimidate him. Korean writers seem to really like inept and useless rulers that suddenly have Epiphany and become competent rulers. What a load of horse crap! The ML here spends his time moping and pining for the Crown Princess, flirting with the FL, getting jealous of the SML and again obsessively missing dead wife.
The FL is of course the typical jolly and happy go lucky idol female lead who melts the heart of the cold ML. The FL ends up being a court lady to act as medium of the dead princess. Honestly, The FL acts more like a court jester than a palace lady IMO. A court lady should at least hold an air of formality and decorum. What was the rationale of having such an informal and coarse behavior. This in the end is a stereotypical romcom drama but writer thought it would be nice as sageuk. Predictably writer stayed with the same unoriginal story of weak king vs. evil court ministers. A thorougly Koreans style historical drama with not much story development or short term plot resolution. I'm bored to death.

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Great plot overall but ruined by poor story development and undisciplined writing.

This drama is insulting to intelligence, common sense and a serious test of one's patience. The writer loves to hang on to arcs and subplots that never seem to end or get repeated ad nauseam.

I think it was a passable story up until episode 10. At episode 11 though, I was so over the writer's lack of talent and finesse in continuing this to a logical end. Behold another train wreck idea to force a conflict and confrontation. I could see that from a mile away. Never mind I was already rolling my eyes out when they showed the real mastermind. Anyone with half a brain would have guessed by now. But of course we need more pointless and meandering drama before we get to the resolution of this story.

I thought the writer did well with characterization overall. The motivations and aspirations of people are plainly shown. I thought it was refreshing to see a drama where most characters aren't exactly saints and of dubious personalities. This had an interesting main plot with surprisingly well written characters but got dragged down by a poorly developed story. The arcs here are never resolve. They just tie a loose end to another loose end from one arc to another.

I think if the writer had more talent this would have been a great drama. So much potential but in the end lazy writing and the lack of aptitude to write a more discipline and intuitive story was it's downfall.

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A very familiar plot but FL is severely lacking charisma and moral fortitude.

I mostly watch historical these days, usually Chinese. There are a lot of them so I feel like I'm spoiled of choices. In comparison sageuks are hard to come by so I try to watch the first few episodes of majority of them and find a gem that's worth watching through the end. Let's just say that in terms of passing my standard, I only end up watching completely at most two or rarely three in a year.

I really thought this was worth my time and fill my sageuk quota until I saw the FL's action in the second episode. I like ambiguous leads but I expect them to have at least have a proper reasoning for their actions. I though it was not enough for me to see FL suddenly taking the decision to join with the antagonists just so she saves her inheritance from debt. I know she look like she is not fully aware of the magnitude and criticality of the situation but she should at least have an inkling of the behind the scenes conspiracy of the royal court. Watching herself sell her services out to help the bad actors search the prince left a bad taste in my mouth and her flimsy excuse and reason for doing this isn't good enough for me. Drop at episode 2, I may pick up this later depending on my mood and how the story goes.

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Tropey, unoriginal and done to death plot. Great production though!

Another sageuk drama with a doormat Crown Prince/King controlled by a powerful minister and his faction. Where have I seen that before? No seriously it's ridiculous and such an overused theme in k-drama, I wonder if they even have other ideas than this tired plot. One or way another most of their court politics drama has this premise.

I tried to have an open mind with this drama but i watched the first episode and my original hunch was right. This is another power struggle between an all powerful minister and a puppet ruler. This drama is even worst. They magnify the ineptness of the king seeing how they show everyone having complete deference and loyalty to the minister. They then highlight the lack of decorum, the disrespect and contempt of natural order the minister's faction have toward the royal house to really drive the point. It seems to be a running theme for Korean court dramas to have this overarching plot over and over again.

I'm a voracious historical drama consumer, mostly Chinese historical ones and I barely recall where they show their rulers as inept and powerless and controlled by his ministers. The emperor would be either benevolent, gullible, nonchalant or despotic yet never powerless and never some puppet of a some minister. I think the problem I have with sageuk court dramas is how unoriginal, unimaginative and stale they are. They seem to gravitate towards this plot 3/4 of the time. A sever lack of originality and I can't stress that enough. There is no need to even imagine where this story will end. If you've seen one you'll know how this story goes. How the power struggle develops and how the king acquires power to defeat the corrupt and treacherous minister in the end.

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