Reviews

I have no idea why I thought this drama was going to be a Chinese version of “Goong” one of my fav manwha turned drama. This really reminded me of Inuyasha, maybe a little romeo and Juliet. Anyway this a really pleasant historical treat. As you have already read the synopsis, this drama is packed with plotting (come on the are in a palace), love triangles, misunderstandings and trickery.
The working theory is that this chick goes back in time, inuyasha style, bringing modern ideas and a knowledge of how history will play out. I really enjoyed how the main female lead was head strong the whole time, and how she was inventive. I also really liked how it showed the two main characters loving each other and spending time together. This is one of the very first times I have ever seen a lead couple trust and be completely honest with each other- I thought it was wonderful. Get ready for a lot of overacting, fake laughter, bad hair pieces, backstabbing and just melodrama. The acting was poor for most characters but the main actors seemed to nail it.
No matter how much I liked the leading couple the plots were essentially the same as all other historical dramas. The palace maids are shady, the eunuchs need bribing and all of the concubines are scheming to get their kids ahead of the rest. The female lead kind of got annoying with her flawless trust in everyone who shook her hand getting her into situations where she nearly dies. I mean really how many times can you fall for the same tricks?
At anyrate this drama is long but it has some cool fights, and keeps you interested because it seems to move at a good pace. I only really had to skip 4 episodes and it had a really good ending that makes you want to know more. There is a lot of romance and not a lot of comedy, but it wasn’t very dark themed. Take some time and watch when you have a chance.
p.s. the lip syncing on all of the songs was just God awful- i mean really!!?
p.p.s. the fighting was really fake looking too.

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To be honest had higher expectation and currently its not meeting it! Finally like at episode 18 he confesses his love!!! It was driving me nuts that the first 15 episodes, was contemplating on dropping. I mean its only 24 episodes....

Male lead is cute but i find he is kinda slow to relationship and doesnt like to show that he likes the female lead. I mean you can just straight tell her. Female lead , is also very slow to relationships , and to be honesty nothing of her personality really stands out besides the fact that she is super strong and was once a tomboy. Thus causing the male lead to think that the person he had a crush on when he was young was a boy but it was the female lead with short hair. I kinda of find it hard to believe that if that was your crush you dont find out their name and if they are actually a boy or girl? Fast forward They meet again in University , and finally through various occasion he finds out that , she's a girl. She also has liked him for a long time. They just never had the guts to tell each other. The first 16 episodes I would summarize as "I like you but Im not brave enough to tell you face to face, not sure if you like me, miscommunications....

Others:
Second male lead is hot!!! but a playboy character. His character hopefully will change due to the female lead's best friend ( aka second female lead(
THird female is second male lead's cousin and she is a stuck up bitch, who has two faces to her. She's in love with the male lead because they grew up together. They both play piano together. she's initially a bitch but changes for the better.

Fingers crossed it will get better fast !!!!

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One of the most illogical romance ever

This drama just proves that the writer has never been in a relationship or in love before.

The first season started off well with the introduction of an interesting-but-yet-realistic creation of a love alarm app along with the infusion of aesthetic visual elements and the intriguing storyline stemming from the mystery of the missing creator of the app, Duk Gu. Hwang Sun Oh and Kim JoJo were made to be the main leads in this season. Despite the interesting storyline, the puppy love was undeniably weak and unconvincing. I simply couldn’t understand why Sun Oh and Jo Jo were attracted to each other. It made Jo Jo looked like an indecisive cheater. She had a boyfriend but she liked Sun Oh. Their chemistry never made sense because she couldn’t reason out why she liked Sun Oh and it completely didn’t even make sense as to why she decided to end the relationship with Sun Oh when she actually liked him. She ended the relationship by using the shield that Duk Gu gave her exclusively to download in order to lie to Sun Oh that she never liked him. It hurt Sun Oh as he did not understand the reason why it happened that way and he never got proper closure. Perhaps that’s the essence of puppy love. Nevertheless, I shipped the two because the director wanted it that way. At the end of the first season, Duk Gu was hinted to be alive, Sun Oh having a new girlfriend he did not love and Hye Hyeong courting Jo Jo. The episode ended with Sun Oh’s new girlfriend ringing her alarm for Sun Oh while Sun Oh and Hye Hyeong ringing their alarms for JoJo; signifying the love triangle. Jo Jo’s alarm didn’t ring because of the shield that conceals her feelings which was why she later desperately wanted it to be removed and was so obsessed with the findings of missing Duk Gu.

Season 2 made the whole storyline went downhill. We expect the drama and jealousy of the second leads arising from Jo Jo being honest with Sun Oh. However, that wasn’t the case. In season 2, Jo Jo decided to give Hye Hyeong a chance by giving the relationship a try even tho she did not like him. She flinched when Hye Hyeong kissed her at the beginning but let Sun Oh kissed her in the later part. This shows how confused, indecisive, and needy Jo Jo was. She looked like a lonely and needy girl that that didn’t mind dating a guy she did not like. In this season, you are going to be confused as to who you are going to ship because Hye Hyeong became the male lead of this season with greater screen time. Sun Oh became the second lead and the screenwriter decided to make Sun Oh a fool who was drunk in his family’s situation. Perhaps the screenwriter wanted to explain that his obsession for closure with Jo Jo was due to the ill relationship between his parents. In this season, Jo Jo is desperately trying to find Duk Gu so she can have her shield removed, be honest with her own feelings, and hope to ring her future boyfriend’s alarm. I thought the reason that Jo Jo wanted to have the alarm removed because she has always wanted to reunite with Sun Oh by being true to him. Because she was always triggered whenever she bumped into Sun Oh. But no, she wanted to get it removed because of Hye Hyeong. She wanted to use it to ring Hye Hyeong’s alarm so that Hye Hyeong will know how she feels about him. The ending was evident that Jo Jo chose Hye Hyeong and Sun Oh going back to his ex-girlfriend. This storyline is basically telling viewers that as long as you make an effort to love someone who loves you and treats you right, you will love them eventually. Sounds illogical right?

I waited almost 2 years for season 2 because I was curious if Duk Gu had actually taken his life because of a rejection. It hinted that he was alive. I thought the revelation of his disappearance was going to be way more interesting in season 2. Turns out that he has been hospitalized for 4 years and his brother was the one running his love alarm app business. Duk Gu later woke up and gave Jo Jo an armour to download so she could ring Hye Hyeong’s alarm. Yea I just wasted my time on season 2.

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FUNNY , CUTE

Story - Simple story with recognized GMMTV actors . There are so many scenes which were so funny and cute .

Visuals - Always great .

Cinematography - Top tier .

Music - Background music is not funny at all but annoying .

Acting - Great cast with super cool acting .

Room for Improvement- This series is same as We Are from GMMTV. They should change same types of school engineering/ medical BL series and try some new story.

Schedule - Schedule for broadcasting of this drama is definitely not good . They should air two episodes per week instead of one episode which will take six months . We have definitely not that much patience .

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watch until 01:39:00 ONLY!

the poster was misleading, I thought I'd see han jiwan with the precious baby but she was the adult vr ;)
basically the first half, the first hour and a half was beautiful, Park So Yi was SO AMAZING! her crying was on point and her smiles lit up the world!

the story between this unlikely "family" was cliche but so touching that I just loved watching them until suddenly she became a teen then an adult and boom the story lost it's charm ;(



suddenly right after she called him dad the writer made him get into an accident and they lost him for 10 YEARS! then one day she remembers the nickname she gave him (10 years later!) and that's how they found him! sick and locked up in a mental hospital where he couldn't function! and before his accident suddenly had a terminal disease! what ridiculous blood boiling plot move!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

then in the ending credit she was getting married and had him marry her off and called it a happy ending when he didn't even REMEMBER his name let alone talk! how heart breakingly cheap!!!!!!!!!!!

I did hope it'd be sweet and funny for a rewatch but no, just no

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Good premise that runs out of steam

I like morally grey protagonists and I was really excited to see Lee Dong Wook take on this role, especially after his stellar performance in Strangers From Hell. The first few episodes didn't disappoint. The story of a corrupt (but not evil) detective being forced down a more righteous path by his own split personality was an original one. However, about halfway through the drama transitioned into a typical "main character uncovers mystery from his own past" type thing which has been done to death. A lot of things were also left unexplained. While I'm ok with having some things left ambiguous, you at least have to explain enough that the story makes sense. Unfortunately, especially in the last 2-3 episodes, there was a lot left out. So while the premise was interesting, the execution didn't live up to the potential of the story.

There were some positives: The acting was pretty good from all involved. There were a few funny moments. Great OST. I liked the more lighthearted tone of it.

Overall, this would probably make a pretty good weekend binge, provided you don't think too deeply about it. On the whole though, I have to say I was slightly let down by this drama.

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No Plot .

This drama is the most unrealistic drama of all time. They spent a ton of money just to make it look aesthetically pleasing. Every Korean romcom has a story but this drama doesn't even have a plot.
First of all, the male lead just randomly falls for the girl. He had no reason to fall for her.
Secondly, his only character is doing romantic things for the girl. He doesn't do anything else in his life. He only keeps gifting the girl lavish things and waits for her to finish work so they can eat together. In other dramas like business proposal and what's wrong with secretary Kim the men had a life outside romance and worked hard to build up their empire. But over here, the male lead doesn't care about the hotel that has handed over to him or about anything else.
It gets annoying after a point.
He's like the typical rich boy with good fortune with no ambition or personally whatsoever.

This is definitely very overrated and not worth the hype.

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I spotted this drama on Viki, where it had excellent ratings and reviews, and I was excited to watch an Asian drama with queer themes as there aren't that many of them. I marathoned the whole thing, because the episodes are short and I have too much free time, and honestly I was disappointed. And more than disappointed, I was upset.

The plot has potential, and the actors are good (especially considering they're pretty much beginners), but I honestly have very little tolerance for queer storylines where every intimate interaction is more or less forced. Not forced as in 'the actors are clearly awkward about it', but forced as in 'if this scene happened in real life, it would be sexual harassment'.

I don't want to spoil anything but I think people should know this before they watch the drama, as it is content that may very well be triggering for some people. Some people will undoubtedly think I'm making this too big of a deal, but I have been sexually harassed and I don't take these things lightly. Personally, I was very uncomfortable watching the 'love' scenes of this drama, and also troubled by the fact that so many people find these forced kisses etc cute and romantic. I don't know if the creators thought kissing someone who's barely conscious or restraiting someone so you can kiss them was okay because the characters are both boys, or if it's just their opinion in general. Sadly, I've seen a similar problem with other queer storylines in Asian tv/cinema as well. I find it very concerning. There's nothing cute in forcing yourself on someone. And it's incredibly harmful to portray this kind of 'no means try harder' behaviour as normal and romantic.

If you cut out these disturbing scenes, the drama would be quite nice. The acting is good, and there are some funny moments. As the main couple was disappointing for me (not the actors; the behaviour of the characters), I found myself more invested in Bai Luo Yin's relationship with his father. Song Tao, who played the role of the absent-minded yet incredibly kind father, did a really good job. The dad was my favourite character. I also liked the classmates, Yang Meng and You Qi, though the drama definitely ended on a very confusing note re: those two.

TL;DR: this could've been a great drama, if not for the 'romantic' scenes being mainly sexual harassment.

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Slice of life that was just too slow for me.

First I'll say what I liked...
Great acting, diverse characters, intelligent lines (dialogue), which were brought together really well and perfectly executed.
Understated acting in a drama that contains little action or romance to fill in gaps and quite a few scenes that involved little or no dialogue, really tests an actor's abilities.
Viewers will have their own take on what this drama represented. For me, it was about regrets, being stuck in a dead-end life and reaching a point where that hits you and questions then raise their heads about what the point is and if that's it. One's own worth is even questioned.
The pace, however, killed it for me.
There are slow, gently unfolding dramas, that I have loved. I don't need murders, horror, steamy romance or laughs-a-minute. I do need SOMEthing to pull me in though.
If I had watched this drama after it aired, I would have dropped it.
Watching it air, however, I stuck with it, as 2 eps a week I could watch.
I do feel it picked up, but only in the very late episodes. The rest were like watching paint dry.
It was claustrophobic, often miserable and with some horrible characters. I couldn't stand Ki-jung, the older sister; even outside the house, where she seemed to be supposedly 'quirky'. I felt sorry for her once and that was short lived.
Tae-hoon's sister, Kyung-sun, was also repulsive ~ totally selfish and a complete martyr, who made a decision in her life and then used it to whine and bitch.
Chun Ho-jin as the father, was excellent, although I don't think he'd have had a problem learning his lines.
Lee Min-ki's character of brother, Chang-hee, was my favourite. Terribly immature in his behaviour at times, but very self-aware. I think all the father's dialogue was allocated to that character too!
The ending felt abrupt, not so much because of unanswered questions, but because I found 2 storylines really odd in how they were left. It was almost like the script writer couldn't be bothered. Perhaps they didn't know where to go with those aspects, or were trying to be life-like... which doesn't always make sense. I don't want that side of reality in a drama though, thanks, as it's just frustrating!
I don't think I chuckled, never mind laughed, once.
The title that represents what the drama portrays, is tenuous, to say the least.
I found the story and script very disappointing and it is definitely not one I would ever watch again.

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A Warm, Simple Family Everyone Asked For!

This is the very first drama I'd write a review even before the drama has pass it half.
This is also the very first drama I gave 10 ratings for it's flawless and perfect storyline, cast, ost, editing, all!

Everyone in this drama really makes me want to hug each of them.

I do find it's quite interesting because the lead ages are reverse from their actual age.
But they nailed so perfectly. The child actors also do their roles perfectly.

Usually, I find the childhood times are boring so mostly I skipped the timeline, but, I never skip a single part of it!
The young Jian Jian is such a cutie. She is like a sunshine around Ling Xiao and Zi Qiu- who has difficult childhood.
I love how the young version grows to be a teenager, who is there for each other.

The three of them really have different charm and personality, but the sync between the three is really beautiful.

< Characters >

+ Ling Xiao; a boy yet a man.
Even tho his character is like usual main lead in other dramas, experienced awful incident that makes him have nightmares like everynight, but he always make a reasonable decisions. He grow faster than child at his age, but doesn't make him act like old man in such young age. He can be mischevious, naughty, yet an elder brother you can depend on.

As the youngest of three, Song Wei Long potrays the oldest; handsome, gentle, and lacks nothing.
But as the story goes on, you can see how weak, hurt and broken Ling Xiao is.
Song Wei Long do awesome job to potray this one.
Like, you always seeing him shining; suddenly you are afraid you'd broke him just by touching him.
I would said that, Ling Xiao were made to him..
and it's his best character yet so far.

+ He Zi Qiu; forever a baby.
He long for loves from his family since young age. He also devoted child especially to his foster dad. He is Jian Jian's shield yet her partner in crime. He has the most difficult childhood between the three. He is sensible, yet insensible to other feelings. So sometime his acts or words can hurt others; but no one can hurt his family. He is definitely a brother you are wished for.

Xin Cheng is given to act as Zi Qiu with most funny yet most sad scenes.
You feel like want to protect him and make him smile most of time, since his smile is so precious.
He may be hot-headed and act harsh sometimes, but you can't stop him.
But despite all his misfortune, he always give us good laugh with his innocent and pure soul.
Xin Cheng really touch our heart with his acting. Bravo.

+ Lin Jian Jian; rays of sunshine.
She is the purest soul I've ever meet. She looks like a troublemaker, but she is actually the one that care her family the most. She always be true herself, show what her likes or dislikes and never hidden her own feelings.
I love how Jian Jian's character is growing, especially when she was apart with her brothers.

Honestly, I love how Jian Jian can be a child yet mature to her given situation.
Song Yun really gives us the positive vibe from Jian Jian and make everyone love her (even in bts, she is as cheerful as JJ).
I like how the fact Song Yun can play the 16 and 25 yo JJ with perfection.

Not to mention the Fathers role are so important to the three, especially Papa Lin. I was really touched by how he is brought up the three and always regards Ling Xiao and Zi Qiu as his own child. Even tho Papa Ling doesn't have much roles to the kids, but he is kind and good listener to Papa Lin. They have such great synergy and become each other back. They just like actual husband and wife would be.

The bound between family is so strong that no one can break them apart.

< Storyline >
Neat, cut perfectly, the pace is right.
I really don't like most family drama has draggy pace especially when they are argue, separate, or in an angsty situation. But I don't see any draggy moments in this drama. You can laugh and sad at the same episode.
The portion of each pace is 100! The time jump is also in a right placement!
1999 to 2009 to 2019. the dynamic is good.

Even the characters changed in thru years also relateable. And Jian Jian's narration also make more senses.

In Cdramas, usually we can see how the storyline goes based on opening or ending song, but I got clowned each episodes. This drama really have an unpredicted story with heartwarming story each episode.

< OST >
The OSTs are beautiful and rightly placed. There is no misplaced BGM or sound effect, I would give standing ovation to the music director. Never did I got annoyed by BGM or sound effect.
I also heard the OST like everyday as daily routine.

I also hope everyone who is watching (and reading my review), would have their own happiness and feel warm at heart as our three musketeers strive and chase their own happiness~♡

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JUST GO WATCH THIS

After a year delay, Resident Playbook is here! I was thrilled to find out that this will air in April. I didn't know the delay took a toll on the whole team but it was for the better. If they pushed it through it wouldn't get the recognition that it deserved. This is entirely different from the usual Shin PD formula but it was refreshing. I honestly did not care for all of that. I'm just happy that Yuljeverse is back and with a lot of cameos from Hospital Playlist casts.

Honestly, just go watch it! The main casts are cute and likeable! Rewatch value is high! I think I've memorized all the lines from all the rewatch lol

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intriguing start - confusing middle - unispired ending

Storyline:

this one started promising with the lead actress being a special kind of introvert autist forced extrovert if needed, being beautiful and highly intelligent in the field of programming. The idea of the new chatbot she invents fits the current times and often hopelessly automatized behaviours of modern humans.
She herself uses her chatbot and one evening decides to meet the creepy chat match instead of the normal nice guy she is talking to at the same time.
Meeting that obviously creepy guy is weird and intense for her, the cinematography and music in the first episodes is really good, artsy and fitting the entire mood it wants to transport.
So while we find out the very first episode that the creepy looking guy is indeed a creep and crazy serial killer for that, we undertand that somehow he likes our female lead too and does not intend to kill her (or at least most of the time I guess).

So the pictures, the tension and the music are really well done in the first few episodes. The side characters are - ok.
The shaman friend seems interesting but her story isn't well explored, sadly she remains pale because that lack of background.
The other friend of our progammer lady is a female detective who, after an accident, is wheelchair bound.

Our serial killer seeks the cop lady out specifically on the chat bot luring her in with pretending he is in a wheel chair too. (how he is able to do that we don't know) For some unknown reason he does not kill her though, but leaves her out in the wild without her wheelchair. I did wonder though why did he not kill her as she could have easiyl intentified him? Also, why did she not check the police records for his face she being a police woman?

By the middle of the show it gets all rather slow and several things that happen seemed forced and incoherent to me and I started feeling a little annoyed.

It seemed like the creators wanted to put certain things into the story no matter what and how.
So the shaman woman is into women and it seems kind of forced that they almost artificially create a situation for her to meet a woman and get it going with her. No problem with that if it fits the story and you feel a connection to the character. That chance was missed in my opinion and so it just seems like they wanted this to somehow happen in that show.

Same thing goes for the handicapped cop lady. So she is a cop but although being in a wheelchair and thus comparably helpless she goes to a blind date with an unknown guy she just talked to per chat for a bit, and she doesn't meet him in public but is gullibly being lured into the wild to a forsaken swimmingpool sowewhere in the great nowhere? Would a cop, let alone a handicapped cop do such dumb thing really?

So then you have to just accept that quite accidentally, in a multi million city like Seoul, the serial killer gets involved with programmer girl and at the same time with her disabled cop friend. Not enough accidental things, he is even able to orchestrate a kind of rape game in a vacant industry hall at night, where programmer girl unknowingly meets a group of men who where made to believe she is meeting them for that rape role play. She doesn't know of course and despite being a very petite, untrained small woman she is not only able to escape all of them (unlikely) but even kills one of the with just one strike of a razor blade (very unlikely).
Meanwhile Mr. serial killer goes on killing while the police... hm, well it seems he can just go around killing in Seoul, the CCTV extreme city, and not only not being caught, but not even being sought after. (very, very unlikely).

it starts on dragging then, feeling like the creators couldn't decided what to do with the characters.
All of a sudden our autistic programmer girl is obsessively in love with the serial killer, but we don't really get to know why that happens all of a sudden.
The handicapped cop lad is out for revenge and instead of this time being wiser and getting backup when she wants to confront the serial killer, she - again - is dumb enough to be lured to a remote place, this time a whole vacant housing estate that is about to be demolished when she is there. And she really goes there alone again, with her wheelchair, into uneven demolishing ground, where this time she almost dies and is just being rescued the very last second. That was when I was annoyed because I thought how could someone with the police be that idiotic two times in a row? How did she even get to the police with that lack of intelligence in the first place?

Anyways, it then gets more artsy and abysmal, serial killer killing, programmer girl acting like a 12-year old obsessively in love with him ignoring all sensibility, and in the end deciding to kill the killer. That, sadly, wasn't done in any realistic way.
She still just has that small razor blade, and with it is able to make a slash through one eyeball, the nose including bone and the other eyeball. For this she would have neede something else, a mere small razor blade is not able to do that. But again, the creators wanted that effect of cut eyeballs, physics out the window. And again, no police while in a few weeks there are brutally murdered people everwhere and programmer girl happily celebrated with her friends.

Conclusion:

I did not know this was an adaption of a book and I do not know that book so I can't say if the adaption went well or not.
As mentioned in the beginning, this was promising and it could have been rather good, but somewhere in the middle the creators somehow lost their own plot. it got more and more confusing and the characters acting unlogical or plain dumb.

Creating a good storyline with this content is probably comparably difficult, but the downward tendency was just too steep for me from the middle of the show.

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