365: Repeat the Year

365: Repeat the Year

8/10

365: Repeat the Year

Genre:                                     Episodes: 12                         Year: 2020

Mystery

Synopsis:

Ten people are called together by a mysterious woman and are given the chance to go back one year in time. After returning to the past the group realise that this may not have been the gift they first thought, as mysterious events start to put them in danger.

Cast:

Lee Joon Hyuk (Ji Hyung Joo)

Nam Ji Hyun (Shin Ga Hyun)

Kim Ji Soo (Lee Shin)

Yang Dong Geun (Bae Jung Tae)

Yoon Joo Sang (Hwang No Sub)

Lee Yoo Mi (Kim Se Rin)

Ahn Seung Kaun (Ko Jae Young)

Lee Sung Wook (Park Sun Ho)

General Thoughts:

Boy am I just loving these smaller episode count dramas! 12 episodes was exactly the right amount for this little show- any more and the plot would have been stretched too thin and we would have got a lag around the halfway point, any less and there would have been too much crammed in there.

Aw yeah, this show sure don't mess around

As it was the plot moved along at a consistent pace and each new episode revealed something further about the plot the characters or both. Mystery dramas have a lot of places where they can trip up- more so than other genres, as so much banks on the main mystery remaining unknown but not so completely random that it’s impossible to guess before the reveal. ‘365’ hit a nice balance of dropping enough clues that the final reveal was understandable, but not so many that the twists were easy to guess.

It would be a lot easier to solve this mystery if everyone didn't act so d*mn sus

I find that a lot of K-Drama mysteries tend to have maybe two or three solid twists up their sleeves and the rest of the show will play out in a rather straight forward manner. Not here. Almost every episode had some sort of twist in it. The scales of the twists were different, but each one unpacked a little bit more of the story and the characters and helped paint a more complete picture of the overall narrative. It really felt like we were learning along with Hyung Joo and Ga Hyun what was going on, which is a good place to be. This often meant that Hyung Joo and Ga Hyun were voicing our own speculations and were exploring ideas that we as the audience also thought might be possibilities. It very much felt like we were on the journey together with the two leads rather than just watching them solve a mystery on their own. The mystery at the heart of ‘365’ wasn’t perfect, but it was complete enough that we had a truly engaging and thrilling story to follow, and the conclusion felt well earned and satisfying. There were of course an abundance of red herrings, but as the writers left most things up to speculation, the red herrings felt more like a storytelling technique rather than a blatant attempt to mislead the audience so that they could pull out a ‘gotcha’ moment later (though there were still one or two of those moments also).

As if the main mystery lady is gonna tell you all her secrets

I also appreciated that the writers didn’t try to cast too much doubt over Hyun Joo and Ga Hyun. There was a short while there where Sun Ho was trying to frame Hyung Joo that cast a little suspicion over him, but apart from that we always had two characters that we could rely on and cheer for. Because the other resetters had so much doubt surrounding them, it could be hard at times to really like them, as we didn’t want to commit fully to liking a character only to find out that they are a murderer.

I'd trade a cheaty boyfriend for working legs any day of the week

Having our two leads remain outside the realm of suspicion let us simply enjoy their character moments, the relationship they were developing, and their small victories leading up to the final confrontation. For the acting I think everyone did a pretty great job. I’ve seen Lee Joon Hyuk in a few things, and despite him never really grabbing my attention, I don’t think I’ve ever been let down by his performance either. I think Hyung Joo is the most charismatic role I’ve seen him in (I think he was supposed to be super cool in ‘You Who Forgot Poetry’ but I was so-so on him in that), and he really made the character of Hyung Joo quite endearing. Moments where I think he really stood out were when he realised his mentor was a murderer, and when Ga Hyun died protecting him. Lee Joon Hyuk just burst through those scenes with an emotional intensity I just did not expect from him, and he really blew me away in those moments. His grief felt so raw and so real, and made your heart just ache for him. Lots of actors can look super cool running and catching criminals, so I was impressed to see Lee Joon Hyuk bring something else to his character as well. He also introduced a bit of a cheeky playfulness to his character that I’ve not seen him do before, and it was actually quite sweet- it made me curious to see how he’d go in a more rom-com role (again ignoring ‘You Who Forgot Poetry’ because while that counts it also sorta doesn’t).

There were lots of solid female roles in this show which is awesome

Nam Ji Hyun has been in lots of things and she’s a great actress. I think this role was stepping outside her comfort zone a bit as she usually plays typical rom-com style heroines. There were times I found her character a bit too blunt and brash, and I’m unsure if this was Nam Ji Hyun’s acting or just the way he character was written, but as the story progressed and Ga Hyun’s relationship developed with Hyung Joo, Nam Ji Hyun settled not the character more and Ga Hyun became a lot more likeable. 

It's almost like he wanted people to get the wrong idea...

While I feel like there were a lot of emotional scenes that Ga Hyun was a part of, I don’t super recall Nam Ji Hyun having any wow scenes the way that Lee Joon Hyuk did. The supporting cast were all great as well- Kim Ji Soo did a wonderful job at being mysterious but not completely inhuman and unrelatable, and I thought Lee Yoo Mi did such a fantastic job at making the switch when her character revealed her true, slightly crazy nature. She did both the sweet innocence and the obsessive manipulator roles so well, and did a great job at making these different faces of the same character, rather than having it seem as though Se Rin had just become a completely different person. Yes, Se Rin had changed dramatically, but Lee Yoo Mi kept certain expressions and actions that tied both of these personalities together into the one character, and I thought she handled it excellently. The editing I found could be a little heavy-handed. Most of the time it was perfectly fine, but there were a few moments where I thought it took away from the show rather than adding to it. In the first timeline we see play out where Sun Ho dies, I thought that the scene shifting to black and white with the blood remaining red just felt a bit…tacky? It felt like it was supposed to make it look cool and emotional, but I thought it came across a bit cheap.

Mmm no thanks

Perhaps if the entire show had these black a white moments for really intense scenes it would have worked better, but having it as a once off just seemed a bit odd, and I didn’t love it. There were a couple of other editing choices that I questioned at the time, but I can’t remember them now, so they can’t have been that bad.

What Was Great:

Character Layers: 

There were so many different aspects to all of the characters. Even though we were shown so many different parts of each characters’ life, there were still ways that the writers were able to turn something around and surprise us.

The room of doom

Except maybe for Hyung Joo and Ga Hyun, but I liked that they were safe and unsuspicious. Each of the other resetters had so much going on. Even just from our first character that got a bit of depth- Yeon Soo. At first I thought she was going back in time to avoid marrying her husband. Then I thought her husband maybe was violent to her. Then there was the question of whether it was Yeon Soo who was the hit-and-run driver or her husband. There was so much to unpack from just this one character alone, and we had so many!

I thought we were gonna run out of characters they were killing them off so quickly

 I liked how the impending sense of doom was a catalyst for the characters to reveal their true colours- when they thought their lives were in danger, suddenly everyone was a lot more willing to throw someone else under the bus. Jung Tae, who seemed the most suspicious and disloyal at the start actually ended up being one of the most caring characters- he was trying to make life better for his sister, and even ended up getting his protective nature taken advantage of by Se Rin. Se Rin who had seemed so sweet and innocent then ended up being a compulsive liar! I wondered early on if maybe Se Rin’s sister wasn’t actually dead, but to find out that she lied about everything in her life was a big surprise, especially when she became so emotionally manipulative by putting her physical safety at risk to get what she wanted. But I also appreciated that she wasn’t just a one-dimensional liar either. Her lies served a purpose- she wanted people to pity and care for her, and she wanted to get closer to Young Woong. Similar to Jung Tae, Se Rin also wasn’t just purely good or purely evil. While she was definitely off the rails, in the scene where she hurt Ga Hyun it was evident that she regretted harming her, and actually truly cared for Ga Hyun. While it may have seemed like Ga Hyun was wasting time and energy on a girl who was lying all the time, her efforts weren’t totally wasted, and Se Rin definitely knew that she could trust and rely on Ga Hyun.

I was most suspicious of No Sub just because he seemed the least suspicious

Because the mystery was so interwoven with the characters, there was a lot of thought and depth put into the resetters backstories so that they could further enhance the drama’s puzzles. It gave us a very rich selection of characters that were so vastly different from each other and very engaging to watch on screen- especially as they were forced to start to interact with each other and delve into each others’ secrets. 

Partners:

Hyung Joo and Ga Hyun just made a delightful little pair! It was really sweet to see how they came to trust and depend on one another as their futures became so entangled. I liked that the writer didn’t really tie them together romantically, but there were enough hints there that laid the groundwork for a possible future romance. While I love a good loveline as much as the next person, sometimes it's a nice little change to have our leads not be romantically involved.

The power of friendship

While not all platonic relationships feel deeper than romantic ones, I thought that in this case, it made sense for Ga Hyun and Hyung Joo to be a bit too preoccupied with everything going on around them to be distracted by romance- it just wasn’t a good time! The chemistry was definitely there, and Lee Joon Hyuk and Nam Ji Hyun had a comfortable and relaxed rapport that was such fun to watch. Even in their dire circumstances they were still able to care for one another, and their desire to protect the other really showed how solid their friendship had become over the course of the year that they had repeated together.

Detective Duo (plus Pup) are on the case

 They were a great detective duo, and they worked really well together. Rarely did they go off and do their own things without informing the other, and they always had an underlying respect for each other in everything they did. When Ga Hyun went out herself to try and catch the apparent bad guy (which at that point they thought was Jung Tae), Hyung Joo was concerned for her safety, but he also never babied her or treated her as if she were the most fragile flower in need of constant supervision. When Hyung Joo realised his work partner who he had gone back in time to save had been the one who was the murderer, Ga Hyun never blamed him or criticised his decision to save his friend- she simply comforted him and worked with him toward a solution. It was a lovely partnership, and they were an easy pair to cheer for. I really loved that the drama went out of its way a bit to show that they always formed this sort of bond. In the original-original timeline (where they all die) Hyung Joo becomes a consultant on Ga Hyun’s comic and they become good friends that way. In the year they are repeating, they are obviously connected and become close through the reset. And in the final timeline where Hyung Joo goes back to save Ga Hyun, she recognises him for being the one to catch Sun Ho and once again invites him to be a consultant on her comic.

This scene was pretty sad...

We aren’t given much more on how the current timeline goes, but we are given big hints that the two once again strike up their friendship- and by having Sun Ho previously explain their deaths (and thus reveal how close they were in another timeline) it gave a sense of security that they could still be the wonderful team they were together even if Ga Hyun didn’t remember their big adventure. 

What Wasn’t:

Just For the Lols:

Unlike how layered the rest of the characters were, our two main villains, No Sub and Sun Ho were a bit one-dimensional. So much build up was going on in the show as to who was behind the deaths of the resetters and why they were dying that it was a bit disappointing when the two people behind the whole thing said that they did it ‘just because’.

Why is he evil? Because being evil is fun. Duh

What a let down. It wasn’t enough to ruin the whole mystery of the show- it just would have been nice if maybe these two characters had more reasoning behind destroying so many peoples’ lives. And yes, yes, I know that a lot of actual criminals do commit crimes ‘just because’ or ‘for fun’, but as characters in a drama telling a story, I just expect there to be a little more story behind their motives! No Sub was at least a little believable, because I honestly wouldn’t put it past a rich old man who discovered he could go back in time to just mess around with people as a way to whittle away the time, but I did expect something a little more from our murderer. No Sub was the mastermind behind the whole ‘game’ so it kinda made a little bit of sense that he was only doing it for fun, but as Sun Ho was a police officer, and a detective no less, I was kind of expecting him to have a pretty darn good reason for going around killing people. Accidentally hitting someone with a car and then discovering he had a taste and a talent for killing people and framing them as accidents seemed a bit random for a guy who had otherwise lead an upright and honest life. 

WHAT’S IN THE BOX:

While I found most of the mystery elements in this drama above average, one thing I could not stand (and cannot stand in any drama ever) is withholding information from the audience even though the characters know. In this case, the characters were our leads, Hyung Joo and Ga Hyun.

Or in this case- WHAT'S IN THE BOOK

Because these two were our eyes and ears into this world and we were getting everything from their experiences and perspective, I felt kind of cheated whenever the show revealed a piece of information to either of them without showing it to the audience also. This mainly came in the form of one of them opening an envelop or a box, or receiving a phone call after which their eyes would widen in shock and the audience were left wondering what had been revealed. Because of course WE wouldn’t be shown what was on the card or in the box, and we certainly couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end of the phone. Sigh. Unlike the rest of the show’s methods of building mystery, this tactic just felt cheap, and ended up starting to get a bit annoying.

None of the characters are particularly good communicators either

Thankfully it didn’t detract too much from the show as it usually only occurred as a cliffhanger in the middle of the episode and was thus resolved fairly quickly, or occasionally it was done at the end of an episode so we just had to start the next one to find out what had occurred (and as I am a K-Drama binger, the wait between episodes was very short). But honestly, this style of withholding information for a quick suspense moment usually earns more annoyance than intrigue, and I much prefer when shows don’t do this.

Recommend?

Yes- this is a fun little mystery that never gets drawn out. While it isn’t perfect, there are so many twists and turns and it’s a fun adventure.

A twist at every turn

100 Days My Prince

100 Days My Prince

6.5/10

100 Days My Prince

Genre:                                                  Episodes: 16                                 Year: 2018

Romance

Historical

Synopsis:

In order to try and restore balance and bring rain during a long drought, Crown Prince Lee Yul orders all single men and women in Joseon to be married. After an assassination attempt, the Crown Prince loses his memory and lives as a peasant. A peasant girl, Yeon Hong Shim, is forced to marry the amnesic prince due to the new law that all singles must be wed.

Cast:

D.O (Lee Yul/Won Deuk)

Nam Ji Hyun (Yeon Hong Shim/Yoon Yi Seo)

Kim Sun Ho (Jung Je Yoon)

Jo Sung Ha (Kim Cha Eun)

Kim Jae Young (Moo Yeon)

Jo Han Chul (King Neungseon)

Han So Hee (Kim So Hye)

Jung Hae Kyun (Yoon)

General Thoughts:

Overall this show is a cute and sweet love story set in the Joseon era. It came pretty close to being a truly amazing drama, but just had a few too many slip ups along the way. The main issue this drama faced was that it couldn’t really decide what it wanted to be.

Are we a rom-com or are we a dramatic sageuk?

All the promo materiel sold the show as a light and fluffy rom-com dressed in Joseon setting. But as the drama kicked off, it started to seem as though the writer wanted to tell a more dramatic, sageuk story. Which wouldn’t have been that bad, but the balance was just never right- either tilting too far towards completely comedic or too far towards dry historical.

He's just too adorable

This drama could have been absolutely amazing had it been able to interweave the humour and the drama together, but as we only got one or the other, and not a nice bled of the two, we were all left with a bit of tonal whiplash. It’s not that the show did one part better than the other- I really enjoyed the lighter, funnier atmosphere when the show was in its rom-com stage, and the palace politics weren’t as boring and confusing as your usual sageuk- it’s just that they felt like to separate stories that had been crammed together into one drama. What really held this show together were the characters- and I think a large part of what made the characters so enjoyable were the actors behind them. D.O completely smashed his role of the amnesic Crown Prince, and I loved watching him show of his comedic timing. I’ve watched him in more serious roles, so it was a nice change to see him take on something a little lighter and a little sillier. And seeing him succeed so tremendously has got me all excited for the time he (hopefully) takes on a straight rom-com leading role. Considering what an amazing actor D.O is (seriously, I don’t even think the biggest idol-actor anti fans are able to criticise his acting), it’s almost a surprise that this is his first lead role in a drama.

Sad D.O makes my heart bleed

Nam Ji Hyun has a long list of credits to her name, and while I find her enjoyable, she has yet to completely amaze me. I much prefer her in lighter, more comedic roles, so I thought she suited this drama really well in it’s fluffier stage, where she played the grounded realist to D.O’s naive fool. While their chemistry wasn’t exactly off the charts, they had a sweet, innocent vibe to their relationship,

Not someone you wanna mess with

and my favourite part of the drama was definitely watching the two characters warm up to each other and start to care for one another. Also, I will never not want to see jealous D.O. Jo Sung Ha did a brilliant job as our manipulative antagonist. He has such deep charisma that he’s so good at portraying characters with power, whether they be on the side of good or evil. He always gives a layered performance that makes you believe there’s more to his characters than meets the eye- even if that depth isn’t explicitly written into the script. Jo Sung Ha gave Vice Minister Kim a calm duality that made him appear much more sinister than if he had simply been outwardly shady. One of the things I’m starting to realise I like about Jo Sung Ha’s performances is that you can almost see his characters’ minds working. Rather than having Vice Minister Kim appear like a character who had everyone under his thumb comfortably, Jo Sung Ha truly made you believe that there was a great deal of thought and process behind keeping everyone under his thumb- which not only makes his character seem smarter, but also makes it less of a long-shot that our heroes will be able to eventually topple him off his seat of power. Kim Jae Young isn’t exactly a high profile actor at this point, but I think he did a pretty great job as the heartbroken brother of our heroine.

Ah, my sageuk weakness- tall, silent guards/assassins

I wish that Moo Yeon and his story got a bit more screen time, because as it is, there wasn’t quite enough for me to get a grasp on Kim Jae Young’s acting ability. The same could be said for Han So Hee, who is a fairly new actress. She had to appear cold and calculating for most of the drama’s run, so it was difficult to really get a grasp on how well she was doing. The point that made me sit up and notice her was Moo Yeon’s death scene. For the most part So Hye had been a pretty stoic character, so I was impressed that Han So Hee was able to deliver such raw emotion in that scene without making it seem out of character for the Princess.

Is there anyone who didn't see this coming?

One of the show’s more charming points turned out to be the side characters. Which totally caught me by surprise. Usually the support characters that are only there for the humour tend to annoy me as they end up being stupid and over the top, but the villagers that populated ‘100 Days’ were funny and endearing.The peasant background was probably a helpful tool in making them so charming, as their naivety was appropriate. The contrast of book-smart Won Deuk and the street-smart villagers was a great combination,

Who knew the simple villagers would be so endearing?

and provided a nice dose of comedy that was neither ridiculous nor insulting. The editing of this show actually turned out to be one of its biggest downfalls, which is a bit disappointing when you remember that this is a pre-produced drama, so there’s really no excuse for not having the show looking sleek and smooth. The scene transitions could be totally random at times- just instantly jumping from one scene to the next. It was also hard to tell when we were entering or exiting a flashback sequence, as there was absolutely no hints to guide you in or out of the flashback. There were several times in this show where I was confused as to what was happening only to realise that the flashback scene had actually ended a few minutes earlier and we were know back in the present. The writing was fairly sloppy overall, with the character construction and development being the only real good point. The plot itself felt a bit random and all over the place, and it was fairly confusing as to what story this drama was trying to tell. For the first 12 or so episodes it seemed to want to tell a sweet love story between two kids separated in their childhood. But then it suddenly switched to being a story on how Yul learned to become an understanding and just King from is time spent amongst the people.

No, no, don't ditch the romance- that's literally why we're here

And the romance got shoved to the side- which honestly wasn’t a smart move when it’s the sugar-sweet romance that your viewers are tuning in for. While I was fairly interested in the palace plot and who was trying to get rid of the Prince and why, as soon as that plot started coming at the expense of the romance, I found it a tad exasperating. 

What Was Great:

Boys, Boys, Boys:

There were basically three things in this drama that I absolutely loved to pieces- D.O and his spot-on portrayal of the grouchy, yet loveable Crown Prince, Kim Sun Ho as the charming concubine’s son just trying to make it in the world, and Moo Yeon and his tragic romance.

May this reluctant bromance never die

D.O carried a lot of this show on his own, providing gravitas during the palace politics and adorable chemistry during the show’s rom-com stage. D.O brought the two separate plots together and delivered a completely loveable hero that was impossible not to fall for. Yul’s playful, bickering relationship with Je Yoon was nothing short of delightful, and his petty jealousy over Je Yoon and Hong Shim was always hilarious.

If D.O hadn't been the hero I might've had some hefty Second Lead Syndrome to deal with

Je Yoon was an interesting character on his own, and I liked that while we were all preeeeeetty sure he was on the Crown Prince’s side, the drama toyed with the idea that he could flip and join the Vice Minister’s team- but not enough that the show had to sacrifice Je Yoon’s likability. His dilemma between choosing love or loyalty was interesting to watch play out, even if we were all fairly certain that he would remain loyal to the Crown Prince. And what can I say- I always end up being a sucker for the tragic bodyguard characters. It was Kwak Dong Yeon in ‘Moonlight Drawn by Clouds’, it was Song Jae Rim in ‘Moon That Embraces the Sun’, and it was Kim Jae Young here. I hate mindless angst, but I love a good tragic love story. And Moo Yeon falling for the daughter of the man who killed his father and destroyed his family is a great recipe for a deliciously tragic love story. I enjoyed how appropriately angsty Moo Yeon’s dilemma was- does he run away with his sister who has been waiting for him for years, or stick by the woman he loves?

Well this won't end well

I really wish that this storyline had managed to grab a bit more screen time, as I felt it wasn’t quite done as well as it could have been. So Hye remained pretty much a non-entity for the whole show, and I would have loved to see how she and Moo Yeon fell in love.

What Wasn’t:

Timing:

This show’s biggest issue is that it had no idea how to time things properly. We were given just enough time in the childhood section of the drama (though I’d also argue that I wanted to see more of what happened to Moo Yeon rather than just having to assume it all), but after that the timing got really rocky.

At least we had a cute romance to distract us from the fact that no one really knew what was going on

This writer had a weird habit of withholding information that didn’t add to any mystery, but would have instead cleared things up for viewers. I have absolutely no idea why the drama thought it was a good plan to wait so long to tell us that Hong Shim actually believed there was a Won Deuk out there somewhere that she was supposed to marry.

Who even is Won Deuk?

I was endlessly confused when Hong Shim seemingly didn’t know that Yul wasn’t a stranger who had lost his memory and that she and her father where lying to him about his identity. Because even if she did believe Yul was the Won Deuk from the next village over (which we weren’t even told about), then why was she making up a love story using scenes from her childhood love? While I figured that she didn’t actually know the identity of ‘dummy’, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t Won Deuk, as Dummy was a noble. So filling Yul’s head with those stories had zero chance of jogging his memory (except that they were his memories- which Hong Shim had no way of knowing). And while I totally adored watching Yul and Hong Shim fall in love with each other and start to develop their relationship, there was a big lag in the middle where that was all that was happening. And if that’s all there was to this drama it wouldn’t have been that bad, but knowing that we had to go back and resolve the palace plot made me nervous that the show was running out of time. Which, spoiler alert, it did.

Can't you guys be charming and adorable and solve the whodunnit mystery?

I fail to see why Yul and Hong Shim couldn’t have been developing their relationship at the same time that Yul and Je Yoon were working on finding who tried to kill Yul. Because once the attention shifted to Yul and Je Yoon doing their detective work, Hong Shim was hardly even in the drama. And as an excuse for her minimal screen time the writer used- you guessed it- noble idiocy!

Well, well, well- if it isn't the consequences of your own actions

At first I was on board with their angst- because Yul is the Crown Prince and he’s already married. But when Yul was so ready to risk everything in order to somehow stay with Hong Shim, it was more than a little irritating when she wasn’t onboard. It felt like Yul was the one who was going out of his way to chase Hong Shim down and prove his love to her, while Hong Shim never gave anything back. This became 100 times worse in the final episode where Yul had found and gotten rid of his threat in the palace, was happily single, and Hong Shim still wasn’t in the picture. After her noble status had been restored and Yul had made it completely clear that he wanted to marry her, I fail to understand why Hong Shim wouldn’t agree. And then she has the nerve to act all sad that she’s not together with the man she loves. Like, who’s bloody fault is that if not yours! While we should have been spending some quality time with our couple being cute and happy, instead I was questioning whether Hong Shim really loved Yul at all. Because if she did, why was she letting him pine for her alone for a whole year when there’s no good reason for them to be apart?

Least dramatic victory ever

The conclusion of the whole palace plot seemed remarkably easy, and if it were so simple to take down the Vice Minister I fail to see why Yul and his father couldn’t have done it way sooner. The war was more or less irrelevant (except that it paved the way for that darned time skip), and if all the Vice Minister’s followers fell apart and became non-threatening without him, why didn’t someone just knock him off sooner?

If he wasn't here as a responsible, plausible King option- why was he here?

Yul’s idea that death is too light a punishment was kinda okay- but it also seemed like he was making things way more complicated than it needed to be. It felt a lot like there drama tried to set up all these reasons why simply killing the Vice Minister wouldn’t solve all Yul’s problems only to find that, whoopsie, we’ve run out of time and our only option is to quickly kill the Vice Minister and pretend that the palace is full or rainbows and unicorns and people who are 100% okay with the Vice Minister getting shot and the Crown Princess being dethroned. To be honest, I’m kind of annoyed that the drama turned into a drama about Yul being King when it seemed like it was setting out to be about Yul finding love. He never wanted to be Crown Prince or King, and Prince Seowon seemed like he had a pretty steady moral compass and would have made a good King with the right guidance. I was kind of hoping the show would take the route where Yul would give up the throne to live as a nobleman (or I dunno, Magistrate) in the village where he found friendship, family and love.

Can...can I have a sageuk that isn't about a dude learning to be the best King ever?

Admittedly, I did like seeing the light tone in the palace (and this cruddy wrap up is almost with it for the joke that people thought Yul had a thing for Je Yoon), but it felt foreign after spending all our time in Hong Shim’s village. We didn’t even have the familiar face of Hong Shim to ease us into happy palace life as she was off being busy not wanting to marry Yul. 

Recommend?

If you liked ‘Moonlight Drawn by Clouds’ this is likely to be your kind of drama.

A large part of this drama was honestly delightful