The low rating seems due to the poster, trailer, and synopsis give us a false assumption of a light fluffy romcom drama about Flower Crew marriage agency attempt to transform a plain looking street girl to become a noble lady since the King wants to marry her. Although there are plenty of fun scenes but this drama also reveals dark features of social class issues, political struggles, multiple enemies, complicated schemes, several deaths, cruelty, betrayal, deceptions, and riot.

STORY - Since the synopsis is misleading, I rewrite it below:
Flower Crew is a famous matchmaking agency in Joseon era, operated by 3 handsome noblemen: the refined and intelligent leader Ma Hoon, the carefree playboy Do Joon, and the lively fashionista Young Soo. Kim Soo, the son of a village blacksmith, requests the agency's service to marry his best friend Gae Ddong, a former slave, whom he is in love with. Unfortunately, on the wedding day, the groom and his father mysteriously disappear, and soon after that the bride is hunted down by assassins. Out of pity, Ma Hoon took Gae Ddong in. To pay off the wedding expenses she works as an apprentice for the agency, and with the crew she finds friendship and love. What starts as a simple wedding plan become complicated, when Kim Soo reappears as the newly crowned puppet King of Joseon. The crew and Gae Ddong's life are at stake, because the King still wants to marry Gae Ddong despite of political struggles he is facing.

This drama compels me to do a quick research about social status and marriage issues during Joseon era our lovely characters are facing. There are spoilers below so please do not proceed reading if you want to see some surprises straight by watching the drama.

SOCIAL STATUS AND MARRIAGE ISSUES - The royalty and four social classes during Joseon era:

- the royalty - King Lee Soo. Since he wants to marry Gae Ddong but he can only marry a noble lady, The Flower Crew has to manipulate her status to be a yangmin. Outside the noble class, women from lower status can only become his concubines.
The king's marriage is arranged by Queen Dowager through tight selection process. Yoo Soo Yun gets chosen as the other candidates are disqualified, but King Lee Soo releases her by granting her permission to marry another man. Without the royal letter, she has to stay unmarried forever.
After the riot, the Queen Dowager status is stripped off so there is no longer any female royalty elders to conduct the selection. In the end King Lee Soo can choose any yangmin, that's how he gets many marriage proposals from noble ladies.

- the noble class (yangmin), right below the royalty. Consists of the scholars, heroes, and top level government positions.
Their family trees and identities are registered by the government. Ma Hoon owns the noble registration book.
Ma Hoon and Ji Hwa are the real yangmin. Do Joon was a yangmin before but due to family issue his status is moved down, possibly to a cheonmin. Young Soo and Yoo Soo Yun are fake yangmin. Young Soo gets a noble name from Ma Hoon since the real Young Soo emigrate abroad Joseon never comes back. Yoo Soo Yun gets a noble name from Ma Hoon since the real Yoo Soo Yun is deceased but never registered by her father.
Noble ladies actually suffer more stricter lives than women from lower class, due to the Confucianism rules. As a yangmin Ji Hwa will become a possession of her future husband, therefore she insists to at least choosing a nobleman to marry. Her only candidate is Ma Hoon, whose father is at top government level than her father at the second, but since Ma Hoon rejects her she moves up her target to King Lee Soo.

- the middle class (chungmin) - the white collars.
The Flower Crew agency is a chungmin business, therefore the Head of State Councilor/Ma Hoon's father, the Second State Councilor/Ji Hwa's father, and Ji Hwa despise their work as lowly jobs. Ma Hoon picked the office location in the alley, as the business equal for any social class to request for marriage arrangements.
After the riot, the Ma family and the Kang family are stripped off their status, and all their assets are taken for the country. There are possibilities the whole familes are eradicated too, but since Ma Hoon and Ji Hwa helped the King during the riot, they are given amnesty to live and are only moved down to chungmin. Therefore we see in the last episode that Ma Hoon told Gae Ddong that he is nothing and has nothing. We also see Ji Hwa lives in a modest house in the outskirt of town while doing business for survival helping people taking state exams.

- the commoners (sangmin) - the blue collars.
The blacksmith Kim Soo is a sangmin, who can marry Gae Ddong as she is a cheonmin. At first, Ma Hoon rejects his request several times, because commoner's wedding ceremony is simple and Kim Soo may not have much money for the marriage. However he insisted and promised the queen hairpin inherited from his mother as the wedding payment, that Ma Hoon took the job.

- the outcast (cheonmin) - slaves, kisaeng, dirty job workers, street entertainers.
Gae Ddong and Chil Nom are run-away/former slaves and Gae Ddong's brother Kang is a slave. Kim Soo saved her from slavery by telling her captors that she is his wife. She becomes a free cheonmin doing any kind of jobs.
Chil Nom was saved by Ma Hoon, and when Ma Hoon finds out that Chil Nom has sense of fashion and style, he recruited the boy to be a matchmaker instead of a servant and gave him a yangmin name. He is very proud of his yangmin status and berates Gae Ddong at first, although they were from the same boat.
Do Joon is a cheonmin due to impoverished family. He lives at the kisaeng house and plays music to entertain in the street. Ma Hoon recruited him to be an informant for the business, therefore by profession he is a chungmin. At first, Ji Hwa thought he is a carefree chungmin and does not want to take state exam to be a yangmin, but he cannot take it to move up his social status. Only the King can grant him a permission letter to be able to take the exam, hence moving up his social status.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS DRAMA:
(+) No dragging scenes. Subplots and many side stories make this drama interesting to watch, as we cannot guess what the next scene will be.
(+) Superb editing to bring all the important and not so important scenes together on a thrilling ride
(+) I learned about the social class differences connecting to marriages in Joseon era
(+) I learned about the traditional Chilseok holiday and Jiknyeo and Gyeonwu folklore. I will not talk about it here, but check out the link below if interested:
https://asiasociety.org/korea/chilseok-traditional-korean-valentine%E2%80%99s-day
(+) Stunning cinematography. The ones I love especially are romantic scenes where couples are standing on a bridge. It has symbol of Chilseok mythology mentioned above
(+) Beautiful OST. Here is the link in Youtube to listen to the songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q0-rlc5kig
(+) Gorgeous costume, especially Young Soo's clothing
(+) Outstanding make up, especially in the scenes of filthy and bloody Chil Nom

ACTING/CAST
I have not seen all five actors/actresses' other dramas so my evaluation is only based on this drama:
(+) Character Ma Hoon is probably the perfect groom criteria, he has everything: handsome, nobleman, powerful family background, intelligent, resourceful, independent, business savvy, well-spoken, calm, compassionate, open-minded... what else? Interestingly, some comments stated that Ma Hoon is outshined by other characters due to his stoic expression and quiet demeanor. I briefly saw actor Kim Min Jae in Goblin but cannot judge his performance from a guest role, but I think Kim Min Jae is just nailed the Ma Hoon role.
(+) Character Gae Ddong go thru many role transformations: a runaway slave, an ill-mannered tough street girl, a forlorn jilted, a matchmaker newbie, a woman in love, a fake noble lady, and finally a woman of dignity. Actress Gong Seung Yeon brought up every stage of Gae Ddong flawlessly, from a woman crying poor-me to a woman with inner strength
(+) Many said that there is no chemistry between Ma Hoon and Gae Ddong, but I think they have a natural chemistry that grows based on the roles and the drama plot. The ones who saw the BTS scenes witnessed that actually the leads were comfortable with each other. But the story line does not let them to be close to each other easily. It starts with disliking each other from Gae Ddong faking a bride and spreading bad rumors about the agency, to a strictly business related since she becomes a real bride of Kim Soo. Their genuine relationship starts after the cancelled wedding and their feelings bloom once Gae Ddong becomes an apprentice. Still, the return of the groom pulls back their relationship to a teacher-student relationship, especially from Ma Hoon's side, and the obligation to save the King and country. Their chemistry (though pretty obvious), are more thru eye contacts, gifts, encouraging words, and caring acts than hugging and kissing (which there are evident).
(+) Actor Seo Ji Hoon is perfectly chosen as Kim Soo or King Lee Soo, that many shipped for Soo-Ddong coupling than Hoon-Ddong coupling, and get Second Lead Syndrome because of it. The role also goes to many transformation from a blacksmith-in-love, to a concerned and lonely Lee Soo, a broken-hearted Kim Soo, and finally a wise and smart king in the end.
(+) I have thought that the role Young Soo is just a merry-maker similar to Yong-Ha in Sungkyunkwan Scandal. Little that I know that the story written for Young Soo's past is very painful and terrifying, worst than Gae Ddong's past. Actor Park Jin Hoo, despite of his flower boy look and K-idol background, acted amazingly as the fashionista with PTSD, possibly is perfected his long acting career as a child actor.
(+) Character Ji Hwa is interesting as she is a rebellious noble lady who goes against father's will and has her own ambition to go to the top position. Actress Go Won Hee did a great job portraying an elegant yet mean lady, proving that she can take either protagonist or antagonist role in her acting career.
(+) Although in my opinion actor Byun Woo Suk's performance is not as outstanding as other characters, but his Do Joon role pairing with Ji Hwa as the second couple is interesting to watch due to their different social status and Ji Hwa's ambition to marry someone better than Do Joon like Ma Hoon or the King. Besides, what else to say, just watching this gorgeous tall guy with long hair playing music (piano in Joseon dynasty, everyone???) while flirting with girls is a guilty pleasure by itself
(+) The silent war and bickering between the Head State of Councilor and Second State Councilor are delightful to watch and added to the ever increasing thrill. Outstanding jobs for veteran actors Park Ho San and Jung Jae Sung playing the antagonists.

WHAT I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT THIS DRAMA:
(-) Second Male Lead Syndrome for sure because Seo Ji Hoon's handsomeness and acting
(-) There is no or a very little character growth for Ji Hwa from bad to good. She still wants Gae Ddong to die in the last scene when Do Joon asks where Gae Ddong and Young Soo are. She probably does not change her mind because of her love for Do Joon or his words, but more of smart thinking that by telling the fact she will be saved if her father's rebellion fails. but the writer does not give enough time for Ji Hwa to undergo a tsundere transformation adequately.






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