Loved it!

This show wasn't what I was expecting at all. I really don't understand the low rating! I suspect it's from people who are (understandably) turned off by the sociopathic traits. Yeah it's in pretty bad taste to give a ML sociopathic traits, but the entire theme of the show is about misunderstandings, and he's majorly misunderstood - and while we shouldn't expect someone like him to be "misunderstood" in real life, it's just a drama people. I feel this show in general is misunderstood. It's about young characters in a high school setting, and comes across as something lighthearted at surface level, yet is all about very mature and complex subjects. I can see how some audiences could be put off. I absolutely LOVED it. Each episode kept me hooked from scene to scene. I'm already a huge fan of SKJ and I went into it expecting major second lead syndrome. That didn't disappoint...but I also totally felt the chemistry with the ML who was actually very sweet. A must see, just don't go into it expecting a fluffy high school drama.

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Cute

This is a cute and very lighthearted drama with a great cast. I've been a fan of Kim Min Jae ever since Do You Like Brahms, and he really shows his range here. This show has a whimsical vibe with outstanding costume design, if that's your thing, and the performances are pretty great. The story is simple, a rich creditor falls for his debtor who's fallen on hard times, and the plot was entertaining enough to keep me engaged from one episode to the next. However I've noticed a few flaws, such as some jokes and scenes of attempted chemistry falling short, but overall it's one of the best shows airing right now and definitely worth watching a few episodes to see if it hooks you.

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One of the slowest dramas I've ever seen

This drama seems to have raving fans so I'll probably get attacked, but oh well.

I feel very deceived by the ratings. I am a fan of the FL, but the first 5 episodes were unbelievably boring. Extremely slow family politics. I heard it got better after episode 4, so I kept watching, but nope. In episode 6 they at least went somewhere different and something started happening (still very slow though) and the leads were finally in the same frame for a second. By then I already knew this drama just isn't for me. Maybe those who love it so much are much younger than me and that explains the difference of opinion. I found it excruciating.

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I watched this when it first aired and ended up dropping it around episode 3-4. Since then I've kept trying to pick it back up and every time I do, I end up almost falling asleep or my finger finds the ff button. The ML is one of my favorite actors. This was his comeback drama after the military, so maybe that's partly why it received such a high rating. He's one of the reasons I keep wanting this drama to click for me like it seems to for so many people. But it's incredibly boring. As much as I want to, I honestly cannot see where the hype is coming from. I can only take watching people walk around their apartments talking about nothing relevant for so long.

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Unpopular opinion, but I couldn't get into this drama. I thought it was mediocre at best. Maybe it's because I'm generally not into fantasy, which (obviously) this is. But even aside from the fantasy elements, there was something about it that kept me from caring about the characters and feeling anything for them. I didn't feel truly drawn into the story and I couldn't quite pinpoint why.
A big part of it might have been the FL. I'm not a fan, she always does the same dead fish look with a blank expression and her mouth hanging open in almost every scene. Her character here has good backstory and she showed a bit more acting skill for sure, but the personality she had her character portray was godawful. Cold, flat, boring, almost masculine and I didn't feel any chemistry from her when it came to her interactions with the ML. I dropped it at episode 7.
I thought the ML was a different story; he was the one character who kept me watching. He's a good actor and his character actually had dimension and personality. But the romance was very elusive and a mess. He likes her, but does she like him, or the crown prince, or her childhood sweetheart....? Does she even have feelings for anyone at all, since she never shows any emotion?? Idk the whole drama was enough to keep me kind of interested and keep hoping it got better, but overall bored me. I kept having to fast forward long palace conversations. Something would occasionally happen to make the plot seem like it was going somewhere exciting, but then they'd cut to scenes of one of other several side characters and the little exciting twist wouldn't amount to much.

If you're in the target age group for kdrama fantasy and enjoy the genre though, you'll probably like it.

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This is way overrated imo. It felt like this drama was trying way too hard from start to finish. If just watching gloomy-looking people with no backstory or context makes you feel something and think that makes a good drama, then you'll love this, because everyone except 1 of the MLs just naturally looks miserable af in every scene. Lots of things were over the top and unrealistic, like bullies drugging someone with a fetanyl patch as a joke. I have a hard time believing something like that would actually happen, and we got no deeper reason except they were just supposed to be so evil that they'd get pleasure out of drugging someone, and we also get zero context as to why they start targeting him so much except he basically looks at them the wrong way. There is depth missing here, it's very lazy writing. And ML just gets a little woozy and then is completely fine and nothing else happens from the drug, but then just starts slapping himself? And cut scene, that's it? Speaking of weird actions, I didn't really like ML, his actions such as that were largely unexplained. He came across as more crazy than a sympathetic hero. He's supposed to be a pushover but then starts going around defending himself with a pen. Sorry I found it pretty cheesy.

I see this being compared to DP, which is a masterpiece...both these dramas are melodramas whose OSTs feature the same artist (Meego), but that's where the similarities end.

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This drama suffers from bad writing and that's all there is to it. I also have no idea why they'd make Junho's character so cold and downright mean. It goes beyond the usual enemies to lovers trope, he's a total jerk to her and he's grumpy all the time. Miserable and unlikeable character, and that's saying a lot coming from me, Junho is one of my favorite actors.

There's nothing especially bad about the plot, but there's nothing really good either. There is such a mishmash of elements in this show it feels like the writer just threw a bunch of plot points together. "Do we want it to be about a girl's relationship with her horse? Ok, but only for a couple episodes. Now it'll focus on learning to cook with a gangster plotline in the background. Then we're going to focus on the ML being a jerk. Then a little bit of love triangle, then random side stories of cooks who work in the kitchen, then some gangster fights in the kitchen." On and on, that's basically the show.

I can't write a much more elaborate review than that because there's not much more to this show, and honestly it was so meh overall that I don't have the desire. Junho himself did great with what he had to work with as always, and the few opportunities he was given to show some chemistry with FL were done well between them. I hope he leaves this one in the past and continues to choose better projects from now on (I'm optimistic since Just Between Lovers and The Red Sleeve).

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Not for me.

I tried twice and both times I could never get into it. I think this drama is targeted at a much younger generation, a big factor being so much emphasis on gaming. Literally so much of the show revolves around gaming, and it just does not interest me to watch lengthy scenes of characters sitting and playing on their phones and discussing video games. The ML, while super hot, was totally stone faced, although maybe that changes as the show progresses. It didn't during the episodes I watched, he barely made a facial expression once. As if that wasn't enough the plot itself was not very clear in the middle of all the gaming they kept showing, and her tricking ML into meeting offline and then constantly being so forward with him all the time came off as kind of weird and uncomfortable. The visuals were great though especially for a cdrama.

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Not worth it

I was so excited for this drama and the first 2 episodes did not let me down. They were dark and mysterious with a thrilling vibe thrown in. Awesome. Then episode 3 hit and they pulled the old switchero of kdramaland, which always leaves me feeling deceived as if they were just trying to use the first couple of episodes to hook me. You know when the first few episodes of some shows are super exciting and then suddenly the pace slows wayyy down? This show did that, but on steroids. Nothing actually ever happened again. The show did a 360 and went from a unique thriller/romance/mystery to a romcom, a boring one. Literally it went from an exciting murder mystery to sitting on the beach talking about nothing to do with the plot. Characters just walking around. Even scenes of them dressing up for Halloween (what does this have to do with a murder mystery again?) You get the point.

It has some amazing cinematography, but that doesn't make up for the dud plot. The performances were decent, but there was no real chemistry between the leads, and the only one who gave a performance really worth watching was the villain. I made it to episode 6 and couldn't do this to myself anymore. There are much better shows to spend 16 hours on.

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JCW is a great actor. I dropped this because I absolutely despised the FL. It’s funny, I like the actress in interviews, but something about the characters she plays on screen always rub me the wrong way. I really couldn’t stand this one, maybe more than any FL in my history of watching dramas. She’s basically a cheater, a hippie playgirl who skirts all responsibilities and commitment like she’s allergic to it, leads men on, acts all bubbly and “free spirited” in a way that men are supposed to just swoon head over heels for, I could go on but I don’t even want to waste my time talking about her. Just no. And the ML is supposed to be so smitten with her that this is somehow all okay or even charming. She is the definition of toxic and the ML's mental health and happiness got completely destroyed. It got so frustrating that I didn’t care if her character ends up being redeemed or not. The documentary style was also jarring to the story and got old fast. I hope JCW continues picking good projects instead of ones like this, he's definitely one of Korea's best actors and deserves the best roles that show his range.

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Pros:
Cute premise.
Leads did pretty well with their rolls considering.

Cons:
This story is really poorly done. A complete lack of intriguing plot, or even any plot whatsoever, is causing me to drop this at episode 4. Up to this point it's been nothing more than a mash of random slice of life events, it's so dull there are even entire scenes centered around the FL having casual and pointless conversations with strangers in street markets. Conversations which of course have nothing to do with the plot, because there is none apart from the extroverted ghost possessing the introverted weak girl. Other random scenes include cooking meals, kitchen staff goofing around with each other, even going on a tv show...all which lead nowhere or have anything to do with propelling any kind of story forward.

I've never seen a romance take this long to begin either, even at episode 4 their interactions are always: FL acting obnoxious and ML acting like he despises her, without even so much as a hint of romantic interest.

I've seen stills of their kiss scenes which have kept me watching hoping for chemistry, but I can't take much more of this.

Update: Well I ended up pushing through those first 4 episodes and by episode 5 it finally started to pick up. Episodes 5 and on are very good and definitely worth watching. This was such a strange slow start, I'd almost recommend not even watching the first 4 episodes, they're fast forward-able at most. The story now is really good and the ML is a great actor. Raising my rating to 9.5/10

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This drama peaked at the end of episode 7.

...Which sucks, because that was just when it was really getting good.

The positive things about this drama:

OST. Phenomenal, stylistic and perfectly mood-setting.
Cinematography.
Acting. Even from the supporting characters.
Overall the production and styling were outstanding.

But it's not without its flaws. Mostly coming from the writing. At times the plot focuses on stellar action packed episodes full of tension between the gang and cops, and among gang members, others it diverts to the "romance" (whatever the hell you want to call this dysfunctional love square) for what feels like nonstop scenes or even entire episodes on end. The love square here became insufferable in episodes 8 and 9 and didn't let up. The show went from brilliant in episodes 1-7 to the leader of the gang just wanting Joonmo's wife. They really threw away his entire character development.

"Double dates" abound. The tension they were going for got really repetitive. How many times is Bibi going to show up when Joonmo is with Kichul and FL and taunt them for long scenes at a dinner table? How many times is the director going to have Joonmo give jealous glares? It became boring and awful, and this is from a romantic tension lover. Usually I can't get enough. This drama would have been SO much stronger without Joonmo's wife being involved.

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I hate it when you don't get what other people see in highly rated dramas, but this is one of those dramas for me.

I totally enjoyed the first episode, it was thrilling and set up a great killer mystery plot. Then they pulled the 180/time jump/complete style shift/slow down that you usually get when they try to hook you with an awesome first episode. Episode 2 was like a different show. I almost didn't make it through episode 2 because it lost me that much, but I forced myself to episode 3 because of the reviews. It hadn't hooked me by then so I dropped it. The plot went from thrilling and fast paced in episode 1 to slow and a little comical. It just didn't do it for me.

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After finishing the first episode, I could tell why this was rated so highly: It's very heartwarming. It is sweet and inspirational watching an elderly man find passion in something late in life and prove to the world that he can do it despite his limitations or what anyone else may think. Yes indeed. But that alone isn't really what makes a drama "good" or necessarily watchable to me.

I continued through episode 4 and felt pretty bored. There's not much more to this drama IMO than excellent production value and that heartwarming-ness it has going for it. Plot is very slow. Wasn't for me.

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