If this is your first historical Kdrama, then there are probably a lot of things to like about The Grand Prince, unfortunately for me this is not my first sageuk so I was mostly bored and disappointed. It's not that this drama is bad, it's just that it's very mediocre compared to many dramas with similar plots. I honestly don't think there is a single original storyline in this entire drama, and there are not many standout performances either. That's a lot of mediocre for a drama that's 20 episodes long.

I did like Yoon Shi Yoon as Prince Whi, who I would consider to be the star of this drama. He's very likable, and I think he did a good job, but the reluctant ruler being tormented by his jealous older brother plot got old quickly. If he was even a little less likable I would have dropped this drama very early on, but he had enough charisma to keep me watching.

He is matched with Jin Se Yeon as Sung Ja Hyun who was equal parts stubborn, and annoying. I don't know whether it was how she was written or how she was portrayed, but there was something that stopped me from really connecting with her character. Or maybe I've just seen the rebellious noble girl role played too many times to be impressed. There are some cute moments between them, but there's also the hidden identity trope that gets overdone so often, and a desperation to their love that sometimes seemed inauthentic. They are meant to represent a love that is determined to withstand all the odds against them, but it was as if there was a necessary intensity in their chemistry that was missing.

The ill-fated love triangle is completed by Joo Sang Wook as Prince Kang. Even though his actions scream ruthless irrational sociopath, his portrayal was pretty one note. I love a good villain, but I think he fell short by playing him so low key. Maybe that was meant to make him more sympathetic, but it just made his already cliché character kind of boring. His relationship with is uncle made him a little more interesting, but even that dynamic started to get old. I guess I have high villain expectations.

I liked this exact same triangle much better in Queen for 7 days, which is extremely similar! In fact it's so similar that there were moments where this drama damn near felt like a remake. Being such a fan of Queen for 7 days made it impossible not to hold this drama to the same standard, and in my opinion it just didn't live up to it. That might seem unfair, but I think that's the price of being such a paint by numbers drama.

There are however some characters that I think deserve to be given some praise for making the best out of a cliché situation. Lee Kang's wife was by far my favorite, and one of the most interesting, of the supporting characters . I found her character even more interesting than her husband. I also really liked Ryu Shi Gae, and how unapologetically honest she was about her feelings. She was definitely another favorite. I loved Prince Whi's bromance with the eunuch, maybe even better than the main romance. Then there's Choo Soo Hyun and Kim Mi Kyung, who I think were both totally typecast in roles they play well, but they both delivered as expected. There were other good performances too, but honestly, even with the cast doing their best to bring this story to life, they couldn't do enough to keep the story interesting from start to finish.

I will admit that I put this drama on hold for a while before finally deciding I would finish it. Instead of being satisfied by the ending, it felt more like a task I finally completed. The story does wrap up well, and there are some emotional moments that got to me, but too much of it was predictable, or something I've already seen and liked better in another drama.

Overall, this is a drama for an audience who just wants more of the same thing they already have seen and liked before, or for someone who's never seen a sageuk in their life. I predict that anyone else would be pretty underwhelmed by this one. I already found a lot of it forgettable, which would be my only real reason for watching this again, but I fear that I would drop it during a second viewing attempt.

As far as historical love triangles go, instead of Grand, I found this to be pretty "meh".