1
Jessica
Through the looking-glass
The Potential Was There
Oh how excited I was for this series given the setting and great potential. But oh how quickly that excitement faded when, in the very first episode, I already felt lost and like I had been thrust into the middle of a drama that had been airing for weeks already. (When I tell you I checked the episode number numerous times and even came to the comments here to confirm that episode 1 was indeed that disorienting....).
I guess the biggest critique I have is that it felt like the writers were trying to squeeze too many conflicts and storylines in at once instead of focusing on one that was most important. In a roughly 80-90 minute production, did we really need to see those meddlesome intrusions from Jin Hee and Tae Hyung? No. If anything, they took away from the story rather than adding to it. I much would have preferred the time being spent on developing Ho Sun and Ki Won's relationship and/or diving more into the (albeit slight) political nature of this kind of set up. This felt rushed in a way that other Korean BLs of the same length did not. It also felt slightly underdeveloped, like the beginnings of an idea that took off too soon. The concept was there. The execution and solid plot development was not. This felt more like a collection of slice-of-life one shots in the back of a manga than a fully realized story.
The acting was fine except that I felt no romantic chemistry between the leads whatsoever. I blame this in part on the writing and lack of attention devoted to building that much-needed tension between the leads, but I also think Kang In Soo is to blame, as I felt that the other BL he starred in (Wish You) lacked romantic chemistry as well (meanwhile, I absolutely adored Lee See Jin's romance in Mr. Heart).
Overall, I'd still recommend, mainly because it's so short and not much of a time commitment. I really liked this premise of having a sageuk BL and wish the creators here were given the time and space to really flesh this drama out the way a complex historical drama should be. But props to them for trying and for giving us a setting and storyline that we haven't necessarily seen before in this drama. I give it one thumb up.
I guess the biggest critique I have is that it felt like the writers were trying to squeeze too many conflicts and storylines in at once instead of focusing on one that was most important. In a roughly 80-90 minute production, did we really need to see those meddlesome intrusions from Jin Hee and Tae Hyung? No. If anything, they took away from the story rather than adding to it. I much would have preferred the time being spent on developing Ho Sun and Ki Won's relationship and/or diving more into the (albeit slight) political nature of this kind of set up. This felt rushed in a way that other Korean BLs of the same length did not. It also felt slightly underdeveloped, like the beginnings of an idea that took off too soon. The concept was there. The execution and solid plot development was not. This felt more like a collection of slice-of-life one shots in the back of a manga than a fully realized story.
The acting was fine except that I felt no romantic chemistry between the leads whatsoever. I blame this in part on the writing and lack of attention devoted to building that much-needed tension between the leads, but I also think Kang In Soo is to blame, as I felt that the other BL he starred in (Wish You) lacked romantic chemistry as well (meanwhile, I absolutely adored Lee See Jin's romance in Mr. Heart).
Overall, I'd still recommend, mainly because it's so short and not much of a time commitment. I really liked this premise of having a sageuk BL and wish the creators here were given the time and space to really flesh this drama out the way a complex historical drama should be. But props to them for trying and for giving us a setting and storyline that we haven't necessarily seen before in this drama. I give it one thumb up.
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