This is already my second review titled "Amazing Villain Who Stole The Show" and it's even more true in this case. I was not a fan of this show, I'll be upfront about it. Let's break down some pros and cons, shall we?

PRO
- Gwi was an amazing villain and Lee Soo Hyuk stole the f*cking show with him. His scenes are so consistently beautiful to look at and his arc is so good that I was wondering sometimes if the whole show was written around him.
- I love the idea of a vampire story set in Joseon. I love vampires, I'm onboard with everything having to do with vampires.
- Quite enjoyable side characters. And there's a lot of them. And they all give decent performances. Special shout out to my girl Soo Hyang (played by Jang Hee Jin), and Lee Yoon (played by Changmin, who did a surprisingly solid job).
- I liked how this show looked overall. Great costumes, lots of night time scenes (which I like) and, again, Gwi looks great in every scene he's in. I know I'm repeating myself but I cannot overstate to you how sexy Lee Soo Hyuk is in this drama. There's a scene where he's splattered in blood, staring sadly into the middle distance, if you need anymore convincing to do what I did and skip through everything else and just watch his parts.

CON
- If it hadn't been for Gwi I would not have been able to finish this show. I couldn't have done this without him. And for that I'll be forever grateful to my president, vampire overlord Gwi.
- Everyone spoke incredibly slow and the shots lingered a little too long in almost every scene. To fill screentime I presume?? It was weird and awkward.
- The main couple was completely miscast, had no chemistry and were outshone by about every side character. I don't think Lee Yoo Bi was very good in this, I felt like she was phoning it in, but I've never seen her in anything else, so I don't know whether she's a more competent actor usually. Lee Joon Ki was better, but not by much. But at least he gave a decent performance. You could tell he was trying but no trying in the world would lead to these two people having any kind of chemistry and I was left wondering what the casting director was thinking putting these two together. It didn't help that Lee Joon Ki looks like he's 40 and Lee Yoo Bi looks like she could 15 and that he was constantly scolding her and ordering her around like your mom's new boyfriend drunk on power.
- The romance was terrible. I hated seeing the two leads together. And yes, this point is different from the last because this time I'm talking about the writing. By the end Lee Yoo Bi's character had barely any relevance and up until that point all they had been in together were incredibly clichéd romance scenes which you've seen a hundred times in other dramas.
- By the end it was so convoluted and I was wondering whether the screenwriters had any idea where they were going anymore. They seemed to have about four post-it notes with vague scene ideas in front of them that they kept cycling through several times per episode: "Someone gets hurt and has to be nursed back to health in a romantic way", "Gwi looking sexy and menacing (let's put effort into this guys!!)", "someone's scheming inside the palace", "the peasants are dissatisfied" and "side characters explaining what's going on and how everybody feels about that." It got very boring very quickly.

Conclusion: Watch this if you're into the vampire master brand of evil sexiness and skip everything else.

But that's just my two cents.