Wow! I did not expect to love this one as much as I did. It caught me by surprise, but I think this is going to be one of my top all-time dramas.

If you haven't watched a lot of sageuks (or, if the only ones you've watched lean more towards fast-paced comedy like Mr. Queen or Forbidden Marriage) I would not recommend this to start with. It is a bit slower, and I think I have only recently grown to love the genre enough that I appreciate this about it. If I were going to pick one to compare it to, I would say Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung - it strikes me as less intense than a lot of traditional sageuks when it comes to the plot, but it also it may not be as "fun" as some of the more recent historical dramas have been.

The mystery plot (and detective teamwork) was actually really intriguing and made a lot of the political portions of the drama much more refreshing than they could have been. I especially enjoyed the first chunk of the drama that had almost a contained mystery plot for each episode, and then those pieces all slowly came together for the main storyline. That being said, there were some episodes where the discoveries were dragged out to such a degree, that it made it hard to continue to be in suspense. I think this drama's greatest flaw is just that they overextended the main plot, and did not give the main romance much time to grow. I think if they had leaned into the romance a bit more, it would have balanced out those slow portions of the mystery.

That being said, where this drama really shines is the main cast. Park Hyung-Sik was AMAZING in this drama. If you are a fan of his, this drama is worth watching just for his acting. His character leans a bit more restrained (which like, is pretty par for the course for a Crown Prince character) but PHS managed to communicate so much emotion just with his eyes and body language. Also, those fight scenes omg!

Jeon So-nee and her character were immaculate. She was incredibly vibrant on screen and just captivated me in every scene she was in. My only complaint is we didn't get enough of her character in action! She was clearly incredibly intelligent and skilled, and her detective work was some of my favorite scenes. I wanted more of it (like what we had in the first few episodes of the series). Also, again, those fight scenes omg!

PHS and JSN together were great. Their banter was great, their chemistry was great, I adored it all. I just wish there was more. As I said above, I think it would've filled the gaps a bit more. Like, in some of the later scenes, there was potential for an amazing reunion moment, but it wasn't there! I think because they were so great together, those moments where there was potential to take their chemistry (even slow-burn chemistry) to the next level, really stood out. Also, the whole detective team was great, and there was some amazing character development in this show (looking at you, Sergeant)!

The ending was optimistic and full of hope in a way you don't see in a lot of historical dramas. It left me teary-eyed, just thinking of how far they had all come.

If you like historical dramas and don't mind investing some time in slow (but largely intentional) pacing, I highly recommend it.