No, there is no harem

An interesting concept terribly executed. If you expect to see a harem romance you will be disappointed. The synopsis is click-bait! Only three men from the harem showed up, while others were never even mentioned. Even so, there is NOTHING romantic between them except for the (ugly) male lead.

Story
The main story depicts Queen Dong Yi using various ways to sneak in and meet up with her legal husband (the King) against her mother's will. At the same time, her sister plots against her for the throne. The pacing was very slow and plot was predictable. In the first six episodes (that felt like filler), the Queen fools around until the conflict of the story emerges. After the first climax, conflicts are just naturally resolved without the Queen doing anything. She never suffered serious consequences. Besides, there were too many meaningless "filler" comedy scenes with no contribution to the plot.

Characters
I didn't mind the female lead being immature, but she never showcased character growth. In most conflicts, she just reverts back to her childish and carefree ways instead of taking her job serious for once. Even worse, the screenwriter tried to make the male lead stand out as quiet and mature, but he's just boring and shallow to me. The harem seems to accept the fact that the Queen has zero romantic interest in them. Supporting characters had potential to create more plot but were cut off quickly, resulting in poor build-up. The only interesting character was Doctor Dong, who was competent and quite badass.

Acting/Cast
Female lead had horrible acting. Male lead was expressionless. Supporting characters were average, including the antagonists.

Overall
I don't recommend due to weak characterization and shallow plot. The overall tone is comedic, so all sad and scheming scenes had failed to make me take them serious. When compared to Go Princess Go, which is in the same budget range, this drama is weak in every single aspect.

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What a mess

The 10-15 minutes cut from each episode doesn't do this show justice. It really turned the plot into a half-assed slice-of-life. I enjoyed the chemistry and comedic scenes. However, this show is lacking in character depth, highlights, adequacy, and completeness.

The plot holes bothered me a lot. First, we were never told Xia Yao's true motive on signing up for Yuan Zong's bodyguard academy. I thought he found the Yuan siblings annoying and didn't want anything to do with them? Xia Yao and Yuan Zong end up falling for each other, but NEVER announce their relationship or clear up misunderstandings about Xia Yao being Yuan Ru's boyfriend. This led Xuan Dayu to attack Yuan Ru for "cheating" on Xia Yao with another guy.

The inconsistency in side characters' actions also made me drop the rating. Xuan Dayu hated Wang Dashui for taking his money and was so determined in tracking him down. After learning Dashui's sad backstory, Dayu immediately forgave him and even supported him financially. And then he went on to abusing Dashui just because he was Dashui's sugar daddy. He also has an unhealthy obsession and possessiveness for Xia Yao, which makes me wonder, who even is Dayu's true love? And then Peng Ze clearly has a girlfriend, but he's also sugar babying another androgynous man. Xuan Dayu criticized Yuan Ru for cheating, but not Peng Ze? Very odd.

I was hyped up for this drama because my favorite actors were in it, but even rewatching this again couldn't make me ignore how bad the plot is.

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Poor pacing, bad screenwriting

I never bother to write reviews, unless when a wasted potential pisses me off so much that I wished I was the screenwriter instead.

First, I must praise:

The production quality is just breathtaking. You will astonished by the beauty of Song philosophy, literature, and clothing. And you will be touched by carefully-picked cast and the actors' efforts to showing the emotions of their complex characters. Well- ignoring the fact that Huaiji looks too young to be 30 and Li Wei looks too old to be 16.

Then, I will criticize:

This drama is nearly perfect in every single aspect EXCEPT for the plot. The screenwriter and director turned what was originally a story focused on the Eunuch and the Princess's romance into a COMPLETE biography of the Emperor. The Emperor was glorified into a perfect figure who never makes mistakes. We are forced to justify his actions and believe he is always right no matter how crazy and unreasonable. An anti-feudal, anti-ethics satire turned into poetry written solely to praise the Emperor?? That is so disrespectful when it comes to adapting somebody else's works.

I will admit, this drama tells a very interesting story. Interesting BUT exhausting. It's insane how they tried to cram what could have been three individual dramas into one: The emperor and politics, the empress and the harem, the princess and the eunuch. The audience alternates between multiple people's perspectives in a single episode alone, which causes information to become scattered and lose focus. From a family perspective, we see a selfish father who gets any women he wants, but married off his daughter to someone she doesn't love as compensation for his birth mother's family. However, if this was broken down into different dramas, we will get a proper, political side to the story- how the arranged marriage was actually protection for the Princess from the next Emperor-in-line.

So where is the climax? THERE IS NONE. Things just happen and we're forced to move on quickly. All the meaningful foreshadow scenes (from Huaiji's childhood) which were supposed to lead to powerful realizations were all but watered down. The climax in the novel occurs when the Princess breaks the law. But this doesn't happen in the drama until a sudden change of focus near the end of the show, with a very rushed open ending that left us in confusion. The drama ends with the Emperor's death, when there is actually more to the story.

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Terribly Flawed Last Minute Revenge Plan

Eighteen years of planning a revenge just for it to be executed so badly, and exposed so early on.

For 4/5 of the bullies, Moon Dongeun really had zero leverage over them from the beginning. She was only able to come up with a plan AFTER Son Myeongoh provided her their dirty little secrets. What made the show really hard to watch is the lack of backstory for Moon Dongeun's planning of the revenge. Things just happen and you have no idea whether it's by her own hands or somebody else. Her so called "planning" is flawed and unstable. How can she confront the antagonists boldly when she doesn't have concrete evidence on their crimes yet? She sets up traps for the antagonists and it's up to them to go against each other. In other words, she relies purely on luck.

The ending is unsatisfying with so many unaddressed loose ends. The bullies got their revenge, but the emotional damage done to them is nowhere equal to what scarred their victims. There are so many terrible crimes revealed throughout the story that were never brought to justice, or even brought to attention to the public. For example, the sex trafficking at the shaman shrine.

It's a shame that the drama doesn't expand more on school bullying, SA, and domestic violence. All the director wants to do is put focus on romance, and useless side characters. Anyone could have taught Moon Dongeun chess. The ML barely contributed. Also, what was the purpose of having Kim Kyungran stick around during adulthood if she's going to be completely useless to the plot? That woman had so much potential. Either give us a proper development, or cut off their characters completely.

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Getting better

Omg in this season they finally picked up the pacing and focused on the main characters. The timeline doesn't make sense though. Ildar started enduring Nana's abuse right away and deeply regretted marrying her, but somehow he still got her pregnant during the first 3 months. She has been blowing all of his salary every month for 6 months straight and he did nothing but scold her. It took him freaking 6 months to discover Osman's stash of cash. Some foreshadow scenes are inserted at the right times, such as aunt Senem's potential homewrecker. While others are just random, like when Mayira suspected Ildar of cheating and tried to tell Nana, but completely forgot about it after learning that Nana is pregnant. The screenwriter needs to do better.

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Plot holes everywhere

I watched this because it was recommended on Bilibili for its brilliant integration of ethnic culture with modernization. Yes, the actors and clothing are beautiful, however the plot is just trash. What even is this?
Duo falls in love with Yue at first sight and chases her around like a creepy stalker. The screenwriter tries to justify Duo and Beibei's touchiness as "stereotypical American culture," but what girl in their right mind would believe these two have nothing romantic? If I was Yue I would also think Duo is frivolous. Yue refuses to admit she's Duo's childhood friend for some mysterious reason, but this is never resolved even in the ending. There is no explanation. There are plot holes everywhere. There are random time skips. On top of that, there are so many random filler scenes with no dialogue. This feels more like a travel commercial.

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Too much filler

I watched this for Riyat Yusup, but it left me unsatisfied. The pacing is frustrating. I wanted to watch Nana get exposed and humiliated for cheating, but they keep dragging out the story with this endless list of side characters, leaving out all the good parts for season 2.

The plot is all over the place. So many names are just thrown at me randomly and too early in the story, without any introduction on how they relate to the leads. Whenever a side character is introduced, the focus suddenly shifts ENTIRELY to that character, and starts expanding on their family, then their family's friends. They decide to act out entire (useless) scenes for us to see when they could've easily described the situation in a few sentences. It's sooooo extra. Like, who wants to watch a bunch of old men gossip about their wives for almost an entire episode? Or old men educating you for 4 minutes straight on how bribery is not right (⁠ノ⁠｀⁠Д⁠´⁠)⁠ノ⁠彡⁠┻⁠━⁠┻ The ending has no closure. It ends abruptly in the middle of a filler scene, which connects gaplessly with season 2 episode 1.

I guess the only good thing about this is the acting. Nana and her mother are so bitchy and spoiled that it makes me want to slap them. The ML also has really good acting for a full-time singer.

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So bad that it deserves a remake

Only watched this because of Hit5. Sadly, much like other movies/dramas they were in, this is yet another garbage overrated by the media. Unfortunately, I never got to the end because the whole show was deleted from its original streaming platform.

Screenwriting:
Terrible pacing. Bland and predictable. Too many slow and repetitive conversations, not enough action. The plot in the first half of the show was so scattered with filler that it feels like you won't miss much if you accidentally skip one episode. However, the plot twist in the second half actually caught my attention and sped things up a little.

Characterization:
Poorly written. Protagonists lack intelligence. Antagonists lack rational and strong motives. In the beginning, Allen was an independent and arrogant female boss. After being drugged, her personality remained the same for one episode. However, after fleeing to the buffet, she is degraded to a gullible child who gets bullied and even steals out of hunger. What happened to her rich girl pride and upbringing?? Also her personality completely changed after losing her memories. How does that make any sense?!

Casting/Acting:
None of the actors could act except for the antagonists. The chemistry between Allen and Zixuan is terrible. I blame this mainly on the director, Gu Ge. He makes the actors read their lines SO FREAKING SLOW and emotionless. And now I see the importance of voice actors in c-dramas.

Music:
Very good choice of opening and ending songs. However, slideshow sound effects are used way more often than actual instrumental background music. Still, the way music is used is so subtle that it can't even set the tone of dramatic scenes, so I'd rather have it the Indian soap opera way.

Here is the story if you wanted to know, just how bad can it be?

Main Story (Episodes 1-32):
Allen Huo, whose family owns HOTA Corporation, comes home from the America after her father's passing. She abruptly breaks up with lawyer Zixuan. After finding out about butler Liang Yongtai's greed, she quickly destroys the magnetic card to her family vault. However, this backfires as Yongtai takes control by gradually drugging her. One day, Allen regains consciousness and runs away. She faints on the streets and is saved by Cao Ming, a filmmaker working under SEO. At the hospital, Allen is diagnosed with amnesia and renames herself Yatong. She goes under bartender Li Zheming's care and they fall in love. However, all of this is under Yongtai's watch as he lies to everyone about Allen's whereabouts and even sends servants to steal Allen's secret mail to Zixuan sent before she lost her memories. Around a month earlier, Allen promised to be a judge for SEO's upcoming talent show. Yongtai tells SEO's president Gao De that Allen is in America, and lures Cao Ming into finding a doppelganger to take Allen's place. Yatong finds an anonymous letter from her email telling her to cooperate when Cao Ming finds her, and to swap something from the talent show. Through all sorts of training, she slowly regains Allen's arrogant personality. And then the PLOT TWIST happens (I'm not spoiling it). After seeing Allen on TV, Zixuan asks Cao Ming for a ticket to the talent show. Ruina, believing that Yatong was pretending to be Allen, sneaks in and attempts to expose Yatong's real identity as a waitress before being dragged out by security. Zixuan was there to defend Yatong, but is shocked when Yatong doesn't recognize him.

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