Maid to Order

Despite the intriguing setup focusing on the lives of servants, the drama missed the mark when it came to delivering a good dynamic storytelling between maids and nobles. It felt like a jigsaw puzzle scattered all over the place with no clear picture, just random bits and pieces all jumbled up from the typical lens of servants and maids back then. I don't think they did a good job with their portrayal that servants/maids are equal as people. Honestly, I was left hanging, craving some real depth and a solid story from what could've been something different and unique.

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Lee Je Hoon but at what cost?

The drama just didn't hit the spot for me. It had all these grand plans to dive deep into history and stir up political intrigue, but somehow, it lost its way in keeping things engaging. There were these bits here and there that had me hooked, they were pretty intriguing. But the storytelling was all over the place, and the characters barely had time to develop. That lack of consistency seriously put a damper on my enjoyment. I was left feeling like there was this untapped potential, they could've given us more depth and made everything gel together better. Anyway, the ending felt like it was missing some scenes before the credits; not smooth.

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Couldn't shine, remained mad and crazy!

Ignore the ending, the prologue itself was appalling and distasteful enough to eliminate my expectations despite the drama having Jang Hyuk on deck. Speaking of which, once again, Jang Hyuk is playing the same character from The Slave Hunters (2010), if you've seen that one then you know what's up. Characters, while initially intriguing, suffered from inconsistent development. The pacing felt uneven, with moments of rushed storytelling followed by prolonged and uneventful sequences, disrupting the overall momentum of the show. The whole poison plot was painful to tolerate and sit through. The story was so terrible it just kept getting worse with every episode. The last 4 episodes in particular were poorly planed, marking them as the worst part of the drama. Once again, Jang Hyuk wasn't enough to save this drama although he was the only highlight.

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Dog of war

They shouldn't have had made Wol Ah / An Shim be played by the same actress regardless of their intent to have have them share resemblance to one another. Wol Ah had her own role and was a turning point in the story. Since An Shim came to the picture, up until the end she was nothing but Wol Ah's replacement and had no real character. The drama, unsurprisingly, shared a common problem with others of the same genre. The drama started with the backstory and the hero journey but later on it striped the personal attachments and turned it into a battlefield between nations instead of mixing both elements together. It got turned around the other way back and forth 4 more times, making each transition more jarring than the last. This is why there was a massive disconnect after the timeskip in the early second 1/3. In addition, the last 15 episodes were too long to endure.

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The great bore

The first paragraph of the synopsis felt like and turned out to be a big copium moment to whoever wrote it. The first couple of episodes started with a big bang, big sets, big budgets, a few sex scenes here and there, a casual killing for the sake of it, and a god awful laughable open mouth kissing scene. It was obvious they were trying to pull all the strings to attract viewers because none of that lasted shortly after. The cast performance was attractive at first before they turned into generic soulless zombies right after the first half. In fact, the second half in general was a significant downgrade in all regards. It was almost incomparable to the first half. It became as dull as you can imagine without any "character" left in these characters. They stripped every ounce of character from Ji Sung.The trend continued towards the end since it ended abruptly, I refuse to believe this was planned. When zooming out and looking into the drama as a whole, nothing seems to be properly planned from the beginning.

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A surprise

We almost never see a historical drama led by the commoners. This drama came out in 1996 but it has such a fresh and interesting take on the entire genre to this very day! However, it's not perfect, its biggest problem is that it's bloated with too many side stories carried by less interesting characters which delayed getting to good parts. The drama didn't fully focus on Im Kkeok Jung until the 2nd half. The set design was decent for 1996. The set was reasonably lit at night while taking into consideration they used to use candles instead of high beam studio lights back then!

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A clone!

The drama had a weak and uninteresting start but it managed to pick itself back up after some time. Some patients' stories didn't blend well with what was going on and it passed off as an interruption. It shares a lot of similarities with Jewel in the Palace (2003) but with a less attractive cast. Not only that but it also shares the same problems Jewel in the Palace (2003) had had. You may refer to my comment there. The drama is a remake of the original back in 1999. There was no specific fundamental issues with the base story to prompt a remake. There were too many identical copy-pasted scenes and jokes, they don't take any creative freedom with the core story/scenes to make the remake worthwhile. Although the remake is longer but this came at the expense of its pace since the extended content was poorly utilized and made it a worse experience overall. A lot of over exaggeration/dramatization and a lot less human. I hoped the remake would have a better written ending but no, it was identical frame by frame to the original. I prefer the original over the remake for its roughness, rawness and concise cut, it makes for a better watch.

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Decent enough

The drama had a weak and uninteresting start but it managed to pick itself back up after some time. Some patients' stories didn't blend well with what was going on and it passed off as an interruption. It shares a lot of similarities with Jewel in the Palace (2003) but with a less attractive cast. Not only that but it also shares the same problems Jewel in the Palace (2003) had had. You may refer to my comment there. In comparison, I would nudge this one slightly higher since it had a more raw feeling to it. The drama also had a modern remake back in 2013. There was no specific fundamental issues with the base story to prompt a remake. There were too many identical copy-pasted scenes and jokes, they don't take any creative freedom with the core story/scenes to make the remake worthwhile. Although the remake is longer but this came at the expense of its pace since the extended content was poorly utilized and made it a worse experience overall. A lot of over exaggeration/dramatization and a lot less human. I hoped the remake would have a better written ending but no, it was identical frame by frame to the original. I prefer this version over the remake for its roughness, rawness and concise cut, it makes for a better watch.

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Not quite there...

The drama had one of the worst introductions out there. You can never expect anyone to be interested after watching the first 4 episodes. As if they were purposefully made to push viewers away. Anyway, the drama had some brilliant and creative moments at times but all of that was overshadowed by the dominant hot garbage moments. You may expect something worse than Oblivion NPC's level of dialogue and directing. All of the three male leads sucked and disappointed. There was a big massive slump between episodes 35-45 that was rough to get through. Villains and ending were meh.

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Very low rewatching value...

Although there were good moments but the pacing was unbearable. Too many episodes were completely useless and insanely boring. I guarantee your favorite characters won't be getting enough screen time. They had all the time they would need but random scenes of random soldiers were more important, i guess. Some high moments didn't quite deliver after a very long build up which made waiting for the next big moment more tiring. I can't say the time investment is worth it with this drama. The production seems to be acceptable for 2003 Korean TV production. But I wish for something higher than 480p would make it to the internet.

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Coffee innit....

A decent concept but the drama didn't hit well with me. I didn't like either of the main leads nor was I interested in their boring sappy personal story. The support characters and their stories were slightly better. You better off just drink a cup of coffee anyway.

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On the verge of meh-ness...

Although it's politically themed drama but it's a watered-down surface-level politics and the excessive overdramatization didn't fit its theme. Repeating the exact same dramatic flashbacks multiple times throughout both seasons further highlights my point. It ended up relying on these melo moments rather than having a better written political drama and a more engaging dialogues as you would expect from a good political drama to have. What also didn't fit its theme is the male lead constant overreacting and overacting for his role. The romance of the main leads and the pair up of the secondary leads were all out of place. On the other hand, the OST was nice, it reminded me of Comrades (2010). The drama is okay if it was your first political drama, can serve as an easy introduction to the genre.

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Weaker than expected

No matter how you look at it, the drama was a missed opportunity for something much better. It's a very dumbed-down secondhand tacky "be careful what you wish for" type of story. Little to no dynamic between the female lead and the witch until the last episode. The introduction of the female lead and her "wish" was definitely a weak start for the drama. Poorly written and executed love interest for the female lead, it wouldn't have been an issue if they didn't give her a trashy pair up but instead something that would serve the narrative and the resolution better. None of the clients were interesting and the outcome was always lacking the x-factor other than the obvious trade off of the deal. At least the drama looked nice and the cast was good enough.

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It's 20 stories mashed into one...

The drama was a one big tournament of who had it the worst. Whose misery is worse than the next person? Who should be the saddest? Who is the least fortunate? It was a constant competition where everyone was competing for these misery points. This is the drama's biggest downfall, having a handful of "sad" stories competing against the main story of the trio. It misses up with the emotional direction the characters were meant to carry and shifts the focus outside the scoop of the drama. It was nothing but laughable and disingenuous when a certain character had to react to 2 sad events at once. The problem also extends to the casual relationships of everyone around them. There was simply just too much interference with the main story to make the drama work. Outside of the misery, there were a few romantic plot-lines that didn't have a place but was forced anyway. Mi Jo & Seon Woo had a full romance story along side all of the sadness going around. It wouldn't be much of a problem if it was good but their story and romance was tasteless, uncomfortable, tacky and most importantly, lacking the chemistry, easily the worst part of the drama. The drama was also leaning a bit too much onto throwing in a handful of plot conveniences when it really didn't need to. These instances could've been written naturally and it wouldn't stick out as much. The most obvious example was Seon Woo's introduction and his initial connection to other characters. The drama sure does look pretty and attractive but lacks a defining identity. The main trio were good while the rest of the support cast were okay.

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Bad

It's nothing but a dreadful watch, following this piece of artificial soulless junk made me wonder why some cast members, who are well off, accept such projects. I feel like somewhere not too long ago writers stopped trying when it came to these high-society themed dramas. A squeaky clean wardrobe, a massive mansion and a handful of dirty secrets won't cut it anymore. The shallowness and the lack of substance made a killer combo for a mind numbing experience. The drama's message absolutely wasn't worth 20 episodes to tell its tale nor was it interesting or entertaining to follow. In fact, they did a goddamn poor job in that regard. I'm fairly certain if you were to pick up any random drama from Park Soo Ae or Kim Kang Woo catalog it would be a guaranteed better watch than whatever this was.

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