u/harissatotally

The meat was THERE! Why did nobody suck it???

⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️

Rating: 6/10.

RING RING!!

Hello? Yes, I'd like to report several missed opportunities. 📞

____

Review:

When the Phone Ring was... decent for the most part. Not horrible.

And I think thats what makes this one a little frustrating, cause there were moments where I could see a MUCH better drama hiding inside this one.

For a little grounding context on where I was in my K-drama journey when I watched this, my viewing habits had become absolute CHAOTIC MESS by this point😭 I had just finished Crazy Love, was still making my way through It's Okay to Not Be Okay, and at that point watching one drama from beginning to end before starting another was no longer something I believed in...

So When the Phone Rings ended up getting caught in the rotation too. I started it, paused it to go back and finish It's Okay to Not Be Okay, got distracted by My Dearest, and eventually came back and finished it.

Which is probably pretty representative of how I felt about this drama. There were things here that absolutely grabbed me, but not enough to make everything else disappear.

There were ideas here that I genuinely loved.

There were moments where I was completely locked in.

There were moments where I thought, OH??? NOW WE'RE COOKING.

And then the drama would just... not suck the meat out of them.

Because that is genuinely my biggest problem with When the Phone Rings.

406 WAS THE BEST PART OF THIS ENTIRE DRAMA.

And I really wish they had done more with it.

The moment Hong Hee-joo gathered up the courage to start calling Baek Sa-eon as 406, I was INVESTED!!!!

Because think about the situation she was in.

This woman had just been kidnapped.

her HUSBAND is called during the kidnapping, and this man basically responds with that whole dismissive "call me when there's a corpse..."

EXCUSE ME??? hellooo!???

And then she survives, gets access to the kidnapper's phone, and realizes she suddenly has this anonymous way of speaking to her husband.

Oh, the POSSIBILITIES!!! the juicy, juicy meat waiting to be sucked!!!

husband cruelly dismisses wife in danger, wife hears that and decides to play with him and make him!!!

i was SEATED for something like this!!

She starts pretending to be 406. She starts making demands. She starts pushing him toward divorcing her. And for once, this woman who has spent years trapped inside this bizarre marriage and family situation has some actual power over him.

I LOVED THAT.

i loved seeing her become brave enough to call him.

i loved watching her say things to him that she couldn't say as his wife.

i loved the reversal of their usual dynamic.

and most importantly, I wanted her to GO FURTHER!!!

If she genuinely wanted out of this marriage, MAKE HIM SWEAT!!!

If she was angry about the way he treated her, MAKE HIM REGRET IT.

And once he realized that his own wife had heard what he'd said while she was literally being held hostage???

i wanted CONSEQUENCES.

i wanted shock.

i wanted guilt.

i wanted him realizing just how badly he'd hurt her.

i wanted that entire situation to force him to confront what their marriage had become and how his behavior contributed to it.

There was SO MUCH JUICY MEAT THERE!!!

AND THEY DID NOT SUCK IT!!!!

Instead, the 406 storyline eventually becomes another vehicle for the romance, and Hee-joo never takes it nearly as far as I wanted her to.

the romance then became a bit weak to me!

Which is especially frustrating because this was easily the most interesting version of her character to me.

-

The chemistry wasn't horrible...?

Was I sitting there thinking these two had some of the best chemistry I've ever seen?

No.

Their KISSES, though???

okay.

Those were GOOD. hehehehehe 🫦 😊

Like... GOOD good.

and tbh, the kissing probably made me perceive their chemistry as stronger than I otherwise would've, because those scenes absolutely worked for me.

But overall, I just didn't feel that overwhelming romantic pull that would've made me obsessed with them as a couple.

And again, I think part of that comes back to the writing.

There were so many opportunities to create more tension inside this marriage.

INCLUDING THE SECOND MALE LEAD.

Because I genuinely thought for a while that they might actually use him as a romantic foil.

And I would've LOVED THAT.

You have this emotionally complicated marriage, a husband who hasn't exactly made his wife feel loved, and another man who could potentially become someone she turns toward?

HELLO??? RING RING!!

Make Baek Sa-eon JEALOUS, pls!

Make him realize his wife is not guaranteed to stay there forever.

Make him see that another man could potentially treat her better.

Give me some actual competition!

But nope...

They basically went, "Anyway, let's pair him with the news anchor."

And I was just sitting there like...

Okay???

😭

I didn't care about them together.

I cared about him insofar as he could've complicated the main relationship.

Once that possibility disappeared, so did my interest in whatever romantic storyline they wanted to give him.

And then... ARGON.

LMFAOOOOOO😭😭😭

I genuinely don't know what happened here.

We get to the LAST EPISODE and suddenly we're going to a fictional foreign country experiencing a WAR???

HUH???

WHERE DID THIS COME FROM???

😭😭😭

It was so unbelievably out of left field that I was actually laughing.

And yet...

I LIKED IT???

I'm sorry!

i know it's ridiculous!

I know it feels like somebody accidentally attached the finale of a completely different drama!

But i was entertained! Sue me!!

Suddenly we're overseas. There's a war. There's danger. There's a rescue mission. Everyone in this fake-ass country apparently speaks English???

WHAT IS HAPPENING???

But you know what?

I was having fun.

😭😭

It was bizarre, but it was also one of the most exciting parts of the entire drama for me.

And I actually liked seeing the story suddenly become bigger and more dangerous, even if I have absolutely no idea why they decided to introduce all of this in EPISODE TWELVE!!!!!

i did really like the ending, though.

Especially that little dinner scene with Sa-eon after everything was over.

Seeing him with his former employees, with his new name and this new version of his life, was genuinely cute.

I liked seeing everyone together after all the insanity.

And i liked getting to see Hee-joo and Sa-eon actually exist as a couple outside of the circumstances that originally created their marriage.

It was a lil sweet.

But ultimately...

6/10...

When the Phone Rings wasnt horrible.

That's almost what makes it worse.

Because I can see all the ingredients for a drama I would've liked significantly more.

The anonymous 406 calls.

A wife secretly confronting her husband.

A marriage that desperately needed to be shaken up.

A husband who could've been forced to truly reckon with how hed treated his wife.

A potential second male lead threatening that marriage.

Hot kisses.

A RANDOM INTERNATIONAL WAR???

THE MATERIAL WAS THERE! THE MEAT WAS BEGGING TO BE SUCKED!

But so many of the things I found most interesting either ended too quickly, weren't pushed far enough, or went in a direction I cared about less.

I kept wanting the drama to dig deeper into its own best ideas.

It just... wouldn't.

EDIT: Something else I forgot to mention...

Hee-joo's meekness DID bother me at first.

I kept wanting this woman to STAND UP!!!! 😭 but eventually I just kinda accepted that maybe that's simply part of who she is?

And i definitely don't think her being mute automatically means she should be meek. If anything, I interpreted it more as something she'd grown into after YEARS of being treated the way she was.

her mother literally conditioned her to stay quiet. She'd spent so much of her life being controlled, silenced, pushed around, and made to take up as little space as possible.

So... okay. I can understand how someone raised under those circumstances might become extremely passive.

That's actually another reason I loved 406 so much!!

Because we got this little glimpse of a different Hee-joo.

She was a little bold and was making demands and was saying shit to her husband shed never have the courage to say to his face.

And I really thought that was going to be the beginning of her becoming more assertive in general.

Especially once she got her voice back.

I dont necessarily think she needed to suddenly become a completely different person, because maybe she really is just naturally soft-spoken and reserved. That's fine.

But I would've loved to see more of that 406 confidence permanently bleed into Hee-joo.

Like girl, you found your voice LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY!!! USE IT!!! 😭

And I think I finally figured out what wasn't completely clicking for me with the chemistry either.

I already said their chemistry wasn't too horrible and their KISSES absolutely worked for me.

But outside of those moments, I never completely bought into them.

And... I think some of that might've been the acting.

I just didn't find either lead particularly strong here.

There were scenes where I understood exactly what the drama WANTED me to feel between them, but I wasn't always feeling it from the performances themselves.

The kisses could sell the some physical chemistry... but the acting didn't always sell the emotional chemistry to me.

And I think that's the distinction I was struggling to put my finger on when I originally wrote this.

---

My Rating Scale

10/10 – Masterpiece. No notes.

9/10 – Very close to a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.

8/10 – Not a masterpiece, but I loved it.

7/10 – Fine overall. I liked it, but the flaws kept it from being great.

6/10 – Mixed. There were a few things I liked, but most of it didn't work for me.

5/10 – I didn't enjoy most of the experience.

4/10 and below – Bad to abysmal.

i planned to kill her but unfortunately I have developed Feelings™

i have an itch I need a drama to scratch

I want the villain, antagonist, morally gray guy, whatever you want to call him, to fall for the FL.

And I mean actually fall for her. I want the longing. The obsession. The jealousy. Him protecting her when he absolutely should not be. Him having plans that suddenly go out the window because SHE is involved. That whole "this man is objectively terrible but unfortunately the chemistry is chemistrying" situation 😭

And to be clear, I do NOT need them to end up together!!

He doesn't have to be the ML. He doesn't have to get the girl. They don't even have to kiss. I genuinely do not care lol. I just need there to be actual romantic &/or sexual tension/chemistry between them (preferred but im more preoccupied with him being obsessed/in love with her) and for HIM to genuinely develop feelings for her.

the more inconvenient his feelings are, the better😭😭 the man I know I probably shouldn't be rooting for but every time they have a scene together I'm like...wait a minute 👀

Basically I also want recs when im just sitting there questioning why the VILLAIN has this much chemistry with her

pls give me your recs!!

ill prioritize

"villain FALLS for her and she becomes his weakness"

"He's literally trying to destroy everyone else, but he can't bring himself to hurt HER."

IDEAL REC:

"He's literally the antagonist and spends most of the show trying to ruin everyone, but he becomes obsessed with her and she's the only person he won't sacrifice"

i planned to kill her but unfortunately I have developed Feelings™

i have an itch I need a drama to scratch lol.

I want the villain, antagonist, morally gray guy, whatever you want to call him, to fall for the FL.

And I mean actually fall for her. I want the longing. The obsession. The jealousy. Him protecting her when he absolutely should not be. Him having plans that suddenly go out the window because SHE is involved. That whole "this man is objectively terrible but unfortunately the chemistry is chemistrying" situation 😭

And to be clear, I do NOT need them to end up together!!

He doesn't have to be the ML. He doesn't have to get the girl. They don't even have to kiss. I genuinely do not care lol. I just need there to be actual romantic &/or sexual tension/chemistry between them (preferred but im more preoccupied with him being obsessed/in love with her) and for HIM to genuinely develop feelings for her.

the more inconvenient his feelings are, the better😭😭 the man I know I probably shouldn't be rooting for but every time they have a scene together I'm like...wait a minute 👀

Basically I also want recs when im just sitting there questioning why the VILLAIN has this much chemistry with her

pls give me your recs!!

ill prioritize

"villain FALLS for her and she becomes his weakness"

"He's literally trying to destroy everyone else, but he can't bring himself to hurt HER."

IDEAL REC:

"He's literally the antagonist and spends most of the show trying to ruin everyone, but he becomes obsessed with her and she's the only person he won't sacrifice"

starting crash landing on you kdrama tonight!

lets hope it lives up to my expectations and its popularity!!

in other words, lets hope i love it!

she cooked, she ATE, i DEVOURED

___

⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️

9/10.

This was superb.

I was tempted to bump it up to a 9.5 solely because Kang Mok-ju has possibly the prettiest chin dimple I have ever seen in my life.

But I will refrain.

I have to be fair here...

After all, she IS an evil concubine with absolutely no qualms about murdering and hurting other women.

so unfortunately a cute chin dimple can only get you so far with me when your victims are women.

9 it remains. 😭

-

Review:

Okay...

It's been weeks now since i have finished this drama, (and i remember it specifically vividly because i watched it on my birthday July 21st) and i still have a Bon Appétit, Your Majesty-sized hole in my chest.

I genuinely felt SICK when it was over 😭

I started this drama expecting a cute little time-travel historical rom-com about a chef.

Instead, I watched TEN EPISODES IN ONE NIGHT.

TEN.

I went to sleep, woke up, and immediately finished the last 2 episodes before i had to go celebrate my birthday with my family 😭

I quite literally DEVOURED this drama.

Pun VERY MUCH intended.

This drama was just...

SO. MUCH. FUN.

-

From episode ONE, I was entertained.

Ji-young gets thrown hundreds of years into the past and is understandably like:

What the actual fuck is happening???

And watching this extremely confused modern woman try to navigate Joseon while simultaneously refusing to stop being herself was HILARIOUS and comforting!

Especially her early interactions with the king.

Their dynamic in those first few episodes was one of my favorite things about the entire drama.

She's confused.

He's suspicious.

She's constantly saying or doing things that make absolutely no sense to him😭😭

He's a KING and expects people to behave accordingly.

And Ji-young basically thinks hes insane.

😭😭😭

The banter was SO GOOD.

And I loved that the drama didn't immediately need me to be invested in them romantically.

I wasn't sitting there waiting for them to kiss.

I was just having a fantastic time watching these two deal with each other.

and they did finally kiss, it was awesome!

-

But my absolute favorite thing about this drama?

YEON JI-YOUNG.

I LOVE HER.

a female lead who is SKILLED, well yes!!! that my bread and butter actually

Give me a woman who knows her shit!!!

Ji-young isn't resourceful because the plot suddenly decides she needs to be.

She's genuinely exceptional at something!!

She's a CHEF!

And again and again, she gets thrown into situations where she has absolutely no idea how this world works...

but she DOES know food.

So she uses what she knows.

She adapts to what she has and improvises! and figures shit out!

And watching everybody slowly realize:

Oh. This woman is REALLY fucking good at this.

was so satisfying.

And I became SO invested in watching her succeed.

Every time somebody doubted her, I was basically sitting there waiting for Ji-young to pull out another dish and shut everybody the fuck up 😭

I LOVE watching a female lead impress people.

And Ji-young constantly did.

She has knowledge nobody around her has.

She has techniques they've never seen and understands ingredients differently.

She approaches problems differently because she's literally from another era.

And instead of the time-travel premise just being a convenient excuse to put a modern woman in pretty historical clothing, her modern knowledge actually MATTERS in this drama!

That's exactly what I want from this kind of story.

She doesn't just survive Joseon.

She finds a way to fucking THRIVE there.

-

And then...

THE FOOD.

Oh my GOD.

Do NOT watch this drama hungry.

Actually, don't watch it full either because somehow you'll become hungry anyway lol

Every time Ji-young started cooking, I was LOCKED IN.

The preparation, the ingredients, the presentation.

The way everyone would stare at the food.

And especially...

THE KING TASTING IT.

LMFAOOOOO.

Why did this man experience a spiritual awakening every time she put a plate in front of him??? 😭

The drama made tasting food into an EVENT and (well yes!)

You'd have Ji-young painstakingly creating something incredible, she'd finally serve it, he'd take one bite...

and suddenly we're entering another DIMENSION and that joke never got old even though i expected it to happen every time he took a bite 😭

It was so dramatic and ridiculous.

And it WORKED for me!

The show genuinely made the food look incredible.

I LOVE food, (durr who doesnt) so this entire element of the drama was basically designed specifically to ruin my life.

Half the time I was wondering what I had in my kitchen and then i remember that i burn water on the stove, so... cooking is not a skill i have, unfortunately 😭😭

-

I also really loved the relationships Ji-young built outside the romance.

Even from the beginning, I loved the little friendship she formed with the girl she met at the house.

It was SO cute!!

And that's another reason this drama became so easy to binge.

I wasnt only attached to one relationship.

I liked being in this world and liked watching Ji-young interact with people.

I liked watching her find her place and i liked watching people gradually become impressed by her, care about her, and recognize what she could do.

There was just so much warmth underneath it all.

-

And eventually...

yes.

The romance got me too.

😭

It definitely wasn't the thing that immediately grabbed me.

Early on, I was much more invested in the comedy, Ji-young herself, and watching her cook her way through Joseon.

but the further the drama went, the more relevant the relationship became.

And i really liked that progression.

Because by the time their romance became genuinely important to me, I already cared about THEM individually.

Their early relationship was hilarious.

and then it softened.

Then suddenly I was emotionally invested.

And by those final episodes, i NEEDED these two together so baaad!!

Which made the inevitable problem increasingly obvious.

Because...

SHE'S FROM THE FUTURE.

😭

-

And I knew she had to go home.

Realistically, I got that..

She didn't belong permanently in the past.

Eventually, something had to happen.

But when she actually went back...

I WAS NOT READY!

Because at that point I had spent basically one extremely irresponsible night inhaling this entire drama, and suddenly you're telling me it's OVER???

Absolutely not.

Give it back!!!!!!

-

And this brings me to my biggest criticism of the ending.

I NEEDED TO SEE HOW HE GOT TO HER.

The dethroned king eventually appearing in the modern world was exactly the kind of ending I wanted for them.

I was HAPPY.

But...

HOW DID YOU GET THERE, SIR???

😭😭😭

You cannot just have this man somehow cross CENTURIES to find her and then skip the entire journey!!!

I would have LOVED one additional episode showing him trying to get back to Ji-young.

Show me how he figured it out, and what he had to do!

Show me him arriving in modern Korea, looking for her!!

i imagine her new restaurant was published in the newspaper or something and he saw her face when he arrived and that's how he found her, but thats my writer brain filling in what's missing lol, i rather the drama do it for me as a watcher!!

SHOW ME THIS FORMER KING EXPERIENCING THE 21ST CENTURY.

That alone could have been hilarious!!!

Ji-young spent an entire drama adapting to HIS world.

Let me watch this man spend an episode adapting to HERS!!!

I wanted the reversal!

And more importantly, I think actually seeing his journey back to her would have strengthened the romance.

The ending tells me that he found her.

but i wanted to SEE:

He crossed time to find her.

Those are emotionally very different things.

Especially because the romance wasn't initially the strongest element of the drama for me, it needed to END much stronger!

Giving me that journey would've been such a beautiful final demonstration of how much she had come to mean to him.

And tbh i just wanted another 2 or 3 episodes.

I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE.

😭

I loved the EXPERIENCE of watching this.

I had SO MUCH FUN!

___

Rating: 9/10.

Could the romance have been stronger towards the end?

Yeah.

Could I have used another episode showing the king's journey to the modern world and giving their reunion more room to breathe?

ABSOLUTELY.

But did either of those things stop me from having an absolutely fantastic time?

NOPE.

This was funny, charming, delicious, ridiculously bingeable, and anchored by exactly the kind of resourceful, highly skilled female lead I LOVE watching.

And now I need somebody to recommend me another historical time-travel drama where a ridiculously competent woman gets dropped into another century and proceeds to impress everybody!

Thanks in advance!

-

Question:

Did you enjoy this drama as much as i did? why or why not?

and what was your final rating?

He saw her throw dozens of grown men across the street and yeet one towards space, and said "That's My Wife!"

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon | 8/10

⚠️ SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️

___

edit: (ps. just realized this actor is the same guy from Happiness lol)

i did not put 2 and 2 together until now. maybe its cause he looks so different in both dramas!

Review:

Okay...

THIS WAS SO CUTE 😭

I finished Strong Woman Do Bong Soon wishing there was just... another episode.

I literally just wanted another hour of Bong-soon and Min-hyuk being disgustingly adorable together, Min-hyuk getting his ass beat by his superpowered daughters, Bong-soon running around being a superhero, and whatever other nonsense these people wanted to give me.

Because by the end I was VERY attached to these two.

But weirdly enough...

The romance wasn't even what initially hooked me.

The comedy was.

---

From the FIRST episode, I thought this drama was hilarious.

Watching this tiny woman absolutely PUMMEL a group of grown men who were intimidating someone, while Min-hyuk just happens to drive by and witness the whole thing,

love the introduction.

And the drama just kept finding increasingly ridiculous ways to use the fact that Bong-soon looks like the LAST person you'd expect to be capable of throwing a grown man through the air.

One of my favorite running gags was the group of bullies she beat up eventually becoming completely devoted to her.

They start BOWING to her😭😭😭

At one point one of her mother's friends sees this tiny woman standing there while all these delinquent-looking guys are bowing respectfully and basically concludes that Bong-soon must be a gang leader???😭

And the funniest part is that Bong-soon basically DOES become their gang leader.

Except instead of ordering crimes she's like:

Go to school.

Pick up trash.

Clean the neighborhood.

LMFAOOOOO.

My little community-service crime boss 😭

I genuinely wanted those kids at her wedding!!!

WHERE WERE HER SOLDIERS???

The older gangsters got to be there but not Bong-soon's little hooligans???

Unacceptable.

---

And then there was the entire misunderstanding where Bong-soon thinks Min-hyuk is gay.

I loved that running joke so bad!!

especially because Bong-soon has this massive crush on Guk-doo, so she isnt just thinking:

"My boss is gay."

She's thinking:

"MY GAY BOSS MIGHT STEAL MY MAN." 😭😭

There was that whole sequence where all 3 of them are basically jealous for completely different reasons.

Bong-soon is imagining Min-hyuk getting close to Guk-doo.

Min-hyuk is imagining Bong-soon getting close to Guk-doo.

guk-doo is imagining Bong-soon getting close to Min-hyuk.

EVERYBODY IS STRESSED.

And nobody is stressed about the same relationship.

I was dying!!!!

---

I also loved Bong-soon's crush on Guk-doo in the beginning. (one of my fav tropes as u know)

Her entire VOICE would change when he called her

😭

She gets jealous when she meets his girlfriend at the hospital

She's ridiculously gentle with him.

She worries Min-hyuk might seduce him.

It was SO cute!!

And I liked that she genuinely liked another man because it gave her relationship with Min-hyuk somewhere to GO.

Especially because...

Min-hyuk noticed.

VERY EARLY.

And he did NOT seem particularly pleased about it.

👀

And I LOVE a jealous male lead, so obviously I was sitting there like:

Oh???

Please continue......

---

For probably the first six-ish episodes though, I wouldn't even say the romance was carrying the show for me.

The comedy was carrying, still and i was ready for the romance to kick in.

I liked Min-hyuk.

I liked Bong-soon.

I liked their dynamic.

I liked the jealousy.

But I wasn't sitting there going:

OMG I LOVE THEM!!!

Yet...

Then....

this man got STABBED FOR HER.

And suddenly I was like...

well yes!!

😭

Bong-soon had just finished beating the absolute shit out of a giant group of men

But then one of them comes at her with a knife.

Guk-doo and Min-hyuk both run toward her...

And Min-hyuk gets there first.

He throws himself in front of Bong-soon and takes the stabbing.

HELLO???

And later, when the guy responsible comes to apologize, Min-hyuk basically tells him:

If you had stabbed her, I would've killed you.

Oh.

Okay!!!

NOW we're cooking!!

---

And then this man starts exaggerating how much pain he's in at the hospital because he wants Bong-soon to stay and take care of him.

😭

Sir, you legitimately got STABBED.

i think the real injury of that is enough

but no, he needed to add a little ✨performance✨ to it

Also, the hospital scenes were hilarious in general.

He asks for a home-cooked meal.

Bong-soon's mother actually brings one.

Except apparently he's supposed to be fasting that day.

So everyone gets to sit there eating this delicious homemade food while he just WATCHES.

ngl, i wanted some of that too, it looked delish.

This show was so stupid sometimes.

I mean that lovingly.

---

But the moment the romance REALLY kicked into full gear for me was when Min-hyuk couldn't sleep, went all the way to Bong-soon's house, and basically told her:

Enough with your one-sided love for Guk-doo.

I think I like you.

ADORABLE!!!!!

And meanwhile Guk-doo FINALLY decides he's ready to make his move.

SIR???

YOU HAD LIKE TEN EPISODES!

Dude buys a necklace, and plans his confession.

Calls Bong-soon to meet him.

He's finally going to tell the woman who has been crushing on him FOREVER that he doesn't want to be just friends anymore...

AND THEN HE STANDS HER UP.

To be fair, he DID have a legitimate reason!

He's a cop and there was an actual emergency involving the kidnapper.

I get that...

But narratively???

My brother...

YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE.

😭

Because while he's finally getting his shit together, Min-hyuk has already confessed, is spending time with Bong-soon, and is rapidly becoming someone she feels comfortable with.

There was even that cute little moment where both guys text her and she accidentally switches how she addresses them.

Min-hyuk gets "buddy."

Guk-doo gets the formal "sir."

And Min-hyuk is basically BLUSHING because she called him buddy.

hes ridiculous, bro😭😭

Meanwhile, when Guk-doo eventually comes to her house...

Bong-soon's basically like:

i don't want to lose our friendship.

OOF.

The timing!!!!

but fair is fair ig, u snoozed.

---

And I really loved how the show later called back to the drunk scene.

Earlier in the drama, Bong-soon has to deal with drunk Min-hyuk and Guk-doo.

She treats Guk-doo like precious cargo, carefully carries him, gently puts him into bed.

But Min-hyuk?

Basically:

THUD.

Goodnight!

😭😭😭

Then later, when Min-hyuk and Guk-doo get drunk AGAIN and Bong-soon has to carry them home AGAIN...

This time...

Min-hyuk gets tucked in.

🥹

That's such a tiny callback, but I LOVED it.

i love when storytelling devices as used well, sue me 😊

Because nobody has to tell us:

"Bong-soon's feelings have changed."

We can SEE it.

The man she treats tenderly has changed.

--

Also, a little unrelated... but not really...

BONG-SOON'S HAIR???

I don't know why I haven't mentioned this yet because I spent half this drama staring at her little bob.

The short bob, the bangs and little curled/flipped ends!!!

SO CUTE.

i might just have a THING for this hairstyle because I'm currently watching The Smile Has Left Your Eyes and I'm equally obsessed with the female lead's little bob over there.

But Bong-soon's hair was ADORABLE and I needed that documented.

Anyway...

Back to Bong-soon and Min-hyuk.

---

And once Bong-soon and Min-hyuk actually got together???

OH MY GOD.

They are so obnoxiously cute.

They are THAT couple.

The couple everyone else sees and immediately thinks:

Oh my God, GET A ROOM!!

Min-hyuk's secretary can vouch for that

😭

The:

"You hang up."

"No, YOU hang up."

"Noooo, you first."

kind of couple.

And I ate it UP.

Because Min-hyuk is just...

SMITTEN!!!!!

That is genuinely one of my favorite things about him.

Everything Bong-soon does is adorable to this man.

She texts him and he's blushing.

She breathes and hes melting on the floor 😭

He is SO obviously smitten with her

At one point his secretary sees Guk-doo HUGGING Bong-soon and immediately reports this critical national-security threat to Min-hyuk.

And Min-hyuk basically has a tantrum over the hug.

😭😭😭

hes so gone for her.

---

Then Bong-soon eventually asks him when he started liking her.

And he says...

From the first moment he saw her.

🥹🥹🥹

STAWWWWPPPPP

Min-hyuk is absolutely one of my favorite male leads I've watched so far.

He's up there for me with Gu Won from King the Land, because they have that same quality I LOVE:

They are just so visibly HAPPY to love their women.

No making me squint at the screen trying to determine whether this man actually likes her.

HE is GONE.

And I love that.

---

And when the romance became properly established, I honestly wanted MORE.

Their little trips together was so cute.

Their picnic was ADORABLE.

Their first kiss?

🥹

Just watching them spend a day together?

Give me MORE!!!

That's actually one of my biggest feelings after finishing.

The romance wasn't lacking.

I just wanted MORE OF IT.

I would've happily sacrificed some other parts of this drama for another episode of Bong-soon and Min-hyuk doing absolutely nothing important.

---

Which brings me to...

The kidnapper storyline. eughhh

sigh. eeeeyuck!!!

This was easily my biggest problem with the drama.

And I want to be specific because my issue wasn't simply:

"Why is there a dark storyline in my cute rom-com?"

I can enjoy romance mixed with dark stories. i HAVE! often!

I can enjoy murder mysteries and thrillers.

I can enjoy characters being in serious danger while I'm also invested in their romance.

Sometimes that danger makes the romance BETTER.

But for SO MUCH of this drama...

The kidnapper storyline just didn't.

Watching this man kidnap women, terrorize women, hurt women...

I just wasn't interested.

And early on it actually made me uncomfortable how much violence against women we were seeing.

There were already multiple women being attacked or murdered within the first couple episodes.

And it kept going.

At some point I just started feeling like:

Can we please go back to Bong-soon and Min-hyuk???

... or anything else... pls

---

The frustrating part was that the thriller storyline didn't even feel properly integrated into Bong-soon's story for a long time.

You have a drama about a woman with SUPER STRENGTH.

There's a psychopath kidnapping women.

That sounds PERFECT.

Those storylines should collide beautifully.

But instead I spent so much time watching this man kidnap and hurt women while Bong-soon remained weirdly removed from a lot of it.

Then her best friend gets dragged into it.

Then gets kidnapped AGAIN.

And at that point I was getting genuinely frustrated because the romance had FINALLY gotten good and this storyline kept interrupting the momentum.

My rating was starting to slide toward a 7.

And then...

THE BOMB SCENE HAPPENED.

---

THIS.

THIS IS WHAT I WANTED THE ENTIRE TIME!!!!

The kidnapper finally puts BONG-SOON herself in danger.

She's lost her strength.

She's trapped on the roof of Min-hyuk's company.

There's a BOMB strapped to her.

She can't break herself free!

And Min-hyuk is on the other side desperately trying to get through the chained door.

His hands are BLEEDING because he keeps trying.

Bong-soon is screaming at him to leave.

She's literally telling him:

GO. SAVE YOURSELF.

And this man WILL NOT LEAVE HER.

😭😭😭😭

YES.

THAT'S THE GOOD SHIT I WANT

THAT is how you use danger to make me more emotionally invested in a romance.

Because suddenly the villain is forcing these characters into a situation where their love actually matters.

Bong-soon wants Min-hyuk to survive.

Min-hyuk would rather risk dying beside Bong-soon than abandon her.

THAT'S what I wanted!!!

This was one of the darkest, most dangerous moments for Bong-soon...

AND I LOVED IT.

Because the danger was finally strengthening the emotional center of the story instead of distracting me from it.

---

And then Bong-soon gets her strength back at basically the LAST POSSIBLE SECOND.

Breaks free.

Grabs the bomb.

And YEETS IT INTO THE SKY.

😭😭😭😭

Where it apparently turns into...

FIREWORKS???

LMFAOOOOOOOO??

Idk what laws of physics govern this universe or what kind of bomb that was...

everyone who evacuated the building is standing outside looking at the sky like:

✨🎆 WOWWWWW 🎆✨

Didn't somebody just throw a BOMB above your heads???

😭😭😭

But you know what?

I DON'T CARE.

It was fun AND unintentionally funny

Bong-soon saved the day.

Everyone survived.

SCIENCE HAS BEEN DEFEATED.

---

And after almost dying in a hostage situation and surviviing an explosion...

Bong-soon and Min-hyuk are like:

Anyway...

🍜 Noodles?

😭

The tonal whiplash was HILARIOUS.

And then Bong-soon casually mentions staying at Min-hyuk's house that night and THIS is what makes him flustered.

lol?

5 min ago you were prepared to DIE IN AN EXPLOSION WITH THIS WOMAN.

But sleeping under the same roof???

😳😳😳

---

I also really liked Bong-soon's arc with her strength.

At the beginning, losing her powers probably would've felt like freedom.

Her strength is something she has spent her life hiding.

Something that makes her different.

Something inconvenient.

But when she actually loses it...

She doesn't feel relieved.

She feels like she's lost part of herself.

And I really loved that.

Because over the course of the drama, Bong-soon learns that her strength isn't some burden she needs to get rid of.

It's part of who she is.

And by the ending, she isn't hiding anymore.

She has her game developed and has her family. (her mom was sort of the worst tho... her grandma was better...)

She has Min-hyuk.

AND she's literally running around being a SUPERHERO.

SUPERHERO LANDING AND EVERYTHING!!!

I loved that ending for her.

---

And then there's the wedding.

SO CUTE.

🥹🥹🥹

And Min-hyuk asking her father for permission to marry her???

PLEASE.

This man basically tells him:

I only exist because of her/when shes with me.

Then thanks him for raising such a lovable daughter.

so sweettt!!

---

And then the drama gives the most adorable

TWIN DAUGHTERS.

😭😭😭😭

The entire family was hoping Bong-soon would have a boy because the super-strength gets passed down through the women.

Especially Bong-soon's mother.

So naturally...

Bong-soon has TWO GIRLS.

They're punching babysitters in the eye.

They're punching MIN-HYUK in the eye.

Meanwhile Bong-soon is out saving the world and Min-hyuk is at home fighting for his LIFE against his own babies.

PERFECT.

😭

---

Despite my issues with the kidnapper storyline...

I had SO MUCH FUN watching this.

The comedy consistently worked for me.

Bong-soon was adorable.

Her powers were hilarious.

The romance gave me a tooth ache!!!

And Ahn Min-hyuk...

My constantly blushing, first-sight-falling, knife-taking, bomb-defying, hopelessly smitten fav.

I LOVE HIM.

Rating:

8/10.

What's keeping it from a 9? The kidnapper storyline not being well integrated and Bong-soon and her mom's relationship development not being completed or well explored.

---

My Favorite Flavors 🍜

✨ He falls first AND harder.

✨ Smitten ML: Everything she does is adorable to him. EVERYTHING.

✨ Jealous ML: durrr

✨ FL likes someone else first: Her ridiculous Guk-doo crush gave me so much entertainment in the first half.

✨ Love triangle: Both men eventually want her, although one of them waited approximately seventeen business years to do anything about it.

✨ Protective ML: Took a knife for her. Bloodied his hands trying to reach her. Refused to abandon her with a bomb strapped to her.

✨ Active/capable FL.

✨ Obnoxiously cute couple: "You hang up." "No, YOU hang up." Everyone around them deserves financial compensation.

✨ Comedy: Tiny woman accidentally becomes neighborhood gang boss and orders her followers to attend school and pick up garbage. 10/10 leadership.

___

The kidnapper storyline nearly dragged this down to a 7 for me, but the romance and comedy fought for their LIVES and dragged it straight back up.

And if you gave me Episode 17 tomorrow and told me it was just Min-hyuk being obsessed with his wife while Bong-soon saves Seoul and their daughters terrorize the household...

Id press play immediately.

Question:

For everyone who watched this: Was the kidnapper storyline actually a highlight for you, or were you also sitting there wishing the drama would hurry up and get back to Bong-soon and Min-hyuk?

I loved the actress from my dearest and that is partly why i am excited! the second reason is because i saw the teaser trailer and their chemistry is giving in the teaser, at least!!!

Lois Lane Has Always Felt Like a Character the Fandom Filled In for the Writers

🚨DISCLAIMER🚨

THIS IS NOT A HATE POST!

I repeat,

THIS IS NOT A HATE POST!

and most importantly this is NOT a Lana vs Lois post.

end of disclaimer

___

Smallville's Lois has always been such a nothing-burger character to me.

And there's something important about the way I originally watched this show that I think explains A LOT of it.

I watched Smallville knowing absolutely nothing about Superman.

And when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING.

I started watching when I was young, around high school age. I watched at first on demand on cable then caught up at season 9 was airing and I watched a few episodes of that season and a few episodes of season 8 too, and I wasn't into superheroes. I didn't know Superman lore. I didn't know the comics. I didn't know who Clark was "supposed" to end up with or end up as. (Until much later. Definitely not while I was watching.)

I didn't even know Lois Lane was an iconic superhero name.

So when Lois suddenly appeared in season 4, there was no:

"OMG, IT'S LOIS LANE."

There was no built-in attachment.

There was no excitement because Superman's future wife had arrived.

There was no waiting for Clark and Lois to get together because I didn't even know that was supposed to happen.

To me, Erica Durance's Lois was literally just some new girl who showed up in Smallville.

And initially, that WAS refreshing.

I'd already spent three seasons in this town with these characters, and suddenly there was a completely new person walking into this established world. I remember enjoying the novelty of watching someone new interact with everybody.

She could be fun.

And then the novelty wore off.

And... that was basically it for me.

I kept waiting for there to be something underneath it.

There never really was.

And looking back, I actually think watching Smallville completely Superman-blind gave me a very different experience with Lois than a lot of the fandom had. My sister and my friend ALSO watched it Superman-blind for the most part and had similar experiences to me. And one of them lives in France, so I know it's not an American thing lol💀.

Because the name "Lois Lane" couldn't do any work for me.

The character had to.

I couldn't fill in the blanks with decades of Superman mythology.

I couldn't look at Clark and interact a couple minutes an episode and read more into it beyond what is showed, or get excited because I knew where history said this was eventually going.

I couldn't see journalism and think, "There she is! She's becoming THE Lois Lane!" In fact, I thought journalism + Lois Lane felt a little out of left field to me, as I have always paired that profession to Chloe. (Imagine my surprise when I later learn Lois Lane in all other adaptations is basically KNOWN as the j**ournalist chick.)

I didn't have some pre-existing idea of Lois Lane that Erica Durance was either living up to or putting her own spin on.

All I had was the character Smallville put on my screen.

And based purely on that?

I never became emotionally invested in her.

That's the fundamental problem I've always had with Lois.

And I say problem in lower case, cause truly that character has never bothered me for me to have a problem with her... and that’s the problem...

She made very little impression.

She does not feel like a fully realized character, she feels more like a collection of characteristics.

She's sarcastic sometimes. She's blunt sometimes. She's supposed to be tough... She banters. She gets herself into situations. Eventually she's a reporter... anticlimactic.

Eventually she's Clark's love interest... also anticlimactic.

Okay.

But who is she?

Her fans talk about Smallville's Lois like she's this incredibly layered, complex, badass character, and sometimes I genuinely wonder if we watched the same show.

Because I hear far more depth in the way her fans DESCRIBE her than I ever actually saw on screen.

And I think that's the disconnect I've never been able to articulate before.

It feels like they take the basic ingredients the show gives Lois and fill in the rest themselves.

They tell me how emotionally complex she is. They tell me how badass she is. They tell me how much she's grown. They tell me how fascinating her vulnerabilities are.

But when I'm actually watching the show? (I finally finished it in full last week. Previously, I'd only watched a couple episodes of season 9 and 8)

I'm waiting for the writing to make me feel any of that.

And it rarely does.

Compare that to Lex, Chloe, Lana, Lionel, or even Oliver.

Whatever you think about those characters, I KNOW them.

I know what Lana is afraid of. I know what abandonment did to her. I know how badly she wants stability and how that desire affects the decisions she makes, including the terrible ones. I can trace how the girl from season 1 becomes the woman she is later. Her arc makes sense and her character is human and layered.

I can watch Lex slowly deteriorate and understand exactly how he got there, because I know his flaws, his desires, his struggles, he's fully layered and explored.

I understand Chloe's insecurities, jealousy, ambition, loyalty and resentment.

I understand Lionel's relationships with power, control, his children and eventually Clark.

Those characters have interior lives.

They make decisions that alter their relationships. They hurt people. They get hurt. They lose things. Their experiences leave scars. Their flaws aren't just cute personality quirks they show you in a few episodes by saying cute and shallow one liners. Their flaws actually cost them things.

Most importantly, the show spends TIME letting those things breathe.

I don't get that from Lois.

And yes, I know the arguments people make.

Her relationship with her father. Her childhood. Her insecurities underneath the sarcasm. Her journalism career. Her relationship with Clark. Her loyalty. Her bravery.

I know.

My problem is that listing things that happened to a character isn't the same thing as giving that character emotional depth.

I can make a list of Lois's traits and experiences.

What I struggle to do is identify the emotional journey those things created.

Where are the moments that fundamentally changed the way I understood Lois?

Where are the consequences that reshaped her?

Where are the character-defining emotional arcs that permanently altered how she moved through the story?

Where is the interiority?

Where is the emotional toll?

Because that's what I keep coming back to.

Lois goes through things.

But I rarely feel like things go THROUGH Lois!

Even her introduction shows the problem perfectly for me.

She was refreshing because she was NEW.

A new personality. A new dynamic. A new person bouncing off characters we'd already known for years.

But once "new" wore off, what replaced it?

For me, not much.

She just... remained Lois.

And even the personality eventually became incredibly one-note to me. The sarcasm. The quips. The supposedly badass attitude. The banter.

I get it.

But those aren't substitutes for characterization.

And this is where my original experience watching the show becomes especially interesting to me now.

Because I had no idea I was "supposed" to care about this woman.

Nobody had told me that Lois Lane was important.

Nobody had told me Clark Kent and Lois Lane were this iconic pair.

Nobody had told me she was his future.

So I judged her exactly like I judged Chloe, Lex, Lionel, Lana, and everybody else.

Based on what Smallville gave me.

And those characters made me care.

Lois didn't.

That's also why reducing my opinion to "you're just a Lana/Clana fan" doesn't work.

I wasn't sitting there as a teenager protecting Clana from Superman canon.

I DIDN'T KNOW THE CANON.

I didn't know there was anything to protect Clana FROM.

Lois wasn't "the woman who eventually replaces Lana" in my head because I didn't know that was going to happen.

She was just Lois.

Some new character.

And she had every opportunity to make me care about her on her own terms.

She never did.

That's why I've never understood the enormous disconnect between the Lois I actually watched for six seasons and the Lois her fans talks about.

Sometimes it genuinely feels like I'm hearing about a character who existed in somebody else's version of Smallville.

Because the woman I watched mostly felt like a 2D concept of a character.

And ironically, I didn't even know what that concept was supposed to be.

All I knew was the woman on my screen.

And she didn't leave much of an impression.

Maybe that's why I've never hated Lois either.

Hatred would require considerably more emotional investment than I have in her.

She's just... there.

And after years of not being able to explain why a character that other people constantly tell me is supposedly one of the greatest parts of Smallville has always done absolutely nothing for me, I think that's finally the answer.

Her name couldn't make her important to me.

Her place in Superman history couldn't make her important to me.

Her eventual relationship with Clark couldn't retroactively make her important to me.

The character had to do that herself.

She never did.

And when I read the way this fandom talks about her, I think:

The fandom keeps telling me who Lois Lane is.

Smallville never did and Smallville never made me care.

She Was the Girl, the Prince AND the King... How was this romance Not More Epic?!

I mean, he fell for Her three times and somehow I was STILL left Wanting More...

⚠️SPOILER AHEAD ⚠️

-

Review:

There were genuinely SO many parts of The King's Affection that I loved.

Like...

There are individual scenes and stretches of episodes that I would rate MUCH higher than the overall rating.

There were moments where I was giggling, I was kicking my feet and moments I was stressed.

Moments where I wanted half the adults in this palace executed immediately!!

And moments where I thought...

Ohhhh, this romance could become SO good!!!

But by the end, I just don't think the drama fully cashed in on everything it had set up.

This easily could've been an 8 for me if those last couple of episodes had landed better emotionally.

Because the ingredients were absolutely there.

___

The first episode immediately had me HORRIFIED.

The entire premise begins because Dam-i is born as the female twin of the Crown Prince, and apparently everyone's solution to that is:

Kill the baby.

Excuse me???

Her own father agrees that she should die.

People are literally hunting down a BABY because she had the audacity to be born.

I was sick!!!!!

And while her mother certainly isn't winning Mother of the Year, at least she actually tries to protect her daughter and get her out of there.

Her father tho...?

Nope.

I never forgave that man.

And I mean NEVER! (why would i?)

There are certain things a drama can reveal later where I'm willing to reconsider a character.

Trying to have your newborn daughter murdered is not one of them.

Especially because Dam-i later grows up believing her father is this great man without knowing that he had literally sentenced her to death.

That made me even angrier.

I knew immediately that if this drama ever tried to give me some touching father-daughter reconciliation, I wasn't buying it.

Sorry!

You had your chance when she was an INFANT.

___

And then we meet the actual Crown Prince and his little chubby servant/attendant, whatever they're called.

MY LITTLE CHUBBY BABY. 😭

I loved him immediately.

I have a lifelong weakness for little chubby children (and extremely old women, but thats not relevant here) and I don't know what that says about me. maybe little chubby children remind me of my younger siblings when they were young? idk😭😭 (and older women remind me of my late grandma...? idk... lets call a psychiatrist to examine why i melt when when it comes to those 2 specific demographics...)

anyway, im going on a tangent, let's get back to the review...

Anyway, little chubbo was so sweet and cute and was such a good friend to the prince and when Dam-i came into the picture, he was also so sweet. the 3 of them were such a cute little pack.

And I especially loved the relationship between the twins once they found each other.

Dam-i had been thrown away, while her brother had grown up inside the palace, completely unaware that his sister was even alive.

And there was something so innocent about their bond, at least for the short time it lasted.

Which made what happened next even worse.

Because when the prince dies, Dam-i doesn't just lose her brother.

She's then forced to become him.

And THIS was actually one of my biggest feelings about the entire premise from the beginning.

I didn't WANT her to have to become the prince!!!.

Because...

THESE PEOPLE DO NOT DESERVE HER!!!

They abandoned her.

They tried to kill her.

They erased her existence.

And now because their precious prince is dead, suddenly Dam-i has to sacrifice her entire identity and spend her life pretending to be him???

No!

I wanted that girl to RUN.

Go live somewhere far away.

Open a bakery.

Raise goats.

I don't care.

Just LEAVE THESE PEOPLE!!!

😭

---

And speaking of adults I hated...

Jung Ji-un's father.

OH MY GOD.

This man had me keeping a running list of crimes throughout the entire drama.

Because every few episodes he'd pop up and I'd be like:

Oh, YOU again.

He kills I-wol.

An innocent little girl.

He had already participated in the attempt to kill Dam-i when she was a baby.

He later kills the Crown Prince because he believes the prince is actually Dam-i.

So, from his perspective, he's STILL attempting to murder another innocent little girl...

Then YEARS later, when Dam-i is king, he discovers her secret and AGAIN starts contemplating killing her.

SIR???

WHAT IS YOUR BEEF WITH CHILDREN AND WOMEN AND YOUR OBSESSION WITH MURDERING THEM???

At one point he literally sees Ji-un and the king kissing...

And then not long afterward this man is fantasizing about murdering her.

WHAT???

I understood his political reasoning.

I simply did not care.

There is no justification you can give me that makes repeatedly murdering children acceptable.

None.

So when the grandfather finally stabbed him?

GOOD.

I cheered.

I would've preferred Dam-i herself got to stab him, but unfortunately K-drama writers don't always give me everything I want.

---

And the grandfather wasn't any better.

This entire catastrophe traces back to these men being so obsessed with bloodlines, legitimacy, power, succession and whatever else that they were willing to destroy countless lives over the fact that A GIRL WAS BORN...

That was what kept running through my head by the finale.

Look at everything you've done.

Look at all these people who are dead.

Look at this entire kingdom in complete ans utter chaos!!

FOR WHAT???

Because twins were born???

Because one of them was female???

You people are LOSERS.

So watching him finally die from poison?

Also satisfying.

Bye!

___

But once the drama got through all that initial tragedy and Dam-i grew up?

This became sorta FUN.

Because now i had a woman secretly living as the Crown Prince while everyone around her believed she was a man.

And THIS is where the premise started giving me exactly the kind of nonsense I wanted.

People falling for the prince.

People being confused about their feelings toward the prince.

Women having crushes on the prince. (I wanted more)

Men having crushes on the prince. (i wanted more)

Dam-i constantly having to navigate situations where everyone is operating with completely different information.

YES!!

---

And Ji-un's crush on the Crown Prince was probably some of my favorite material in the entire drama.

It was SO CUTE.

Because he has no idea Dam-i is a woman.

He's just increasingly attracted to this man and basically going:

"...Well, I guess this is happening."

😭

And I loved that the drama actually allowed him to wrestle with those feelings without immediately discovering her secret.

He liked her when she was Dam-i.

He was attracted to the mysterious woman who saved him when they fell into the water. (Dam-i as an adult woman)

And then he fell for Dam-i AGAIN while believing she was the Crown Prince.

That concept is incredibly romantic from the audience's perspective because WE know it's the same woman every time.

Altho...

This also caused a slight problem for me while I was watching.

Because Ji-un didn't know those were the same person.

So for a while I kept thinking:

Okay... but which one of these people is actually special to you???

Because from HIS perspective, those are three separate human beings...

He called childhood Dam-i his first love.

Then he had this connection with another mysterious woman.

Then he falls in love with the prince.

And I'm sitting there like:

Sir...

You sure are collecting crushes... huh?

Eventually, of course, he learns that all of them were Dam-i.

And I LOVE the idea that this woman basically kept finding him throughout his life in different forms.

But I do wish the drama had emotionally emphasized that realization even more.

Because that's HUGE.

Your childhood first love...

The mysterious woman you met years later...

AND the king you've fallen in love with...

ARE THE SAME PERSON???

That should have been an absolutely earth-shattering romantic revelation.

And Ji-un doesn't even learn the full truth until episode 18!

I would've squeezed every drop of romance out of that reveal!!!! omg just thinking about that orange with all the juices left unsqueezed make me so disappointed!!

---

One of my FAVORITE scenes was when the queen came near Dam-i's room while she was sleeping on that tree and tried to kiss her.

😭😭😭

Because obviously the queen believes Dam-i is a man.

She has a crush on the king.

She's leaning over trying to kiss her.

And Ji-un is just standing there watching this happen like:

👁️👄👁️

And then he gets JEALOUS for a little bit.

YES!!!! that was so juicy for me!!!

THAT'S WHAT I WANTED.

I had literally been hoping women would fall for Dam-i specifically because of the potential jealousy it could create.

The drama gave me a little taste of it and I wanted MORE.

I obviously suspected the story wasn't going to have Dam-i romantically entertain another woman.

But Ji-un didn't know that!

USE THAT.

Let him watch women flirt with his girlfriend who everyone thinks is his boyfriend.

Let him SUFFER!!!

That would've been hilarious.

___

i also really liked the second male lead.

Especially when he finally revealed that he knew Dam-i was a woman.

And the shoes???

Offering her a way out???

That was BEAUTIFUL. 🥺

He was basically telling her:

You don't have to live like this forever.

Here's another life.

Here's freedom.

Here's the possibility of existing as yourself.

And because one of my biggest emotional issues from episode ONE was that Dam-i had been robbed of her own life, that scene really worked for me.

I wanted someone to tell her:

You are allowed to leave.

You do not owe this palace your entire existence.

___

there were also little dynamics I found interesting throughout the drama.

The bodyguard had this intensity around Dam-i that initially made me wonder whether the drama was setting up something romantic there too... but it wasn't, his story ended up being boring.

There were so many relationships orbiting Dam-i where people loved her, admired her, protected her or became fascinated by her without fully understanding who she was.

And I think that's one of the strongest things about the drama.

Dam-i herself is compelling.

She had spent almost her entire life performing another person's identity while simultaneously trying to survive.

She's incredibly lonely.

She has to constantly monitor herself.

She cant freely love or freely grieve.

Or freely exist as a woman.

She can't even let people get physically close to her without worrying that they'll discover her secret.

That's a GREAT protagonist setup.

---

And that's also why I got frustrated whenever Dam-i started blaming herself for everything.

Girl...

PLEASE.

😭

So much of what happened in this drama was NOT your fault.

You didn't ask to be born a twin.

You didn't ask your family to attempt to murder you.

You didn't ask your brother to die.

You didn't ask to impersonate him.

You didn't ask these grown men to create political chaos around your existence.

Youve spent your entire life SURVIVING consequences created by OTHER PEOPLE!

Stop apologizing!!!

There were moments where I wanted someone to grab her and explain:

YOU ARE THE VICTIM OF THIS SITUATION!

Because the story occasionally allowed her to internalize guilt that I simply did not think belonged to her.

___

Then we get to the romance.

Overall?

I liked Dam-i and Ji-un.

There are some REALLY good romantic moments in this drama.

Some genuinely adorable ones.

Ji-un's crush on the prince was probably my favorite stage because there was something so sweet about him being completely unable to stop himself from falling for Dam-i even when everything he believed about himself and the situation should've made it complicated.

The jealousy was cute.

There was some yearning and that was cute too.

The kisses were cute.

The forbidden nature of everything worked a little for me.

And then once he learns she's a woman, there's another layer.

Then he eventually learns she's Dam-i.

YET ANOTHER layer lol

Then his father threatens to expose her secret unless Ji-un leaves her and agrees to marry someone else?

OH.

BEAUTIFUL ANGST!!!

Now THAT'S my shit.

Because Ji-un isn't leaving BECAUSE he loves her.

He's sacrificing what he wants to protect her.

YES.

Give me longing and painful separation!!

"I love you but I can't have you."

Emotional suffering!!!

*slurp slurp* heheheh

---

But here's the thing...

For all these great ingredients?

I still don't think the romance became as epic as it could have been.

And that's my biggest disappointment.

Because this setup is RIDICULOUSLY romantic.

A boy falls in love with a girl as a child.

Loses her.

Meets her again without realizing who she is.

Falls for her AGAIN.

Then meets her as a man.

Falls for her AGAIN.

Discovers she's actually a woman.

Then eventually discovers she's ALSO his childhood first love.

Meanwhile she's secretly the king.

They're forbidden from being together.

His father is threatening her life.

The kingdom could collapse if her secret comes out.

COME ON!!!

That should be one of the most ridiculously epic romances imaginable.

And sometimes it was... a little bit.

But most other times, it felt like the drama had this enormous romantic buffet sitting in front of it and only ate half the food.

just squeeze the fucking orange!!!

😭

There were so many emotional revelations that could've been stretched further.

So much longing that could've been intensified.

So many identity-related moments that could've been explored.

More jealousy.

More realization.

More aftermath.

More of Ji-un processing the fact that he had somehow fallen for THE SAME WOMAN OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

That's insane!

USE IT!!!

___

And unfortunately, Ji-un lost a little bit of me toward the end.

Because...

His father dies.

And Ji-un is absolutely SOBBING.

And I'm watching him like:

...

Sir?

😭

I understand biologically that's your father.

I understand relationships are complicated.

I understand people can grieve terrible parents.

But as a viewer?

I don't care!!!

That man murdered I-wol!!!

Participated in attempts to murder children.

Killed Dam-i's brother because he believed HE was Dam-i.

Later contemplated murdering Dam-i AGAIN.

Threatened Dam-i.

Used her secret to force you away from her.

Repeatedly endangered the woman you supposedly love.

So when Ji-un was devastated over him dying, I just couldn't emotionally join him there.

My reaction was basically:

Your murderous father is dead. Anyway.........

And I think that slightly weakened Ji-un for me right when I wanted the drama to be making him stronger emotionally.

He still had plenty of moments I loved.

But some of my excitement around him faded toward the ending.

cause like... why are you crying over your father whose past time and hobby and infanticide?

are you crazy?

___

And that brings me to my biggest issue with the drama overall.

The final two episodes.

There was action.

There was fighting.

There were deaths.

There were confrontations.

There were stakes.

Technically, a LOT happened.

But emotionally...

It didn't hit me nearly as hard as I expected.

And that's frustrating because this drama had spent EIGHTEEN EPISODES creating an enormous amount of emotional baggage.

Dam-i's entire stolen life.

Her relationship with her father.

Ji-un and his father.

Her grandfather.

The throne.

Her identity.

Brother.

Mother.

Her relationship with Ji-un.

The secret finally coming apart.

There was SO MUCH material waiting for emotional payoff.

And I don't think the finale fully delivered that payoff.

I wanted devastation.

Catharsis.

Relief.

Rage.

Something enormous...

Instead, I mostly felt like:

Okay... ig we're wrapping everything up now...?

And that's why this didn't make it to an 8 for me.

If those final episodes had emotionally DESTROYED me?

Easy 8.

Possibly even higher depending on how well they did it.

But the ending felt more functional than emotionally overwhelming.

---

Still...

I absolutely enjoyed this drama.

A 7 from me is good rating lol

i like the premise.

Dam-i was a compelling female lead.

Ji-un had some extremely cute and romantic moments.

The identity confusion was FUN.

The second male lead gave me some beautiful scenes.

And watching these horrible old men finally start facing consequences was extremely satisfying.

I just wanted MORE from the emotional side.

More from the romance.

More from the final stretch.

And more payoff for everything the story had built.

Because The King's Affection had all the ingredients to become one of those huge, sweeping, epic romances that completely consumes me.

Instead, it became a drama with a lot of goof moments inside a story that, overall, I simply thought was good.

And that's why I'm settling on:

___

Rating:

⭐ 7/10

​

ive never seen a kdrama with more than 20... those exist? 😭😭

i might still end up watching it though...

we will see

I'm easy to please!

Yes, I've handed out a few 3/10s and 5/10s, and I don't mind being the odd one out if a popular drama just doesn't work for me...

But I got curious today and decided to calculate my average rating...

...using only the dramas and movies I've watched since my K-drama binge started in June.

Average rating: 6.79/10.

Looking at the breakdown, most of my ratings still fall in the 7 to 9 range. I'm actually pretty generous when a drama clicks with me!! love that!

I just don't think every show deserves a high score simply because it's popular.

So maybe I'm not a harsh critic after all. I'm just consistent lmaooo

(yes, the screenshots include a handful of dramas and movies I watched before this binge. If I include those too, my overall average actually goes up, not down. 😅)

If I include the seven Korean titles I watched years ago before my binge...

The Handmaiden (10/10)

Parasite (9/10)

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (8/10)

My Demon (8/10)

Queen of Tears (8/10)

My Name (8/10)

Marry My Husband (7/10)

...my overall average rises to 7.05/10!!

What's your MDL average? Was it higher or lower than you expected?

i will reveal the show to the person who correctly guess the drama

yes my royal nemesis season 2!!!!!!!! life is good!!

This drama should come with a warning label for anyone prone to headaches.

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD⚠️

Review:

This drama was... a journey. A 2 weeks journey that finally ended for me 30 minutes ago as i am writing this review.

I don't regret watching it, but I also don't think I've ever had to pause a drama this many times just to sit there and think.

Who's in whose body?

Which timeline are we in?

Which version of this character is this?

Wait... now the murderer can time travel too?

This drama genuinely made my head hurt. im not exaggerating... my head is pounding as i am writing this cause I'm still having side effects even though i finish the drama more than 30 minutes ago😭

The premise is interesting.

A romance about two souls finding each other across different timelines and even different bodies sounds exactly like the kind of thing I'd love.

On paper, this should've been a huge hit for me!!!

The problem wasn't the concept.

It was the execution...

For the first half of the drama, I spent more time trying to understand the rules than actually feeling emotionally invested in the romance. Every time I thought I finally understood what was happening, the drama introduced another twist, another timeline, another body swap, or another reveal that made me pause the episode and rethink everything.

The reveal involving Yeon-jun's past honestly made my brain short-circuit too. Suddenly I was trying to figure out whether I was watching Yeon-jun, Si-heon, whose consciousness was where, and then the Tae-ha storyline got thrown into the mix. I even spent way too much time wondering who was actually in love with whom at some point after the Taeha thing instead of just enjoying the story.

Eventually I just gave up trying to solve it and decided to enjoy whatever I could.

Ironically, whenever the drama stopped trying to be a puzzle and simply let the romance breathe... I actually really liked it.

One of my favorite stretches was when Si-heon was pursuing Jun-hee in college.

Watching him intentionally choose the same college, find ways to be around her, work where she worked, remember her birthday, and patiently pursue her after she broke up with her boyfriend was easily the strongest part of the drama for me.

I also liked the recurring idea that he recognized her, not her face.

One of my favorite scenes was when Min-ju tried pretending to be Jun-hee, and he immediately realized something was wrong.

That reinforced the central theme better than any explanation about time travel ever could.

The jealousy, the love triangle, and some romantic moments were all much more compelling to me than the increasingly complicated mystery.

Unfortunately, every time I felt myself getting invested, the drama would throw another layer of complexity at me.

By the time the murderer also became involved in the time-travel mechanics, I actually laughed😭😭😭

Because I genuinely couldn't believe the drama had found yet another way to make things even more confusing.

The Min-ju storyline also became frustrating for me.

I understood that she's lonely, insecure, and desperate to be loved.

By the end, I actually felt sympathy for her.

But watching her pretend to be Jun-hee in hopes of winning Si-heon just wasn't a storyline I enjoyed. It felt like the drama was creating conflict in a way that didn't work for me in this one...

Thankfully, the finale won back some goodwill.

I loved that Jun-hee returned to save Min-ju.

I loved their final day together before everything changed.

And I especially loved Si-heon's promise that he'd find her again, no matter the time or place.

That ending finally delivered some of the emotional payoff I'd been waiting for.

I do think the ending itself was a little abrupt tho... but it was enough to leave me with positive feelings instead of frustration.

The song was fine... although after hearing the same song over and over again, I admittedly got a little tired of it by the end.

Overall, I think this drama had an interesting premise that was simply more complicated than it needed to be.

Instead of getting swept away by the romance, I spent half the series trying to untangle timelines, identities, consciousness swaps, murder mysteries... and then even the murderer's consciousness.

Maybe that's exactly what the fans of this drama like abt it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For me tho...

It mostly made my head hurt.

___

A bit about my favorite flavors and taste

This drama honestly had all the ingredients to become one of my favorites.

I love time travel.

I love fate.

I love the idea of two people finding each other across different timelines.

I love romances where the male lead patiently pursues the female lead and recognizes her no matter what.

And whenever A Time Called You leaned into those things, I genuinely loved it.

The problem was that the romance never became strong enough for me to stop thinking about the mechanics.

Instead of swooning, I was pausing the episode every five minutes trying to remember whose consciousness was in whose body😭😭

That's not the kind of mental exercise I usually want while watching a romance.

If the emotional investment had outweighed the confusion, I think this could've easily been an 8 or even a 9 for me.

Instead, the confusion became the main character.

---

Questions

• at which point did you stop being confused?

• did you understand everything on your first watch, or did you need a rewatch?

nothing in this world would make me rewatch this, but i can understand WHY someone would rewatch 😭😭

___

Rating: 6/10

___

My Rating Scale

10/10 – Masterpiece. No notes.

9/10 – Very close to a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.

8/10 – Not a masterpiece, but I loved it.

7/10 – Fine overall. I liked it, but the flaws kept it from being great.

6/10 – Mixed. There were a few things I liked, but most of it didn't work for me.

5/10 – I didn't enjoy most of the experience.

4/10 and below – Bad to abysmal.

I've officially banned myself from starting another K-drama until I finish at least a 5 of these first.

Looking at this list... which one should I binge first, and which one deserves to stay on the back burner?

healer.

a time called you.

her private life.

the smile has left your eyes.

strong woman bong soon.

queen inhyun's man.

the husband.

mr. queen.

see you tomorrow at work.

tempted.

im OBSESSED with that fvck ahh bouncy bob with bangs 😭😭😭

i don't care.

that fvck ahh bouncy bob with bangs has had me in a chokehold since episode one.

i literally booked a salon consultation because of this drama 😭

im getting mine in another colour, though!! guess which?

a true enemies-to-lovers K-drama, if you exist out there, please find me. my address is the crosswalk where couples always almost get hit by a white truck. thanks!

Intro

After It's Okay to Not Be Okay, I was craving a female lead who couldn't stand the male lead.

I'd just spent an entire drama watching a woman desperately chase a man who barely acknowledged her... (ew, never again)

So the idea of an enemies-to-lovers romance where the female lead wanted to wring the male lead's neck?

Sign me up! hehehhe

Review:

Crazy Love wasn't horrible...

It just never became as good as it could have been.

It had a fun premise, a few moments that i genuinely enjoyed, and enough interesting ideas to keep me watching...

But every time I thought, "Okay NOW we're getting somewhere," it would rush through the part I was actually enjoying.

The parts I enjoyed always felt like they were over almost as soon as they began.

This drama felt like it was constantly introducing conflicts... only to resolve them before they had the chance to really cook.

The biggest example for me was the cancer storyline.

I think they revealed her misdiagnosis way too early!!!!

Imagine if we, as the audience, believed she was actually dying.

Then when the male lead finally read her diary and realized she had cancer while he was falling for her..

WE would've gone through that panic with him!!!!

Instead...

i spent that entire storyline just waiting for him to catch up to information I already knew...

That completely took the emotional punch out of what should've been one of the strongest scenes in the series!!!!

why, writers?!? why?!?!

The revenge storyline had the same problem.

One of my favorite parts was finally seeing her fight back after everything he put her through.

But it barely lasted.

I wanted more mind games.

More tension.

More payback!!!

More moments where she actually had him on the ropes.

Instead, it felt like every conflict wrapped up right when it started becoming interesting.

i also think the female lead slowly lost something that made her more fun to follow in the beginning.

Early on, she was driving the story. She had her own agenda, she was getting revenge, making decisions, and constantly creating chaos for the male lead.

But somewhere along the way, it started feeling like the story became his story instead.

She gradually became more reactive than proactive, and I really missed the version of her that was actively making his life miserable.

The Romance ❤️

I didn't dislike the couple...

I just kept waiting for the enemies-to-lovers part to become what I thought it was going to be.

The setup had so much potential.

A woman who suddenly had every reason to hate her awful boss should've led to a much longer battle between the two of them.

Instead, it always felt like the drama was in a hurry to move them past the conflict...

I wanted more manipulation and verbal sparring!!!

its like inviting me over while you cook this delicious meal that smells so good it makes me drool...

...then setting the table, giving me one tiny spoonful, and throwing the rest in the trash. 😭😭😭😭

i wanted more moments where they genuinely got under each other's skin.

I didn't want them to stop fighting.

I wanted them to fight even better!

In a true enemies-to-lovers to lovers, the enemies usually fall in love WHILE they're still hating and fighting each other with all their might. They even fight harder when they start to fall lmaooo... where was this, here?

Their chemistry wasn't *horrible*...

It also wasn't the kind of chemistry that makes me forget I'm watching actors.

lol i was FULLY aware i was watching 2 actors act 😭😭

the romance never reached that level where I was desperately rooting for them or counting down until their next scene together.

And because of that, the emotional moments didn't hit as hard as they probably should have.

-

What I DID Like

There were definitely things I enjoyed.

The comedy landed more often than not.

Kim Jae-wook absolutely committed to the role and made the CEO entertaining to watch.

The fake engagement setup was fun.

The revenge premise had so much potential. i was having fun whenever they were doing bad things to each other 😭😭

I just wish those moments lasted longer and were better.

The second male lead's storyline was fine, but it became a little more convoluted than it needed to be.

I was also surprised they never did anything with the female lead's little crush on him early on.

They acknowledged it, then completely abandoned it like it never happened.

And unless I completely missed something...

What was the point of opening the drama with the sniper?

It was such a strong opening scene that I kept expecting it to come back in a meaningful way, but I don't remember them ever revealing who that sniper actually was.

It felt like the show introduced another interesting idea... then forgot about it.

Overall

This wasn't a horrible drama.

It kept stopping itself from becoming a great one.

Every time it introduced something I thought I'd love...

It moved on too quickly.

By the end, i was disappointed because I could clearly see the better drama hiding inside it.

____

My Favorite Flavors 🍿❤️

I LOVE enemies-to-lovers.

But I'm extremely picky about it. 😭

I don't just want two people who dislike each other for two episodes before they start "falling in love."

I want a war.

I want manipulation.

i want cruelty.

I want mind games.

I want them trying to outsmart each other.

I want them saying the most outrageous things imaginable...

...then accidentally falling in love in the middle of all that.

The best enemies-to-lovers romances don't stop the fighting because they fall in love.

They make the fighting even messier **because** they're falling in love.

If you know a K-drama that actually delivers that...

Please.

I'm begging. 😭

___

Rating: 5/10

───

Questions

• Did anyone else wish the audience hadn't learned about the misdiagnosis until the male lead did?

• Am I alone in thinking the revenge and "fighting back" phase should've lasted much longer?

• Did anyone else expect the opening sniper scene to actually go somewhere?

• Or did the pacing work for you?

---

My Rating Scale

10/10 – Masterpiece. No notes.

9/10 – Very close to a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.

8/10 – Not a masterpiece, but I loved it.

7/10 – Fine overall. I liked it, but the flaws kept it from being great.

6/10 – Mixed. There were a few things I liked, but most of it didn't work for me.

5/10 – I didn't enjoy most of the experience.

4/10 and below – Bad to abysmal.

[deleted]

i won't let you have any pieces, ill take them all!

your reward is having helped me!!