Alegria de Inspetor Real Secreto (2021)

Drama Falls Short in Story and Character Development

After reaching episode 7, I decided to stop watching this drama. The main reasons for this decision were the lackluster elements of the story and characters. Despite the potential, the plot felt underdeveloped, failing to draw me into its world. Additionally, the dynamics between the leading characters lacked the depth and chemistry needed to truly engage an audience.

As an admirer of Ok Taec-yeon, it was disappointing to see his talents not fully utilized in this project. While he has shown exceptional skill in previous roles, particularly in 'Vincenzo', this latest endeavor didn't seem to match up. It's my hope that future projects will better showcase his abilities and provide more compelling storytelling.

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This is a really nice comedy saeguk drama which gives glimpses of the era without making it a history based drama. Although the drama has some dark and dramatic undertones, it is just fiction and it is not to be taken too seriously. It is a star studded drama and the acting is great. There is a fantastic rendition of the character Park Tae Seo performed by Lee Jae Kyoon which had the most fleshed out and poignant character, from his villainous beginnings to his final redemption. The drama touches some historical events of the era through the palace deceptions and social stigmatization of the women and children taken by the enemy during the Second Manchu invasion of Qing forces during the Kingdom of Joseon, cultural and social issues of the role of women and men shown in a female centric plot with some strong female characters, delicious showmanship of Korean cuisine, a nice leading couple with great overall chemistry but weak romantic scenes, and a well delivered creepy farcical villain (Park Do Soo) that was not fun to watch. The friendship and camaraderie of the main and supporting characters makes this a very entertaining drama to watch if you’re not looking for a saeguk with historical accuracy. Enjoy it!

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Not enough romance for me

Disclaimer: this is my own opinion. Everyone's tastes are different. If asked, I wouldn't tell anyone to run away from watching it, but it was a disappointment to me. I think it was the writing that let this show down for me. It was drawn out, and often uneven. Was it a comedy? A drama? It couldn't seem to make up its mind. The story was somewhat interesting, but, in my opinion, could have been improved with some editing.

What I liked:
Kim Hye Yoon as Kim Jo Yi. I really like this actress, and her voice is great. I liked them turning the tables and making a woman in a historical show be the strong one. She was strong, outspoken and was willing to fight for what she wanted. Sometimes her wide-open, doe-eyed looks were overdone.

OK TaecYeon as Ra Yi Eon was okay here. I've never been blown away by his acting (I think I need to watch Vincenzo), and he managed to portray a wide-eye innocent well here. Some of his expressions were over the top, which worked when they were trying for comedy, but not when they were attempting seriousness. The scene with him and the bad guy (one of the MANY bad guys) on the edge of the cliff was seriously overacted.

Choi Tae Hwan and Park Do Soo. Hated him with a passion, which was the intention. This was a character that was definitely a hamburger short of a happy meal. Absolutely no conscience, he kind of lived in his own psychopathic world. His smiles at absolutely inappropriate times were chilling.

The friendships. The sidekicks, the friendships made along their journey, found family. I liked watching these relationships develop.

What I didn't like:
Way too much palace intrigue. I was surprised, because by all the clips I'd seen, this seemed like it was going to be very light. It started out that way, and then turned pretty heavy for most of the rest of the episodes. And how many scheming bad guys does one show need?

The romance felt like it was added as an afterthought at times. We got some cute scenes of them realizing that they liked each other, then episodes full of neither one of them wanting to get married, then a rushed, unsatisfactory ending.

They talked about how all he wanted to do was cook, that's what he wanted to do with his life. Suddenly, it was forgotten. We never got to see evidence of that passion until the very end, and even then, I didn't think it was portrayed correctly.

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Not Good Enough

Korean Drama " Secret Royal Inspector: Joy ", not to be confused with the other korean drama "Secret Royal Inspector" with the similar name and plot, is a period comedy drama.

The story is pretty basic, with some interesting cases here and there, that aided to the entertainment. There were some funny moments as well and a light-comical atmosphere overall throughout the drama. However, and apart from the main villain who was tragic and gave some depth to the story, the rest of the drama was silly and boring. The romance too was cheesy and lacked chemistry.

On the other hand, the performance were enjoyable and pretty great, especially from the main lead. The chemistry between the cast was smooth as well. However, the main girl was annoying.

So, overall, three out of ten.

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Modern social concepts meet old fashioned values, making for some fun easy comedy

Man, this drama started out SO GOOD. It was fun and funny and engaging, I loved every interaction and every scene…It’s very break the 4th wall modern despite the setting. …and then they went back to the castle, and things dipped so far into boring that it was honestly difficult to slog through. The end picks up ok, but gosh that middle is almost like an entirely different drama.

A lot of kdrama comedies are like this though, they start off fun and then try to get too serious for themselves and turn the comedy from a 10 down to a 1. Normally something like this would get a much lower rating from me, but the good parts were too good to discount. If I were to try to put my finger on exactly what went wrong, I think the FL and ML were exceptional when they were playing off each other. In many episodes toward the middle they get comparatively small amounts of time together, which sucks because they had great chemistry together and that chemistry spread to the entire side character group and created something fun and magical.

The pop culture references were really well executed by both the director and the cast. The music was pretty good, and the sets were gorgeous. All of the actors were fully engaged and invested in their roles. I enjoyed having a strong female lead outsmart all of the overtly sexist men. The production team really cleverly and unobtrusively plays with current social issues without impacting your immersion in the story and without being too preachy. That part was exceptionally well conceived.

Overall it’s worth a watch, I might even watch it again some day.

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Sweet, little watch

I wasn't too sure about this show when I first started but two things made me stay: one, when the protag, a Joseon era male, rejects the notion of having children, and two, when the series states that no animals were harmed in production. Both of these were different enough to make me watch on.

Other things that I found refreshingly different and new were seeing "honour among thieves" in how the antagonists were given backstories of their own and also an insight into what it was that made them bond. It was quite a pleasant surprise as well to see Choi Tae Hwan's acting range from having met this actor on Hello, Me! He did a good job on an enabled, psychopathic legitimate heir and the family dynamic of the father and son were well played out, imho.

The leader of the angatonists, Tae Seo, was a well written character that was played to perfection by Lee Jae Kyoon; LJK manages such intensity and vulnerability that it was difficult to hate on this antagonist. Even his friend, Cha Mal Jong, was a grey character. Though CMJ is the usual stereotypical cruel villain I found myself admiring his loyalty to his friend and his "band of thieves". He died protecting them and their secrets and such loyalty was rare to come by, even amongst "good guys", and rarely associated with villains that I admired the writer's approach to the characterisation.

Other noteworthy acting was Chae Won Bin who has to portray two characters and honestly, when I saw her on her second character I didn't even realise she was the same actress. Even when there was a part, at the end, where she portrays both characters one after the other, I was amazed at how she managed to exude such different presence and aura as to make those characters so different and separate, though they were portrayed by the one, same person.

What I loved about this series is the sense of equilibrium that it gives the viewers. Seeing three women supporting each other as sisters and being entrepreneurs with their natural talents and "businessing" themselves to success, in such a harsh era for women, was a pleasure to watch. And seeing the men that their efforts also inspire, and whom supports the women back, gives a feelgood vibe. There's just a certain sweetness to this series that is satisfying to the heart and soul to watch.

The only criticism I have for the show are the flashbacks. Imho, they're not handled as well as other shows. The too similar lighting and place and similar hairstyles and such doesn't delineate the past and present enough and makes it confusing between the present and past switches.

Aside from that, I would recommend this show to anyone wanting a nice change to the stereotypical cliches found in this genre and also the subversion of male-female r/ships, expectations and responsibilities, overall.

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I LOVE IT!!!

This drama has a lot of funny moments nowadays we really need something like this, something makes us smile and laugh something makes us happy, we watch dramas like this to forget our reality and this drama made me happy!! i really hope it has a happy ending  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎  ‏‏‎ 

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This was okay
The story was connected well
The suspense was good
The romance was light

But still don't know why I didn't like much
I have to admit it hooked me sometimes
But many times not
I think this was because I wasn't in a drama mood


But inspite of that I liked

I felt sorry for Lee Jae Kyoon so much I saw his end wasn't fair at all
I wished he lived inspite of all what happened

I liked what happened for Jeong Bo Seok [Chief State councillor] and his son so much
He annoyed me the whole drama

I hated when he killed Jae Kyoon
I felt with pain when he stabbed him twice ??
I hated when he and all his friends died but not Jung Soon Won

The whole drama I wished that they saved the crown prince and hide him and he will appear again but that sadly didn't happen

I didn't like mich the role of Cha Hak Yeon
Joy childhood friend
It was literally just to fill the drama
They can easily cut his scenes and it won't affect the drama at all

In general it was nice smooth one with unexpected events

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O drama em si foi muito bom, atuações muitos boas, trilhas sonoras boas. O dorama me fez dar muitas e muitas risadas. Foram momentos inesquecíveis.
Gostei da força que eles retrataram atravéz da Jo yi, o fato de que as mulheres daquela época não era muito valorizadas. Jo yi quis mostrar diferente, que ela não era só uma mulher que era esposa de alguém, ela era a Kim Jo Yi. Ra yi eong também nos ensinou muitas lições, com seu foco e inteligência. Gostei muito dos personagens me apeguei a muitos, principalmente ao Tae seo, quero ressaltar ele, porque eu realmente me apaixonei por ele. Achei ele alguém tão injustiçado pela vida. Ele tinha um coração tão bom! A história dele em si é tão interessante. Posso dizer que Tae seo no final era apenas um filho que queria o amor de seu pai. Eu posso ver e dizer que ele amadureceu durante o drama! Ele mesmo percebeu no final que ele errou e recorreu a caminhos ruins, ele queria pagar por isso. Ele viu que tudo que ele fez para aquele pai ingrato foi atoa. Eu sinceramente vou dizer que eu chorei muito na morte dele ao ponto que minha cabeça doeu. Eu amo Park tae seo!


Só algumas coisas que eu queria que tivessem desenvolvido melhor.
Durante o drama mostraram muito a relação de Ra yi eong e o príncipe herdeiro. Mas, acho que faltou um pouco mais de emoção para o Ra yi eong quando ele descobriu que o príncipe herdeiro foi na vdd assassinado, e depois que o mandante era o rei. Não estou dizendo que é por causa da atuação, mas, sim pq ele tinha sua reação no momento, mais na próxima cena tudo estava normal. Outro fato era que eu queria mais justiça pela morte do Tae seo, queria que o doo soo tivesse descoberto que ele na verdade era o filho ilegítimo, seria um gostinho bom.
E por último durante o drama não podemos ver em nenhum momento um certo remorso do rei pela morte do Príncipe herdeiro, apenas no último episódio.

Mas no geral gostei muito do dorama, não sei se eu veria denovo, por causa da morte do park tae seo, não quero sofrer desse jeito denovo kkkkk.

Mais esse drama estará sempre em meu coração.
Principalmente park tae seo cof cof.

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Bit all over the place

Feb 2024
Bit of a romp, with a pretty bloodthirsty side, a naive-romantic side and a slapstick-style comedic side too. That mix didn't always work together.
Really liked OK Taec-yeon and Kim Hye-yoon as a pair; very cute. Refreshing to have such a positive, practical, smart and opinionated LF role in a period drama, who often took the initiative.
In fact the majority of women in this were strong; no 'princesses'.
Lots of fun, annoying, wicked and some barking mad, characters, join them. I thought Ra Yi-eon's long suffering Grandma was pretty funny.
It did go all around the houses on occasion (and then some), with a few aspects of the story becoming a bit laboured. There aren't multiple crimes being investigated, but one overall mystery that once Yi-eon gets his teeth into it, becomes a huge can of worms.
Plenty of manipulation and there were also a couple of quite moving scenes, too, which were well done.
I liked that some just deserts were visited upon some of the worst characters, although what became of one, I wasn't sure.
Overall a pretty good watch, even though not perfect.

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