Have you ever found yourself watching a show, and generally wondering whether the screenwriter had a dartboard, was blindfolded and throwing randomly to see what random plot point to come up with next? Well, most drama watchers out there can probably agree that this perfectly describes ” Oh My Ladylord".

Before critiquing the drama , it is important to start on a high note.Against all odds of the female animosity trope, there was a surprisingly profound relationship between female lead Oh Joo In’s mother Yoon Jung Hwa ( Kim Ho Jung) and male lead Han Bi Soo’s mother Kang Hae Jin ( Lee Hwk Hyang). However, this is also where the series hits a major snag also. The main leads’ mothers were simply more interesting than either of our main leads.

It shouldn’t have been this way by default. Nana ( playing Oh Joo In) and Lee Min Ki ( costarring as Han Bi Soo)are both really good actors. ( Alongside Kang Min Hyuk playing second male lead Jung Yu Min.)Sadly, however, whilst the actors did put effort into their performances, they were fairly limited towards what they could actually do with Jo Jin Kook’s questionable script.

To start off this problem, it is important to talk about our female lead Oh Joo. Oh Joo wasn’t an inherently " terrible" character in the beginning. She had a strong, heartfelt relationship with her mother and seemed to defy the typical cliches of being the " spoilt and aloof actress" also. However, the show soon goes down hill when Oh Joo is introduced into her romantic pairing with Bi Soo. It isn’t necessarily the chemistry between the leads which was " bad", but, rather how she was reduced to the equivalent of storyline cannon fodder not even halfway into the show.

This moves us onto the next prominent issue. The dreaded creme de la creme of tropes; the love triangle. There’s nothing entirely wrong with love triangles per say in a drama, but, the problem with " Oh My Ladylord”’s love triangle happened to be that it was incredibly hard to root for any
chemistry in Jo Jin Jook’s trio of one-dimensional main leads.

To give Bi Soo some credulity , he wasn’t entirely a “terrible person at heart”. However, as this is a formulaic romantic drama where flaws have to be exaggerated for plot development, Bi Soo’s aloofness, jealousy and selfishness at times just became tiresome and repetitive .This is exemplified when around the halfway point of the drama, Bi Soo was so caught up in his attempts to make Oh Joo fall in love with him, that he did not make time even once during a pivotal revelation in this episode to visit his own dying mother. (Then, there is also the poorly-written fantasy element tied-in with Oh Joo, which did not add anything of relevance to Bi Soo’s characterisation.)

The final component of our love triangle is Jung Yu Min. The archetypical ” second male lead” who has ” been in love with Oh Joo for a long time”, Yu Min was just shallow and uninteresting . He had potential to be intriguing and well-written ,but (typical of cliches), Yu Min’s biggest problem occurred by his infatuation with Oh Joo. This is because Yu Min exists only as an obstacle in the story for Bi Soo’s affections . He had no sense of individuality with family, friends or his job outside of the romantic pairing. Even after Oh Joo confessed her ambiguous feelings whilst they were " dating" , it was predictable that Yu Min lashed out manipulatively at Bi Soo rather than just sitting down to talk with Bi Soo and Oh Joo like a decent human being .

Then there’s the biggest elephant in the room with the drama; the genre. Genre shifts can work well to a show’s advantage, and then there’s " Oh My Ladylord".

Admittedly the screenwriter does attempt to make amends by bringing the fantasy elements again into the storyline, however , this resorted in the overall genre shift being nothing more than a lazy plot Macguffin. ( In an attempt to make a poorly-written romance story interesting with little success. ) The ending was even worse, attempting to deliver a tearjerking solution to an otherwise horrible storyline , but , with little success.

So, is " Oh My Ladylord" actually worth watching? This is entirely dependent upon expectations. If you’re a fan of trope-filled, terribly outdated storylines with toxic relationships then " Oh My Ladylord" is right up your street. However, if you’re looking for a modern, well-written and dynamic romance tale with a supernatural twist, then look elsewhere because " Oh My Ladylord" certainly isn’t it.