MattPeddlesden
Kent, UK
Short: I wanted love this one. I tried. It feels like you're getting abbreviated Cliff Notes of a 20-24 episode story. Production quality is outstanding, but it's really hard to keep up with who is who between the two worlds. This should have been much better, it had everything it needed except time and a more developed story.
Detail:
ARGH! This one frustrates me so much, I like the actors involved, it has parallel worlds in different dimensions, it plays around with alternate realities and presents a world where Joseon style royalty remains to a modern "Kingdom of Corea", it has time travel - I mean, this SHOULD have been perfect. So why wasn't it?
Couple of key areas... but fundamentally it really just boils down to there seeming to be far too much skipped out. I found it extremely hard to track where each scene was - one minute you're in the Corea world and the next cut of the camera you're seeing the same person in the Korea world, and thinking... hang on, but that person isn't in both, or is he? few minutes late rit dawns - no, they've actually travelled between worlds, I mean could they not just spell that out?
This is both a complex and a simple story combined. The principals are pretty simple but it sets out a stage that has two different parallel worlds with slightly different versions of the same characters, so Kim Go Eun's character is both Jung Tae Eul (in Korea, our world) and Luna (in Corea, the other). Multiply that up for almost all characters including side characters. Now randomly flip between worlds without giving the player any hint as to which world you're in and try to keep up. It's not impossible, I *think* I just about managed it but i'm positive I missed plot points while trying to figure out if person A is talking to the person B from one world or the other because there's ramifications if it's the other and they're impersonating - which does happen.
I don't mind being misled a bit but it really felt more like chunks of story left out.
Next you've the problem with this Uncle and what his whole game is. He's a bad guy, ok we get that. He's doing bad stuff, yep, with you. But what's his goal exactly and what's his plan to achieve it? It seemed like he was doing "stuff" over the 25 years or so from the original treason to where the story actually picks up - but then there's really no actual pay off or benefit from him doing that at all, or indication as to what it should have been and at what point this was foiled and brought crashing down. Again, I think this is just a victim of the cliff-note storytelling, except it's bad cliff notes as it's clearly missing major plot points!
The time travel was quite nicely done.
The whole thing was set up to be absolutely brilliant, I can see the skeleton of what was intended (I think) and it was an incredibly ambitious project, it had a great cast and the production values on it were sky high. What it needed was either 20 or 24 episodes to actually do its epic tale justice. 16 was just too short for a project of this magnitude.
Some people are upset about it having too much product placement but honestly i'm immune to it, I find it amusing and still prefer it to advert breaks. Sometimes I like to play Product Placement Bingo when I'm watching a drama! :) Perhaps they went too far but... honestly it didn't bother me at all.
My favourite actor in this is definitely Kim Go Eun - big fan of her work anyway - but her character is tough, strong and skilled. She knows her stuff. Sometimes the story does have her be the victim to be rescued but I actually don't see a problem with that either - you can't be strong all the time, and a balanced character will lean on others as much as be leaned on.
Lee Min Ho... comes off as a mix of the strong regal king, and an arrogant ass, but overall I thought it played well for the character.
Final episode was good which just reinforces my belief that his was a well thought out project but far too ambitious to squeeze it into the timeslot it was given.
Watch if you like the actors, particularly Kim Go Eun, but expect to have to pay attention to keep up and fill in the blanks.
Detail:
ARGH! This one frustrates me so much, I like the actors involved, it has parallel worlds in different dimensions, it plays around with alternate realities and presents a world where Joseon style royalty remains to a modern "Kingdom of Corea", it has time travel - I mean, this SHOULD have been perfect. So why wasn't it?
Couple of key areas... but fundamentally it really just boils down to there seeming to be far too much skipped out. I found it extremely hard to track where each scene was - one minute you're in the Corea world and the next cut of the camera you're seeing the same person in the Korea world, and thinking... hang on, but that person isn't in both, or is he? few minutes late rit dawns - no, they've actually travelled between worlds, I mean could they not just spell that out?
This is both a complex and a simple story combined. The principals are pretty simple but it sets out a stage that has two different parallel worlds with slightly different versions of the same characters, so Kim Go Eun's character is both Jung Tae Eul (in Korea, our world) and Luna (in Corea, the other). Multiply that up for almost all characters including side characters. Now randomly flip between worlds without giving the player any hint as to which world you're in and try to keep up. It's not impossible, I *think* I just about managed it but i'm positive I missed plot points while trying to figure out if person A is talking to the person B from one world or the other because there's ramifications if it's the other and they're impersonating - which does happen.
I don't mind being misled a bit but it really felt more like chunks of story left out.
Next you've the problem with this Uncle and what his whole game is. He's a bad guy, ok we get that. He's doing bad stuff, yep, with you. But what's his goal exactly and what's his plan to achieve it? It seemed like he was doing "stuff" over the 25 years or so from the original treason to where the story actually picks up - but then there's really no actual pay off or benefit from him doing that at all, or indication as to what it should have been and at what point this was foiled and brought crashing down. Again, I think this is just a victim of the cliff-note storytelling, except it's bad cliff notes as it's clearly missing major plot points!
The time travel was quite nicely done.
The whole thing was set up to be absolutely brilliant, I can see the skeleton of what was intended (I think) and it was an incredibly ambitious project, it had a great cast and the production values on it were sky high. What it needed was either 20 or 24 episodes to actually do its epic tale justice. 16 was just too short for a project of this magnitude.
Some people are upset about it having too much product placement but honestly i'm immune to it, I find it amusing and still prefer it to advert breaks. Sometimes I like to play Product Placement Bingo when I'm watching a drama! :) Perhaps they went too far but... honestly it didn't bother me at all.
My favourite actor in this is definitely Kim Go Eun - big fan of her work anyway - but her character is tough, strong and skilled. She knows her stuff. Sometimes the story does have her be the victim to be rescued but I actually don't see a problem with that either - you can't be strong all the time, and a balanced character will lean on others as much as be leaned on.
Lee Min Ho... comes off as a mix of the strong regal king, and an arrogant ass, but overall I thought it played well for the character.
Final episode was good which just reinforces my belief that his was a well thought out project but far too ambitious to squeeze it into the timeslot it was given.
Watch if you like the actors, particularly Kim Go Eun, but expect to have to pay attention to keep up and fill in the blanks.
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