For me, the title of this show should be more like “Love and Hate in the Moonlight.” Because those are my feelings towards it - incredibly mixed and indecisive. When Love in the Moonlight first hit my drama radar, everything about it put me off. The promo posters just radiated cheesiness, so much so that I’m pretty sure I internally gagged. Not to mention, everything about its premise was overdone and oftentimes badly so. The crossdressing girl, the handsome prince, the political intrigue mixed somewhere in there...Was it worth the risk of watching and likely being disappointed? The thing about Love in the Moonlight is that it is definitely a good show. Well, partially. It suffers from what I like to call “K-drama syndrome,” where it starts off at its peak and then plunges down into its inevitable doom, where the plot and characters deteriorate in a cesspool of their previously glorious existences. It's exactly as revolting to us viewers as it sounds. The storyline of Love in the Moonlight is incredibly unoriginal. Its desire to take on the tropes of a crossdressing female who falls in love with a higher-class man was quite impressive, and for a good half of the drama, the execution was phenomenal. I found myself practically twitching while I waited to watch the next episode upon release. There’s something about cliches done well that’s just as appealing as a never-before-seen storyline, and that’s what Love in the Moonlight accomplished. Its cheesy romance was bolstered by a talented leading couple, and its political aspect was intelligent, yet not overly difficult to follow. Not to mention, the characters were all lovable, each with their defining characteristics that made you love to see them. I admired the drama's ability to make the usually predictable storyline both unpredictable and addicting, and making me take back all my doubts from the beginning. Touche, writers; but that victory only lasts for a little while. The problem with Love in the Moonlight is that as time goes on, you begin to see the infection of K-drama syndrome more and more. I'll admit, the writers keep you on your toes enough so that you barely even notice the problems unless you take a glance backward. But holy cheese, did this show throw away its potential at being perfect. The romance is great, that much I will stand by. However, I attribute that much more to the capabilities of the leading actors than the characters themselves. I adored the Crown Prince at the beginning, and I likewise appreciated Ra On’s quirkiness. But over time, the writers lost sight of what made these characters unique and reduced them down to “male lead” and “female lead.” I don't even want to talk about the atrocities of the side characters, particularly Ha Yeon, who faded further and further into the background. It got to the point where she would come on screen and my reaction would be, "who is dis," because she had become that irrelevant. I’ve seen static characters, but I was puzzled with how the ones in Love in the Moonlight somehow managed to all move backward in development - their quirks disappeared. To me, there was nothing sadder than the moment I admitted to myself that the only reason I still liked the Crown Prince was because of Park Bo Gum. Additionally, I have to say that the writers really lost themselves nearing the end of this show. It was cliche in the beginning, but at least they carried it out well. By the end, they were throwing so many tropes in your face that it almost bruised me. Most of which, I didn’t appreciate at all. There’s a difference between using previously-seen plot elements to better a show, and using them just because there is a need to. By resorting to the latter, the writers failed what could have been an absolute gorgeous ending. For me, the one trump card of this drama was the cast, and this is the one basis I will recommend this drama off of. I sat down in front of the first episode knowing no one out of the main cast aside from Kim Yoo Jung, who I sneered at for being far too young for her role. By the end, I was impressed with everyone’s ability to portray their respective roles. Park Bo Gum is phenomenal. He’s obviously goodlooking (those puppy-dog eyes though hehehehe), but the level of emotion he puts into every line and movement is awe-inspiring. Everything about his acting feels real, from the look in his eyes and - I swear - each shift of his facial muscles. He brings the Crown Prince to life in a way that I’ve honestly never seen another actor do with their character. And now I have posters of him on my walls. I wish this were a joke, but I guess I’m prouder to say that it’s not - he was just that good. Yoo Jung is where I’m split. There’s no doubt she’s talented, but I’ll still enforce the idea that she was too young for the lead role in a romance drama. If you’re going to forget how weird it is morally that 23-year-old Bo Gum is interacting romantically with a minor, just know that her acting was far better in scenes where there wasn’t any handholding and whatnot. I’ll give it to her that she tried, and did well alongside Bo Gum, but she still needs more experience to pair with that acting talent. Soon enough, she’ll have a scary level of skill. I would also like to comment on the music, most of which I loved. They chose a good collection of strong singers for it, and the instrumentals were beautiful (I listen to some of them when I work now because they’re that entrancing). I am going to go out on a limb here though, and say that the song they gave to Park Bo Gum was subpar. I know he’s capable of better music, and I just wish that they provided him the chance to blind us even more with his unlimited talent. I’d say that Love in the Moonlight is worth the watch, if only to see how the actors are able to bring quality to a usually mundane plot. Despite the bits of disappointment I felt at the ending, I am still glad that I watched the whole thing through and I can say that I enjoyed myself for the most part.