Gantaek: Yeoindeului Jeonjaeng

It started slow. I already reached the episode 7 and I was still bored with the plot. It was too draggy and confusing because of its inconsistency, however, the leads were both good. 98% - politics and 2% romance. The drama was full of obstacles for the leads and ambitious characters. I suspected Han Mo at first because he's too good to be true but it turns out he's just good and plain loyal to the king. I almost fell in love with Han Mo. Lee Kyung, Kang Eun Bo, Hong Ki Ho, Han Mo and Wal were the only lovable characters here.

Whenever I looked at the king, I feel bored. Even he is acting, there's always this stoic expression that I cannot feel his emotions. The woman is the same and they only have some chemistry. The overall story has a lot of loops and the first episode is not well organized and confusing.

The drama felt like it was held together with duct tape. There was this missing spark to make the twins plot work. How are we supposed to buy into this twin dynamic when there's no connection? Somehow, the dead twin had a better chemistry and her replacement twin never worked despite being the same actress. The romance as well suffered because of that, incompatible by design. Out of all the ideas that can be spun from a twins plot, they kept it very simple while doing the bare minimum to fill the episodes. Which also resulted in long draggy uneventful events. On another note, out of all of Jin Se Yeon historical roles, this is her weakest performance yet.

" Queen : Love and War " had a nice start but the second half was so so.

The first part had an interesting story. Although the first episodes were a bit of a let down and probably could have pushed people away, the idea of the selection was entertaining and full of intrigues between the women (hence the girls war alternative title). The mean characters were plenty, and some of them were even playing friendly when they were in reality the worse. Some others had tragic endings, so the tragedy genre was plenty in this one. So, the girl's adventures and how she managed to survive the twists and traps that the other contestants set for her were entertaining and spiced up the story.

The chemistry of the couple was amazing, too, and they had a nice romance. Their romantic scenes were pretty intense and they had plenty of kissing scenes, which is often rare in historical dramas. Though, the love triangle they wanted to present was not as good and it was underdeveloped.

However, the second part was predictable. It was pretty much what happens to all historical dramas, the bad old aristocrats want power, the girl wants to protect the king, the king wants to protect her, and so on. The ending was okay, but boring.

Finally, the main character was good, but she got annoying from time to time, especially in the end, even though she started as a strong, sassy character. The male lead was pretty swoon worthy and he was a nice romantic lead.

So, overall, seven out of ten.

This is a very addictive drama! I enjoyed a lot and had all the elements necessary to make you stay in front of the screen until you finish it.

A very sweet love story between a man and woman with high standards and values.

I loved the strong and independent personality of the female lead and the fact that the male lead didn't betray what he stood for and the love for her.

I didn't give it a 10 because I miss a bit more of comedy and I believe they could have exploited that from the perspective of The female lead being raised in the streets and doing all kind of jobs but it wasn't that bad.

I recommend this show!