User reviews

That's the worst part. I read a lot of reviews where people praised the acting. I can't believe how I felt like puking whenever the Emperor showed his face. His performance is, imho, one of the worst, most pathetic, ridiculous, caricatural and embarassing I've seen in a long time. Not even on purpose! Also, the dowager's face was indeed such a mixture of botox and fillers that I couldn't read her expressions, if any.

It's also true that people keep showing their anger by throwing things across the room and breaking glass. I guess, to compensate for their lack of acting skills. I mean, anger, frustration, hatred, they all should be read ON THE ACTOR'S FACE? Right? Or in their lines? Again, Park Seo-Jun in The Itaewon Class. Sorry, it always comes back to him, but most Korean actors are incredibly talented, I don't know how they ended up picking that guy who doesn't even have the good looks to get away with it, like Lee Min Ho does.

Having said that, I won't blame it all on him. Those evil smirks??? It has to be the director. For me, it's another way of either compensating for the bad acting, or helping poor, dumb viewers understand that the character just deceived someone. Except, good acting and good plots don't required such things.

About the plot. It all boils down to "How to ruin your own plans in one lesson: Go find your enemy and brag about how you're gonna bring them down, leaving out no detail..."

So many things that don't make sense at all. Like. Apparently, this is a parallel universe where the cloud doesn't exist. People use their phones to get evidence, but will only keep the data on the device? WTH!!!

And the ending. After everything, I don't think the one dimensional villains got what they deserved. No. I can't believe Sunny crying over her former enemies "ande, ande, irona!", especially over a guy who wronged her so much! What about Na Wang-Sik? Who cares about him? WHO???? I'm sorry but the emperor pinning a badge on his own bare chest and taking over Na Wang-Sik's cause, is just... sickening. He has no right to. That douch*, that joke, that evil clown, that sad excuse for a human being... he doesn't deserve redemption. I don't care about his dead parrot, or his dead wife, or his insane mother. He's a monster. Period.

Ah, 6 stars? Why. Because the last five episodes were okay, and because A-ri, the little princess was cute and an amazing actress. They should all take lessons from her. She was the only one with presence, the only one who shone. I look forward to seeing her again in something better. Attagirl!

The last empress was a long drama to follow, but it was worth it. At first, the execution was a bit off, especially when it came to the transformation of the main character, which was just unrealistic in such short period of time, not to mention that he looked nothing like his old self (he even got taller....). I was actually considering dropping it, but the story somehow was intriguing. I wanted for Sunny to get revenge and become a strong character and she did. So, I wasn't disappointed there. I had mixed feelings about the romance with the emperor though. For the first half he was the ultimate bad guy, almost psychotic to the core. And then he became with lovable character that you couldn't help feel sorry for him, But, does that erase everything that he did in the past? Well, he wasn't the only character that followed that pattern in this drama. Other than that, the performances were really good, the plot full of action, suspence and thrill, plut it was fast paced.

Penthouse fans check this out! Entertaining and often very funny comedy and satire with a revenge melodrama thrown in. Some parts of this show reminds one of a certain real royal family.

For fans of Penthouse the same writer penned this outrageously over the top and very funny show. This is actually funnier than Penthouse especially the parts with the young princess.

The cast is good. Theatrical actor Shin Sung Rok is just right as the Emperor since it is a theatrical role with monstrous behavior and comedy side by side. Famous singer Jang Na Ra is sweet as the empress. Beautiful Elijah Lee is so stunning as the antagonist. Choi Jin Hyuk is quite good too as Na Wang Shik the man with a mission. The girl who plays the young princess has the funniest lines. The Empress Dowager is good too - not an easy role to play.

It's a fun and thrilling ride that makes the 26 episodes go by like a breeze.

Oh Ha Rin child actor "Princess Ari is absolutely amazing as the princess, so smart, sassy, and her ability to remember her lines and dialogue with such expression and cuteness is absolutely genius for one so young.

Love all the acting butch women and men.

This drama is great really I adore about this drama the best drama that I have ever seen really really suggest it alot and hope in the end sunny and leehyuck will be together really love them alot with together and I really love the act of jang nara and shin sung rok they are the best actors😍 Good Job for all actors and actoress staff of this drama😍👍👍👍

My opinion the acting was amazing. But the storyline around the last episodes need more time and explanation. There were many times that the actors chooses dumb ways bringing them back again in to the same problem. The ending was good but I hoped the emperor had the chance to explain better or choose better dialogue. This series is mix of everything action, drama, comedy...

At first glance, the cast was stacked but that alone wasn't enough. The drama was obviously some kind of a parody on the genre but it didn't embrace its nature. It made me realized the complete lack of parodies in Kdrama in general which is really unfortunate. Hyper intense, extreme overreactions, deranged morals, illogical by design, fueled by insanity, and unhinged characters. However, for this formula to work, the drama needed one of two things, either add more self-awareness, commit to the theme and double down or create a structure amidst this entire madness. Both of which the drama didn't do. Which left us with a half-arsed attempt to what could have been a unique experience. It would have benefited greatly if it had been cut down to 12 episodes. Will remember it for the potentials it might have had.

First, the portrayal of a modern Royal Korea is pretty much what I could believe in. The mixture of women in Hanbok, with modern facilities. The scheming Dowagers still in existence and the bored spoilt princess - no change there! So yes 9/10 to the production for this portrayal.

The story is not half bad but then spread all over the place with way too many sub plots going on, that actually began to loose interest.

It is impossible to believe that the bodyguard was the same bumbling stumbling pathetic person in the first couple of episodes, who becomes the cool calm efficient slimline gorgeous man later.

The FL plays the same role always in every single drama she is in! Miss "wide eyed innocent cutesy plain but nice person" who finds inner strength later and everyone is rooting for her and she is sooooo NICE and ultimately boring.

The Emperor is gawd awful. Could think of at least a dozen other actors that could have done this role way better. He starts out loathsome and then personality switches over completely so that you are meant to be all empathetic towards him particularly once he sleeps with the FL.

Finally it was dragged out unnecessarily, 12 episodes could have wrapped this nicely.

Not particularly great but with popcorn you can pass a wet day indoors watching this.

I am surprised to see such low rating of this show. I think it was very well balanced and brilliantly executed. The character arc was beautifully developed. Even though longer than the normal Korean dramas, it didn't lose its charm. Also loved the way they didn't try to needlessly glamorise everything.

Its story line is pretty much the story of "Good VS Bad" . I am a bit confused as why this drama only gets average of 5 stars? I really think this drama deserves more.

It is true that sometimes I feel a bit exhausted watching this series, as I find it a bit annoying that most of the main characters always scream so loud, throwing and breaking things when they get mad, and that kind of tantrum happens in every single episode. (-_-") I even need to take a break between each episode, because yes, for me that annoys me so much. But I have to admit, there are so many intrigues and unexpected background story of each character , that eventually interest me enough to keep me going until the end. I love that everyone who's bad in the story seems to keep backstabbing at each other, switching allies all the times just to keep doing their bad deeds. It really shows how evil a person can be if they are faced with an opportunity. Just like in real world, or politic.

So both my daughter and I like Korean dramas, but our tastes are quite different, and she prefers to watch shorter series than this, so I was describing some of the events of this series to her and I said it's like a soap opera. And she says to me, "What's a soap opera?" so a soap opera for those of you who don't know, like my daughter, was a television show that aired every day usually sometime in the afternoon before kids would come back from school, and after they had been taken to school. The audience mostly was housewives and retired people. And because they had something like 300 episodes every year, some of the plot lines were crazy to keep the attention of Their audience. And this k-drama exactly like that. Some of the things that happened in the plot are ridiculous but in a great way. You kind of get the general idea of what's going to happen, but there are a few really great surprises. It starts out with the audience thinking that there are two clear villains in this piece but by the end of it both of them are somewhat redeemed and the real villains of this piece a power mad mom and a daughter-in-law with a giant chip on her shoulder. She's completely justified in having a chip on her shoulder, but nevertheless, some of the things she does in this series are only excusable because she was treated badly in the beginning of this series. The acting is over the top, writing is over the top, but it somehow manages to be very entertaining and have really powerful moving emotional scenes. Not every scene mind you, but enough where you think wow this is really worth my time. Also, I love how much fun the actors seem to be having by throwing things and breaking them. The plot is too convoluted to go into here, but it involves a timeline where the Korean Empire was never existed and so it just keeps on existing into the modern world. And the crazy thing is that the show doesn't really explore how Korea would be different in any sort of way. The royal family acts as if they are the family of a powerful industrial group in South Korea. The title says that it's a constitutional monarchy, but they don't do many things that would be constitutional. And in the end the heroine actually dissolves the monarchy, which if you think about it doesn't make any sense because if it's a democracy you should have some kind of referendum whether to keep the monarchy or not and just not decide all by yourself that it's over, especially when there were at least two other people who would have inherited the throne. This is a great example of the craziness that k-drama and if you like k-drama don't be discouraged by how long it is you'll enjoy every second of it.

This is craziness on steroids , Twisted than than creeper. This evoked similar emotions like game of thrones rooting for bad and good people. Last episode hit me hard made me cry several times. 26 Episodes flew by pretty fast finished it in 2 days. Agree As everyone harping on the ending kinda let down. I understood later that Choi Hyuk was not be part of the project at the end was the reason. All in all it is a Drama in a crack house , taking a loony trip. Just immerse, Enjoy experiencing roller coaster of a ride without analyzing the logic.

I don't understand why it has such a low rating. It is very entertaining. Its more like a soap drama and honestly I enjoyed it so much. It has the exact type of drama that keeps you on the edge even though in hindsight it has many plot holes. Jang Nara was awesome in it. Sung rok's acting is insane,his character development was so good. I hope there was a happy ending but welp as the title suggests it was supposed to be like this.