Our Blooming Youth

"Our Blooming Youth" is the story of two lost and wronged souls who find redemption in each other. The underlying themes are friendship and trust with very subtle meaningful romance throughout. The male lead has major trust issues and doubts everything to survive and protect everybody around him. The female lead is a smart detective but also impulsive, acting first and thinking later. Despite this chaos, their chemistry is beautiful, deep, and palpable. Such an intriguing plot!

Park HyungSik as Lee Hwan hits it out with this one. Not only he looks every part like a Prince (he is gorgeous in this role), but his dreamy, deep eyes are pools of despair, mischief, brilliance, haughtiness, wisdom, and rage in turns and they cloud with confused desire for a girl who is betrothed to his best friend (in a social contract of arranged marriage) and out of his bounds for all means. He tells her at one point, 'You must never know,' knowing he will lose her if he makes one mistake. Nonetheless, he would go to any length to keep her by his side. Also, in a very competent performance, Jeon SoNee as Min JayeYi only has eyes for her Crown Prince. She has no idea she is begun to exist for him and will do anything to be by his side at all times, even if it means living her entire life disguised as a Eunuch. Their relationship is a difficult one, fraught with danger and distance that's far more than physical.

Overall, the show deals with science, superstition, psychological warfare, social injustice, greed, and revenge. The crime and mystery elements are very well placed, the usual political intrigue is present (the Josean court was known for this, so it would be surprising not to have it) and the Crown Prince's losses and victories are told innovatively. It's a lot going for all against the backdrop of a very cute romance. Most importantly, keep an eye out for a feminist male lead who breaks down barriers for the badass woman in his life during a suffocating era when women were merely objects raised to serve social contracts between families. He has complete faith in her mental and physical abilities and treats her as an equal outside of their strict social hierarchy (watch them switch from best of friends to being master servant in some truly hilarious scenes). It's just fantastic!

In short, "Our Blooming Youth" is worth watching if you're looking for an engaging & mixed-genre series.