A complete basketcase, this drama tried to use formulaic writing and tried and tested cliches to manipulate the viewers into liking it but failed spectacularly.To be honest, in the beginning I didn"t understand all the criticism. Sure, it was a superficial romance drama with more beauty than brains but so were many others and everybody liked them just fine.The cast was doing a good job, there was funny banter, a potential mystery, bromance and I for one, even managed to feel chemistry between the leads. I liked it and wanted to know more.That feeling lasted for all of about 5 episodes and then the show went to shit in the most extraordinary fashion.First of all, you know how greedy the drama makers are for money to the point that the product placement in this show is blatant, ridiculously irrelevant and just shoved in your face time and time again. After a point, it feels like you"re not watching ads in a drama, you"re just watching one big ad with bits and pieces of the drama in between.Then comes the lacklustre romance. Albeit slow and full of filler at first, you still hoped it would build to something beautiful but suddenly they rushed it to the point that before ever even letting you feel that they have feelings for each other, the couple already exchanges love confessions, plants a kiss or two on each other and acts like they have been in love for a century. And you"re just awkwardly standing at the sidelines being like um guys, y"all just met a week ago...I almost felt like I missed some episodes where they fell in love but apparently it wasn"t me it was the writer who did that.The character development is so bad and the roles are extremely poorly written that I am pretty sure the cast couldn"t have saved them even if they tried their best.Kim Go Eun is a charismatic actress and I like her a lot. And her character here is a badass, loud mouthed cop who needs no saving which is why it made me root for her at first. However, you can"t help but see the way she changes from being extremely rude to the ML in one episode and then says I love you in the next. And ofcourse, conveniently it happens right after she sees all of his riches. I am not thinking gold digger, you are. She also conveniently turns into a weepy damsel in distress whenever they need to hype the hero at her expense. Strong but weak enough for the hero to save her again and again.Her doppelganger, which is a great opportunity for any actor to show versatility, is literally the same as her original character with bad hair and a bad attitude. No acting change there and they just popped a ridiculous wig on her head to convince us to believe she is a different person.Now comes Lee Min Ho. As beautiful he is, this man with sparkling gorgeous mischevious eyes has been conning us into believing he is a good actor since many years. It"s not that hard to figure out that he recycles his expressions in every drama but lets not go there. He plays his role convincingly enough to give you flutters in the stomach.He is the perfect dashing super hero who can do no wrong here with excellent fighting skills, Jedi level intelligence and is basically Einstein with a pretty face and a horse. That"s fine we like our romance heroes to be all that but it"s not fine when you also try to convince me that this flower boy can suddenly transform into this brilliant and ruthless king/ mafia boss nobody can mess with. I can"t buy that because he simply lacks the intensity to be one and honestly we are shown nothing in his background or story to prove otherwise.So everytime he tried to be a serious king, to me he just felt like a toddler wearing his daddy"s oversized shoes and shaking his fist trying to assert authority. Did I find him cute? For sure. Did I take him seriously? Hell no.Some people said that it"s a very hard to understand show and that those who don"t like it, actually just don"t understand it. Let me pop that bubble right here. It"s a very simplistic plot with confused and lazy writing trying to mask itself as complicated. This is a tactic used by the writer because naturally if you make people feel like they don"t get what"s going on, they"re gonna think the show is smarter than them and end up being impressed. Let me tell you, I understood everything that was going on and it ain"t that deep. It"s a very commercial show with one goal alone: making money. That"s why without putting any thought or effort into plot and execution, they casted hype worthy actors, ripped off another OST, and produced a dumbed down version of Goblin. Unfortunately for them, no amount of Lee Min Ho"s boyish smiles can fry our braincells enough for us to lose the ability to tell a good script from bad.Yes, the cinematography and direction is beautiful but there"s only so many pretty color pallets, shots and sceneries you can enjoy till you start to question the bad writing.Despite all the flaws if you still want to check out this show and just want one reason to push you towards it, then that reason is Woo Do Hwan. Who tried to save the show with his excellent acting and scene stealer self by bringing forward two characters who despite looking the same are entirely different people. He brought forth the bromance and laugh out loud moments that act as the show"s only saving grace. Yeong/Eun Seup are the best characters in the drama and you can"t help but fall in love.But the writer, ever so stubborn on digging her own grave steals that little happiness from us by reducing his screentime as much as possible. Take that as you will.The skinship in this show is actually pretty decent with some excellent kisses. However, the romance is so poorly paced (trying to be intense just by the FL"s cringeworthy crying scenes that pop out of nowhere without any reason) that you never get the feels you otherwise would. Again, I blame the writing because the two main leads have excellent chemistry in real life behind the scenes that just doesn"t translate on-screen.The villain, like every other character is poorly developed, one dimensional and his scenes (the very few there are) are horribly yawn inducing. The second FL (Prime Minister) and the second ML (Shin Jae) were both flat characters left with unexplored potential and by the second half, for the life of me I couldn"t begin to make myself care about their stories.Yes, there are a few scenes that are designed to make people react and make your adrenalin rush but even those scenes are extremely cheesy and come in to being with the help of the most unrealistic and ridiculous plot devices, that you can"t help but laugh at.Ending words: Quite definitely, a lost cause, you should watch it only if you want to take it as a bad parody and laugh at it, instead of with it.
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