u/Celebril63

Over the last few weeks, there's been a mess of gambling app ads playing on the monitors. Tonight it seemed to be coming every 5-10 minutes.

I'm not talking late night, either. It's like 8-10 pm where there's plenty of minors in the gym. It's distracting, too. Who needs flashing slit machine lights in your eye when your trying to get a good liftoff on your bench press?

Who would I complain to?

This is top notch sageuk with the added benefits of the White Truck of Doom. And that is an important note.

To fully appreciate this drama you almost have to be either Korean or a fan of historical dramas of the Joseon era. More than anything else, this drama is written as a sageuk that is occurring in modern times. The tropes, the plot twists, the story development and themes; all are what you expect out of a Joseon era drama.

For those who don't know, just a few include:

• The distinction between clothing color and class
• The Left State Minister is almost always a villain. The Right Chief Councilor is frequently the king's ally among the court ministers.
• Either the Queen Mother or the Queen Dowager is a villain.
• Two half brothers vying for the crown, either by intent or necessity.
• The basic structure of lots of fun, humor, and romance in the first half turning into insane political intrigue in the second.
• Class distinctions between rich merchants and nobility, which often comes up in sageuk.
• Forbidden love between commoner and a crown prince. Another staple.
• Lots of spies and poison (a favorite of both the Left State Minister and the evil queen mother).
• Even the school reflects Sungkyunkwan and its mission. (BTW, Sungkyunkwan Scandal is a great intro to the genre!)

There are plenty more, but I don't want to turn this into a trope nitpick. Some of the elements don't work quite as well as others, but that really is the basis behind this drama.

Hmm... one thing I haven't seen though are the eunuchs.

I have one concern about this drama. Are they going to be able to finish the story solidly in only 12 episodes? The pacing in a lot of ways feels like what I expect out of a 16 episode historical. On the other hand, these two episodes have kind of overlapped the two halves of a sageuk, so I do have high hopes.

Right now, the two biggest questions I have are:

• Is Minister Kim going to be the Left State Minister or Chief State Councilor? They've been going out of their way to keep us guessing and doing a very good job of it.
• Is there a secret behind Hui Ju's birth? We don't know anything about her birth mother. Is she actually of noble blood on her mom's side? This is another frequent historical drama trope. Though if she is seoeol, that would cause all kinds of other complications...

We logged onto Viki last night and while waiting for my wife, I noticed something while scrolling through. A lot of the dramas that we lost when Kocowa left have now come back!

I don't know just how many are back, but it looks pretty broad. I saw Coffee Prince, Weightlifting Fairy, Lawless Lawyer, Knight Flower. Tons of fan favorites.

There is a whole section now for returning shows on the main menu. So, good news if you didn't dash off for a Kocowa subscription or if you got Viki via an annual pass.