Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on whatever dramas I’m watching, whether I’m at the beginning, middle or end. I give my thoughts on dramas.
This week I recapped episodes 3 and 4 of Eye Love You, in which people do their best, but it’s just so hard to communicate sometimes. I’ll recap the rest of the episodes when they are available sometime next month.
I also recapped episodes 5 and 6 of 1000 Years Old, in which our vampire and college student hit some bumps in their adorable, colorful courtship. I love this show.
In the last month, I had a weird sudden hunger for dramas that weren’t on my radar, in this case, two Korean historicals from 2022. One was a rewatch, one was a new watch.
Let’s start with the rewatch. When I initially reviewed this show I hadn’t been blogging long and don’t feel I did it justice, so here’s another attempt:
Under the Queens Umbrella – 슈룹 – Korea 2022
A 2022 South Korean historical comedy-drama with 16 episodes.
The queen of a prolific emperor discovers that history may be about to repeat itself and must act fast to protect her sons and the nation’s sons.
Here’s a link to previous reviews.
This is a show that I didn’t expect to rewatch and yet there I was, pressing play. It’s not a romance, though there is some romance, but a story of women in court power struggles. On rewatch it reminded me of To Sir, With Love because women drove the story.
We’ve got our Queen, our Queen Dowager, a dozen concubines, and their princes. It’s a lot to take in at first and I’ll admit part of the joy of rewatching was knowing who was who and not having to figure it out again.
Our Queen realizes that her sons are in danger and has to act quickly to protect them from a dozen threats. The court is treacherous, and more than one person would happily take away her power and see all her sons dead. It’s the latter more than the former that motivates her.
Meanwhile, her princes are growing up, sometimes oblivious to the danger around them, and getting into various troubles that put them at greater risk.
A lot of the pleasure is seeing the Queen juggling between the court intrigue and the domestic issues of being a mother.
As comes with the territory, everyone wants power. When I first watched it I bristled at the idea of one group inherently deserving power over the other. Ultimately, they make it pretty clear who is good, who is bad, who will use power wisely, and who won’t, so you can enjoy cheering characters on. (This is a contrast to the next drama I talk about.) In that way, it’s very familiar and comforting kdrama territory despite the horrors of court drama.
While the women get center stage, the flock of princes are fun to watch too. There’s also romance, adventure, beautiful locations, and mysteries. The show has a ton going on and the writing and the acting are excellent. I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself pressing play on it again sometime.
I also watched, for the first time:
Bloody Heart – 붉은 단심 – 2022
A 2022 South Korean historical drama with 16 episodes.
The emperor struggles to regain the power his father lost while dealing with endless political fighting.
I’ll admit I started watching this because I wanted to see our male lead be miserable and I was not disappointed. Actor Lee Joon, our emperor, spends most of this show frustrated, hurt, angry, or sad with occasional moments of happiness. It’s great.
He’s up against another great actor, Jang Hyuk, who I could watch yell at people for days. Lucky for me, he does a lot of yelling.
Unlike the previous show, this one does not have clear good and bad guys. The various factions of the court are all strongly motivated to stay in power, often to stay alive. They do pretty brutal things to maintain or gain power. While some characters are more sympathetic, no one can be “good” and survive in this world.
I appreciated this darker version of historical politics. I also appreciated a strong sense of how court politics might work – and not work – with so many different groups involved.
Like with any court drama though, in the end, I only kinda understood who was who. A future rewatch may bring the rewards of a better understanding.
While I wouldn’t call this a romance, much of the show revolves around a central love story. Our emperor is in love with a strong, capable woman. Who gets plunged into this nightmare of court cruelty. She has to get her bearings and gain power to protect herself and those she loves. The relationship between her and the emperor, it’s complicated. It makes our ML look miserable. He’s so good at it.
Some pretty interesting power dynamics arise and change between our central characters, and it’s darkly pleasurable to watch them exert their power and then lose it. Or seem to lose it. There is a lot of subterfuge going on as well.
This is a much less feel-good show than Under The Queen’s Umbrella. While it has more romance it’s a much less romantic view of history. It’s also heavy with men, though a few women get involved in the scheming and plotting.
If you’re in the mood for angst, angst, and more angst, as well as Lee Joon looking miserable, I totally recommend it.