Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Starring: Lim Ji-yeon, Heo Nam-jun, Jang Seung-jo, Kim Min-seok, Kim Hae-sook, Baek Ji-won, Oh Min-ae
Where to watch: Netflix (14 episodes, 1 hour each)
To watch or not to watch: Well, it is self-aware, and it acknowledges the many other series which have preceeded it. Most of them are better too.
Kang Dan-shim (Lim Ji-yeon) has been quite smart and ambitious and has climbed to be the royal concubine in the Joseon dynasty, an honour reserved for people with noble birth. Needless to say, Kang Dan-shim is not from an illustrous family and after rising to the rank, has attracted jealousy and enmity from her fellow royal members. She is eventually poisoned during a royal ceremony, and wakes up in the 21st century as Shin Seo-ri, an aspiring actress, down on her luck. Since Kang Dan-shim has loads of confidence and goes after what she wants unabashedly, as Shin Seo-ri, she rallies against the forces-that-be and grows to be known as a good actress, surpassing her rivals, meeting Cha Se-gye (Heo Nam-jun), and starting a controversy. Se-gye is a chaebol heir who is in his own war within the family to inherit the business and win the prize against his rival and uncle/cousin Choi Moon-do (Jang Seung-jo). Of course, the usual Kdrama shenanigans follow, a lot of emotional, over-dramatic romance development and business moves from both sides. Resolution of the situations in the present and justice for the past, etc. with everyone getting their just desserts. There is also a enemies-to-lovers trope between the two main leads, for those of you who like that kind of a storyline.
As stated in the excerpt, there are multiple series with this premise and most of them are better than this. This series is aware that it is riding on a trope and does mention it a few times, but still doesn’t deviate from it. It is rather apparent that the motive of the series was not to tell a story for entertainment, but to launch the leads, as well, leads, even though Lim Ji-yeon has played lead roles before, and very well at that. In this role, her character is charming with grit, which makes her stand out infinitely more compared to her other roles, like the villain in The Glory and victim of domestic abuse in Lies Hidden in My Garden. Guess she played the villain in The Glory a little too well. As for Heo Nam-jun – he needed to be launched as the male lead and he has tried to be like Lee Dong-wook throughout, but he lacks the charm. His face has barely moved in the entire series and has failed to generate any sort of sympathy for his predicament with his family. Definitely the weaker link, specially since Lim Ji-yeon has the emotional range of an animated character, and she portrays someone who is inherently inspiring.
Watch this series if you are looking for something in the tropes of time travel and/or enemies-to-lovers, is easily accessible through Netflix, then do watch it, but keep the expectations low. It goes from random to downright ridiculous as the episodes progress. They tried to overcome this by moving the story through the Joseon era and going through the story there, but it is a cop-out. The story was obvious t oeveryone, and didn’t need the time and attention they gave it. This Kdrama is suited to play on the secondary screen in front of a distracted audience. Watch it or skip it – but keep your expectations adjusted.