Solid contender for the worst drama of 2023.

This drama has my favorite couple of 2023!

You need to ignore the rest of the characters because they were not very interesting and focus on the couple who was chaotic, funny, lovely and super hot. The past and present stories were the main point of this drama.

The fantasy elements were well balanced with the story.

Jo Boa and Rowoon did very well in their role.

If you’re a fan of fantasy, Rowoon and/or reincarnation tropes, I think this show makes a fun one time watch (one time full watch, many time ‘I want to see those specific cute scenes again’ watch). Flaws and plot-holes are rife but there’s something just really captivating about how messy it is and I found it highly entertaining (even through the frustrating face-palm moments), funny and heart-fluttering. The fact that it wasn’t so deep that you need to take it super seriously and could instead just turn your brain off to enjoy, worked in its favour in my opinion. It also has a lot of great fodder for fangirling and produced some really hilarious gifs, comments, jokes and discussions on the fanwalls here through its run. The Red Hand thirsting and Ro-swooning, as coined by @attiton, was one for the history books.

On plot: it isn’t anything new and honestly does leave quite a bit to be desired in terms of narrative choices, character developments and pacing BUT I found that just letting go of wanting it to do this or that and just watching for what it was made it much easier for me to overlook the unpolished/not very well written parts and focus on the stuff I did liked. It was still really fun and entertaining despite being somewhat predictable!

On characters: The combined chemistry of Rowoon, Bo-ah and Ha Joon is a major highlight in this drama. While I found the characters of the ML, SML and FL to be eh individually on average, they shined best when interacting with each other and were, together, probably the biggest thing that kept the plot (and me) going despite its missteps. As for the supporting characters/non OTP related plot - I personally lost interest in these pretty quickly so at best it got a laugh out of me and at worst I just forgot they existed/zoned out during those scenes 🤷‍♀️

TL;DR This is not a drama to watch if you’re after serious fantasy, tight writing & pacing, really well written characters. This is the drama to watch if you’re just looking for a messy, cute and fun fantasy to fill some time in with. Just watch without thinking too much of what could’ve been/questioning narrative choices and you’ll be grand. And if you’re on the fence, I’d say give the first four episodes a shot because that’ll likely give you a pretty strong indication as to whether you’ll enjoy the rest of the ride or nah.

Great first half and then lost its way during the second half. Look back to all the other dramas you've watched. If having a OTP full of rom-com chemistry is enough for you and you're willing to ignore all the other parts of the story, then it's a nice watch and go for it. An approach is to just watch the first half, FF to the Joseon scenes, and then FF again to watch the final 2 episodes. It's not a drama that I would look back and say "I'm glad I watched it", but I wouldn't say, "I regret it. What was I thinking?", either.

The positives:
-Jo BoA and Rowoon's acting, but particularly Jo BoA making Hong-jo luminous and endearing.
-Fantastic chemistry between our OTP despite the writing trying to destroy it at times. And our OTP also has great chemistry with the 2ML.
-2ML is pretty endearing.
-The writer is good at writing these rom-com beats, so there are a lot of cute scenes.
-Good ending if you are in it just for the cute stuff.

Negatives:
-Stalker/murdery subplot
-Too many mean girls with no redeeming qualities..I'm guessing to make the FL special, which is an outdated approach to writing.
-Supporting characters (except 2ML) felt more like set-dressing.
-The spell book/fantasy aspect didn't figure as much as I expected after the first few weeks. The fantasy stuff is quite messy, which is why I would suggest FFing through stuff. You won't missing anything important.
-The FL makes a lot of naive decisions and has no self-preservation. I like her a lot, so I'm not as bothered by it.
-Cheating murkiness with the ML pursuing the FL while still in a relationship with 2FL.

Great start, awful middle and amazing second half. The writers forgot all the fantasy elements from the first two episodes and decided to focus on the love square from like eps. 3-11 (?) because of ridiculous love spell shenanigans. From eps. 12 onwards, they remembered it was a fantasy romance after all! So we got some genuinely fluffy romance & sizzling chemistry between the leads, some genuinely moving backstory/past life storylines and a satisfying ending.

Would I recommend it overall? Yes, at least as an one-time watch. Some of the writing was genuinely clever at times, I loved our OTP and the music was great. The writing was also rushed and messy at times tho, and so much time was wasted on the love triangle. Some characters were so00 annoying, unnecessary, toxic and were never redeemed. So I'd say if you're interested, power through the first half and fast forward thru scenes with any of the annoying characters (you'll know who they are).

This dramas biggest strength is the actors. There is something in each episode that will make for laughter. It has beautiful photography and beautiful people, a happy ending, some really fun scenes I look forward to rewatching.
Biggest weakness is the writing. Too many conflicts, many of which are resolved very off-handedly. Side characters are too one dimensional.
But ignoring the could-have-beens, it is a fun watch.