It is a shame indeed. I want to toss something on the screen whenever the OTP aren't around.

the Queen of Tears chaebol family can be frustrating but I think the show does a good job of showing how complacent and easily-fooled they (minus certain specific members) are once someone has their trust+ how they've been set up for the long con, while also humanising them just a little.

As for the divorce..... I think week 2 made it really clear what their issue really is and, without getting into spoilers, how one-sided the view supporting it would be.

It’s actually just because Saturday has a more competitive line up. This week QOT competed against the final episode of FXC. Considering that, 11% was mighty impressive as FXC itself has done tremendously in ratings. I think they broke double digits back in ep 8.

From next week onwards, it will be very interesting to see just where Queen of Tears will land with no more FXC. Personally, I’m predicting huge things for this drama but we never know. Maybe Escape of the Seven will prove me wrong. The ratings game is always fascinating.

Park Sung-hoon plays convincing villains but I much prefer him in his work in KBS’s INTO THE RING (2020) (Viki US). I hope he doesn’t get typecast as a villain along the lines of Kim Seo-hyung (who I loved as a non-villain in the terrific SBS drama NOBODY KNOWS (2020) (Viki US).

Lol.

most iconic 2nd female lead syndrome has to be Cindy from Producers, to the point most of us have forgotten IU was actually the second lead on that drama lol
but that was almost a decade ago and I'm always up for another!

Sorry, I didn't think this far. I will delete it.

Thank you for making me notice it. I sincerely appreciate it.

I feel like the baddies provide a certain degree of friction and potential rallying point which I think is a good thing for a drama- especially since our leads have already sort-of twigged to two of them separately and along with leopard auntie (<3 her) are basically the family's Cassandra.

(Baek Hyun-woo and Hong Hae-in are nobody's fools even if she's, er, distracted by the obvious and he needs to watch his back)

I like to know their reasons for the inticate con. Is it really just for the money? Or they have revenge in mind? I do not like any of them. But the Hongs are not likeable either like her Mom and brother.
Hyun Woo and Hae In will def fight back. They just need to resolve their issues first.

I am watching the drama because of the baddies too. The baddies definitely keeps the story interesting, as it gives the story momentum and yes... avoid the slump of no story to tell. Actually, this is not the writer's first attempt at including villians in her story as You From Another Star, Legend of the Blue Sea, and Crash Landing On You do have them.

I'm enjoying the baddies too. It keeps the drama interesting. I am loving the main leads, but I think I would get bored if the story line only focused on them. I'm also a big fan of PSH, even when he plays the villian!

Producers will always have a place in my Top 5, if this was PJE's Marie Antoinette (i.e. the ahead-of-its-time work you make after having a great success and studios/networks willing to let you do what you want) I will always respect it. It threw the whole formula around romance and cast billing right out the window and I love that about it. But QOT and its classic kdrama charms have got me by the neck here, I love it and yeah it's going to be a Baek vs Baek fight here too for which Kim Soo-hyun role I enjoy more lol.

and aaaah don't get me started on the PDs! I was already a fan of Kim Hee-won after Vincenzo (the sheer flair of some of those shots and directing choices, not to mention the absolute bounty of classic film referencing Easter eggs lol) but she also worked on CLOY and both PDs here - her and Jang Young-woo - are amazing at establishing atmosphere, it's shot in a way that feels almost cinematic but without losing that 'classic kdrama' soul.

(and Arthdal lol they spent a lot of money to shoot only half a drama - damn Netflix - and to this day I'm still a bit annoyed that a year of Kim Ji-won and Song Joong-ki's time was wasted in roles they couldn't even complete, I was still hooked though)