Lovers of the Red Sky (2021)

Charming but Ridiculously Ridiculous

Watching the series made me feel like they were trying to fool me. It is a fantasy drama but i feel like even the creators werent taking it seriously.

Let me talk about the good things:
1. The art. The focus on artworks made me appreciate traditional Korean (and asian) paintings. I love how they showed the details and the skills it take to create these masterpieces. The painstaking strokes and technique in painting the kings portraits are absolutely stunning to watch;
2. Good, if not above average special effects;
3. The cast. Kim Yoo Jung and Ahn Hyo Seop are not particulary great but are still charming. The real revelation for me is Kwak Shi Yang, he is just captivating to watch as an antagonist.

What about the bad:
1. "Convenient" plothloles. They created story obstacles but they also created very convenient solutions - kind of like a loophole to get out of these problems. Uncontrollable demon? Lets give them a ring for it. Lost sight at the most crucial part?Lets give them a magical being to give them extra power. The family is to be publicly executed? Lets magically bring back an ailing king to put a stop to it. These situations, among others, dont feel like twists, but lazy and random resolutions to conflict.
2. Main character is blind but actually moves like he isn't, he can even ride horses for crying out loud. He puts on a mask and walks around like he's normal. Plus, he IS a stargazer, an astrological reader who can accurately predict the future by watching the stars, because why not, they think we'd believe it, even if he is blind.
3. The rudest most entitled #metoo normal girl in a korean historical drama. Like when she was to lose in the painting contest and she cries foul and asks why, like a spoiled kid in tantrum
4. They pretended that you can hear brushstrokes when somebody paints and you can tell what is being painted. Come on!
5. I feel like they wasted the chance to use the royal shaman into something better or even sinister. She was neither good nor exactly bad but I was kind of expecting her to do something grand in the final ritual, She was there to salvage her reputation and save the kingdom only to suddenly die without really doing anything.

First part of the show, specially the first episode got me hooked, however halfway through the series, i was just there just to finish it like watching a drama so you can submit a report for it. Halfway you'd realized you know where its going and everything, and i mean everything became predictable.

Will i rewatch? No. Will i recommend? Not really, there's a whole lot of other better dramas out there.

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