I went through the gamut of bad male-centred western media (It's Joseon Marvel! Joseon Batman!) before realising that ROYAL SECRET AGENT (this has to be capitalised because of how often L intoned it at people, in a repeated meme that honestly never stopped being hilarious) is actually Joseon Bond.

The idol and all-round bad actor, L, plays the eponymous ROYAL SECRET AGENT in a performance that plays to his strengths: that of showing up to set and just being aggressively pleasant in various outfits.

To be honest, after finishing this show I have to conclude that it is so genuinely awful I think I have to put it in 'so bad it's good' territory.

With a juvenile, shallow script that may have been written by highschool students who watched too many American movies, terrible acting, and a musical score with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, it starts out bad, veers into unwatchable and then kind of keels over sideways into gleefully terrible.

L is flat out bad, of course, but so is everyone else so he fits in at least. The script at first feels like it's been chopped out of the middle of a standard fusion Saguek and then someone has done a find and replace to add the words ROYAL SECRET AGENT to various cliched sentences. All of these are intoned as if the actor is so used to saying them they're mostly just surprised that the words ROYAL SECRET AGENT have been added to them.

"Who will stand between the people and the corruption of the powerful families?"
*checks notes* "Oh, it's 'Royal Secret Agents' this time. Okay."
"The ROYAL SECRET AGENTS."

As the show progresses it starts to feel instead like a mashed up Best Of of past Sageuks, most of which were unfortunately superior and with no self-awareness or feel of deliberation to the references. The ROYAL SECRET AGENT'S rebel brother being basically Hong Gil-dong was like Robin Hood showing up in a Bond movie. His increasingly useless Gisaeng turned cop turned Princess girlfriend was a homage to previous leads in several fusion Sageuks involving cross dressing. In this case ,they don't bother hiding she's a woman. She just puts on male clothes while being obviously female and walks around while our two male leads run through the streets bellowing AGASSI at her as though the act of wearing of gat is sufficient to hide her identity.

Instead of character development, the writer has the actors explain their background, motivations and actions in exposition while the bad guys yell their evil plans in public and say things like, "The Rule of Law does not apply to me! Let's hunt people!"

The male lead is an entitled, borderline-skeevy arse but since this is a kdrama you know that this will be a result of his Great Secret Trauma that will cause everyone to forgive him once they Understand Him. And if they use any more soft filters and lens flare on the female lead due to her vast beauty they might use up the sun.

And then there's the Boar Rule. Once there's a boar, you know it's bad. Really bad.

So bad it may even be good.

So pour yourself a drink and get watching.
You have been both enticed and warned.