I'm a little conflicted about my overall feelings for this drama. Like most dramas I've watched, there were parts that I really liked, and parts that I felt the drama could have done without or that could've been improved. I felt the urge to write this review as I noticed most of the other reviews seemed to be pretty one sided and fail in mentioning this dramas faults along with it's good points. Although I did give this drama an 8, if I was being purely objective I probably would've given it a lower score, but heck, there were enough parts in this drama that I thought were done really well so I gave it a higher score.

The cast - I've gotta give props to the actors. I think each member of the cast did a really good job of portraying their character and fulfilling the role that they were given. Even when their characters actions crossed far over the line of believability I thought that the good acting compensated fairly well for the areas of poor writing. I was specifically captivated by Joo Won's acting despite my frustrations with the way his character was written. His acting was really entertaining and I definitely think he did his best to salvage his character. But after about halfway or more into the drama his character became too frustratingly unrealistic and I felt like screaming at Ma Joon way more than a few times. Yoon Shi Yoon's character, Tak Goo, was like an adorable beam of light. His character's fun loving nature was captivating and encouraging when other characters had me climbing up a wall. But unfortunately there came a point when even precious Tak Goo became too dense/oblivious for me to handle. Eugene's character, Yu Kyung, was very interesting to watch and I enjoyed her character's journey throughout most of the drama even if I sometimes despised her. Lee Young Ah. Her character frustrates me only in the fact that I think she was extremely under developed and underused. She seemed to get left in the dust along with a few other side characters, but as she was a main cast that really bothered me. It almost felt like the writers forgot about her later on in the drama.

Story/plot - Honestly I thought it was a pretty interesting story but as I suspected when I saw the episode count, they simply drag it out too long. It starts out pretty strong and continues that way for quite awhile but not for long enough. I liked the issues this drama dealt with though, particularly favoritism and jealousy. This drama probably could have been vastly improved if just condensed to 20 episodes, or even 25 episodes would have been much better. After episode 25 I almost dropped it a few times, but I was so close that I stuck it out. Ma Joon and Yu Kyung's interactions were one of the main components of this drama that really kept my interest going though, even when I was all about done. After 20 episodes there were a lot more poorly written parts than well written parts. Many of the conflicts dragged on way longer than they should have and when they were about to be resolved, the characters suddenly/unrealistically flip flopped in their behavior and hence, the conflict was dragged on even longer. Sometimes kdrama characters can be exaggerated but for this drama many of the characters stepped outside the realm of believability for far too long.


Overall- In conclusion I enjoyed King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo, it's heartwarming and intense and it made me cry. So yes, I'd recommend it, but you'd better be prepared to pull your hair out a few times.