Lacklustre viewership

While the drama got off to a good start with the teaser videos and premiere, it seemed not to fare as well as it was hyped up to be. News site Nate reported that the drama showed slow growth in viewership, of only 11.6 per cent, leading people to question if writer Kim has lost her magic. This also came with the critique of the drama’s overuse of product placement, putting sponsored products in scenes in a way that seems forced, such as in episode eight where Kim dips into a convenience pack of kimchi in the car. Kim Jin-seok of Joongang Daily wrote, “is this a home shopping channel or a drama?”

Who’s to blame?

While it was easy for netizens to push the blame onto Kim Go-eun in the beginning, it seems that more and more are acknowledging that the drama did not do well due to the cliched scenes and often dismal writing.

Some have commented that writer Kim has yet to let go of the Cinderella trope, as she enjoys putting the rich-man, poor-girl combination in her dramas. Cinemaescapist, a review site for Korean dramas, wrote that the drama is “lost in a sea of cliches”, and did not live up to previous works such as Descendants of the Sun which includes interesting topics such as soft and hard power between the two Koreas.

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