Princess Agents was one of the cdramas I anticipated this year. I got excited watching the trailer and a few instagram clips. It made my heart giddy with impatience. I needed a good pick-me-up romance to deal with all the meh romcoms I watched lately. But I learned early on that Princess Agents doesn’t solely focus on romance. Ohh boy. I’d say that it leaned heavily on political and psychological drama with a dose of romance. Like 70/30.
To start, I want to come out with a confession upfront. This series was a huge disappointment. I’ll just throw that one as early as now. Yeah, its not romcom-y enough like I wanted but that’s not the reason. The expectation was simply too high and the series just didn’t live up to it. If I have to rate this series its a 5/10 or a 5.5 at most. I wanted to love this show because let’s be honest I watched wayyyy worst. It was not horrible to DNF but it wasn’t a smooth ride as well. In a nutshell: it went from entertaining & enjoyable and slowly crept to confusing. From there it became draggy then “WTF was that?”
Let me explain . . .
Journey to a Messy Love Triangle
Lets talk about this for a moment. I want to get this over with because I had the biggest qualms on this in this series.
My gripe is so huge it deserves its own section ~
Okay so we have 2 broading and handsome lads who can make your panty drop. There was no shortage of scenes to see how dashing each one is. I involuntarily made inappropriate ohhhs and ahhhs when they appeared on screen. I prepared my heart for the rollercoaster because I knew it’ll happen. Both dudes were dreamy as hell and my shallow heart was very thankful of that.
For the record: I’m with the Xing’er + Yu Wen Yue camp because I can see the chemistry. I’m sold on this loveline from the start and thought to myself “to hell with everything”. YWY is very charismatic, smart and badass. Although he’s very calculated, his love for Xing’er was selfless and beautiful.
https://cdramastuff.tumblr.com
You can see there’s affection and it doesn’t seem one sided. You can tell that Xing’er has feeling for YWY as well. Cliche as it sounds, you can see the glitter in her eyes when she’s with him. However conflicted her action is, her heart tells a different story. Rooting for them was inevitable.
Then there’s Yan Xun and the possibility of an epic love triangle bloomed. I was all in on it as well. I thought, “yes finally second lead will get the girl”. I went from Xing’er + YWY to Xing’er + YX and back and forth. I was so undecided between the two as the story progressed. Yan Xun is a scary second lead because there’s no way you cannot love that guy. He’s like Chilbong 2.0. You’ll definitely fall for that sweet smile of his. He’s adorably cheeky and mischievous. YX is the complete opposite of YWY in every way. Unlike YWY, YX is very obvious with his affection on Xing’er. Everyone knows it. There’s no doubt that he’ll go through whatever just for her.
My fangirling heart was in a mess because I couldn’t decide. Regardless of who she ends up with, I approved. That’s how much I love both guys. In terms of potential partner, YWY and YX can stand side by side and there’s no way that one cannot root for both.
But here’s my issue – what the hell happened?
Two amazing characters ready to be utilized but the love triangle felt underwhelming. It felt like a strong bonfire fizzling out ever so slowly. Both romance started strong but quickly became confusing. When I thought it started to pick up heat again, it became a mess. I was dismayed, then pissed then disappointed. This is not the type of rollercoaster I wanted.
If you can’t decide which male lead you like, pick one and make the most out of it. Go all in with a bang! Don’t go back and forth between leads and make a mess out of the ordeal. Someone will lose the girl and we all know it. We accept that fact. We’re ready for it. Don’t half ass it and shove it to us expecting applause and acceptance. Jeeez. In all honesty they wasted both love lines.
With that said, I do prefer YWY + Xing’er together. As much undeveloped as it was, the relationship felt good. Seeing them together, I picture a man admiring a woman and the other way around. Their bond felt warm and nice. You can see that YWY is good for her as well – because amidst all the chaos, he keeps her sane and safe.
With YX, it felt like a bond born out of camaraderie instead of love. They are both bruised characters wanting revenge for their demise. While that bond is unbreakable would you call it love though? If its their definition of what love is, it doesn’t translate in scenes. When I see them together, for whatever reason it feels like a one sided love.
I Need Answers
PACING – Pacing is the strongest reason that a viewer will drop a series like a hot potatoe. Princess Agents has this issue – it was so terrible that I needed to FF a couple of minutes in some episodes. Hmmmmm. But why didn’t I drop it? Because I wanted it to get better. I hoped so bad that it will. And I needed to see who ends up with who. I waited for this series to binge so there’s no way I’ll admit straightaway how bad it was in terms of pacing.
STORYLINE – This series showed enormous potential with its premise. An intriguing story of a slave girl turned spy. How a girl went from being helpless to indispensable. Did it deliver? NOPE. Good thing that the series had incredible actors. Unfortunately, the production team lost their sense and direction along the way. The characters arcs were sloppy. There’s way too much screen time for unnecessary shenanigans. Minor characters shown way to much with no contribution to the story. Character after character who didn’t matter at all.
I was expecting a healthy balance of political drama with a bit of romance. Didn’t get both. Politics was all over the place and the romance(s) butchered. As the series continued, it became a story riddled with ironies and no clear direction. It was like the production team had several ideas but didn’t know how to make it work. The story didn’t feel fluid. They could have done a ton with Xing’er and her character arc. Or centered the story more on the spy network. So much detail and storylines overlooked. It does get better but unfortunately too late to save itself. For this reason, I wanted to read the novel it was adapted from. Just to see what went wrong and how it compares.
Princess Agent felt like a half baked storyline wanting to be good. End of the day, no matter how much you like cake, if its not baked properly no frosting can salvage it.
LOVE LINES – ranted my heart out in the previous section.
Those little things – I didn’t want to be petty but I needed to add this here. I know cdramas are heavy on special effects so I am skipping those. What irks me is those eyesore little details. So small it can go unnoticed but when you spot them, they’re unforgettable.
I don’t want to nitpick but when you do a scene, make sure every detail connects. Or are less obvious.
- King stabs a guy to death with a sword but as he dropped the sword, no blood. Blade was clean. Atleast give me some blood – even a little will do.
- Music & synchronization. I read earlier in Reddit that cdramas are often dubbed due to difference in accents. So I assume, music is also added afterwards. Okay, understood. My issue though is when the mismatch is too obvious. I know its difficult to act with instruments, and harder to make it believable. Again, this isn’t a big issue but when sounds and action don’t match, it doesn’t look good. Its hella weird hearing music and seeing them doing something else.
- Lastly, those stupid eyeliner. Such a tiny detail but when you see closeups, one cannot unsee it. Only guy who had flawless eyeliner was Yan Xun.
There’s no excuse for being sloppy >.<
ENDING – WTF was that? If you want a series to end with a cliffhanger, it should go out with a bang e.g Game of Thrones. Okay granted GoT had an astronomical budget but still! A cliffhanger should leave the audience speechless and anticipating. The ending we got wasn’t even satisfying. There was no resolution.
Sources are indicating there’s another season thus the ending. If you think about it, cutting out numerous fillers would have worked. The same thing happened with Legend of Chusen where the second season was unnecessary. Without any guarantee for a season 2 or the same cast, what’s the point of that ending? If they intended for another season, they should have at least done their best with the first one. This series had all the potential to succeed if they only planned it out well. With all its mess, will the viewers even want another round of it? I know I don’t. I don’t even want to know what happened to them anymore.
The Good Stuff
ACTORS – If anybody asks me if there’s a redeeming factor in this drama this is it. Kuddos for everyone for doing their best to make it work. However lackluster Princess Agents was, the actors gave life to their characters.
A lot of actors stood out but I’d say that both male leads definitely carried the show. While Zhao Zanilia and Li Qin also did great, IMO their counterparts outdid them by a small margin. I’m not dismissing the other actors because everyone did justice to their characters as well. Great cast so it sucks to have a mediocre production that couldn’t match them.
VILLAINS – There were quite a bunch – some neglected, others just disappeared, and a few underutilized. I personally wished they invested more with Yu Wen Xi and Yu Wen Huai. Those two definitely made their mark in this series, especially Yu Wen Xi. How awesome would it be if they unleashed his inner cunnivingness and wretchedness? Ohhhhh the potential. While shortlived, their performances were praiseworthy.
PRINCESS CHUN’ER – Initially I added her as a bad element of the series because I couldn’t stand her. Then I changed my mind. I wanted to give her a special mention because of how her arc developed. She started off young, ignorant and silly. She was all smiles until she was robbed of that innocence. Of all the characters, you’ll sympathize for her the most. We witness her going from naive to irrational and goddamnit she didn’t deserve any of it.
To be honest, she’s not a bad character. There’s nothing to dislike about her other than her silliness and childish behavior on the first half. She was also blinded with her love and obsessed for YX. And she knows that he loves someone else but according to her, she just wants to marry him. It was a love doomed 100% from the start but she didn’t care.
Imperial Concubine: Have you even considered what YX thought about? Doesn’t he hate you? Doesn’t he hate your father? Doesn’t he hate the Wei state? How will your life be like after marrying him? You are the daughter of his father’s murdered. How can he love you?
Chun’er: I don’t want to think too much. Even if he dislikes me, even if he hates me, I will do anything to protect me. I will even die for him.
This went on forever and I hated it. I didn’t want this to be her sole purpose in the show. If you initially dislike her character, bear with it until the end. Bear with it and consider all the shit she’ll go through. I just wanted to hug her >.<
HUMOR – For a series so dark, it tries to be funny sometimes. I enjoy those moments because when they try, they do pull it off. I welcome those scenes and I’m thankful that the show can makes me chuckle from time to time.
BROMANCE – Not the strongest bromance I watched but it is there. I cherished those cute scenes though it lacked screentime. Wished there was more >.<
Wrapping Up the Show
After all that’s been said and done, you might want to know if its worth a watch. Given a second chance and with everything I know, I wouldn’t watch it. As I said earlier, its not so bad to DNF but its not a spectacular watch either. I have a very high tolerance for stuff and I always remain loyal to a show but I’ll be honest and admit that I finished it to pay respects for the actors and their hard work.
I am not that well versed with cdramas yet so my qualms might be moot. I’m going by instinct and years of watching different things. But here’s my take on this: Each series reflects differently for every viewer so I’d still advice you to watch it. Even if its for curiosity sake because a lot of people did love this series and rated it 10/10.
SUMMARY
Two women, both named Oh Hae Young, find themselves constantly mixed up in each other’s lives because of their shared name. From confusion over boys and grades in high school to ending up in the same occupation and company as adults, they can’t stop running into each other. And then there’s the man in their lives, a man with the ability to see into the future, a man who must decide which of these women he wants in it. Will these two women continue to find their lives entangled with each other? Or will they finally find a way to separate themselves from each other and become their own people?
LINKS: Weibo | MDL | Wikipedia
WHERE TO WATCH: Amazon Prime | WeTV | Viki
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