IU And Byeon Woo Seok’s K-Drama Hit With Scathing Reviews

IU and Byeon Woo Seok’s much-anticipated K-Drama, Perfect Crown, finally premiered on April 10, KST.

Though viewers have only seen the first episode, the reaction across community sites appears to be not so favorable. While there are debates about the acting by the leads, most people appeared to have issues with the script.

A viral post on Theqoo criticized the drama by pointing out that the story lacked plausibility and the narrative flow felt chaotically disjointed.

There isn’t really anything outstanding about it, but among its various flaws, the script, direction, and acting seem to be ranked—in that specific order—as the weakest elements. Since it was a winner of a scriptwriting contest, many drama fans had high expectations for the writing, which seems to be why so many people ended up feeling even more disappointed.

— OP’s criticism in the post

The post has attracted over 70,000 views and hundreds of comments from other viewers who mostly agreed with the OP’s points, while also expressing disappointment over the acting by both leads.

• “It lacks substance; the conflict structure is painfully predictable, and it feels like nothing more than a patchwork of recycled tropes I’ve seen countless times before.”
• “It seemed like all three—the script, the direction, and the acting—were the problem.”

• “If you ask if it’s boring, it’s not that bad. But it is true that it didn’t quite live up to expectations.”
• “The male lead’s acting is absolutely terrible.”

• “I watched it a bit, but it felt like a short-form drama, so I dropped it.”
• “Smells like a flop.”
• “First of all, the acting of the male and female leads…”

However, many also defended the drama, arguing that it was only the first episode. Some viewers also felt that the problem wasn’t the drama itself, but the high expectations around it.