Princess Hours

Princess Hours

4.5/10

Princess Hours

Genre:                                   Episodes: 24                                   Year: 2006

Romance

Comedy

Synopsis:

The story is set in an alternate version of South Korea, in which the country has kept its monarchy.

To fulfill a promise made by their grandfathers, Crown Prince Shin and Shin Chae Kyeong get married. While initially the two are indifferent to each other, as Chae Kyeong is taught how a princess should behave, the two grow closer.

Complications arise when the previous Crown Princess and her son, Prince Yul, return to the palace. Prince Yul’s mother has returned with the intention of placing her son back in the line of succession for the throne, which she believes is rightfully his. Prince Yul is attentive to Chae Kyeong, helping her when she has trouble adjusting to palace life, and begins to develop feelings for her. At the same time, Prince Shin is unable to completely cut ties with his ex-girlfriend Min Hyo Rin.

Cast:

Yoon Eun Hye (Shin Chae Kyung )

Ju Ji Hoon (Crown Prince Lee Shin)

Kim Jeong Hoon (Prince Yul)

Song Ji Hyo (Min Hyo Rin)

General Thoughts:

This drama started out with a lot of promise. The first few episodes were, while not riveting, light-hearted and amusing. However, things started to go downhill pretty quickly. The main

No sizzle...

couple hardly had any chemistry- it was a real stretch of the imagination to think that they could ever be remotely happy together. I found myself cheering for Prince Yul (before he became a giant ass), as the main male lead -Prince Shin- was an arrogant, unlikable and rather underdeveloped character. All the characters were so two-dimensional, with one track minds, inabilities to communicate and were unable to do anything that would make the slightest bit of sense.

While Shin Chae Kyung initially starts out as a cheerful, stubborn, determined young girl, by the end she had deteriorated into a weeping, useless mess.

All in all, this drama was just on a slippery slope that didn’t have a whole lot of high points.

Looking back, I can hardly believe I managed to make it through a whole 24 episodes. Yikes.

What Was Great:

The premise:

This drama sounds so interesting. A rom-com set in Korea where the imperial family is still active. Yes, delightful. It’s just a shame the execution was so poor.

Such promise, much wow.

Original Shin Chae Kyung and Prince Yul:

He was so cute before they made him an ass

Before Chae Kyung became a complete disaster and Yul became a mindless puppet for his mother that only told lies, the two had some pretty good chemistry. When Chae Kyung struggled with palace life, Prince Yul (who had also experienced both palace and regular life) was there to help and comfort- which lead to some pretty cute scenes between the two.

Cute Side Romance:

The suggested love-line between Kyung Shin’s beautiful friend and Prince Shin’s playboy friend was a cute, light-hearted distraction to what a catastrophe the main cast were becoming.

What Wasn’t:

Unfortunately, a whole lot.

Marriage:

The engagement of the two main leads should have been drawn out for much longer than it was. With the marriage happening so early on in the drama it didn’t give a lot of room for Yul and Hyo Min to get involved. The marriage was solidified so early on, and the idea of divorce brought in so late that there was never any real tension that the leads might not end up together, which makes it a bit sad as this is the only actual tension in the whole drama.

Did we honestly believe they'd break up?

Recurring Plot Points:

Song Ji Hyo's resting b*tch-face is on point

The first time Min Hyo Rin tried to split up the royal couple it was actually mildly interesting. The trip, the kiss, the scandal- all great stuff. The second time was a little less fantastic as we’d seen it all before (and to a much greater extent). Her character is later wrapped up all nicely when she decides to let him go, hooray- move on. Then apparently the writers forgot that they had a whole bunch more episodes they had to write so- oh surprise- she tries to get him back. Again.

Friends and Family:

Basically all Chae Kyung's friends (except one) and family are complete idiots. They show no consideration for Chae Kyung and don’t support her in any way- all acting completely selfish. Similarly, Shin’s friends were all underdeveloped, second-rate characters that didn’t really have a point except as recurring extras.

Logic:

From about halfway through the drama, literally nothing anyone did made any sense. Set sh*t on fire? Sure. Love-line that goes nowhere? Okay. Continuously lie when everyone knows you’re lying? Definitely. Believe those obvious lies- why not?!

The wailing mess that our heroine has become

Sadly, what started out as a very promising- if rather shallow- drama just became…this. It had enough in it to keep from landing in the ‘will-not-finish-pile’, but also didn’t have enough to recommend.

Would I Watch Again?

Probably not. If someone really desperately wanted to watch with me, I may reconsider. But only if I really liked them.

The bears told the story much better than any of our actors