The Matchmakers

The Matchmakers is one of the best Kdramas I've seen, and I've been watching them for several years now. The entire cast, without exception, was amazing, and the cinematography was incredible. Every shot was gorgeous, the colors spectacular, and every detail attended to. The plot unfolded with unexpected revelations and twists that kept me guessing until the end. I absolutely LOVED the multiple matches that happened during the show, and each couple had a unique story and journey to travel. And while tragedy was the foundation for our main couple, their grief was allowed to play out and their struggles to feel like they weren't betraying their first spouses was resolved compassionately and realistically. In short, I loved this so much, and I'm sure I'll be rewatching it to see everything I missed the first time around. I can't wait!

Humour, romance and palace intrigue all come together beautifully in this well-crafted K-Drama that almost gives you the feel of a Shakespearean Comedy! I started watching this drama with no expectations. And my oh my this show turned out to be a gem! Had to keep rewatching many scenes many times, not just for their entertainment value but also sometimes to decipher some witty Korean dialogue and social banter.

The locations, sets and interiors are so aesthetically pleasing and the entire ensemble of cast members did a fabulous job. Special mention: the BGM!

The FL character has the right mix of spunkiness and sweetness and Choi Yi-Hyun nailed it. However, I have to hand it to Rowoon for being outstanding in this drama. He is brilliant as the Nerdy Scholar who cannot even run properly, let alone hold a sword. He and his butler played by actor Kim Hyun-mok display great comedic timing. Rowoon is a treat to watch as the conceited resentful grouch, especially in the scenes when his psychosomatic symptoms flare up. Just his body language, facial expressions and awkwardness are guaranteed to give you quite a few laughs.

Kudos to the writer for making Lady Park such an interesting character. With just last couple of episodes left to air, I sincerely hope that this drama gives us a happy ending, please!

The way this kdrama's potential and momentum was wasted leaves me dumbfounded.

They got Rowoon perfectly cast and yet didn't properly use his comedic timing, nor the comedy of errors narrative. That's when The Matchmakers shined. Sadly, it took another route.

The stories between the couples the leads were interesting enough but so underwhelming, underdeveloped and unfinished, I can't help but feel we didn't spend enough time with them to engage or care.

The wildest part was when, somehow, the scriptwriter thought it a good idea to match a literal underage child with a grown woman. I don't care how historically accurate this is, ew. They marry and we don't see anything happen but she's literal a older sister/mother figure.

And the resolution for the leads... I can't. Just, wow.

The script is well crafted. The dialogues and twists are what makes it worth watching - probably the main leads' popularity. But I am personally not a fan of romantic novels with cliches for young girls entering puberty, which was for me a million years ago. What was missed was in developing the supporting bachelors' feelings and their predicaments' ambiguities. Let's not forget that they are supposed to enter unwillingly in traditional arranged family unions, and so they should have been more realistically conflicted. But it is a light comedy after all. Thanksfully, Rowoon saves the day between his cute smirks by dwelling into the emotional part of his unsavoury character, a widower turned matchmaker on a mission to save the prince's life.

I really liked the production in the beginning. All characters had an amazing developemnt and growing arches, but little things began to occur, like several sudden costume jumps in scenes/ situations which are happening temporarily just a while after the other, on the same day. Then appeared the breaks in the continuity of the story itself and it was difficult to know why something simply occurred. There were plenty of examples, but the most irritating was the one within the evolution of the love story of the protagonists. Also the little, but super fast after credit snipets were not included in the next episodes and things just came to be without further explanation. Maybe there was too much to tell and screen time was not enough.