Short: The word "pantomime" is really the best one I can think of to describe this. It's 26 episodes of absolute crazy mayhem. It's extreme in all the ways you can be extreme. It's loud. It makes no apologies. You're either going to love this one or hate it, I just can't see how you can be anywhere in between. Great cast, hammed up to the max :)

Long:
I mean... where to start.

If your normal drama's are delicate shades of colour and grayscales, with softly defined lines and imagery contained within both the positive and negative spaces, then this drama is BRIGHT, PRIMARY COLOURS, BIG THICK LINES and COLOURS OUTSIDE THEM! :)

It's a bit of nonsense really, there's so many plot holes and contrivances you can drive double decker buses through but... it's consistent in its nonsense and asks for no forgiveness :) It's loud, characters shouting at each other in extreme emotions, there's so much furniture and so many vases smashed, so many desks wiped clean smashing everything in a fury - it's got all that and more besides. Everyone's backstabbing everyone. Affairs, children of unexpected parentage, murders, the lot.

After watching a couple of episodes and looking at 24 still to go - making it probably my longest drama watched at all - I wondered if I would really want to continue it. It's so different to what i've normally watched but after another couple - it became "NEXT!" fodder - the plot is silly, but it moves at a really good pace, there's nothing slow about this, and I found myself wanting to see what happens next all the time.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea though, so I'd suggest if you're looking for something wildly different to your normal style for a change (maybe it'll get you out of that drama rut) or you happen to like this kind of extreme style then it's worth a short - and if you're not sure, heck, watch a few episodes and see if you get hooked or repulsed.

The cast are great - though my main reason for watching was of course the beautiful and incredibly talented Jang Na Ra who pulls off her lead role exceptionally well (as expected!). She brings a wide range of emotions and regardless of what she's doing she seems to deliver the emotion and personality of her characters better than most, in my opinion of course :)

One character who you grow to despise quickly, over time I gradually saw what I felt was his redemption and I liked how they explained his back story, in amongst all the other goings on which helped you really understand the machinations of the depicted imperial house, how the children were routinely emotionally and physically abused and then brought up as puppets for the adults to manipulate for their own benefits. It's quite brutal, but that goes with the whole flow of this, there's nothing subtle about this story just as their isn't with how it's told.

Don't take that to mean it's explicit or gory - it's no more so than just about any other drama really, in fact compared to dramas with swords - much less so :)

Really enjoyed it when I did not expect to after the first 2 or 3 episodes - your mileage may vary, give it a shot though :)