This drama is inevitably going to be compared to Healer. Similar plot setup with the same lead actor playing a character living outside the law, highly trained in the art of fighting and espionage, finding himself wrapped up in a massive conspiracy centered around a traumatized young woman, etc. etc. etc. There’s obviously a lot there to compare.

But the #1 complaint about this drama I heard the most from other viewers was about who the male lead chose to be with. By and large, everyone liked the idea of a passionate (albeit reckless) romance between Jae Ha and Yoo Jin and utterly disdained the pairing of Jae Ha and Anna. They loved how meaty and well-written Yoo Jin is (not to mention the strong chemistry she has with Jae Ha) while they hated Anna passionately, how innocent and helpless she was, how she wasn’t a ‘strong female lead’, how the relationship between Jae Ha and Anna was tame and boring, so on and so forth. The consensus seemed to be pretty unanimous.

But these complaints sounded like quibbles rather than drama-breaking issues to me, so I dismissed them. I don’t consider innocence a character flaw, I don’t automatically consider helplessness a character flaw, and I quite enjoy my sweet and innocent romances, thank you very much. On top of that, I wasn’t seeing any of these critiques going any further and really examining why Anna was supposedly such a poorly written and acted character, just that she didn’t fit everyone else’s personal preferences for a female lead.

I now have to admit that I was wrong to dismiss everyone's critiques so quickly

Having now seen a sizable portion of the drama, I understand the criticisms, and even have to agree with them somewhat. Yoo Jin is simply a much better character. She has personality presence, the actress does an amazing job making her interesting and intriguing and impossible to look away from, and yes, she has crazy good chemistry with Jae Ha.

But she’s also a terrible person, and there's no getting around that.

She's manipulative and selfish, willing to hurt others for what she wants; she uses Anna as a pawn, keeping her separated from her father basically her entire life, more than happy to make her life miserable and allow her to believe she's not loved or wanted, probably even willing to drive Anna to losing her mind. Yoo Jin is a b****. She may be a fascinating, intriguing, mesmerizing b****, but she's still a b****, and I don't stan that sort of romantic relationship.

Unfortunately, Anna is not a good character, and there's very little about her that will make most viewers root for her relationship with Jae Ha. It's not that she's so terribly written. She certainly could have been beefed up a bit more once you really got into the story, but a good actress would have been able to make the character work and even feel sympathetic and interesting to the audience. But, and I'm sorry to crush any biases here, Im Yoon Ah is a terrible actress. She has her moments, but every time she speaks in sentences longer than 2-3 words, it's a cringefest. And that's why everyone wanted Jae Ha with Yoo Jin. Not because Yoo Jin was worthy of his love, but because she's a better character.

For my part, I did still want Jae Ha and Anna together as I quite liked their innocent romance, and I like stories with knights in shining armor, and Jae Ha very much is one. But as you can see by the dropped tag in this review, their romance was obviously not enough to keep me watching, and that's due to the other major complaint people have had about this drama.

The story is all flash and no substance.

The first few episodes provide great set up with a clear trajectory. We’re treated to a number of impressive fight scenes early on that really wet your appetite for more. But that's where the compliments end. The fight scenes become fairly generic 6 or so episodes in, and it quickly becomes obvious that there's very little story to back them up. Yoo Jin's complex character motivations and Jae Ha's innate bad-a**ness and their obvious chemistry become the only things in the drama giving it reason or purpose. Even poor Anna's complicated and sad relationship with her father doesn't inspire you to feel much.

Ultimately, the drama set itself up for success before finding itself floundering in it's own story.