Overall I enjoyed the Crowned Clown immensely. I've only seen a couple of sagueks but this was definitely one of the darker ones. That's what drew me to this show in the first place. It started uncharacteristically dark for a kdrama and I was completely blown away by the ML's acting. He was amazing in Circle but this performance was simply excellent. The other actors did a great job too. Especially his premier minister and even the queen. She may haven't had much too work with but she was great. The direction and production was amazing especially in the end of episode 8, which was probably the best scene of the drama.
The show left a lasting impression on me and I keep thinking about it days after I finished it.
While the show had so much to offer, I think they could have done more in terms of character development of the clown.
Even though the acting was stellar, the OST beautiful and poignant (I keep listening to it even now), the story surprising and never boring, the Clown wasn't as threedimensional as the King.
I had the same problem with this show as I had with the drama Are you human too?.
One doppelganger was the "evil" one, but got a good backstory but the "nice" one seemed stuck in his hero position.
I believe they wasted potential since the Clown never really had to make any kind of hard decisions. In that way he really was incapable of being a king. The premier made all the hard decisions and all the plans. It got better from ep13 onwards. But the clown was still too careless for my taste ( the letter!). I never really felt like he could obhold this throne without help, which is why I actually liked the ending. I would have liked him too become more "grey" since they definitely teased him into this direction but then backtracked. I think this drama suffered a bit from the boundaries of kdrama in which the hero stays good until the end. In my point of view the drama would have been better if they had crossed that line since they started the drama in a more mature direction and could have continued like this. I would have loved if he would have changed into a similar direction like the king.
Especially since I have seen dramas that had grey ML's before. They did such a good job with the premier why couldn't they do the same for the Clown?
I also would have liked for them to show a flashback of the pre-madness king. He was definitely one of the most interesting characters, and while I did think the ending fit (he was too far over the edge), I would have loved to have seen his descent into madness.
The romance, I liked it but it was probably amplified by the great performances of the actors.
While I did like the politics in this drama I felt pretty frustrated with the ML sometimes. In those kind of dramas I prefer a smart and cunning lead that doesn't do stupid mistakes. But even though he did evolve it didnt feel like a natural development for him. Maybe this is me nitpicking but that is how I perceived it.
Even though I critised some parts of the drama I still believe that it is definitely worth the watch! Maybe not perfect but one of the best kdramas I've seen!