Perfect Crown with IU and Byun Woo Seok Hits Midway in Airing with Decent Ratings and a General Reception of Good But Not Great

I loved the first two episodes of Perfect Crown but a lot of that was just lowered expectations and giving the drama the benefit of the doubt during the set up phase. But since then each episode has just lessened my interest and excitement with now midway through airing episode 6 last week left me rather cold. The ratings have gone past double digits to 11.2% for MBC but that’s nowhere near hit territory and only cements it as not a flop for the big budget and big star casting. IU and Byun Woo Seok are doing fine for their respective characters but I’m with the majority assessment that the two don’t have chemistry with each other. They have charisma to the camera and fun chemistry with their respective assistants onscreen but the raw or even sweet romance is not there with them. The drama execution also feels like a series of “scenes” intended to propel the plot but feeling at times disjointed or just not satisfying with the feeling that gaps are being hurdled over. It doesn’t help that the main leads just keep doing stuff while the second leads are the opposite and just bottle everything inside and seethe/plot/pine behind the scenes. Overall the drama is an entertaining and at times fun watch, but so far it’s nowhere near being a really good drama that merits better ratings or even a spot in the pantheon of memorable dramas lineup. Let’s see if the second half significantly picks up.