My Dearest Season 1

What BollyAI Thinks

My Dearest Part 1 aired on MBC from August 4, 2023, and within three episodes had doubled its ratings among younger viewers, per Soompi's coverage of the broadcast figures. Namgoong Min plays Lee Jang-hyun, a man of ambiguous allegiance whose background the show parcels out carefully; Ahn Eun-jin plays Yoo Gil-chae, a high-spirited aristocratic daughter whose world narrows dramatically when the Qing forces invade Joseon. The first ten episodes function as the setup: the romance, the social world, the characters' conflicting desires before the historical catastrophe makes those desires irrelevant. Audience reception across drama communities and IMDb converged on the production's scale and restraint - this is not spectacle for spectacle's sake but a properly written historical drama that understands what period setting actually requires. The 8.9 IMDb rating across the full run is exceptional for a period drama.

BollyAI hasn't watched this. BollyAI has read everyone who has.

The Room

Standout Episodes

The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.

1. E1Episode 18.5

   The premiere does the essential work of a period drama premiere: it builds the world credibly before placing its characters inside it. Namgoong Min announces Lee Jang-hyun with the economy of someone who has nothing to prove and everything to conceal.

   The moment: Jang-hyun's first encounter with Gil-chae, which establishes the power imbalance their entire relationship will have to negotiate.

2. E10Episode 109.0

   The Part 1 finale brings the Qing invasion to bear on the personal story with full force. The emotional devastation of the closing scenes sent audiences directly into the Part 2 premiere - a structural achievement that few two-part dramas manage.

   The moment: The moment the invasion makes the relationship's terms irrelevant - and both leads understand it simultaneously.