The First Night with the Duke: Spoiler-Free Mini Review
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Title: | The First Night with the Duke (2025) |
Platform: | Viki, Wavve |
MDL & IMBD Rating: | |
Genre: | Transmigration/ Period (Joseon Romance)/ Comedy |
Episode Count: | 12 |
Parental Guidance Rating: | TV-14: The premise is a little spicier than usual, but nothing explicit is shown. Minor swearing and violence. For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37266905/parentalguide/ |
Staring: | Seo Hyun (Song of the Bandits) Ok Taec Yeon (Vincenzo) Kwon Han Sol (Typhoon Family) Seo Bum June (Would You Marry Me?) |
RBTS Rating:  | 2.7/5 Stars (A satirical Transmigration Period Rom Com (whew) that lost its way, and drank too much of its own Kool Aid to remember what it was trying to be.) |
Cast From Left to Right: #SeoHyun, #OkTaecYeon, #KwonHanSol, #SeoBumJune, #JiHyeWon
Synopsis:
College student K enters her favorite historical romance novel as noble's daughter Cha Seon Chaek. After one night with royal-blooded Lee Beon, she tries to pair him with the novel's heroine, but fate has other plans. @IMBD
Spoiler-Free Mini Review:
The First Night With the Duke had a truly hilarious start, which makes the rest of the drama all the more disappointing! We are given a transmigration story which entails a character's soul passing into a new body (often after death) and sometimes through time, or entering book or video game. This drama follows a modern girl after she falls into her favorite period novel and accidentally steals the Female Lead's role. This show was so absurd. I mean there was a sword fight against a tiger. It was fluffy and brainless, which was its merit, but things went awry when it tried to be serious. Commit to the silly, you cowards! I hate it when shows sinks after the halfway point, the Bermuda triangle of K-Drama's, and I have to admit that this was one such Titanic.
It started off knowing what it was, embracing a fusion period rom com with a forward thinking Female Lead who didn't take things too seriously. Then around the halfway mark, they had to get angsty and dramatic. But why? So much happened out of the blue, like the arrival of the 2ML, but it didn't add to the story already being told. It just created an offshoot storyline that could have been trimmed down. I do get that there is satire at work here, as plot points pop out of the ether in regular dramas, but in the process of making fun of the "thing" it wound up becoming the "thing" being made fun of.
The romance was the highlight of the show (for the first half) and the leads had great chemistry. In terms of content, the plot is driven by the unmarried FL and unmarried ML spending a night together. Nothing explicit is shown, but that is the premise of the show as the title indicates. It was hilarious watching the two clashing PoVs about courtship play out on screen, and Yi Beon felt like an overprotective (controlling?) character straight out of a webtoon. Which fit the bill.
The acting was.. fine. I think the side characters and actors were better, and I thought her brothers were so funny. As for the ending... Woah. I'll just leave that there. We got a little Yesteryear there.
Overall, a hilarious drama that lost its way and drank so much of its own Kool Aid watered down with different tones that it forgot that is just a sugary treat and lost flavor.
Story=2.75 (Was hilarious the first 4 eps, but it lost me after the leads got together), Acting=3 (The side characters were great but the leads were lacking), Production Quality=3 (Was solid enough, but the scene of the FL "running" when the girl was clearly just jogging in place killed me), Ending=2.5 (I mean it wrapped up I guess, but what on earth), Enjoyability= 3 (Better at the beginning) , Would I rewatch= No
Trailer:
Director: #LeeWoongHee (My Perfect Stranger)
Screenwriter: #JeongSeonYoung (Branding in Seongsu)
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