Reviews

Coming this close after Taming the Last Boss, comparisons will no doubt be abundant. Compared to last boss it's a bid more grounded, less focused on zany schemes and more focus on subtle politicking, and I think the pacing is better here where Last Boss sometimes crammed what felt like an entire arc in an episode or two. Raeliana gets off to a great start with a great first episode that really has some great political intrigue and scheming and when the show does stick to the courtly power games it's a lot of fun, but sadly the interest just doesn't stay high the entire time. The romance aspect is well done, but the episodes that are basically just rom com hijinks feel like filler and aren't really that interesting compared to the broader political scheming, and Raeliana's cleverness she shows in the first episode never quite shows up as forcefully as it does in that first episode, though she is still a clever and resourceful character.

There's no getting around the fact that this is clearly low budget, but the choice of shots frequently gets around it in clever ways so you generally don't notice. The character designs are nice and the show looks good in stills, around episodes 3 or 4 you notice some very crusty JPEG's in the background, and the one or two times the show uses CGI are pretty jarring, but on the whole it's still visually more than the sum of it's parts. There are little tricks like having someone talk when you can't see their face, but they're subtle and it does what it needs to.

I think the show is good overall, but it never quite captures that fire it had in the first episiode and the final episode of the season a doesn't really leave you feeling much got accomplished plot-wise aside from Raeliana and the titular Duke becoming closer. I think I'd like this more if the scheming and 48 power laws kinda stuff was more at the forefront since that's what it does best, and I think I'd be interested in reading the source material since I'm intrigued enough by this world and it's characters, but the current season feels more like a season-length teaser for a more interesting story.