I think the best scenes in s1 are less important in s1 compared to what's coming ( this is all completely my opinion, I haven't read the novel)...
Esp near the end, we see Courtney realizing that she enjoys "domming(?)".
Which i think will be more important going forward. I think a lot of the scenes were setups to show how she was slowly falling into stride, which kind if "halted" the plot? I thought it was generally pretty well incorporated, so it didn't feel like "plot,smut,plot,smut...", but I see where you're coming from ^^ I'm so excited for the next season, and it was so fun reading your review ( it felt like reading a literature critic lol)
I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but Courtney falling into domming doesn't feel like plot as much as it is character progression in terms of her sexual confidence and experience. Nothing much happened socially or politically in terms of scenes outside of her and Richard. There are no opposing nobles currently as the most we've seen is that one post-engagement/pre-marriage tea party where someone insuated that she slept her way to the crown. Richard doesn't seem like he'll do much to keep her family from wasting their money, gambling or investing. It doesn't feel like there's any grand or major conflicts other than the fairly minor character relationships (ie Courtney's relationship with her in-laws and her family) or the personal ones (Courtney learning and adapting her role as crown princess). For the personal ones there's no "big event" like "the spring festival" or "famous madame bluebells exclusive tea party" or "the grand banquet of burqenlais" like she has to prepare to go to or host one of these events or her family gets into MAJOR trouble because of her brother's shady investments which was minorly hinted at earlier but I think it was paid off by her running and crying apologetically to Richard. Richard doesn't get that mad at HER or her family which leaves everything feeling like there's no stakes or weight to it which makes everything feels like it's meaningless. Like so what if she's not good at/ comfortable with domming? What's going to happen?. It makes it feel like meaningless fun fluff which I would be fine with if everything tonally(the moody dull colours, serious oppressive atmospher, dark mysterious dialogue and monologou) didn't make it seem like something was building.
I'd understand if the focus was Courtney's character journy and progression (sexually or otherwise) but it doesn't feel like that's the focus y'know?
This is not only good unvensored BDSM smut but also a good psuedo-historical european josei. The power dynamics are kept pretty balanced when they are doing it as the dom was a lower ranking noblewomen originally and the sub is the crown prince who is essentially an obsessive yandere sub who wants the best for his dom/wife. Courteny Devon's noble count family is in financial strife and debt as her father is weak willed and always getting caught up in frauds and scams, her mother loves pretending they still have the wealth prescribed to their title along with wanting to use money they don't have to be trendy, her brother is a gambler with plenty of debt, her sister in law is a crybaby who's head over heels for her brother, the only person she actually likes in her family is her sweet, smart, nephew Edvard(this is how they spell it). She often scolds, beats and berated their foolishness publicly giving her quite the reputation that the crown prince has become smitten with. He believes she is the Master/Dom for him and he pays off her family's debt and makes her family comfortable (which she dislikes because she feels indebted to him and responsible to pay it back). They keep most of their dom/sub stuff in the bedroom and they're a pretty standard pair outside of it as Courtney is still a responsible and mature person with a lot of feelings and Richard(crown prince) loves/obsesses over her dearly and will do anything to make sure she's comfortable and happy he willl also kill anyone that insults or hurts her. They are both intially virginal so the playing field is even. She actually really like being a dom but she doesn't have the strength or endurance for hitting. The dichotomy between the characters in the bedroom/private vs publicly has that gap moe.
Courtney is a really funny character with lots of WTF reactions to the people around her's insane bullshit. There are lots of moments of her outside the BDSM scenes.
I was intially offput by my first read as one of the first things I saw was a huge uncensored penis being stepped on. Seeing this I assumed it would be a generic smut-fest where the two leads only like each other because they think the other is hot and it's loose plot with mostly smut. I also assumed there would be a weird power imbalance where one of them is an asshole and the other likes it which makes me think that they both suck and deserve each other (but not in the fun way in the "I'm so glad these two are out of the dating pool")
Same artist as "Spring Amidst My Wintertide" and "Duchess's lewd invitation"(hate the plot of that one). So hunky guys, hour glass women and shiny bodies. The tits are glossy even in the non smut scenes. The art is decent.
Plot was kinda halted by the bdsm scenes because realizing that this is all season kinda left me wanting more plot in exchange for less smut but I also know those are when the characters really connect and get what they want from each other(courtney gets control and power and richard gets someone to be mean to him and hurt him and they both thoroughly enjoy themselves). All I can say is I can't wait for more and I am docking a star for making me want more plot and then letting me know things are gonna get worse/stressful.