The Double

Good premise, but overrated.

I'm gonna be honest. I don't really know how this got such a high rating. I think this one is overrated imo.

First things first, I think episode 1 was good, not until they introduced Jiangli and her maid. There's just no way that they are introducing two characters that just mogs the main character and make her look like the side character instead. I think it was bad casting tbh, original Jiangli and Tong er is just way too pretty.

But the main thing that I really don't like about this drama is the writing/script. This drama had such bad and unnatural dialogues, it was making me cringe by what I'm reading the whole time. The premise of this show was so good as well but the writing just ruined it.

I think the best part of this drama is definitely the Princess Wanning and Jiang Ruo Yao's arcs. I can't really comment on the other parts as the bad writing puts me off every time. The production was good tho.

I honestly think people only gave this a high rating because the main actress played the main character in Story of Yanxi palace which was a really good show and a very popular one.

Overall, a 6.5 and that's me being tempered.

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perfect story ..great acting .. wasted chemistry

let me begin of i didn't like:
- lack of intimacy .. its dry like a stone in the desert..
- the over pushing of the ex-husband character (i think the actor hold something against the producers) .
- the father must be punished too.

Other than that i enjoyed every minute of this drama. it has the perfect blend of satisfying revenge plot ..great chemistry and perfect acting. And i think their decision of not making it transmigration but impersonation story is a master stroke.. and they done it splendidly.

now i just wish the producers make the princess story .. her story was very compelling and angsty but of course they must add redemption and true love arc to it (with the same actress she was alluring).. and i cant wait to see it ..

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Flawless Fusion of Compelling Narrative, Emotional Resonance, and Visual Splendor

The most compelling aspect of this drama is that it never loses its focus from episode 1 to 40. The sub-plots support the main plot, and nothing feels out of place, keeping the audience hooked the entire time.

Every single character is spectacularly written, and the sisterhood is the best thing about this drama. I cried buckets over the strong bond between the girls, which was absolutely perfect. I cried every time someone died, and I can't express how incredible the writing of the female lead and the male lead was. The romance is written with just the right touch, not rushing the characters into a relationship too soon, given the female lead's traumatic past and the male lead's personality. Instead, it keeps the audience engaged until the end, as their story is the last knot to be untied. The chemistry between the leads was spot-on because they were each other's perfect intellectual equivalent, and it was an unbelievable treat for the eyes.

The female lead is one of the strongest characters I have ever seen in a drama. What makes her even more remarkable is that she isn't a transmigrated character or someone from another era; she is a genuine product of her time, embodying the knowledge, struggles, and essence of the period she lives in. This authenticity adds depth to her character and makes her a perfect representation of a strong woman in her era.

The cinematography is undoubtedly the best I have seen in any Chinese period drama in a long time, if not ever. And the writing!!! I honestly remember moments when I eventually got a bit bored with dramas like Love Like the Galaxy, even though I would still rate them 10/10 today because LLTG was that good. However, this drama was just perfect.

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Surprising dose of wit and humor in a clever revenge story

The Double was one of the top hits of 2024. Everyone was raving. I was afraid it would be really dark, since it is a revenge story, but I ended up surprised by its excellent sense of humor. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a lighthearted story, but it’s definitely got some really funny bits.

The dialogue between the ML and FL is particularly clever and witty, and really fun to watch while you gush over them. There is a lot of wordplay and elegant speech, so unfortunately much of it is lost in translation. The language is also on the fancier side, making it harder to pick up if your Chinese isn’t as good (like mine). But translation aside, I think some of it is also hidden meanings. A lot of the dialogue felt like it had some double or triple meanings, and I felt a little dumb as I struggled to follow it all.

Both the FL and ML in this show are really admirable. I’ll refer to the FL as Xue Fang Fei (XFF), though she goes by a few things. She is brilliant, eloquent, and has her head screwed on straight. Her schemes are complicated and clever, and although she can’t control everything, she thinks quickly and always pulls through (some plot armor doesn’t hurt). There were definitely some really sad parts in the story, but I felt comforted knowing that my girl XFF would take revenge on those who deserved it.

XFF shows some strong emotions- not a robot- but she never behaves stupidly. Although the revenge is hers to take, she still acts with compassion, so I had no hesitancies about supporting her 100%. She pretty much just stands up for justice. Any of her enemies that I felt bad for, she seemed to feel a little bad for also.

I also like that she has random moments of being carefree and cheerful, reminding us that she was once a normal person and can still feel joy. Not like some archetype of a femme fatale.

For the ML… I feel like a lot of MLs are written to be as attractive as possible, like they are always handsome, smart, good fighters, supportive of FL, etc. But they really outdid themselves here- this one is a total dreamboat. Xiao Heng is lethal, capable, and composed, a mastermind playing chess (it’s a theme… XFF is smart; she won’t get used against her will).

I’m convinced that a lot of this show’s popularity is due to Xiao Heng fangirls obsessing over him. I totally get it, but also… why bother? Someone like this is way out of my league.

But you know who’s in his league? Xue Fang Fei. So while the two of them are not relatable to average mortals like me, they are such a great match, making it a delight to watch their interactions. They’re not mushy, they have some great banter and a mutual respect, and they are actually good enough for each other.

The side characters showed a lot of promise, but ultimately I was a bit disappointed. There were so many characters I’d liked to see more of- for instance, her pack of four friends- but they mostly just disappeared beyond their story arc. Even recurring characters, like the Ji boys, don’t get much development for themselves. It’s a shame that they made such likeable side characters, only to deny them any extensive stories of their own.

The villains is where I think they put more effort into making multidimensional characters- for better or for worse. It creates some complicated feelings. I personally liked this, although I wouldn’t say it made me feel good. It’s a little spoiler-y so I’ll hide my rant at the end of this review.

As an aside, this emperor is refreshing. He’s young and a real friend to our ML; even more, he’s playing politics like everyone else rather than just wielding a lot of power. This makes him a more sympathetic character than most emperors.

Plot-wise, in addition to the ongoing saga of injustice and revenge, this show relies a lot on squeal-worthy interactions between the ML and FL. These fade a bit in the last quarter or so, and the show gets darker. Like so many other shows, I enjoyed this one a little less as it was approaching its end, but the effect was not as pronounced as some others.

Acting-wise, this cast did well. Wu Jinyan looks a bit older, I think it is hard because a lot of other actors are younger. But she did well- so many lines to memorize! I also don’t think her styling was the greatest- she looks prettier as herself- but the end result was as they said in the show, “not bad looking and your own unique look”.

Many other actors did well too, but I think Wang Xingyue as Xiao Heng stood out. He is a young actor and his career is on the rise after this. He has great facial microexpressions. He also has great presence, and he does this kind of confident, commanding character well. And he did his own voice- that sexy drawl is his own! He could probably work on swordfighting a little, it wasn’t as clean and crisp as I expected.

Stylistically, the director liked to shoot close-ups of peoples’ talking heads with a sort of fisheye lens look. At first I thought he was trying to capture a certain feeling, like the viewer is a little disoriented or the person is too close to their face… but it happened so often, I think it was just director’s style. Personally I wasn’t a fan, but I got used to it.

There are also some plotholes… too many coincidences… I don’t know why I bother mentioning it; it’s every show.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





I had read some other reviews which warned me I might want to ignore the second half of the last episode. But I figured it couldn’t be that bad, since there is also a 5 min special showing them happily married afterwards.

Well, the reviews were right. The ending is really wtf, like big things happening out of nowhere. The new conflict introduced was only peripherally related to the other 39.5 episodes, but it had big consequence for our beloved characters.

In the book, it’s an entire story arc, much better developed and with a better outcome. I don’t know why the show thought it was a good idea to cram it into 30 min. But on top of this, they seemed to also really want an open ending, so they forced one. IMO, it wasn’t even so much an open ending as it was incredibly confusing and leaning towards sad.

Then, for whatever reason, they tried to backpedal with a Happily Ever After special that completely doesn’t explain how we got there from the ending.

This is one of the worst endings I’ve seen, so I decided to ignore it. I read some summaries of the book ending (and am reading the book now) and will stick with that.

While I’m here, I’ll just rant a bit more about the villains. This show really spun things around in circles. I started out feeling sorry for Shen Yurong, but he kept making so many bad decisions. XFF is fair; she understood he had no choice about some things, but pointed out that he did for others. Although I disliked him by the end, I still appreciate that he is this sort of realistic character- not inherently bad, just made some bad choices that led to more bad choices.

On the other hand… both major female villains, Ji Shuran and Wanning, started out as classical archetype evil characters, not very interesting. I was ready to just hate them 100%. But this turned around too. It was an interesting choice to make them both victims of men… they made choices too, of course, a sad backstory doesn’t absolve them, but I still sympathized.

Wanning’s story in particular hit me hard. Her theme song fits so well, with its major-minor key changes. Although I’m always on XFF’s side, and Wanning was a real psychopath, I still felt that trick with the drug was pretty cruel.

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Revenge story line and Strong FL throughout the drama

I absolutely loved this drama it is up there with The Sword and brocade for me… it has been a long time since I have enjoyed a Chinese period drama as they are also all entering their politically correct era which degrades the story and makes it quite unbearable, because they do not want to offend certain groups and communities.
But this drama is just amazing… Loved the ML And FL their romance was subtle but also cute and the story line never deviated and stuck to it’s original plot and the FL did not end up as an airhead because she fell in love which is great.
The whole show kept me interested and intrigued to find out what would happen next.
Hope to see more shows like this, it’s been a while

My favorite episodes are Ep. 11 and 26

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So addicting and is now one of my favorites

Watching Experience Context: I began watching this as soon as it aired. From the first episode, this instantly hooked me and I have been watching the episodes almost as soon as they drop. This was one of those dramas where, even over multiple days, I was still desperate for new episodes and thinking about the characters and story.

Premise: The story is about Xue Fangfei, the FL who suffers a horrid tragedy and switches identities with Jiang Li, returning to the capital to seek revenge both for herself and Jiang Li. Through the course of seeking revenge, she meets Xiao Heng, the Duke of Su, the ML. They each assist in each other's goals, developing a romance and bring down the villains.

Story/Plot: I personally thought that watching Xue Fangfei getting revenge on everyone who wronged her and Jiang Li was extremely satisfying. It also didn't feel too cliche and I liked that I had to see Xue Fangfei struggle to get her revenge because realistically, it isn't that easy to get revenge. The plotting of the leads and everyone was done excellently, specifically the FL's. I thought that the heavy usage of dramatic irony was exactly what made the story so appealing. I was always glued to the screen wondering what each side would do next and how they would react to the plots and schemes unfolding. The villains in this drama made the story a lot more interesting since they weren't dumbed down and just trying to hurt the leads. The main villains also have their internal struggles, making them seem more realistic, instead of just having an exterior goal to achieve.

Xue Fangfei and Xiao Heng's romantic plotline was also done amazingly. They are now one of my favorite ships ever. I thought that their development from two people using each other to lovers was so well done. They speak to each other in a roundabout way with words that have underlying meanings. I thought that it very much fitted with their characters, and it was one thing that I thought made them as a romantic pair standout. Almost everytime they came up on my screen, I was smiling and shipping super hard. I really liked that even the FL isn't one of those strong female leads physically, that she was still able to match up to the ML mentally.

The only things that made me dock a point is that there are some questionable plot points, but the rest of the plot was still very solid, so I felt that it doesn't impact the entire story too much.

Acting/Cast: All of the actors and actresses did a splendid job, but I would have to say that the highlights were the two leads and the villains. Wu Jinyan, who plays Xue Fangfei and Wang Xingyue, who plays Xiao Heng both did a fantastic job at what they needed to achieve, bringing their characters to life. I live for their scenes together, because they have such good chemistry. I loved the way that they looked at each other, because I felt like so much was said without much being said. I'm also going to applaud the actors and actresses that played the villains because they made me hate the villains so much. Their acting displayed the duplicity of their characters' behaviors and shamelessness.

Music: The music isn't something that I would listen to on a daily basis, but it does fit the drama very well and I think that I would come back to the OSTs every once in a while. It would most likely be to relive the drama, but nevertheless, the OSTs are all amazing and accomplish what they need to do.

Rewatch Value: This is no doubt going to be one of those dramas that I will come back to multiple times. Even though I already know everything that will happen, the satisfying story and great acting makes me want to rewatch and see if there are any details that I missed.

Overall: This is definitely one of my all-time favorite dramas ever. I'm also probably going to think of the story and characters a lot, which just shows the impact that this had on me. I would recommend everyone to at least give this drama a shot, even if you don't think you'd like this kind of story.

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Everything you want from a thrilling revenge story, with a fun satirical edge to boot

Betrayed, Xue Fangfei swears she will get revenge, after a cruel princess kills her family, steals her husband and leaves her for dead. What an opener. After a very disappointing first half, 2024 started to deliver with this absolute banger. The Double is not reinventing the wheel, it's pulling a a lot from other shows, but in a very clever and tongue-in-cheek way. For example, the beginning feels very Kill Bill, and then it becomes budget Ming Lan, but in a fun, satirical way ? It is very enjoyable to see "Jiang Li" terrorizing her friend's family to avenge her, while keeping her own personal revenge goals. A double revenge ! I also appreciate the effort made to rewrite the story in order to avoid actual body switching, as I really do *not* like this trope. As for the romance, this was Wang Xing Yue's big time to shine, and he did a great job at such a young age. I felt like the building of the main romance was perfect, they did not meet that much at first but every encounter was intense, until they just couldn't stay away from each other and deny their mutual attraction. The pay-off of the slow burn was middling, but I didn't mind it that much. Also, great villains ! You can never go wrong if you have great villains. Princess Wan Ning and Shen Yurong made a big impression, what a fascinating couple of selfish bastards. I wached the show twice, something I never do, and it holds up very well.

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The Most Entertaining Watch in a Long Time

This was a long stretch, and yet I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

Adapted from the web novel “Marriage of the Di Daughter” (嫡嫁千金) by Qian Shan Cha Ke (千山茶客), the show tells the story of Xue Fangfei, the daughter of a honest county magistrate who takes over the identity of Jiang Li, Secretariat Director’s daughter, after a major upheaval, turns her life upside down. Starring Wu Jin Yan, Wang Xing Yue, Liang Yong Qi and Li Meng in lead roles, the entire show is like a clever game of chess between the two protagonists and the daredevil antagonists. While Xue Fangfei/Jiang Li remains at the center of this political melodrama, it’s her intelligent cosplay between two different identities that turns this show into an hightail adventure. While she does live and breathe as Jiang Li throughout the expanse of this storyline, at heart, our main lead still remains true to her convictions and old relationships. She fights for herself while also fighting for the noble girl who could have lived an entitled life instead of dying a miserable death in the far-off mountains. Duke Su is the icing on the cake, contemplative yet compelling and mysterious; he always reaches out whenever Jiang Li needs help but also gives her the freedom to conspire on her own. Let’s dive down the memory lane!

Read the complete article here-

https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2024/07/10/the-double-series-review/#more-1018

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Pure Entertainment with Great Acting

Definitely a must-watch drama. The leads are on fire - so much chemistry, character, and foxiness from both of them. Delicious lines, yummy not-so-obvious plot. Mind you, romance is not at the center of this revenge series, but it's done very intricately and delicately, and is very believable.

The murderous ex-husband also delivers a stellar performance - you can really see how conflicted he is about what he did, but he still goes far beyond redemption with the evil princess (his kinky love/hate relationship with her was also far from boring and you don't see something like this in cdramas a lot).

All the side characters play well (Tong'er so cute, and so are Duke Su's bodyguards, A-Li's evil mother from the Jiang family is so cunning and evil, with her own back story). All in all, the plot is actually very entertaining.

Visually, it's a masterpiece - I love the colors, floating hair/clothes, pretty lighting, and all those close-ups that really make the viewing experience more intimate (Wang Xing Yue's eyes are magnetic). I've never seen such a filming style before, it's quite refreshing, and overall the beauty and esthetic levels are high in this one.

I didn't mind the ending. They could skip the whole war thing, of course, but then we'd miss those cool fighting scenes and that moment when Xiao Heng takes the pendant given by A-Li into his mouth - oh boy, those were some pretty shots! So, from that aspect, I really don't mind the extra scenes. And they did end up getting back together, so no loss here))

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A splendid revenge dram

This is the standout revenge drama I have watched thus far…. The plot whilst having gaps here and there is good enough to be acceptable and definitely the entertainment level is very high.

Firstly, the ML does smouldering at the beginning especially well. The FL even though there are 10 years difference has great chemistry with the ML. I liked ML since Scent of Time but I feel he is made for Duke Su’s role. Wang Xing Yue is on fire with this role .

Whilst the beginning of the story is extremely brutal, how 2ML framed the FL with family’s help and tried to bludgeon the FL to death …even though he seemed to be coerced by the Princess. I hope the director do NOT white washed what he did in the end of the story… He did have a choice even though he seemed to think he had no choice ; The script writers rose to the occasion and kept pace with the storyline. I find the story gripping and even though I can guess what is coming sometimes I still look forward to the new episodes which are trickling in. I did not find Fox Sprit Matchmaker that interesting ;valid comparisons because these two dramas are screened at similar timing ; instead I was totally mesmerised by this little gem of drama although revenge is NOT normally my cup of tea.

OST is also vey good. I like Chen Lei rendition of “Live and love” and have save this up in my YouTube folder. It is especially soulful and match the drama. In fact the other songs are great as well… go look for it in YouTube.

I am happy to report that this drama is a rare drama this year where I absolutely enjoyed every episode including a satisfying ending. The CP’s married live and a glimpse into their family live….which was not shown for Love Like the Galaxy ( sigh … wished the Director will release special episodes…)

Wang Xing Yue is perfect casting for the Duke Su role and I bet will capture your imagination and this is a rare drama that is good for re watch. My first time watching WJY the FL and she did the role justice and her chemistry with WXY is notable.

Well done to the Director and the Producer. The casting was well done so much so that we actually disliked the villains … This to me is the best historical drama for 2024 for first 6 months. You should watch this if you like “ Love like the galaxy” or “ Destined”…I am re watching and totally engrossed even 2nd round. Even though the kissing scenes are NOT many but the CP chemistry is on fire … even more tantalizing because of near kisses.

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