GLAD I WATCHED IT ONCE/CHINESE LANGUAGE

  This is by far the most brutal and sad series I have watched...it was emotionally draining.    The writing, casting, acting and visual production of this series are brilliant.  

I enjoyed this the first time when I was very new to any form of Asian drama and had no expectations.  I've just tried to watch it again, but I can't.  I love the female lead as an actress...BUT...I have six kids and nine grandkids...some of them are the sweetest, kindest, funniest and happiest people I know and every one of them was considerably less naïve than the female lead character by the time they were 10, her character is what 15, 16?  This is a 'me' thing so despite how I feel,  I will still highly recommend it to other viewers because the story itself is not awful and the acting is quite good.

This production is very slow-paced and mostly passes by quietly...this usually annoys the hell out of me, but for some reason, it made the series watchable and mostly enjoyable.  

It was juvenile in spots but it was written for that demographic, so it is what it is.

It was worth a once through.  

Just loved this series at the beginning, but the further on I got, the less enthralled I became....so, very sad.  
For me,  Ning Que, Fu Zi, Yan Se, most of the disciples, the Ichthyosaur (dragon) Gang and Sang Sang are the characters that made this series worth watching.  Everyone else was nauseatingly cliche.  Seven stars count as 10 for everyone/thing BUT writing and whomever allowed it to drag down this series.

SPOILER ALERT!

1. Ning Que found Sang Sang as an infant, making him 8 to 10 years old at the time, given the size and agility of the child that played his younger self.  Yet  when Ning Que is 18, Sang Sang is 16 ?  Math people, math!

2. Ye Hong Yu...be-ach Dao addict.  She  takes a lot of liberties with anyone she chooses to  and no one says or does a damn thing, including Ning Que...bit of a stretch.

3. Qu Ni  of the Yue Lun state's character  annoyed me right from one end to the other.

4. Prince Hun Yuan.  Is it even remotely believable that the heir to the thrown was ever allowed to become a tyrannical spoilt brat who never got punished for anything??  Is it even remotely believable that a parent (whom we are lead to believe actually cares about his children) would be okay with his adult son constantly tormenting his 6 year old son to the point of almost killing him????  What about the Empress and her bad ass brother?

We are led to believe that Li Yu is intelligent, yet she keeps on supporting her spoilt rotten, juvenile, tyrannical adult brother?

I love my siblings and I would take a bullet for them,  HOWEVER,  if they behaved like that bastard does, they'd stumble away from me a lot more bruised than when they walked toward me.

5. Sang Sang's parents...OMG, I thought I'd fallen into a 1980's soap opera, gag.

I have a lot more, but only allowed 2000 characters, which you have to guess at because there is no counter, fun stuff.

This is a cute, sweet, very slow burn about the lives of university aged humans and how they grow and adapt to that ever illusive creature called maturity.  

I enjoyed it because it was a nice and much needed change from the tyrannical CEO, the velociraptor mother-in-law,  or the spoilt brat rich kid...as well as their period drama counterparts. 

Right now I say I won't watch it again, but who knows, maybe 5 years from now I'll need again as an escape from the usual cliche tripe.

It wasn't awful, nor was it exemplary.   It is simply a story about life divided equally between the trivial and trying parts of it.

Full stars for casting and acting but stars off for writing and whomever okayed it.   Every C-drama does NOT need the controlling, overbearing mom that only cares about her own happiness so will go all out to destroy her child's happiness if she can't have what she wants...so stop it.  The sets were well designed, for the most part but as a seamstress, I took issue with some of the set ups they had for the designers because they were impractical.  Impracticality at their level is ridiculous.

A lot of reviewers were annoyed with what they deemed was an excessive amount of product placement,  I didn't see any of it.   I'm not saying it isn't there, just that it was placed in a way that didn't draw my attention away from the story.   It could also be that I'm not familiar with the brands that were placed.  

I do understand that a lot of productions depend on these placements in order to fund their projects and I support this completely, but do it naturally.  I just wandered through my house, product placement everywhere, strewn about haphazardly, as they should be; I was still able to recognize each of them...because I have eyes and a brain capable of memory.

 Generally in North American productions, product placement is blatant; they have the actors hold the product so the viewer can clearly see the brand logo. This is visually awkward and annoying making me far less inclined to purchase those brands.  The production company is required to place products in the manner the brand decides,  so my ire is justifiably directed at the brand rather than the production company.

I gets a 10 for acting, presentation and lack of the usual exhausting length.  It has comedy, but it is NOT a comedy, that label is very misleading.  

Even though I enjoyed the brevity of this series, I think this story, in the hands of intelligent writers, could be re-made into 20 episodes allowing it to give insightful back stories to the main characters without turning it into a soap opera filled with cliches and other 'mandatory' tripe.

This story is a VERY slow burn but you can't skip episodes and fully understand what going on in the one you've skipped to...sigh.

The acting is great, kudos to casting, it's just the writing that gets a little off the path and or heads to a different path completely, leaving me scratching my head as to the why of things.

I rather enjoyed the sets, they were raw and real.

If in the final episode, you wonder if this is based on a true story...like I did...I jumped into the Google rabbit hole and found nothing to indicate that it was even loosely based on a true story.

Very dark.   You will come away from this feeling like you are the only survivor of everyone you know and love.

I'm not sure how I feel about the story itself.

I will not watch it again...

This was interestingly good.  This is my first encounter with the ML, well done...I've seen the FL before, in Rise of the Phoenixes, again, well done.

I will give a hardy kudos to everyone involved in this production...except whomever was responsible for okaying the backstory for the worlds.   I was left scratching my head too often for a series this long.   There were plenty of opportunities to build a solid path between 'how it all began' and 'here we are now'....plenty of missed opportunities....sigh.

That aside, the CGI was obvious, but not brutal, so well done for stepping higher than so many other C-productions.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction between the leads, not for it's romantic value (gag) but for the comfortable familiarity they portrayed throughout...it in no way felt 'acted'.   I don't care how good you are at your craft, that is something incredibly difficult to mimic.

I won't watch this again, but I thoroughly recommend watching it once.

ENDING SPOILER

While I understand that being royalty means that your life is not your own, one happy ending would have been nice...the nine headed demon and the eldest princess ending up together would have made me less sad for everyone. This is my own wishful thinking. 

Nine stars for the entire production. There were scenes in each episode that where dragged on beyond their worth, but considering the magnitude of the production, it's not that much of a set back. I took one star off for those and the timeline errors. There are so many editors along the path of production, someone should have caught the blatant ones at least.

 I would have gladly watched another 39 episodes to get to a less horrible ending.

  I don't think I've ever been more impressed by a second season than I was with this one...until the last few episodes.  It felt like it wasn't written by the same folks, or they suddenly fell into a state of burn-out and just wrote whatever to make it end.

ARGH!  

This series was good in it's own right, however, I wish the 1st and 2nd series had been written in a way that allowed for a smoother transition in my mind regarding the change in actresses that played the FL in this one.  The transition between the changes in the males parts was also confusing and disappointing.   This doesn't take anything away from any of the actors, they all played their parts incredibly well. 

I won't watch this series again, but I'm not sorry I watched it once.

Two stars off for the (apparently mandatory) cliches and stereotypical characters...I am completely exhausted by them...sigh.  Also, the writing left me scratching my head here and there.

The acting was great as were the actors.  

Overall, this wasn't awful, most will love it and gladly watch it again, I don't hate it, but I won't watch it again.

I enjoyed this one. It was neither slow nor fast paced, and still managed to keep boredom at bay. Casting did their jobs well, thus allowing us the pleasure of believing the relationship/bond/comradery/respect/trust between all the characters that were not dicks. I'm on the fence about watching it again, but quite happy with watching it once.

I have to step away from this because I'm finding the dubbing to be jarringly cringy and some of the characters, ridiculous. I'll come back again in a month or so and see if I can get past that.

I didn't wait a month because I'd forgotten to check to see if I'd written a review...

I originally stopped part way through episode 9.  I picked up there an got angry again, so I skipped ahead to episode 15...and watched every minute of the rest of it.

I can only give it an 8 because the dubbing still stunk, and the mandatory crew of nasties where sadly, all present.

I think this could have been something much greater in the hands of writers and producers who'd choose intelligence over worn out, childish, and ever so mundane cliches.

Most of the acting was pretty good.

I don't think I'll be able to sit through this again, however, this once was worth it.

Not a new story but still fun.  

The FL did an absolutely fantastic job at playing her male counterpart.  The ML, not so much, but he did play his own character quite well.

All the cliches are here, including the exaggerated character personas, this is the reason I took a star off.  This series didn't need them for humour, there was enough quality content in there already.

I won't watch this again, but I definitely recommend a once through.

The child actors in this series were brilliant.  All the stars go to them and the originality of this story.   Time/world hopping isn't new, but this one did put a new spin on it.  

For the most part, the writing was incredibly intelligent and the humour was subtle.

I spent a lot of time not liking the ML, starting from when the math camp picture was taken...my first red flag...of many.

Honestly, I was rooting for the actor to win her, but at least she got the right version of her man.

The ending was a little soft and unexpected after such a tumultuous history, but not points off because it WAS unexpected...that doesn't happen often.

I'm not sure if I'll watch this again, but I do recommend you watch it once.

This series was MUCH longer than it should have been.  A lot of episodes were just a stream of random scenes that offered little or nothing to the story.  I spent a lot of time hitting the FFWD button.

It has all the typical unwanted or needed cliches, but the ML character's story is well done as are the relationships between the sisters and the FL and her bestie.

I'll watch this again if I'm bored.

Cons:
-it was about 20 episodes too long, way too much filler
-the story wasn't immature, but a lot of the writing was
-adults that behave and or sounded like whiny 8 year olds
-dubbing was cringy in spots
-the FL's mother was raised by a kind an loving father, married a man whose temperament was identical to her father's... yet she was an absolute beast to her own child?
-some of the sets made me groan.

Pros:
-The characters that didn't behave or sound like whiny 8 year olds, were very well written.
-While there was a lot of fledgling romance going on, it didn't dominate the story.
-The baddies got their just desserts.                                                                                                                                   -The actors did their jobs well

I'm firmly on the fence about watching this again, but not displeased that I watched most of it once.   I did skip about 20 episodes in all.

It is what it set out to be.  For the most part the writing is quite good.
The actors did a fantastic job with what they were given.  Full stars for them.  

I admit that I was completely enthralled with this story for the first 25 or so episodes and only ffwding through the endless flashback scenes used as filler, or when there was a whiny adult...however, my attention and patience started wane at that point and I started skipping episodes.

I honestly think that if this series had been properly edited with quality in mind rather than quantity, it could have been 30-35 episodes and stood firmly on the merit of it's own intelligence and the capabilities of the actors and everyone else involved.

So many people comment on the romantic chemistry between the two leads...I, on they other hand, saw every other type of awesome chemistry BUT that.... which was fine with me, but it did make anything that was blatantly meant to be romantic seem cringy to me.  

 A few characters are cliche and they were like a thorn in my eyes for the duration of the series.

The FL's childhood friend (that wanted to be more than friends) whined and threw more tantrums than a stadium full of spoilt five year olds who'd had their sweets taken away.

The green screening...oh my, it was embarrassing in much of the story.  

I'm okay with having watched this once, but unlike so many others, I can't gather the enthusiasm to ever watch it again.

I do enjoy these two leads independently...they have not disappointed me as a team in this series.  The entire cast did a grand job.

The writing, for the most part was intelligent.  Except for the end.
The plot had some holes in it but, overall, quite good, except the end.
Some characters could have done with more back-story.
Some characters could have done with way less screen time.
Green screening was obvious.
Dubbing was sketchy in places.
It was at least 10 episodes too long.

The last few episodes...disjointed and bloody confusing.  It really felt like they were warned that they would run out of funds around episode 50 but still had to make 55 episodes.  

I may or may not watch this again...

Acting was pretty good.   Every episode was quite busy, but still managed to contain unnecessary filler so, series could have been pared down at least five episodes.

The finished product was the same as every other drama, with the cliche characters and events, however the story had some originality to it.

The writing was oddly intelligent which, in the hands of these decent actors, made for a reasonably pain free watch.

I doubt I'll watch it again, but content to have watched it once.

Well, it wasn't completely awful.  The actors did their jobs well considering the mediocre script they were given.  

This would have been much better if all the support characters were written with intelligence and humour.

Each episode was painfully slow because of unnecessary filler.  I did end up skipping complete episode and ffwding a lot through the ones I did watch.

The last episode was brutal...it was ridiculous...

I won't watch this again.

This series was simple and fun with some different flavours of drama thrown in here and there.   It's definitely not cerebral by any stretch, but still enjoyable.  I think it could have done with much fewer episodes, though.

The acting was pretty good, they did a wonderful job with the script they were given. Kudos for making this series that had all the potential to be just another victim in the 'Drama Mill'...like a puppy mill, but with dramas...into a nice middle ground between the cerebral and the crap.  

It would appear that whomever hands out the budget for these things, was feeling very uncharitable when assigning the monies for this production... almost all of the funds were directed toward paying for actors that could draw blind people into a silent movie.   The sets...oh my...I think they brought in a crew of 4th graders to design, construct and paint them....cheesy cheesy, cheesy.



 

The acting was awesome, the voice overs...not so much for some of the characters.  The story was interesting but the ever present a never ever necessary waaay over the top nasties that have absolutely NO grounds for being nasty...were not...UGH!

You tried to kill me but I like you anyway?....what?  

I can't give this full stars because of the nasties but, all 8 stars to count as 10 for acting.

Except for a few of the characters (four to be exact), I rather enjoyed this series.   The casting was spot on and the acting followed suit.

I won't watch it again because of the four that annoyed the piss out of me, but I definitely not sorry I watched it once.

Ah, I love watching these two leads, regardless of what they are in or who they are paired with...they are a treat to watch.

The story was interesting, the intelligent humour and  quirkiness of the entire production are also bang on.  BUT,  the over acted adult sized child characters drag it down...I had to fast forward through them to retain some semblance of civility. 

I enjoyed this series as it was almost completely written intelligently.  I did find the volume of nasties a bit exhausting,  life went on happening in between so that gave a little reprieve.

I did feel that it dragged a bit in places, with the directors opting for filler rather than pertinent content.  

I'm glad I watched it once.

Loved this, except for the 'Aunt' that ended up with her boss's secretary/aide guy...damn that character was annoying on all fronts.  It could have done without the cliche/trope nasty ass parents also.

Acting 10/10
Casting 10/10
Writing 9/10 because of the 'Aunt'

I enjoyed this, but I won't watch it again.

I wasn't expecting much from this, I picked it as a filler and now I'm justifiably giving it a 9/10.

Because of lazy writing, I can't give it a 10/10 total, 9 is the compromise.  Gah, using tropes and cliches to set up a trope or cliche scene is bad enough, but to put them where they make NO sense is just blatantly lazy. Sadly, I was left rolling my eyes and groaning way too many times because of this.

The 2nd male lead's sister...wtf?  She was the obligatory nasty?  Why?  No one else in the family is a self centered, self-righteous train wreck.  She just shows up out of nowhere and goes all vicious possessive btch?

GROAN!

Acting 10/10
Casting 10/10
Writing 8/10

I am glad I watched this once because the acting was quite good and development of the leads was sound.  I won't watch it again because when compared to productions like Blossom, and Sometimes Stars Fall,  the writing lacked in intelligence and depth.

There was also waaaaayyyyy too much filler.

Have a go, you'll at least enjoy it the first time round.

Not bad.  It lagged in places but for the most part it was reasonably well written.  Casing and acting were done with care toward the characters they portrayed and the over all feel of the series was well laid out. Through most of it, it is dark, there is little happiness.  

I've read reviews that the ending left room for another season...I don't think so, unless the writers got really creative to make it something other that a lovely story about the reuniting of a centuries old bond.  Don't get me wrong, I'd watch that, but I can't imagine many others would without a load of drama.

I am glad I watched this once, but I won't revisit it.

This is a nice soft series.  There is drama but it doesn't carry on throughout.  It's about life happening to calm and kind people in their everyday lives.

If you're looking for a typical drama filled with nasties and saints...this really isn't it.  There is a bit of that but its more maturity versus immaturity and gets resolved quickly.

The casting and acting are superb and the writing is intelligent.

I am glad I watched it once.

This series was very well done.  I didn't recognize any of the actors but well done to the casting department for finding such talented and dedicated people to bring life to the characters.

My only gripe is when other people tell victims to forgive the people that hurt them, 'because they did it for the right reason" or "But look at all the good things they did" To me, this is so very, very wrong.  You can/should let go of the hatred, yes, otherwise it will consume you and ultimately control and then destroy any chance for peace...but I find it utterly appalling that anyone would impose the task of forgiveness on those that suffered the most, it's brutal.  

That aside, this was brilliantly written.  Heads up though, it's very dark and morose and the anguish throughout is tangible.

I don't think I could ever watch it again, but I can't regret this once. 

You don't need to bring your brain along for this one, but the writing wasn't too bad so it was enjoyable.  A lot of new faces for me, well done casting.  

I'd have given this a full 10 stars if not for the 'yes,  your parent is a monster, but they are your parent so you should forgive them for everything' thing crap.  I understand the whole filial thing, but I can wrap my head around the fact that one all generations aren't held accountable for their actions.  Also, the opening theme song???  It has a bubbly, cheery feel to it but this show is anything but...it is painfully contradictory.

Other than that, it was written with intelligence and a sense of decency.  I won't watch it again, but I'm not at all sorry I watched it once.

Overall, this series was intelligently written.  The casting and acting were spot on and the production as a whole was quite professional.  Full stars for these points.

I quite enjoyed watching the evolution of the three FL's.  It was nice to see three completely different personalities discover and apply their own strengths.  AND NONE OF THEM WHERE WHINY ADULT CHILDREN!!!!YAY!!!  I was also pleased to see some actors that I didn't recognize, it's refreshing.

However, I had to take a star off for the over the top slap stick characters...to me they are the laziest form of 'comedy' and I find them annoyingly distractive so I spend far too much time FFWDing to avoid them.  I'm not at all referring to the actors, just the writing.  

I won't watch it again, but it wasn't a waste this once.

The acting was great, for the most part the writing was really good and I couldn't find much fault in the cinematography/production.  

Casting-brilliant with a lot of new to me faces.
Acting-Because casting did their job well, acting followed suit.
Writing-way too many repetitious tropes...the whole backstabbing, maleficent concubine thing got really old really fast.  That was just one of them, there were more.  However, I did enjoy the depth and the personalities of many of the characters and tropes aside, the story itself had some uniqueness to it.

This was like Rise of the Phoenixes...brutal, start to finish, but it was really well written for the most part.  The main villainess' character was a bit of a stretch...a lot of a stretch.  Absolutely no part of her keeping her power for so long made any sense.  That aside, I don't have any gripes.
The ending left room for a second season, but it's been 7 years so not likely.  If they do ever make one, I will be on it like white on rice.
Casting was exceptional, the vast differences from character to character shows the tallent of  casting, writing and the actors themselves.  So many new to me faces also brings this series to a higher level.
Like Rise of the Phoenixes, I can't watch it again, but will still highly recommend.

This was pretty good considering it didn't have a load of depth.  There were some slap stick exaggerated characters that I had to ffwd by because their being allowed to be that way in the circumstance they were is really is a big stretch.  The dubbing was a bit off but I powered through. 

The story itself was fresh, so that helped a lot.

There are too many really good, intelligent productions out there so although I am quite content with having watched this once, I won't watch it again.

This was as traumatic as Rise of the Phoenixes.  The good guys/girls die and or have everything stripped from them or must endlessly suffer the will and want of other who see them as possessions with complete disregard for their humanity.

It was brilliantly written.  Casting and acting were on par with the writing as was the overall production.

As with Rise of the Phoenixes, I am not sorry that I've watched it once, but I won't go through it again.

I liked the second season better than the first.  It still had a few head scratching plot lines, but still better.

As with the first season, I won't watch this again but I'm not disappointed that I watched it once.

While I'm not unhappy that I watched this once, I won't watch it again.  I'm not a huge fan of Dylan Wang, but I'm not sure if it's his acting or the fact that he's always cast as a brooding CEO.  I wish they'd give decent roles to play so I can make a fair judgement.  

That aside, this isn't a series where you need to bring your brain to keep up with the plot.   There is a lot of humour, some of it was entertaining, some of it was ridiculous.  And of course we had the annoyingly juvenile side kick for the FL...why Chinese writers, WHY?  If every one in throughout the history of China had a servant like that, your vast beautiful country would have turned to ashes centuries ago.  I feel like you are doing a huge disservice to your history...even if it is just a story...it's EVERY damn story.  GROAN!

The FL carried the show on her shoulders alone.  Her character was brilliantly written.  She is strong mined, intelligent, an amazing strategist and never let her own power undermine her morals and standards.  

Like so many other Asian drama's the last episode was unfulfilling, it left room for another season...which I don't see any movement or mention of, so...

As I said, I won't watch this again, but I'd still watch a second season in hopes that Dylan can play the WELL written ML character to compliment the well written FL character.

I killed your family, but why can't you love me anyway...you killed my family but I kind of love you anyway...that's the premise of this drama.  It was also a lot longer than it had to be.  Almost everything that happened in this series was due to scheming against or being schemed against.  

No stars off for casting or acting, they all did an exemplary job.  

I'm still giving this a nine since I only skipped five or six episodes of the 52.

This was good in it's own right.  I can't say it's up there at the top with my favourites, but it's still nowhere near anything I dislike with a passion.   I enjoyed this because there were no over-the-top characters, and for the most part it was intelligently written.  I think what I liked best was the fact that they made the ML's character to be somewhat realistic by presenting him as an adult broken little boy...the writers gave solid insight into his behaviors and attitudes.

The other side of the ML's character...I did get tired of the ML crying all the time...He cried more in this series than I have in my entire life, and I'm old and have never lived easily.  Crying isn't bad, but all the time? Sigh.

Casting and acting were impeccable and over all, this was a well executed production.

This was pretty good, it was intelligently written and kept reasonably well to historic norms...even if there were stretches in actual historic events.  

The casting and acting were well thought out and executed and the sets were not low budget cringy.  It was very long though, so for me, the cloak and dagger politicking got exhausting after a while.   I did end up skipping episodes to ease the exhaustion.

The ending did leave room for more but I'm truly torn as to whether or not I could endure another season of the same.

This was quite good.  I thought the casting and acting were spectacular.  I am glad I watched it once, but it is quite dark so I won't watch it again for that reason.