I’m getting so annoyed 😭 why is everyone involved in affairs, even married people? So ridiculous. And that…
The way audit is presented in kdramas is an old meme at this point. The new utterly ridiculous thing they’ve added here is spying on workers’ private affairs. Gotta close your eyes on it to enjoy the comedy.
The informative side of the website is great and makes it easy to keep track of all the dramas. I gave up on the scores entirely though, just too much bias and overrated crap. Gotta check dramas by yourself, or go to other sources for more impartial opinions.
started out decent enough but of course ruined it with moral lessons bullshit that made me want to vomit. what…
Oh no, a crime drama that dares to offer some moral lessons in the end to make one think? Only thoughtless whoodunit procedurals must be good then in your opinion. It's good that you dropped it.
Some people were asking why astronomy and celestial omens are so heavily featured and taken so seriously in this story and why ML is an astronomer. And when you learn the context behind it, it makes one appreciate the well designed plot even more.
Astronomy was heavily politicized in ancient China because of the Mandate of Heaven. The emperors relied on people's belief that legitimatacy of their power came straight from the Heavens. As long as the Son of Heaven has the Heavens' blessing all is right under the Heavens. When calamities and rebellions happened, people turned to the Heavens to interpret celestial omens to rationalize that the current dynasty is failing and its fall is morally justified. So those who seized power always tried to prove that they legitimately got the Mandate of Heaven by tacking on celestial events to their victory.
So since the early dynasties astronomers always had some sort of government body to closely watch the sky, to record celestial maps and to keep historical records, and were responsible for the lunar-solar calendar needed for planning of yearly religious events and agricultural works. The calendar in particular was of great importance, so when ML did that big job to update it to save FL, he was justified to ask for a big reward from the emperor in return. Many astronomers were also prominent inventors, some of those inventions are shown in the drama - telescopes, hydraulic armillary sphere, water clock, earthquake detector.
So it's no wonder the emperor in the drama is very wary of celestial omens. Just like ML, the emperor may not really believe that they themselves can actually cause calamities, but they both know that people with ulterior motives can use them to undermine the government and emperor's rule. That's why it was explained in the drama why astronomers weren't allowed to interact with the court or meddle in wordly affairs - they could be influenced or bribed by corrupt officials who could be seeking to overthrow the government and stir up trouble. Their knowledge was for the emperor's ears only. That's why ML was so incredulous as to how wily FL, even with her power, managed to convince the emperor to have him join her in her investigations so she could regain her memory.
Astronomical events were prominently featured in the first case about the princess, in the fifth case about the crazy cult, in the final seventh case, as well as throughout all of the main plot. FL's father was set up by the villain, who used a bad celestial omen to further prove that her father was plotting to overthrow the emperor. So it was beautiful to see the villain getting poetic justice in the final seventh case, where a celestial omen was used against him to lure him into a hopeless situation with no way out.
And throughout all of the main plot ML often had something interesting to say pertaining the stars, be it a metaphor leading to a new way of thinking to figure out a clue, or something comforting or romantic to make FL feel better. I especially liked how he compared her friends to stars guiding each other to stop FL from hurting herself and believing that cursed lone star bs. Their childhood connection story also began with a celestial omen and stargazing, which led to a whole chain of long term consequences and even influenced ML's career choice. The drama also has a nice song about these worldly entanglements, sung by Bai Lu herself.
Another thing, the final seventh case was called the Seven Misaligned Stars, which alludes to the Big Dipper constellation. It was viewed as the celestial mechanism of cosmic order, symbol of justice and Imperial authority, and was heavily scrutinized by astronomers to gauge how well the government fares. So constellation having something wrong with it means something troubling is gonna happen pertaining the government and the emperor.
Unfortunately it's all rather dull. Yet another one of those "reincarnation" tropey dramas, even though they've dressed it around FL witnessing a bad alternative future by reading a book.
It's mostly about FL's domestic family squabbles, with her cartoonishly evil step-mother and her brother trying to make FL's life shit again either by killing her, trying to marry her off like a commodity to whomever is the most profitable for the family, or impeding her business. Even though FL succeeded in accumulating wealth and connections to be more independent in her current life, she's still just a woman bound by rules and family obligations of that era. But the drama still drills the main feminist idea in every episode to state that if only women had more rights, were taken more seriously and families were less controlling over their heirs, then everything'd be rosy and peachy. It kinda did ring true in some cases here, but some characters were simply evil bishes and there's nothing you can really do about it.
Parallel to that, we have yet another typical baby boy general who, like FL, also has a shitty family and so he went to the army to find his father figure in his uncle. But just like in the bad future, he failed to save his boring ass general uncle from a conspiracy plot. He's trying to get to the bottom of it, but it's all very dull and frustrating on purpose. It's of course yet another high ranking official with unlimited power at the court who's either corrupt or jelly, or both. And since FL's evil uncle is in cohoots with whomever is responsible, ML and his dumb soldiers for the longest time are sus of her, even though she always tries to help him, since she knows his future as well.
Oh, and the leads were called "fated" by the autistic monk/scholar who gave FL the magic book in the bad future, so of course you gotta believe it. He's also in the know in the current life to help her out (or does he?). If your eyes weren't rolling before, they should at this.
The plot later moves to the palace affairs, but same ridiculous drama and family squabbles are happening there as well.
There are also some very questionable things this drama does for drama's sake. For example, early in the drama, ML and his soldiers barging into a random mansion to get shelter for the night while secretly carrying his disgraced uncle's child. For the mansion dwellers to not blab about it, they plotted to kill about a hundred people there, FL included, and thought it justified. That's the hero we have here. Or ML's dumb uncle getting accused of all the random bad things at court without any evidence, but then being brutally killed before arriving to stand trial before the Emperor. Instead of investigating the matter, the Emperor imprisoned ML for not being polite enough when he came in grief demanding answers.
The drama also has too many side characters that don't contribute much to the plot and could have been combined into fewer, more prominent characters to make them memorable. The bad guys are also so obviously evil, you can just tell who's the bad guy by their acting. Everybody's wearing a disgusting hypocrite mask, everybody's greedy after money, power and status and are using family ties as stepping stones. If it was a kdrama, I'd call this type borderline makjang with how ridiculously cartoonish some of the characters here.
I'd only recommend this to those who don't mind boring plotting for plotting sake and aren't afraid of their blood pressure rising because of how frustrating some of the drama is here, especially when it comes to ridiculous family affairs.
I think looking for an 'ideal man' in a story like this misses the point.Xie Wei is a 'red flag,' but he’s the…
Sure, if the story stayed focused on plotting I’d have no major complaints. But they just had to tack on that “romance” at the end and it shat all over the final impression.
Watch him cry later that AI took his job. VA actors are already crying, next it's face actors. And if only their liknesses were used lawfully in making of dramas, but watch this space for illicit pron hubs jumping on it as well, it's already happening. Dumbasses like this guy are gonna be drowning in lawsuits, trying to catch who used their likeness without consent. And nobody is irreplaceable. Probably what's gonna be left for actors are fresh face models for AI to scan and regurgitate. All the acting will be generated by AI. If you wanna laugh at what's coming, watch an episode of Black Mirror called "Joan Is Awful".
Personally, I'm waiting for technologies to evolve so far where everybody can write any sort of movie they want, sort of like a role playing video game, but with unrestricted choices and realistic graphics. Talented people will still be able to create masterpieces, while the rest will be like content creators on youtube, making their own stuff. Legacy media where we are shown what others want us to see will be gone sooner or later with this AI trend, seems inevitable.
This is another one of those very underrated dramas that are not rated higher because it's not a soap, just like…
I've seen Mobius and Reset out of all of these. They had very overrated scores as well. Main problem with them being too draggy.
Reset was a bit better plot wise, but too much useless back and forth between the leads and police. And leads weren't the brightest tools in the shed in general, that's why it dragged on for so long.
Mobius had horrendous epic mismatched music playing non-stop in scenes where barely anything happened, not gonna soon forget that, lol. Though it did have some believable medical props to back up its story. I was also kinda disappointed the drama focused on one case, the first two episodes teased me good with potentially various cases.
What would you guys rate this compare to unveil: jadewind? Which one do you prefer?
I prefer Unveil: Jadewind more. It was a more complete package, so to speak. More compelling main characters and story overall. Especially liked FL there - very cool, charismatic character. And ML, though unconventional, complimented her strengths and weaknesses well there. And the plot had very clear overarching sad moral ringing through all the cases. Very believable slow burn romance sub-plot as well. The drama also looked very high-budget, with expensive costumes and sets. And it was clearly written from a woman's POV, with focus given to victims' plight and most cases having an epilogue, sometimes shocking, that mulled over injustice done. I've read it was let down somewhat by a certain amount of cut episodes, that clearly showed in some places with weird editing. And apparently, some side characters' stories were cut short because of that as well, like FL's funny female colleague and her detective beau from the Court of Judicial Review.
The Wanted Detective looked like it was written from a man's POV and focused more on solving the cases, the procedural whoodunit of it and finding the villain, not giving much thought to victims' stories. I liked the unconventional premise of it, how ML was on the run himself, under mortal threat, but still managed outsmart his rivals and the villain. And I liked that it kept you guessing who the villain was and how many sidekicks he had. In Unveil it was obvious early on that it was a very high ranking official, the main intrigue was not simply finding him, but figuring out how to nail him for good, as it was shown guys like him were above the law. Characters had their charms in TWD, but I wasn't a big fan of FL. Even by the end she was kinda annoying. All the guys were great though. The plot twist at the end was pretty good as well.
I don't get it why people are giving this drama bad reviews, this drama was extremely good. One of my favorites.
This is another one of those very underrated dramas that are not rated higher because it's not a soap, just like Unveil: Jadewind. They even have similar scores here, lol. From what I've gathered, people, who are not into detective genre at all, are leaving bad scores and comments without even finishing such dramas, after seeing that they're not mainly about romance and idol shots with baby boy generals. And some simply can't even put their two brain cells together to keep up with such fast paced plots.
Anyway, you can only lament about the sad state of score bias on MDL and check other sources for a more comprehensive opinion. Good on you for finding and giving this drama a chance, as these gems get buried under overhyped dramas fast.
If anyone has a recommendation about similar dramas like The Wanted Detective or Unveil: Jadewind, please leave a comment. Preferably something more fast paced and smarter than Coroner's Diary, didn't like that one.
ML basically has 2 expressions here - disgusted condescending one and disgusting rapey one. One is for regular situations, another when he forces himself on FL. What the hell the showrunners were thinking with that "romance" I've no idea, but it was a complete turnoff in the end, further exacerbated by FL clearly showing that's she's not into this sort of thing, but somehow still ending up with this ginormous red flag.
The plotting was fine though, so can't give a completely bad score.
1
Astronomy was heavily politicized in ancient China because of the Mandate of Heaven. The emperors relied on people's belief that legitimatacy of their power came straight from the Heavens. As long as the Son of Heaven has the Heavens' blessing all is right under the Heavens. When calamities and rebellions happened, people turned to the Heavens to interpret celestial omens to rationalize that the current dynasty is failing and its fall is morally justified. So those who seized power always tried to prove that they legitimately got the Mandate of Heaven by tacking on celestial events to their victory.
So since the early dynasties astronomers always had some sort of government body to closely watch the sky, to record celestial maps and to keep historical records, and were responsible for the lunar-solar calendar needed for planning of yearly religious events and agricultural works. The calendar in particular was of great importance, so when ML did that big job to update it to save FL, he was justified to ask for a big reward from the emperor in return.
Many astronomers were also prominent inventors, some of those inventions are shown in the drama - telescopes, hydraulic armillary sphere, water clock, earthquake detector.
So it's no wonder the emperor in the drama is very wary of celestial omens. Just like ML, the emperor may not really believe that they themselves can actually cause calamities, but they both know that people with ulterior motives can use them to undermine the government and emperor's rule. That's why it was explained in the drama why astronomers weren't allowed to interact with the court or meddle in wordly affairs - they could be influenced or bribed by corrupt officials who could be seeking to overthrow the government and stir up trouble. Their knowledge was for the emperor's ears only. That's why ML was so incredulous as to how wily FL, even with her power, managed to convince the emperor to have him join her in her investigations so she could regain her memory.
Astronomical events were prominently featured in the first case about the princess, in the fifth case about the crazy cult, in the final seventh case, as well as throughout all of the main plot. FL's father was set up by the villain, who used a bad celestial omen to further prove that her father was plotting to overthrow the emperor. So it was beautiful to see the villain getting poetic justice in the final seventh case, where a celestial omen was used against him to lure him into a hopeless situation with no way out.
And throughout all of the main plot ML often had something interesting to say pertaining the stars, be it a metaphor leading to a new way of thinking to figure out a clue, or something comforting or romantic to make FL feel better. I especially liked how he compared her friends to stars guiding each other to stop FL from hurting herself and believing that cursed lone star bs.
Their childhood connection story also began with a celestial omen and stargazing, which led to a whole chain of long term consequences and even influenced ML's career choice. The drama also has a nice song about these worldly entanglements, sung by Bai Lu herself.
Another thing, the final seventh case was called the Seven Misaligned Stars, which alludes to the Big Dipper constellation. It was viewed as the celestial mechanism of cosmic order, symbol of justice and Imperial authority, and was heavily scrutinized by astronomers to gauge how well the government fares. So constellation having something wrong with it means something troubling is gonna happen pertaining the government and the emperor.
It's mostly about FL's domestic family squabbles, with her cartoonishly evil step-mother and her brother trying to make FL's life shit again either by killing her, trying to marry her off like a commodity to whomever is the most profitable for the family, or impeding her business. Even though FL succeeded in accumulating wealth and connections to be more independent in her current life, she's still just a woman bound by rules and family obligations of that era.
But the drama still drills the main feminist idea in every episode to state that if only women had more rights, were taken more seriously and families were less controlling over their heirs, then everything'd be rosy and peachy. It kinda did ring true in some cases here, but some characters were simply evil bishes and there's nothing you can really do about it.
Parallel to that, we have yet another typical baby boy general who, like FL, also has a shitty family and so he went to the army to find his father figure in his uncle. But just like in the bad future, he failed to save his boring ass general uncle from a conspiracy plot. He's trying to get to the bottom of it, but it's all very dull and frustrating on purpose. It's of course yet another high ranking official with unlimited power at the court who's either corrupt or jelly, or both. And since FL's evil uncle is in cohoots with whomever is responsible, ML and his dumb soldiers for the longest time are sus of her, even though she always tries to help him, since she knows his future as well.
Oh, and the leads were called "fated" by the autistic monk/scholar who gave FL the magic book in the bad future, so of course you gotta believe it. He's also in the know in the current life to help her out (or does he?). If your eyes weren't rolling before, they should at this.
The plot later moves to the palace affairs, but same ridiculous drama and family squabbles are happening there as well.
There are also some very questionable things this drama does for drama's sake. For example, early in the drama, ML and his soldiers barging into a random mansion to get shelter for the night while secretly carrying his disgraced uncle's child. For the mansion dwellers to not blab about it, they plotted to kill about a hundred people there, FL included, and thought it justified. That's the hero we have here.
Or ML's dumb uncle getting accused of all the random bad things at court without any evidence, but then being brutally killed before arriving to stand trial before the Emperor. Instead of investigating the matter, the Emperor imprisoned ML for not being polite enough when he came in grief demanding answers.
The drama also has too many side characters that don't contribute much to the plot and could have been combined into fewer, more prominent characters to make them memorable. The bad guys are also so obviously evil, you can just tell who's the bad guy by their acting. Everybody's wearing a disgusting hypocrite mask, everybody's greedy after money, power and status and are using family ties as stepping stones. If it was a kdrama, I'd call this type borderline makjang with how ridiculously cartoonish some of the characters here.
I'd only recommend this to those who don't mind boring plotting for plotting sake and aren't afraid of their blood pressure rising because of how frustrating some of the drama is here, especially when it comes to ridiculous family affairs.
And nobody is irreplaceable. Probably what's gonna be left for actors are fresh face models for AI to scan and regurgitate. All the acting will be generated by AI.
If you wanna laugh at what's coming, watch an episode of Black Mirror called "Joan Is Awful".
Personally, I'm waiting for technologies to evolve so far where everybody can write any sort of movie they want, sort of like a role playing video game, but with unrestricted choices and realistic graphics. Talented people will still be able to create masterpieces, while the rest will be like content creators on youtube, making their own stuff. Legacy media where we are shown what others want us to see will be gone sooner or later with this AI trend, seems inevitable.
Reset was a bit better plot wise, but too much useless back and forth between the leads and police. And leads weren't the brightest tools in the shed in general, that's why it dragged on for so long.
Mobius had horrendous epic mismatched music playing non-stop in scenes where barely anything happened, not gonna soon forget that, lol. Though it did have some believable medical props to back up its story. I was also kinda disappointed the drama focused on one case, the first two episodes teased me good with potentially various cases.
I'll check out 800, is it the one airing now?
I've read it was let down somewhat by a certain amount of cut episodes, that clearly showed in some places with weird editing. And apparently, some side characters' stories were cut short because of that as well, like FL's funny female colleague and her detective beau from the Court of Judicial Review.
The Wanted Detective looked like it was written from a man's POV and focused more on solving the cases, the procedural whoodunit of it and finding the villain, not giving much thought to victims' stories.
I liked the unconventional premise of it, how ML was on the run himself, under mortal threat, but still managed outsmart his rivals and the villain.
And I liked that it kept you guessing who the villain was and how many sidekicks he had. In Unveil it was obvious early on that it was a very high ranking official, the main intrigue was not simply finding him, but figuring out how to nail him for good, as it was shown guys like him were above the law.
Characters had their charms in TWD, but I wasn't a big fan of FL. Even by the end she was kinda annoying. All the guys were great though. The plot twist at the end was pretty good as well.
From what I've gathered, people, who are not into detective genre at all, are leaving bad scores and comments without even finishing such dramas, after seeing that they're not mainly about romance and idol shots with baby boy generals. And some simply can't even put their two brain cells together to keep up with such fast paced plots.
Anyway, you can only lament about the sad state of score bias on MDL and check other sources for a more comprehensive opinion. Good on you for finding and giving this drama a chance, as these gems get buried under overhyped dramas fast.
If anyone has a recommendation about similar dramas like The Wanted Detective or Unveil: Jadewind, please leave a comment. Preferably something more fast paced and smarter than Coroner's Diary, didn't like that one.
The plotting was fine though, so can't give a completely bad score.