This review may contain spoilers
Waste of the Potential
I edited this review after watching the full series.The concept is supposed to be good. The makeup and costumes are flawless—the cast looks amazing without trying too hard. They clearly invested a lot; the ML alone has at least five different wig styles, lol. But the execution just isn’t there yet. The romantic scenes aren’t sentimental, and the kissing scenes are awkward. Some episodes are so bad and some so good that it feels like they were made by two separate production teams.
The first 20 episodes bored me throughout, but it does get better—so much so that it feels like the second half was directed by a completely different director. But just when everything improves, the last 3 episodes become so horrible that I genuinely wanted to drop the show (after enduring so much already). I absolutely hated the last few episodes.
The biggest problem with the first 25 episodes is the cringiness. The fight choreography, flying capes, and dialogue are all extremely cringe. I couldn’t make myself watch the scene where Wei’s brothers’ wives performed that dance before leaving the house, lol.
It’s also very jumpy. There’s almost no emotional build-up. I don’t know if they were aiming for fast-paced storytelling, but it didn’t work—it still feels slow-burn, slow-paced, and boring, just more jumpy. Honestly, you could skip the first 20 episodes and not miss much. There is never any real emotional build-up. The whole “family doom” plot is supposed to be the main driving force for the leads, but the script barely uses it after a few episodes. After all the torture in jail, I expected some strong emotional development, but it just passes by without impact.
The ML seems to have a small crush on the FL at first, then suddenly—out of nowhere—he becomes madly in love and extremely persistent in just one episode. Him being crazily in love should have been enjoyable to watch, but I just didn’t feel any chemistry. DYX acted well—I was rooting for him. But the FL seems to have zero feelings for the ML, then suddenly at the fake wedding she admits she loves him too, even though they can’t be together. The director should have at least given us something—anything—to ship them before that moment. They had 20 episodes to show even a tiny spark.
The first half also has logic problems. Why does the FL have to be so secretive? Why is the ML so doubtful of her early on, when their parents were killed for the same reason? Shouldn’t they have cooperated easily? But later, they share their secrets about the rebels freely with random acquaintances without hesitation. Also, why did they even need a fake wedding? Did the editors cut explanations out?
Around episodes 29–30, the story becomes really good. The fighting scenes improve, the leads start feeling smart and strategic, and I became invested in their war plans. It becomes fast-paced, intelligent, and fairly realistic. Both leads are steadfast in love—they aren’t the self-sacrificing type. Even if it puts each other at risk, they take that risk together. I loved this part.
Then the last 3 episodes happen, and everything goes downhill. Not because the stupid and evil emperor tries to stop the ML and FL’s love, but because of more logic problems. All the strategies to “rescue” the princess are unnecessary—especially considering they can’t take her back anyway. At this point, Da Sui honestly feels like the villain. They mess up Bei Qi far worse than Bei Qi ever did to them, using dirty and pointless methods. I actually felt bad for Zhao Yue—he’s portrayed as evil, but he’s only “evil” because Da Sui screwed him over. If they truly wanted peace, the princess could have simply asked Zhao Yue to make peace and return the three cities; he was clearly willing to do anything for her. She could have stayed with him, been happy, and governed peacefully. Instead, they chose a path that killed many people. Da Sui’s emperor is way worse than Bei Qi’s. This made me stop rooting for the leads’ cause—they’re doing terrible, pointless things for a horrible emperor while trying to appear self-righteous.
If you’re not a DYX or VS fan and just want to root for the couple, go find a better series. If you still want to watch, skip the first 19 episodes.
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DYX isn't the lead as they promoted, slow progression as first, but great twists later.
Things I LikeThe picture, camera work, mood, and music are really good. They build up excitement despite the slow progression in the first half of the series. I like the backstory cuts. There are plenty of puzzles, plot twists, and unexpected unraveling, especially in the second half of the series, where it becomes really good. There are a lot of secrets you won't be able to guess, and it keeps you excited to know more. If you are still doubting, give it a try. I still think it is worth watching. You might feel frustrated at police in the beginning but just keep trusting that there will be reasonable explainations later and it will get better. The business, the fraud makes it more interesting to me. The plot is not just about fighting and investigating. It's fun to see characters take turn to outwit each other both in business and crime cases.
What Could Be Better
The Plot
The puzzles, plot twists, and unraveling are actually great. Starting from Episode 19, the story progresses much better. If we were to rate the series from there, it would easily score a 8.5-9.5 because you finally see both the officials and gangsters working together toward the same truths, leading to progress and some success in the investigation. It would have made a huge difference if this had started earlier.
The plot could have been way more interesting if Binbin were the center of the story, connecting business (Wen Zixuan), gangsters (Bao Chen Yan), and officials (Xing Liang), secretly building collaboration and planning the investigation from all sides. I think that was the producers' original intention, but they failed to show it. Instead, it was filled with unnecessary drama and meaningless tension between these three sides—a total waste.
Characters
DYX (Binbin): If you are a fan of DYX, you will be very, very disappointed. Honestly, he is not the main lead—not even close. DYX has very little screen time, and his role is just as little significant as Tianyi's, which is purely supportive in the overall investigation. The producers clearly used his name and popularity to lure viewers in. The claim that "the lost gun" is central to the story is the biggest lie in the promo. The story is not about Binbin or his gun. To make matters worse, his character is portrayed as just a spoiled, and sensitive boy with no charisma as a young, promising police officer. Even when he finds information and evidence, it doesn’t come across as "genius techniques." Instead, it’s just "he’s friendly and talkative." So WARNING: If you watch this expecting DYX to appear and take the lead, it will ruin your mood. This series is not that bad if you watch without the expectation about DYX's role. The key is this will give him oppotunities for wider range of roles.
Xing Liang: XL is not the main lead either. His character is boring, with no depth. He’s simply an inflexible, rigid, and upright police officer—that’s it.
Bao Chen Yan: The real main lead is BCY. Though labeled a "supporting role," the entire story revolves around him—from his background, his rise to power, his friendships, his enemies, his hopes, his business, and his loved ones. This isn't that his acting outshined others either, it's just the plot making it this way. His character isn't built for ML and to have whole series about him like this. He is pretty dumb and shallow. It just shows that the screenwriter and director have lost in a completely wrong direction. Also, his accent feels overly pretentious. Younger BCY seemed much more natural and didn’t act too recklessly.
Dian Lao'er is my favorite. He is funny and helps is audience A LOT to go through the first half. This character is perfect, plot or acting. Dian Lao'er with his weird eyes is on point, very believable.
SL and WZX's Daughter: I get that she’s not important to the plot, and we may pretend adults don't allow her to hear about adults' issues, so she stays in her room. But the couple made so many fresh-cooked meals.. lol and she’s not allowed to join them?? There are a lot of character inconsistencies. Characters like Tianyi and Dian Lao'er inexplicably have the same hairstyle and hair color for 10 years. (but someone comments about this "perm on this new haircut"). They used a young cast for BCY nine years ago but the older cast for scenes 11 years ago. lol
Alright, I'm being too picking on this, we can still ignore these minor issues...
But gangster credibility though... the director fails to convince me that these gangsters or mafia are "cruel." They just hit each other with sticks and tools. Sun Chang Hai running around and jumping off windows is supposed to make him a "skilled assassin" and "tough"? Come on. For people with so much money and illegal activity, not even one of them owns an illegal gun? Ridiculous. Some of the fight scenes aren’t realistic. A big group of gangsters can't even fight against 2 simple guys, whole station of police and SWAT can't catch anyone. (Only person SWAT team can shoot down is the one who shouldn't be dead.)
Script
The director tries too hard to give the characters complex relationships, but it just makes them annoyingly unreasonable and contradictory.
- When BCY reminded Binbin about his dad's wish for him to be a police officer (a weird obsession in itself), Binbin said, "No one cares whether I am comfortable being a police," but later said, "This is my only goal in life."
- XL is almost useless at times with his favorite line, "This is the rule." I’m fed up with all his blaming Binbin for losing the gun. Binbin was attacked during an operation. He should be given compensation and a new gun, not blamed. Sometimes XL tells Binbin, "Remember, you are still a police with responsibilities/ Find your gun," and other times, "Don't ask, don't come, don't do anything," Like.. what do you want him to do???
- WZX is incredibly annoying. She gets mad at XL for being a crime suppression police but also wants XL to support his brother stay in police position. She never listens to her husband’s advice but later blames him for letting her in danger.
Acting
Most of the actors did well—too well for such a silly plot. From XL's wanting to be the police to prove he can save his family, WZX overconcern about XL's safety being a police, to Binbin don't want to disappoint his late dad. These reasons are not enough to be so emotional. Good acting with these plots only makes them seem overly dramatic over nothing.
I am a fan of DYX but I have to admit that some of his scenes feel a little forced, for instance, his first few breakdowns, and his idol-series acting style—with a cute angry-sulky face when arguing with his bros—doesn’t fit this genre. Tianyi sometimes acts more naturally and more mature than him. However, DYX’s acting improves over the course of the series. I was particularly impressed in the final few episodes.
However I still feel like I can watch it again.
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This review may contain spoilers
What supposed THE BEST series turns into THE WORST real quick
From the start to ep 20, I still think this is gonna be one of the best series I've watched. It was literally perfect. Then it turns sour from ep 30, nothing is better, most of relationships are ruined, good people die or demoted, bad people get away. No happy moments, no payback. No truth revealed, No misunderstanding resolved. Not even happy ending can save it. I wasn't even excited or happy about ML and FL wedding anymore. Maybe a little happiness from Princess Xin Nan but thats' it.Suggestion: Watch up to wedding scene in ep 30 and stop there. There is nothing important to prevail. Nothing good awaits, No more exciting things, whether love line, avenge, or other plot. just pure frustration.
Everything is perfect in the first half
- Funny
- Cute couples
- Everyone is smart
- Motivating and upligting
- the good guys always win
Everything is bad in the second half
- most people turn unresonable (especially Fu Yin, wtf is she trying to do and gain? lol)
- too many toxic people and too many drama. I can't watch many ep in one go just bc of how toxic it is.
- Twisted morality, the screen writer somehow try to justify all the bad actions and paint it as "good". The script mentioned the queen like she is goddess but she is just Evil queen who unreasonably kill people without investigation while profect her son from the bigger crime he did. Or Lu Yingying trying to give herself to Yan zhi fang as redemption for her dad, and call Yan zhi fang coward for refusing her. Who does that? If a daughter of someone who killed my whole family try to have sex with me so I can forgive her dad, I'd be disgusted too. (I know Yan zhi fang is no good either,) he initiated a lot of conflict and messed up most people's lives in the story but he just got away. This series talked about Karma but Crown prince and Yan zhi fang just get away and live happy life, while Prince Han did nothing wrong. He was put in jail and demoted for stupid reasons. Let's be honest, screenwriter just tried to find a reason to disqualify him from becoming a crown prince because he's fat. Not to mention Prince Zhou who force kiss FL and pressure Fl into breaking the rules, FL stil said he is an upright man.
- Not only we didn't get to see ML&FL together, they force us to watch romance of old evil queen and king. FL and the third wheel Zhou THE WHOLE TIME. ML basically becomes supporting role.
- FL and ML misunderstand each other is horible and too long It was really hard to keep watching after that. But it's worse when they reconcile. Because by that time I already stop rooting for them. and the they did it very sloppy, there is no explaination why ML turn to FL again. There never be any truth revealed. They never resolve misunderstanding. just.. okay back together.
Pro:
- you have a very good first half to enjoy
- Even the second half. You can still enjoy funny charactors like I love the sheng bothers, the princess Xin Nan, even the bad guy Luqi. And of course ML. I am not a fan of Xu Kai but man he is so chrismatic here. You'd enjoy every scene of him, serious fighting or funny.
- Chemistry is amazing (despite only few scenes we got). FL always loves and praise ML.
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It's full of unexpected plot twists and the last one though... gosh I don't know what to feel about the last plot twist. I definitely don't hate it. It's a happy and reasonable ending but it's also somehow so sad. It's very unhinged but not in a bad way. It's overwhelming but in a good way. The night I finish it, I couldn't sleep. I just love it too much.
I know many don't like the last 3 ep, but if wasn't for it, this series wouldn't be this special and stay in my heart like this .
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