1Maverickk

Joy of Life? More Like Joy of My Life

Just finished the last episode and the sense of loss hit me hard. What a truly mind blowing end to this season. I don't think there are up to 3 Cdramas that had successful sequels that have the same level of quality and story telling. I can categorically say JOL is one.

I understand why some are nitpicking and looking for faults that don't exist, this is literally the diamond of the season, the more we the fans gush about it, the more they wanna tear it apart, holding this masterpiece to such high standards but literally turning a blind eye to all the trash dramas being rolled out every week in cdramaland🙄

I also know we can't all have the same tastes, but the 2 seasons shouldn't be compared as they're intrinsically different, if Fan Xian had continued the same journey of season 1, the same critics complaining season 2 is boring will be the very ones saying how stale the story has become. Most people don't even understand the premise of this show tbh, this isn't one of those shows where everything is explicitly revealed, even an eye twitch alone here can mean the admission or rebuttal of a fact.

The depth and writing of the characters is unlike any show out there. No one is a plain bad or good character, we all know the emperor is a sadistic megalomaniac, but damn I have such a deep admiration of him, he has such presence and charisma I'm yet to see in ANY emperor, when I watch dramas with the dumbest emperors being led around by their consorts, i roll my eyes and ask why can't they be like HIM comeon! Even the scene he revealed himself as FXs dad had me teary.

I'm so proud of FXs growth this season, every character was meaningful, every episode was interesting with zero fillers and I'll miss everyone, even He Zong Wei, lol

Season 1 : 10/10
Season 2: 10/10
Season 3: 10/10 in advance hehe😜

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Alche-misery of Souls

I just completed a binge rewatch of the 1st season and having put this off because of the mixed reviews for so long, I decided to dive in and I thought, “Hey, what could possibly go wrong?” Spoiler alert: everything.

I couldn't give a damn about fan wars so believe me when I say I found myself utterly captivated by our original heroine. Mudeok was the true soul of the show, honestly, she made me give a damn about every twist and turn. She emotes in every single scene, and despite not having her powers, you knew exactly how powerful of an assassin she was from her AURA ( in PSJs voice from WWWSK)
I love her sizzling chemistry with all three guys, maybe because I followed this up immediately after the season 1 binge but she could act rings around the new FL without even breaking a sweat.

I began this expecting fireworks, but the new FL’s “screen presence” feels like an afterthought—like she was hired to serve face and nothing else. I found myself hitting that 2x every episode and forwarding so frequently because it felt like everything was filler. Plus the sham of a romance and the speed with which it started literally gave me whiplash. Zero spark, Zero soul, wasn't even interested in the kisses no matter how much tongue was involved 😩.

And don’t even get me started on our ML. In Season 1 he was a flawed, relatable hero, someone I cheered for when he stumbled and wept for when he soared. Now he’s jet-powered but personality-depleted, a hollow shell who got the magic he craved so desperately but lost every ounce of charm that made me fall for him in the first place. Even all the beloved side characters became cardboard cutouts who were just there to look at. Plus Jin Mu looked super stupid with the "look-at-me-I'm-the-villain" smirk, like why even is he still here?

I couldn’t have asked for a worse sequel, so I’m officially dropping Season 2 into the memory hole. I’ll be bingeing Season 1 again, refusing to acknowledge this travesty exists, and waiting for a universe where Alchemy of Souls actually remembers what made us love it.

P. S. I hardly ever write reviews but I was so spectacularly let down that I had to leave this rant as an evidence of my disappointment.

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The Diamond Who Went Through The Fire And Lived

I saw Minglan & Yanxi palace, enjoyed their 1st halves thoroughly but hated their later parts so strongly that I swore off long form/ harem costume dramas, I tried to give Weiyoung a chance but I couldn't even get through the 1st quarter of that before giving up

When I kept seeing Gifs of ZH & glowing recommendations, I reluctantly started this, intending to drop it at the 1st instance of the cliché storylines that always mark these kinds of strong FL costume dramas, well that was 6 days ago, I can't explain what it was really, it's something we've all seen in similar dramas so it shouldn't be all that engrossing: young girl enters the palace and works her way up the ladder to be the big bad boss (insert eye roll) but this, this has something much more

Maybe it's in the depth of the characters, no one is a cartoon villain, just being evil for evil sake, even the most annoying characters have a story, a motivation for their actions, it's like I was transported into this world where I didn't ever want to leave. Maybe it's the fact that everything that happened had a root it started from, foreshadowed through people's actions or occurrences, nothing just happened out of the blue or to push the script, the story was tight, it'll grab you and won't leave you till the last scenes in the finale.

Countless sleepless nights, feverishly going through the episodes, so much so that I forgot how lengthy it was and even wished it could be longer.

The lead female Zhen Huan played by Sun Li was captivating to say the least, there were occurrences that marked different stages of life, you could literally grow along with her, from being cautious, to scheming and then outrightly deadly, leaving no prisoners and paying everyone who hurt her in their own coin.

SL played ZH so well that her eyes, face, even hands had a story to tell, she brought a character that held you spellbound for the 76 episodes to life so effortlessly. The emperor as annoying as he was, was skillfully played by CJB, his expressions made you feel his rage, fear and even sadness at every turn, he indeed portrayed the suspicious, scheming, proud & ruthless emperor to the tee.

As for the supporting cast, everyone was so well suited for their roles, even the villains made you hate, sympathize with, then hate them again. It was such a roller-coaster of emotions.

If you're unsure of whether to start this, or you've been burned in the past like me, just watch the first 10 or even 5 episodes then decide, I promise you won't regret it

10/10

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The Romance of CluckCluck and Sick Fella

One of the fastest & easiest 10/10 I ever gve a Xianxia or even CDrama, EVERYTHING is PERFECT 👌

The casting: absolutely adore ML & FL, XingZhi isn't just handsome, I think he ascended beyond that, he's like old wine that has depth of flavor, his charisma is fire 🔥, I fell in love with ZLY in PA, my girl got the strong female lead act down pat, she's got the mannerisms to make you believe she is THEE Big Boss around, I've followed her to Legend of Fei & MingLan and she's never disappointed me once, this role was made for her.

The humor is on another level, it's not slapstick or in your face, it's so subtly and artfully done you'll catch yourself laughing before you realize it

The OST, the CGI omg I love Cluck Cluck that was the most hillarious arc I've ever had in any cdrama, funny thing is the 🐔 actually looks abit like ZLY herself 😅, too cute.

All side characters were interesting but never taking too much screen time. There were no annoying or frustrating tropes, no overacting either.

I love everything, I mean EVERYTHING about this show, I never watched on 2x speed or dropped entirely, I was too interested in what was happening to miss a beat.

I wonder when next I'll get something like this again, for me some shows just click, and this was one of them.

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A Mind blowing Experience

This series is an addiction, it's a thrilling ride that never ends till the last second of the 46th Episode. It'll leave you empty & unfulfilled with any other drama. I'm desperately in search of another series with this kind of badass emperor, I often find myself missing the witty, all knowing emperor that could never be manipulated by mere tricks & had a firm grip on power and everyone beneath him.

Fan Xian's character is such a well rounded, multi-faceted hero /anti-hero, you'll find yourself rooting for him and wouldn't even mind him having a harem (inside joke for those who have watched this lol)

Every Character is so well written from Chen Ping Ping to Duo Duo and everyone else he meets in the course of the show

I've never watched something so brilliantly written & thoroughly captivating

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Great 1st half, Lacking 2nd half

Considering how much I LOVED the first half of this show, something seemed to shift post episode 19/20, I had to pause it to see if I'll love it when I get back again, alas, it got worse and even unbearable /unwatchable. Believe me I love Wu Lei, but something about their romance was just lacking as I found myself beginning to FF scenes (even with them together) 😬.


Maybe it was the FLs continued aversion to his touch that made it awkward or maybe I got spoiled from finishing TLOSL before getting back into this, it felt like watching paint dry. He was putting in waaayy too much work emotionally and she just felt like a brick wall most times that even when some intimacy was hinted at Episode 23 it fell so flat I literally rolled my eyes 🙄. Even the tournament scenes I enjoyed in the beginning became annoying and I ended up skipping alot.

I'll say something switched from the 1st half that didn't get quite right in the 2nd.

Initially had this rated 10 but I'm bumping it down to 7, ONLY because of Wu Lei's sizzling hot charisma & smoldering gazes 🔥😍

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What Starts As a Thrilling Ride Dwindles Into Everybody Hates MingLan's Marriage

Episodes 1-45 = 10 🌟
46- 73 = 1🌟

I completely enjoyed the first half, the second half after her marriage into Gu family was just annoyingly repititive, all kinds of clownish antagonists who didn't even make sense anymore. Seems like the writers just let loose a ton of psychos thinking like 1 year olds and stirring shit up just for kicks. Forcing a concubine the first time was understandable, the next 3-5 times were just so ridiculous even someone from 10 families away tried and nearly got away with it, really?

This left me with a sour taste in my mouth just like Yanxi Palace and I swore never to watch palace harem dramas ever again , as this was more of family slice of life I decided to give it a try but still ended up with a shitload of crap in the second half

I don't know what it is about Cdramas, very few maintain great stories and pacing to the end, unfortunately this was one of those. I used to be a stick it out to the end kinda gal but I've learned my bitter lesson so now, if it starts to go wonky I throw the entire drama away. I really tried even up to episode 60 to see a redeeming arc, something to light up the spark again but damn did this get out of hand, even villains who should have been set in their place 30 episodes ago were resurrected to display hair pulling, eye rolling levels of stupidity that even I couldn't stomach anymore and oh, it's never their fault, they're never wrong, it's always the MCs fault 😩🙄

Even Ming Lan the titular character seemed to lose the smarts that had me keeping late nights to catch up with in the beginning and just became a shadow of her former self, so consumed with "what people will say" or some other dumb shit

As for the romance aspect, I expected her to at least reciprocate the depth of love GTY showed her at least 10 episodes earlier. Damn girl I know you had a hard life but can't you SEE how much you mean to him? All of a sudden Ming Lan who can see and read people's intents 10 miles away suddenly didn't UNDERSTAND what love is, she was literally like a log of wood in all intimate scenes with her hubby and only loosened up after all hell had broken loose. This was super underwhelming for a freaking 73 EPISODE drama.

All in all I'll give this a 6, infact 5 as I'm already getting super annoyed typing up this rant, sorry, review 🙄

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The Tale of The Cloud & The Feather

This drama is a masterpiece, as a Wuxia addict that I am I was so blown away with the complex characters and unique fighting styles

I absolutely adored GZY & YWS in their roles, they were the light of this drama, their chemistry, the love & support, I for one thought GZY was such a smart, capable leader, I swear I wanna throw hands on those critics who had horrible things to say about him 😒😒

YWS was such a smart, strong FL, somehow I feel like she was secretly a Mei, she always had the upper hand over SGQ, even when it looked like she was cornered, she always had SGQ doing exactly what she wanted her to do, she was such an interesting and refreshing FL to the very end

I was literally boiling with rage everytime GSJ & GYZ appeared on the screen, their disdain and utter disregard for GZY made me wanna wring their necks, but by the final episodes I got to appreciate their characters and even grew a a soft spot for them, I didn't care for SGQ or her breathy voice and absolutely did not find anything shippable btw her & GSJ, the best part of this drama for me remained the ML & FL

I also loved the loyalty of the Gong family, they might have many subsets, different parents but at the end of the day family is family for them and this is one of the major themes I love about Wuxia dramas.

Also can I mention how much I loved the ending? It was absolutely perfect , I think many viewers always want rainbows & sunshine at the end, but that wouldn't exactly be realistic as this is a relatively dark, complex drama and not romance

Solid 10/10

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Family Goodness ❤️

This is severely underrated. Such a ball of sunshine wrapped in a drama and indeed hilarious as the name implies. Nearly lost my breath laughing at Lu Buping and the wild occurrences after joining the family 😂.

I thought it might get less comical as the episodes progressed but I was in for a treat, every episode had me laughing loud. Every character was well suited to their roles, no one trying hard to be funny, everyone has good comedic timing so it made the situations way more entertaining

It's so difficult finding actually funny C/K comedies, this is one of the good ones. 10/10

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Humans & demons.... The good, the bad and the ugly

Just finished this, initially rated a 9 but finally ended at 6

Here are things I didn't like:

1. It felt like she was the only one fighting hard for their relationship, she ran after him so many times and he just accepts, then next 2 episodes we're back at the let's break up cycle again. At a point I was like girl, get up. At least have some respect ? Let him chase you and apologize maybe once?

2. I have to emphasize again on the number of times they broke up. Nah it was infuriating. One minute they're happily making plans, next minute he's stood her and her entire family up, then again as expected she sets off running after him, cries, maybe twists an ankle so he can come give her a piggyback ride back home and hey, next day everything is sunshine and rainbows again. At a point I was unimpressed with their happy "romantic" moments because I was just sure the next episode would be tears galore

3. FL didn't seem to have a stable bone in her body, like seriously how many times can a person run, fall, need to be caught, etc, honestly it just made their whole relationship unreasonable and I saw reason with the dad. Don't even think she'd have lasted a week if they'd ended up together

4. There was zero chemistry like nil, zilch, nada. Just one sided obsession and 2 dead fish kisses like bffr I've seen what my girl SZE can do in TPOB so it's definitely the ML. RJL was one of my first cdrama crush, stanned him so hard i followed him everywhere, but maybe I've had better since then so I'm tentative when I see his shows now because the romance will solely depend on his long deeply emotional stares, and if every other part of the story doesn't hold up to cover for the lack of romance it leaves you unfulfilled real quick.

Here's what I liked:

1. The beginning to the middle part had tight stories, I especially enjoyed the puppet arc, the painting arc got boring but I loved that the FL could fight in there, how I wish she had them irl, I'd have loved to see her put her mind to learning and picking up some self defense skills at least after leaving the painting because she was basically cannon fodder when shit went down.

2. The mysteries were intriguing. Every story had a deeper meaning. I especially liked the Chilian arc, it showed how humans could be equally vicious when given a taste of power. I was appalled that she went as far as killing him just to take away his identity and this is a lady who had been emotionally abused all her life. I felt sick to my stomach and actually wished they had executed her before she took off to enjoy a life of fame, but he later reported her so I guess she got what she deserved in the end.

Overall, okay watch.

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DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME

I can honestly say I hate this drama with the burning fire of a thousand suns. Such a ridiculously stupid 32 year old FL, such a stupid story, such annoying side characters, didn't like or connect with anyone, I forwarded so much the only parts I could tolerate was FL&ML interactions (SWL was the reason I endured as long as Episode 15) .

The FL treated the relationship like it was COVID, i know you're low key but my God, freaking out over a picture of just hands, frantically searching for a card that fell out of the bunch of flowers and going to the movies like it's a James Bond movie is abit overkill no?

The 2ML was a manipulative jerk I couldn't stand past the 2nd episode and forwarded all his scenes, it was even worse that she had to meet him and discuss every little thing with him like her brain went on vacay and he just had to do all the thinking for her 🙄🙄the side characters were such a bore I nearly cried, wish I could rate this 0, sadly 1 is the lowest. It's garbage don't waste your time.

If you wanna see JieDi (Older Woman younger man) romance done right, please see My Fated Boy, Why women love, the rational life, Falling into you

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