This review may contain spoilers
A TV Tropes Field Day
Nice production values, low budget script. You are consciously aware of watching a TV show, because what the characters say and do is so thoughtless and dumb, yet it always works out for them. If you hope for a show to provoke you to think and reflect, or a transport away from reality, this isn't the one; it isn't capable.
Pros: pretty cast, ML is particularly pretty and is quite charismatic as we saw in "Are You The One?"
Cons: the script overestimates itself by taking on extremely weighty, serious, and triggering topics such as domestic violence, but it can't treat the topic with the weight and nuance that it deserves. This causes the show to dissolve into farce and exploitation. Are we exploring a serious topic, or are we triggering the audience to feel anxiety so they keep watching (cheap trick) and titillating an audience with lurid images? "New Life Begins" dealt with domestic abuse without being lurid or titillating, just as "Autumn Ballad" dealt with the topic of rape. But since "Si Jin" cannot clearly articulate a purpose or maintain suspension of disbelief, it dissolves into farce. I found myself rooting for the murderous husband to kill the morally compromised wife who attempted to feed her own sister to him like a cut of marbled beef. Seriously? We're only a few episodes in and the script and directing are this morally and narratively confused?
I would rather watch a vertical melodrama deal with domestic violence. Not only are their depictions more realistic, but they also aren't morally and narratively muddled.
I also don't think the FL is pretty. That's not a big deal if she can act, and so far she's been fine. But other characters overpraising her beauty is cringeworthy. The top half of her face is acceptable by ancient beauty standards, but not the bottom half, which is more akin to modern beauty standards, and the whole is not harmonious. Yes, looking like a melon seed is a modern thing; ancient beauties were supposed to have oval or round faces. It would be quite refreshing to see an ancient beauty in an ancient setting; CENT will only give us that as a side character with the exception of Jackie Li comedies. It's okay if a character is not an extraordinary beauty but an extraordinary mind. Own it. Lean into it. Instead, like with everything in this drama, it generates more "It's in the script" moments.
This script is just so full of dumb moments. Like two characters conspiring to overthrow a third one--by loudly and openly talking about it in their target's courtyard in the middle of the night. Sure, that makes sense. Or when the constables bring a corpse sniffing dog and search a manor court in one single location and only release the dog after the first location fails. Why? It's in the script. Or when the duke's minions resist court-appointed constables with violence and they discover evidence of capital crimes, but they don't arrest any of the servants who resisted the search afterwards. It's in the script. The levels of stupidity in this script are absolutely off the charts.
I haven't dropped yet, since this dumb drama does have its charms and will update if anything changes my mind later.
Pros: pretty cast, ML is particularly pretty and is quite charismatic as we saw in "Are You The One?"
Cons: the script overestimates itself by taking on extremely weighty, serious, and triggering topics such as domestic violence, but it can't treat the topic with the weight and nuance that it deserves. This causes the show to dissolve into farce and exploitation. Are we exploring a serious topic, or are we triggering the audience to feel anxiety so they keep watching (cheap trick) and titillating an audience with lurid images? "New Life Begins" dealt with domestic abuse without being lurid or titillating, just as "Autumn Ballad" dealt with the topic of rape. But since "Si Jin" cannot clearly articulate a purpose or maintain suspension of disbelief, it dissolves into farce. I found myself rooting for the murderous husband to kill the morally compromised wife who attempted to feed her own sister to him like a cut of marbled beef. Seriously? We're only a few episodes in and the script and directing are this morally and narratively confused?
I would rather watch a vertical melodrama deal with domestic violence. Not only are their depictions more realistic, but they also aren't morally and narratively muddled.
I also don't think the FL is pretty. That's not a big deal if she can act, and so far she's been fine. But other characters overpraising her beauty is cringeworthy. The top half of her face is acceptable by ancient beauty standards, but not the bottom half, which is more akin to modern beauty standards, and the whole is not harmonious. Yes, looking like a melon seed is a modern thing; ancient beauties were supposed to have oval or round faces. It would be quite refreshing to see an ancient beauty in an ancient setting; CENT will only give us that as a side character with the exception of Jackie Li comedies. It's okay if a character is not an extraordinary beauty but an extraordinary mind. Own it. Lean into it. Instead, like with everything in this drama, it generates more "It's in the script" moments.
This script is just so full of dumb moments. Like two characters conspiring to overthrow a third one--by loudly and openly talking about it in their target's courtyard in the middle of the night. Sure, that makes sense. Or when the constables bring a corpse sniffing dog and search a manor court in one single location and only release the dog after the first location fails. Why? It's in the script. Or when the duke's minions resist court-appointed constables with violence and they discover evidence of capital crimes, but they don't arrest any of the servants who resisted the search afterwards. It's in the script. The levels of stupidity in this script are absolutely off the charts.
I haven't dropped yet, since this dumb drama does have its charms and will update if anything changes my mind later.
Was this review helpful to you?
