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44
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
Asked For Plot, Got Plotholes
There aren't enough pretty people with competent acting skills capable of covering up the massive plotholes littered throughout this drama. What starts out as an honestly truly interesting plot concept devolves into a chaotic mess as soon as the plot hits it's first wall and needs to reset.
From then on, everything they have previously established is thrown out the window as "required" scenes rearrange when they happen and rules are suddenly created that didn't exist in the first episode. By the time the story makes its way to its finale you're no longer thinking that your brain hurts but rather sitting with a blank-eyed stare thinking that you're now so numb you can no longer feel the pain so 'sure' pile on more ridiculousness.
The characters somehow manage to make you care for them in an inverse proportional way. Where the usual dramas want you to care most about the main leads, I honestly didn't... Throughout the entire show they managed to stay completely one-dimensional to me with the sum of our Jin Zhu being "I don't want to die, I want to live" (whatever that means... who knows, we know nothing actually about HER), and Lou Siyi being "I want to marry the female lead".
Meanwhile, the supporting characters are where I actually FELT something. Zhou Nanzhi is the sort of character trapped in a seemingly no-win situation... he laments at one point that as soon as he gave in he lost but realistically, what was HE supposed to do alone? (Also, his character is one with one of the bigger plot holes I swear). We had Luo Li who was always so confident she was one step ahead as she crumbles when plot points become clear to her. Even the Princess, Empress and the barely there little Prince had meaningful moments that dug deep into the feeling of realizing you're trapped... I never honestly felt that with the leads and it left them flat.
I honestly can't talk about the actual story without getting angry because it takes a VERY good idea and just fumbles it so bad with nonsense. Not the sort of nonsense that is "suspend your disbelief, this is a comic world" but rather "you wrote yourself in a corner and said f-k it let's just keep writing".
Score:
(Starting at 5/10)
enjoyment 0
story 0
main leads 0
support .5
intimacy/chemistry 0
coherence/plotholes -1
From then on, everything they have previously established is thrown out the window as "required" scenes rearrange when they happen and rules are suddenly created that didn't exist in the first episode. By the time the story makes its way to its finale you're no longer thinking that your brain hurts but rather sitting with a blank-eyed stare thinking that you're now so numb you can no longer feel the pain so 'sure' pile on more ridiculousness.
The characters somehow manage to make you care for them in an inverse proportional way. Where the usual dramas want you to care most about the main leads, I honestly didn't... Throughout the entire show they managed to stay completely one-dimensional to me with the sum of our Jin Zhu being "I don't want to die, I want to live" (whatever that means... who knows, we know nothing actually about HER), and Lou Siyi being "I want to marry the female lead".
Meanwhile, the supporting characters are where I actually FELT something. Zhou Nanzhi is the sort of character trapped in a seemingly no-win situation... he laments at one point that as soon as he gave in he lost but realistically, what was HE supposed to do alone? (Also, his character is one with one of the bigger plot holes I swear). We had Luo Li who was always so confident she was one step ahead as she crumbles when plot points become clear to her. Even the Princess, Empress and the barely there little Prince had meaningful moments that dug deep into the feeling of realizing you're trapped... I never honestly felt that with the leads and it left them flat.
I honestly can't talk about the actual story without getting angry because it takes a VERY good idea and just fumbles it so bad with nonsense. Not the sort of nonsense that is "suspend your disbelief, this is a comic world" but rather "you wrote yourself in a corner and said f-k it let's just keep writing".
Score:
(Starting at 5/10)
enjoyment 0
story 0
main leads 0
support .5
intimacy/chemistry 0
coherence/plotholes -1
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