Cortanaherondale

I’ll be honest: I came into The Road to Splendid after watching The Melody of Golden Age, and I was obsessed with Ding Yuxi and Ancy Deng as a couple there. Even two years later, I was still obsessed with their chemistry. But watching this made me realize something: chemistry doesn’t necessarily just come from the actors—it also comes from the characters they’re playing and how their relationship is written.

I genuinely wish they could have combined the couple vibes and chemistry of The Melody of Golden Age with the storyline and writing of The Road to Splendid, because that would have given us a masterpiece.

But did I enjoy this? Absolutely. It was actually amazing.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it binge-worthy, though. I never had that feeling of, “I NEED to watch the next episode right now,” but I was also never bored. It never dragged, and every time I watched it, I was entertained. It’s one of those dramas that is extremely enjoyable to watch without necessarily becoming an obsession.

The biggest strength of this drama is easily the writing.

Honestly, the storyline was top-notch. I kept expecting it to eventually fall apart, become lazy, or start getting boring, and it never did. The story remained strong, captivating, and incredibly well-structured from beginning to end. I genuinely couldn’t find a major gap in the storyline, which is something very hard for me to say.

The way the drama was divided into different arcs was also insanely well done. You would have one arc for several episodes, then naturally move into another, and everything flowed exactly as it should. There was constantly something new happening without the story ever feeling crowded or messy.

My only issue with the revenge storyline is that I don’t think the revenge had enough emotional intensity behind it until much later. I wish there had been more angst and a stronger emotional drive toward the revenge earlier on.

And speaking of revenge, my biggest complaint is that the villains did not suffer enough.

The entire Yu family boiled my blood.

Madam Yu simply forgetting everything at the end did not feel like enough punishment. I actually wish she had remembered everything and had to live with what she had done rather than existing in her own little loop without remembering any of it.

Young Master Yu frustrated me even more because I kept expecting him to eventually redeem himself. There were moments where I genuinely thought the story was heading in that direction, but even toward the end, he was still willing to sacrifice his own servants. I really wanted him to understand what he had done and redeem himself, and he never did.

That entire family was a mess. They were willing to sacrifice their own son, and then somehow the son was still okay with taking care of his mother afterward. Even the father’s death felt too easy to me. After everything that family did, I wanted much harsher consequences for them.

On the other hand, I actually didn’t mind Fan Yake getting a redemption arc. I was happy with that choice, although I still don’t understand why she didn’t go back and bring her son. That felt incredibly selfish.

Still, I think she deserved some kind of happy ending because the story made it clear that she was never really chasing wealth or money. What she wanted was respect, and she never received it. She was deeply insecure, and once you understand where that insecurity comes from, it becomes much easier to have compassion for her.

That’s actually another thing the show did very well: the characters feel realistic and morally complicated.

The drama isn’t filled with perfect green-flag characters. Even the male lead is gray, and the female lead is definitely gray as well. Especially at the beginning, she was very drawn toward wealth, status, glory, and everything that came with them. The show allows its characters to be flawed, selfish, ambitious, and complicated without making them impossible to understand.

That brings me to the main couple.

This is DEFINITELY a female-power, storyline-oriented drama rather than a romance-oriented one. If you’re coming specifically for the romance, I would honestly recommend The Melody of Golden Age instead.

The romance here is important and fundamental to the storyline, but it never feels like the center of the drama. Their love is technically deep, but I never got that overwhelming feeling of years of yearning or some huge, devastating love story. Their relationship feels much more like support, partnership, and being a power couple.

Chemistry-wise, I surprisingly didn’t feel the same vibe here, even though I was obsessed with them together in The Melody of Golden Age. But I think that goes back to what I said at the beginning: chemistry isn’t necessarily only about the actors. Sometimes it’s about the characters and the way their relationship is written.

The drama barely gives them sweet moments. Their relationship is much more angst-driven and often functions as fuel for the larger storyline and revenge arc. The romance is there, it’s enjoyable, and it’s a beautiful addition to the story, but it’s subtle.

They also gave me very old-married-couple vibes. The formality between them, the whole “Mr. Zhao” dynamic—it made their relationship feel much more mature and established rather than youthful or openly romantic.

I really wish we had gotten more sweetness after everything they went through. Even one extra episode showing their life together as a genuinely happy couple would have made a huge difference. The romantic side of their relationship never really gets its own resolution because almost everything that happens between them exists to serve the larger plot.

Now, the actors.

Ding Yuxi—I love him.

I loved his styling here. He looked gorgeous, and I really enjoyed his performance. He’s obviously known for his micro-expressions, and this drama is full of them. Although I will say I kind of wish he would start exploring some new ones because I keep seeing the same expressions.

But acting-wise, I genuinely think he has improved a lot since The Melody of Golden Age. He seems much less tight and much less stiff than before, and his performance feels more natural.

I also liked his character, but I did feel that his character essentially existed for the female lead. Everything he did and everything he eventually became was for her.

What I appreciated is that the drama actually acknowledges this. She herself admits that she regrets making him go through everything he did so that she could pursue and enjoy glory. I love that kind of honesty and self-awareness from characters.

And then we have Ancy Deng.

Her acting has improved amazingly. You can genuinely see how much she has advanced, and she delivered a very solid performance here.

Also, she was breathtaking. Her eyes are the perfect shade of golden, and her styling, costumes, and overall presence were gorgeous. It genuinely made me happy seeing how much both of them have improved as actors since The Melody of Golden Age.

Another absolute star of this drama was the cinematography.

This is easily some of the best cinematography I’ve seen this year. There were so many scenes where I genuinely stopped and thought, “This is gorgeous. This is so well shot.”

The fact that they filmed in real environments, especially the desert scenes, made such a difference. You could feel that they were actually there, and it gave the drama a scale and realism that elevated the entire production.

Between the writing and cinematography, those are probably the two biggest strengths of the show.

And obviously, the OSTs were amazing. Liu Yuning’s OST, especially—his OSTs never miss. The music throughout the drama was excellent and added even more to an already very polished production.

Overall, this was an incredibly well-produced, well-directed, beautifully shot, and extremely well-written drama.

Conceptually, it’s not necessarily doing anything revolutionary. It’s your female-power, revenge, kingdom politics, status, and court-intrigue kind of story. We’ve seen these elements before. What makes this drama stand out is simply how well it executes them.

And I have to specifically praise the ending.

After the amount of badly wrapped-up endings we’ve gotten this year, I was genuinely impressed by how well-written the final episode was. The story actually took the time to wrap everything up. The different arcs were resolved, the characters got their endings, and nothing major felt randomly abandoned.

My only wish, again, was that we had gotten a little more of the main couple afterward—just a few fluffy scenes of them finally living happily together after basically getting no fluff throughout the entire drama.

I also have to give a memorable mention to the supporting characters. Her maids, San, his buddies—so many of them were genuinely likable, and I wish we had gotten more of their relationships and interactions.

But that brings me back to the main point:

The Road to Splendid was never really about the relationships. It was about the story.

So if you’re going into this looking for romance because you loved Ding Yuxi and Ancy Deng in The Melody of Golden Age, adjust your expectations. But if you want a solid, tightly written, female-led story with court intrigue, revenge, great characters, beautiful cinematography, excellent production, and multiple well-executed arcs, I definitely recommend it.

It’s not a drama that I think will necessarily stick with me for years, and it wasn’t something I felt desperate to binge. But while I was watching it, I was consistently entertained, never bored, and genuinely impressed by how well everything was put together.

More entertaining than binge-worthy, but an incredibly solid drama—and easily one of the better-written and best-shot shows I’ve watched this year.