DramaAjumma

This is really not as bad as I was led to believe. Huangyang Tiantian is not Zhao Liying to be sure but the plot is actually decent and the pacing too. I'm enjoying the competing agendas, layered motivations and the political landscape of Yanbei. The corruption of Yan Xun continues and even he can't have everything he wants. It's a zero sum game for him just as it was for Yuwen Yue aka Zhuge Yue.

Different strokes for different folks. :) Longest Day does take a while to really get going.

Really enjoyed this. I love shows with cute kids and this one was a lot of fun. The outtakes with U-joo at the end were just adorable. It can't be easy working with children on a set but everyone did well here.
I've been watching K dramas for 15 years now and love triangles are pretty much staple. 95% of the time love triangles are unnecessary in Asian dramas but it's a popular trope and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. I am surprised by the hullabaloo surrounding this show about the love triangle because this one makes more sense than most. It not only subverts the first love trope but reinforces the fact that leads could never have survived this period without help from others, regardless of motives, especially when they're both also building careers.

This is pretty good so far. Reminds me a little of The Longest Day in Chang'an.

Liked the approach, most of the cases and some of the character development. But for the most part I didn't care for how the leads were written. Their so-called buddy cop relationship felt very cartoony and they were essentially caricatures written to make some very obvious points.

I don't watch too many Thai dramas but I couldn't pass up a remake of Hello Monster/I Remember You. So far so good, Follows the general trajectory of the original. The performances are generally good. I don't think the FL is that insufferable. A lot of it is for comic relief. If he weren't as disagreeable and arrogant as he was, she wouldn't react quite as much.

Bai Jingting doing another Groundhog Day crime story. Should be fun.

I was thinking about Jing Boran just the other day and found out that he starred in this short series. What a find. Glad that it's on Viki. I love stories in confined spaces or single locations. This one certainly holds your attention despite being talky. I had seen comments referencing Agatha Christie and I understand why. But by the fourth or fifth episode I was seeing allusions to JB Priestley's An Inspector Calls. Episode 7 confirmed what I had already began to sense.
Jing Boran is undoubtedly superb in this.

A solid offering all round. I saw a comment that this is like a short C drama but with a better script. I concur. It's a good watch although not of the calibre of Meet Yourself and I don't mind. What I really like about this is the writing of the leads' relationship. It's nice to see some half decent character development of two people who came into the relationship with a lot of baggage and manage to hold it together for most of the show's run with a lot of good advice about communication and courage. It certainly flies in the face of a lot of idiotic thinking that a couple can't come together too early. I observe that Zhang Yuxi's acting has really matured.

I was pleasantly surprised that Lee Do's superiors and colleagues were generally supportive. Overall I liked the premise and plotting even with the deus ex machina ending. It is an interesting "what if" story.

I think the ratings for this one will come down eventually. 8.1 is far too high for all the negativity surrounding this one.

Heaven forbid!

Although I don't think much of the third prince, I do think he smartened up a little in Episodes 30. He's the monster that the palace maid turned empress created. She's getting some comeuppance.

I'm watching on Viki so I'm somewhat behind. But Episodes 30 and 31 were not too terrible. In fact there were flashes of a half decent story in them. From that I just think that Taohua's odd behaviour has a lot to do with the showrunners wanting Shen Zaiye to be some kind of superhusband. The wayward wife foolishly runs off and throws herself recklessly into danger. It's the selfless husband to the rescue. Who knew that I would be such a sucker for Liu Xueyi as Super Husband.
That is contrasted with the dysfunctional relationship between the third prince and Empress Lv. Supposedly.

She may care about the lives of the people around her but a good empress should also have some practical intelligence.

Apart from awkward comic relief, I really don't think she was needed in a generally serious show.

Plot armour.

Nope. Still hanging on for Liu Xueyi.

Occasionally I do see flashes of a decent palace story. The romance, however just sucks the air out of this show. And the lovesick fool third prince just beggars belief --- he's on another level of stupid.

I'm completely baffled by Taohua's rigid insistence that she and Shen Zaiye are on opposite sides despite conveniently showing up in the same places. She's sending him clues and aiding in investigations. While they might not be lovers, they could be allies with intersecting interests. What happened to the pragmatist of the earlier episodes? Where is that pessimistic fatalism coming from? Nothing "has to be" anything. She could be a double agent. She wouldn't be the first and certainly not the last. And frankly, she doesn't have to help the fourth prince either. Afterall, by her own logic, she's just a spy from another country so why she should embroil herself in the affairs of the "enemy" country?
But the part I hate the most is where she gaslights him for his own good. I would rather she seduced Shen Zaiye and used the heck out of him. At least I would have a bit more respect for her intelligence.

Don't you think men had it hard too? Huai Jin was also his father's pawn sacrificed for the family name. He had to beg his father to get permission to marry the woman he liked. He didn't even get to marry her.