DramaAjumma

Fang Yilun!!!! Yessss... Trust him to bring the fun factor to the table. He really excels at playing this type of cavalier trickster. The show is better for having him.

Honestly the ratings on this site are just getting from bad to worse. It's getting very extreme. It's not perfect but compared to some recent shows it's a thoughtful, well-plotted show with clearly delineated motivations.

I'm surprised at the high rating considering all the negative comments here. It's not terrible but it seems to have an identity crisis and the pacing is all over the place.

Unfortunately I don't have time for drama novels. I'm a strictly C drama person only. My schedule and commitments elsewhere don't permit it. ;)

I noticed it. And I don't agree that there was zero setup for it. It was there the whole time. If anything, I thought they telegraphed it during the entire show. It certainly was what they were aiming for at Ximeng.

It occurred to me several episodes in that Rebirth is best seen as fanfiction or an alternate universe. I was an avid fan of Princess Agents (watched it while airing on the edge of my seat) and was sceptical about the belated sequel but Li Yunrui drew me in. And the geopolitics of that world. I liked how every country was different geographically with different customs, issues etc .... and yet they at their core had the same problems of corrupt decadent leadership. Never read the novel and perhaps that's for the best. It is a flawed project but it managed to sustain my interest because on some level it's much closer to the kind of historical drama I like -- tragic, angsty and politically rich. Clearly it was trying to do too much for an 40 episode series (hence the not great editing) but I was never bored and the major characters were bound together by a complex web of motivations. Plus the shifting alliances based on expediency is too much like real life for comfort. I would probably rate it a 7.5 or 8 but apart from Vendetta of An, I haven't been too impressed with that many period shows of late.

Chu Qiao wanted utopia but utopia came at a high price. And the reason why utopia is "no place" is because in truth human beings have too much baggage to ever make it work.

Yes. But it doesn't get developed much.

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.