Surprisingly Captivating
This drama caught me off guard. I didn’t even realize that I was binging. I was more than halfway through it before I even realized that I was watching the episodes one after the other.
The surprising part is, until the very end, nothing cataclysmic happens. There are no twists, no sudden surprises (or shocks). It’s almost like watching people live their lives. I understand the frustration some people had as this drama is not action packed with flaring robes and gravity defying jumps. But even then it grabbed my interest like a marching band. For this review, when I started to think about what all had happened in the drama, I realized that it was nothing much. But then why did I liked this as much as I did?!
The answer is lead characters. The FL, Lady Gao, was one of the most capable female leads I have seen recently. She is compassionate but not a push over. She is young but not naive. She understands the other side’s perspective, has enough empathy. But that does not blind her to the interest of her family. She is a badass, but not in a bratty, tantrumy, sarcastic way. She sees through people and situations, takes time to understand everything and then finds a way of the least resistance, like water - no pun intended. What I liked was how she meant it when she said she understands why her in-laws would hate her. And why her husband would keep her at an arm’s distance, she didn’t just say it, she showed it with her actions. But at the same time, she does not hesitate to tell her husband when she is displeased with his actions or when her foolish mother in law tries to undermine her marriage. The character was brilliant. She did what she wanted, got done what she wanted, but was not self absorbed.
And then our ML. OMG. Lord Wei is a total teddy bear. He is so patient with her, yet so petty when he is jealous. Even when he seems spellbound by her beauty, he does not devolve into an alpha hole who is cruel because he can’t face his emotions. He is not a man-child. He has a solid, like pretty solid, reason to be wanting to eradicate FL’s clan. But he also is emphatic enough to understand her predicament. It’s a one sided enemy-to-lovers drama. She never thinks he is her enemy. His enmity lasts just long enough. It doesn’t drag. Most of the drama is them developing their mutual understanding and finding love. A really good job by both the actors.
I loved the ML’s gang. The four musketeers and the advisor were just cracking funny. Their loyalty was strong enough to allow them to keep their personal hatred aside and accept her Ladyship because their Lord accepts her. I loved it. There is usual humour which is sometimes unfunny. But at least for me, it did not grate. There are usual grey characters, usual black characters, usual white characters, villains with a boohoo stories I did not care about. Oh, my mommy and daddy didn’t love me, so let me be a psychotic social climber or a family-killer. Like dudes, get over it. Don’t justify your nastiness with some sob story. At least own it.
My one gripe was with the climax. It came out of nowhere and escalated from 0 to 100 in no time. It was like the studio told the team to create some drama and then cut their budget. No spoilers but some deaths in the end did not make sense. They did not fit organically. It was more like the writers were ticking boxes for the studio who were like, why should everybody be happy, let’s kill off a few to jerk some tears. And that’s the reason of my imperfect rating. Senseless sadness for the sake of it.
The surprising part is, until the very end, nothing cataclysmic happens. There are no twists, no sudden surprises (or shocks). It’s almost like watching people live their lives. I understand the frustration some people had as this drama is not action packed with flaring robes and gravity defying jumps. But even then it grabbed my interest like a marching band. For this review, when I started to think about what all had happened in the drama, I realized that it was nothing much. But then why did I liked this as much as I did?!
The answer is lead characters. The FL, Lady Gao, was one of the most capable female leads I have seen recently. She is compassionate but not a push over. She is young but not naive. She understands the other side’s perspective, has enough empathy. But that does not blind her to the interest of her family. She is a badass, but not in a bratty, tantrumy, sarcastic way. She sees through people and situations, takes time to understand everything and then finds a way of the least resistance, like water - no pun intended. What I liked was how she meant it when she said she understands why her in-laws would hate her. And why her husband would keep her at an arm’s distance, she didn’t just say it, she showed it with her actions. But at the same time, she does not hesitate to tell her husband when she is displeased with his actions or when her foolish mother in law tries to undermine her marriage. The character was brilliant. She did what she wanted, got done what she wanted, but was not self absorbed.
And then our ML. OMG. Lord Wei is a total teddy bear. He is so patient with her, yet so petty when he is jealous. Even when he seems spellbound by her beauty, he does not devolve into an alpha hole who is cruel because he can’t face his emotions. He is not a man-child. He has a solid, like pretty solid, reason to be wanting to eradicate FL’s clan. But he also is emphatic enough to understand her predicament. It’s a one sided enemy-to-lovers drama. She never thinks he is her enemy. His enmity lasts just long enough. It doesn’t drag. Most of the drama is them developing their mutual understanding and finding love. A really good job by both the actors.
I loved the ML’s gang. The four musketeers and the advisor were just cracking funny. Their loyalty was strong enough to allow them to keep their personal hatred aside and accept her Ladyship because their Lord accepts her. I loved it. There is usual humour which is sometimes unfunny. But at least for me, it did not grate. There are usual grey characters, usual black characters, usual white characters, villains with a boohoo stories I did not care about. Oh, my mommy and daddy didn’t love me, so let me be a psychotic social climber or a family-killer. Like dudes, get over it. Don’t justify your nastiness with some sob story. At least own it.
My one gripe was with the climax. It came out of nowhere and escalated from 0 to 100 in no time. It was like the studio told the team to create some drama and then cut their budget. No spoilers but some deaths in the end did not make sense. They did not fit organically. It was more like the writers were ticking boxes for the studio who were like, why should everybody be happy, let’s kill off a few to jerk some tears. And that’s the reason of my imperfect rating. Senseless sadness for the sake of it.
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