Hermina05

Very disappointing and annoying

I usually don't write reviews because I believe that everyone should get into a series with no biased opinions, but this time, I just have to vent.

If you are like me, and start this drama because of Cheng Yi, be prepared to be disappointed. Not in him. Not at all. But the way the writers dealt with him. His acting is superb and he looks amazing in every scene... but at some point it's hard to find him in the drama.

First of all, I have to list the positives: beautiful music, costumes, hair styles, sceneries. Great acting from everyone really.
Unfortunately, that is about all the good I can say.

Now on to the bad things: the main couple doesn't feel like the main couple after about the first third of the episodes. They don't even seem like main characters after that.

The script is BS really. What the heck is even going on in this drama?

Also, I really hate when they turn on good people so quickly and united. I mean, that Jingting did horrible things over and over and over and over again but he was never really punished and each time everyone believed everything he said without a single thought. While on the other hand, the one person who's done nothing but good, saved and helped everyone is neglected, beaten, punished, tortured, crippled, exiled and branded as a traitor... This is so annoying. Though one thing I must applaud is that the main characters don't turn against each other. I find nothing more frustrating than a couple or siblings or friends who always help each other, save each other, love each other get turned against each other by someone who everyone knows is out to get them or just plain evil. But then that person says something and those who vowed to love each other just turn against each other. At least they did not have that in this drama. The main couple and friends always stayed united. But the rest....

Another annoying person is Hongye... he is neglecting, berating and downright abusive towards his son who despite it all still loves him. He then acts like a good father to everyone else and we are supposed to feel bad for him that he could not be a good father to his son. He had every opportunity... I still don't quite get why he thought a soldier has to be raised that way. Oh and everyone just accepts that he wants to be a good father even though he does everything he can to prove otherwise... Right. Great.

Then the other thing that makes me angry is the spider boy. I can't be bothered to remember his name, so I'll just call him 12581. This obsessive, entitled love he has is really infuriating. I can accept that this kind of love exists, but this is a really huge extreme and should not be the driving force of a third of this drama. And everyone wants to save him and forgive him... I'm sorry, he killed a lot of people and did a lot of bad things.

Since the main couple started being neglected I had a bit of a hope that Cheng Yi will manage to not die in his drama (he's not been so lucky in his latest projects) and that is the only reason I watched until the end. How it actually went for him, I will not go into here but I knew that no matter what, it will be a disappointing ending. And it was.

Just to be fair, I'll admit that after about the first 12 or 13 episodes, I started watching the rest with a lot of skipping and finished the remaining episodes in 1 day. That's how entertaining I found it.

I give this drama and overall 7 just because of the acting, the music and the costumes. And the fact that the song Cheng Yi sang is played a lot. Other than these things, it was an absolute disaster.

And this concludes my very first review on MDL. I hope the next one will be more positive.

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