This review may contain spoilers
Brilliant leads trapped in preachy, propaganda-laden nonsense
I can’t give this more than a 2/10, and honestly, those two points belong entirely to the lead actors. Ren Jialun and Wang Herun do an absolutely fantastic job with the garbage script they were handed. Their chemistry is great, the fight choreography in the early episodes is epic, and they genuinely try to elevate the material.
Unfortunately, the story itself is an absolute farce. I was completely hooked by episode three when the female lead started kicking serious arse, but the narrative immediately collapses under the weight of heavy-handed, sugarcoated state propaganda. The moral messaging here is completely broken. We are forced to sit through infuriating levels of injustice, only for the male lead to let a despicable, traitorous tyrant of an Emperor off the hook just to preserve societal stability. It is insultingly preachy. Instead of a satisfying story driven by common human decency or earned justice, the script treats the audience like idiots. It uses lazy, industrialised tropes to drag out a bloated, frustrating plot just to meet an episode quota.
If you want a smart historical drama where actions have real consequences and bad people actually get punished, avoid this at all costs. Don't let the high production values or the great cast trick you into wasting 40 episodes on this formulaic, compliant nonsense.
Unfortunately, the story itself is an absolute farce. I was completely hooked by episode three when the female lead started kicking serious arse, but the narrative immediately collapses under the weight of heavy-handed, sugarcoated state propaganda. The moral messaging here is completely broken. We are forced to sit through infuriating levels of injustice, only for the male lead to let a despicable, traitorous tyrant of an Emperor off the hook just to preserve societal stability. It is insultingly preachy. Instead of a satisfying story driven by common human decency or earned justice, the script treats the audience like idiots. It uses lazy, industrialised tropes to drag out a bloated, frustrating plot just to meet an episode quota.
If you want a smart historical drama where actions have real consequences and bad people actually get punished, avoid this at all costs. Don't let the high production values or the great cast trick you into wasting 40 episodes on this formulaic, compliant nonsense.
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