TTR - The Truth Review

Could’ve been so much better had the writers not given up on the last two episodes

There are 21 episodes at approximately 10 minutes each and I really like the story.
Two incognito lovers and it turns out that one of them is the emperor.
There is lots of angst and misunderstanding before the ML and FL finally get together and it all flowed quite well.
However……
The acting was mediocre at best apart from the FL who was actually quite good. The villains were all despicable and over the top in their villainy, but I could accept that.
What I can’t accept is how they completely butchered the last two episodes.
Not only did his half brother and the Empress Dowager try repeatedly to assassinate our ML, the half brother even plotted a rebellion and committed treason.
What did the ML do?
Not only did he let him off, but he actually gave him the throne……..My mind is blown..
If this wasn’t bad enough, we then had the empress dowager poison the female lead making it look like she died after being repeatedly let off by the ML and confined to a luxury palace as punishment. They just completely wrote her out of the story at the end so we don’t know whether she was arrested, executed or was confined to her luxury Palace..
It’s like they gave up in the last two episodes because they could’ve had a hidden gem, but they completely wasted it with the terrible ending. It turns out the FL didn’t die and they lived happily ever after. Whatever. Just total rubbish.

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If you enjoy watching heroes suffer for 90% of the show, this is for you

Not good. The show is poor, but at least it was watchable. The FL is looking to infiltrate the new Dynasty to avenge her families massacre and the ML is a spy from the previous dynasty undercover. They go from enemies to lovers but are constantly on the back foot while the villains plan and scheme relentlessly to torture and murder innocents. What really bothers me with this type of show is the usual nonsense where villains like the adopted daughter who decide to redeem themselves are forgiven for all their crimes and face no accountability and have a happy ending and when the villains do get their comeuppance. It’s usually short and sharp and they die instantly where they’ve made the heroes suffer horrendous agony over a long period of time while they’ve been living in luxury and happiness . This kind of perverse pleasure in watching heroes suffer for 90% is quite disturbing and I don’t understand how Chinese audiences enjoy this kind of thing because there is no emotional satisfaction and the payoff is useless by the end.

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Quite a hard watch to begin with, but ultimately quite a gripping tale

I enjoyed most of this 24 episode 10 minute drama because it all came together perfectly by the end. The heartless tyrant, Emperor and the naive silly girl resolve all their misunderstanding satisfactorily after her rebirth.. it was quite gripping how we got there with him killing her by mistake because he was insane and her punishing him after her rebirth with pretty brutal torture. Turns out he was drugged by his evil Mum who appeared late in the show which made him act insane. I enjoyed it most of the political intrigue except the Mum’s appearance near the end, but it all worked out well.

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A showcase of Chinese excellence in their emergency services

This is my kind of show. It’s compassionate, empathetic, wholesome and really showcases Chinese excellence in their emergency services through the special police force and skilled doctors.. they dragged it out for 40 episodes at 45 minutes each, but I still enjoyed it. A couple of things I didn’t like were the sister story.. they ended up being rewarded for bad behaviour and though they explained it well because their father was the MLs captain and mentor before he passed away the ML and his sister felt a duty to take care of them but at the point where they were given an opportunity to start living their life properly they could’ve added some remorse or redemption or gratitude from the two sisters rather than them just staring in silence while the sister basically saved their lives. The other part I didn’t really like was the bus hostage scene. It was basically the FL‘s fault because she was sticking her nosing where it wasn’t required trying to be a hero.. even when another passenger who was clearly an undercover police officer because he had a thing in his ear was telling her to mind our own business. She still decided to meddle and caused all the ensuring chaos which nearly cost the ML his life and we didn’t get to see any reflection from her actions after she created that big mess. Overall, I really enjoyed it and it really is my cup of tea this kind of drama. Well done.

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The most irrelevant male lead of all time who became a side character in his own story

I’m gonna keep this brief because this was a pile of absolute garbage. ML IS USELESS PATHETIC WEAK AND RIDICULOUS AND I CAN’T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO TALK ABOUT HIM SO I’M GONNA TALK ABOUT THOSE AROUND HIM . Gu family were top of the food chain until they got betrayed and everything that should’ve been there’s ended up becoming the Qin families. Fast forward and ML becomes bodyguard to the Qin family sister and evil brother is the head of the family. Seven years of humiliation, torture and beatings for our male lead because it’s all part of his great scheme to get revenge on those who slaughtered his family.. turns out the perpetrators of this horrific abuse are the FL who he has fallen in love with and the evil brother. Fast forward some more when it turns out the evil brother and love rival were responsible for the massacre the female lead cries a little bit and says sorry and all is forgiven and they live happily ever after.. WHAT THE ACTUAL……?

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Did the female lead even like the male lead at all?

I didn’t really like this drama. Spoiled rich kid slums it in the countryside with a chef and her rundown restaurant. The premise is okay, but I was quickly disappointed with how rude the female lead was to the male lead. It was okay up to a certain point, but it happened from the beginning to the end of this drama. Where she was gentle and demure with the second male lead she was rude, violent, insulting and looked down on the male lead for pretty much the entirety of the drama.. the Mum was diabolical and faced no accountability or self reflected on her behaviour. The brother was pretty horrendous but at least he grew a conscience by the end. The side characters were all meh! and I have to ask the question if the FL even liked the ML at all. He was smitten and she just looked like she settled. The whole thing left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

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A female lead with a bad attitude that leaves a trail of destruction in her path.. Yikes!

So the story started off setting the scene of how pathetic and weak the female lead was, she stalked her ex fiance and tried to kill herself when he rejected her. We then moved onto the arranged marriage bit with her rascal of a new fiance who was a bit of a scumbag but had a decent redemption arc and showed growth. I’m really not sure why people think this is so good because the female lead was horrendous, she had a bad attitude towards everybody, including her best friend who was always trying to help her. I get her father was overbearing but she literally couldn’t give a crap about anybody but her own feelings and the dodgy host who was the male lead. I get people like to see flawed characters but she was just too selfish and self absorbed and she didn’t give a crap about anybody else apart from our own feelings. I’m glad I fast forwarded through most of it because it was rubbish.

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Female lead is annoying from the beginning to the end

This is a weird one because it’s a pile of rubbish, but it’s not a complete shambles.

FL and ML were in a virtual reality game but I don’t think the FL realised the ML was real?????? But I’m not really sure. A bit confusing.

Anyway, the female lead was wilful and stubborn to put it politely. I think her objective was to get a divorce letter from the ML and his objective in the game was to win her heart.??? But I’m not really sure.

The palace intrigued stuff was quite interesting, but I was a bit annoyed at the female lead and her ridiculous antics for me to enjoy that side of the story.

They’re 24 episodes at approximately 8 minutes each so you can get through it quite quickly and easily forget.

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If you like watching heros suffer and the villains get away with it, this is for you

It’s okay. It’s not a complete shambles, but it is pretty rubbish..
Female lead was annoying for 75% of the show and the male lead doesn’t have star power but second male lead energy.

The villains in the show do many despicable things including killing many innocent people but don’t really get served proper justice.

Firstly, the villain’s dad thought he killed the male lead 18 years ago but when he realised he hadn’t he planned to murder him and anybody close to him.

After he got found out and was put in prison, he then made our male lead promise not to kill his scumbag son. Why on earth would he agree, is still baffling to me.

The scumbag son then plotted and schemed with evil bro against our heroes throughout using every despicable means and when he got found out, they conveniently turned him crazy so he didn’t have to face any judgement for his crimes.

What the hell happened to evil brother?

All very confusing and easily forgettable.

Shout out to Lin Lin (female lead cousin and best friend) she was a strong and capable character and definitely the highlight of this show.

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This is a new story and you would be confused if you hadn’t watched the original at some points

This is a really strange one because I quite enjoyed go-go squid but this story is kind of baffling.

Firstly, it’s not a sequel. It’s not a continuation of the story. It’s not even the same story from a different perspective of Appledog and DT.

It’s a totally new story and though the players are mostly the same, it’s like we’re in a parallel universe from the original go-go squid.

Secondly,, this is all about combat robots. At least I understood what game they were playing because I still don’t have a clue what they were doing in the original..

Finally, they recast Appledog which was a terrible choice.

I don’t know what it is about this female lead, but I saw her in ‘warm on a cold night’ and she was completely outshone by the second female lead and I feel she was outshone by her sister in this and not to mention the stunning original Appledog from the first one. Such a shame they didn’t keep her and recast DT like they did for grunt, which elevated his role in my opinion.

I just don’t think she has main character energy.

Anyway, the story was quite boring and I didn’t feel the chemistry between the leads. It annoyed me that she joined team SP when DT set up the whole K&K team for her in the first place.

Anyway, easily forgettable.

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After 41 episodes approximately 45 minutes each, I still don’t know what game they were playing

This was a tricky one to score because while it was a lovely story with a decent cast and okay acting overall I have to say it is average.

Some of the reviews on here are spot on because I didn’t really buy the chemistry between the leads and it annoyed me how the female lead lacked communication skills when everybody was badmouthing the male lead when all he was doing was saving her from embarrassment.
All she had to say was
“actually mum, I pursued him relentlessly and everything he’s done and said is to save me embarrassment”
then everything would’ve been fine.

The story lagged midway and was a bit boring and while I enjoy nationalism, it was a little OTT.

I’ve realised there’s a go-go squid 2 because I was trying so hard to work out what the hell was going on with male leads cousin as he was just there without any purpose or depth.

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The worst ML and FL in history???

Update: 23/06/2025: The actors are fantastic but were poorly written. No scores have been changed and I knew my reviews were authentic because I gave the actors a decent rating.

So this is another one of these messes from these Chinese drama people that tells the story of a rich spoilt, psychotic brat of a male lead being able to do any nasty and vile thing he wants to our female lead knowing that they will end up with their happy ever after. Know your place girl.

Mr Grabby ml is completely psychotic, and stalkerish and our female lead is a total pushover who clearly enjoys making bad decisions for her life. She loves a toxic, damaging relationship..

Every single character in this pile of rubbish is the worst.

From demented MLs mom who loves to slap the FL. To the SFL who also loves to slap our female lead but also causes her to miscarriage.

Before you know it, FL and mother-in-law become best friends and she’s supportive of the relationship.
Never mind the fact that she engineered SML‘s grudge against the gu family.

Our FL never once gives SML the benefit of the doubt and was always supportive of the nasty, vindictive and grabby ML.

I realised I must’ve watched this when this was released but dropped it after eight episodes. I managed to fast forward through most of it this time to get to the end and I realised why I dropped it..

Total rubbish!

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Where is season two?

I’ve just finished watching this in 2025.

31 episodes at 10 minutes each and I was still bored for most of it.

Episode 16 to 18 was a complete mess. Why didn’t our female lead just tell our male lead that it was wheelchair boy who was the big bad villain when she was arrested? Instead, she just screamed that it was all a misunderstanding and she needed to explain.

The writing choices in the show were atrocious. I get it in low budget, but does that mean we can’t have a decent story?

The only good thing out of this was the male lead who definitely has something. I don’t know if it’s the X factor or stage presence but he was the only one I was convinced of that had some level of talent and acting skills.

I knew that by the time we got to episode 29 the ending was gonna be a disaster because there was way too much to be done to cover in 20 minutes of two episodes.

Turns out it was a set up for a second season, but I’m not surprised it hasn’t got one because it was total rubbish.

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This is not a romance and quite disappointing despite the happy ending

There are eight episodes under 45 minutes, but it’s still felt like it dragged on.
The female lead can’t stare at people in the eye and the male lead is allergic to touching people. They meet and the female lead literally can’t stand the male lead though he appears indifferent but not nearly as dismissive as her.. anyway they realise they have feelings and end up together. the end.
The problem with this show is they made the female lead act as though she was mentally retarded because she couldn’t stare at people in the eyes. They had her twitching and shaking and hiding. It just looked ridiculous.. though the male lead had his own quirks like carrying around a suitcase with several different shirts to change into, he was generally calm and his demeanour never looked stressed. She had an unrequited crush on the mail leads best friendbecause it was a mistaken identity but I didn’t like the fact that until the last episode is when we saw her actually showing affection towards the male lead. He’d been stepping closer to her every single opportunity for her to actually just be mean and a bit cruel at points. I wasn’t really rooting for her and her redemption, growth appeared to be negligible. The corporate intrigue was a bit flimsy and not well thought out but I suppose that’s what you get for such a short series even though as I said it did seem to drag and I was pleased when it ended.

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