This review may contain spoilers
Extraordinary Lies Nearly Clouds the Love in this Political Fantasy
This series started off so good and continued on to greatness, for the first 25 episodes. The mysteries within the plot and road to romance for the leads was highly entertaining. That is until it reached the final stretch and almost completely lost momentum. First off, the writers threw every trope and obstacle of angst you could think of at the leads. Deep cutting lies, betrayal, being from rival realms who hate each other, terminal illnesses, sins of the mothers, abandonment, endless missed cues and communications and so forth and so on. Then the SML was injected into all of this with his unreasonably psychotic behavior, resulting in it all nearly being too much.
It is tiring to watch the trope of the interloper who becomes obsessed with one of the leads because they were nice to them once eons ago, and when they see this person has no romantic interest in them , instead of moving on, they double down and are determined to force the one with whom they are obsessed to love them. It is illogical and frustrating to watch.
By the time the show reached the last 4-5 episodes it had become exhausting due to everything but the kitchen sink having been thrown at our leads. But I hung in there because the plot remained highly entertaining, despite its faults. And Neo Hou and Lu Yuxiao, and to a much lesser degree, the supporting actors giving the show so much life. They were all so good in their roles and really jelled making them believable friends, lovers and foes. Neo Hou (Ji Bo Zai) and Lu Yuxiao (Ming Yi) had lovely chemistry that became more palpable as the show progressed. They could be funny, flirty and fire together. With their kisses and intimacy being some of the best seen in recent C-dramas.
Additionally, the SFL, the Princess, was a wonderful character. I feared she would become obsessed with winning the ML’s love but was pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be smart, strategic and very supportive of our leads. Overall, despite nearly going off the rails, this was a very good series. The story did , in the end, recover, due to some unexpectedly good twists and the HEA afforded the leads. Binging the last few episodes will be tough, due to all the angst and drama, but once the outcome is known, it is a series that will be more enjoyable upon rewatch.
It is tiring to watch the trope of the interloper who becomes obsessed with one of the leads because they were nice to them once eons ago, and when they see this person has no romantic interest in them , instead of moving on, they double down and are determined to force the one with whom they are obsessed to love them. It is illogical and frustrating to watch.
By the time the show reached the last 4-5 episodes it had become exhausting due to everything but the kitchen sink having been thrown at our leads. But I hung in there because the plot remained highly entertaining, despite its faults. And Neo Hou and Lu Yuxiao, and to a much lesser degree, the supporting actors giving the show so much life. They were all so good in their roles and really jelled making them believable friends, lovers and foes. Neo Hou (Ji Bo Zai) and Lu Yuxiao (Ming Yi) had lovely chemistry that became more palpable as the show progressed. They could be funny, flirty and fire together. With their kisses and intimacy being some of the best seen in recent C-dramas.
Additionally, the SFL, the Princess, was a wonderful character. I feared she would become obsessed with winning the ML’s love but was pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be smart, strategic and very supportive of our leads. Overall, despite nearly going off the rails, this was a very good series. The story did , in the end, recover, due to some unexpectedly good twists and the HEA afforded the leads. Binging the last few episodes will be tough, due to all the angst and drama, but once the outcome is known, it is a series that will be more enjoyable upon rewatch.
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