Ok am gonnz start this relieved after reading ths discussion post by jasmine as i hate ML with mutiple wives or…
If you'll notice, he has a wife and concubines from different families, which is allowing him to keep an eye on the goings on of the families themselves. None of whom he seems to trust, as every family appears to be pretty evil.
He also seems to despise all of the women and certainly doesn't look like he has any feelings for any of them, so I wouldn't worry about him being a sleazebag. :) At least in the drama (don't know about the novel, haven't read it).
Excellent first 3 episodes (sorry, I won't pay for Tencent's greed to get a new episode one DAY before it drops for VIP).
Performances are superb, especially the leads, and the plot is interesting. I have the attention span of a flea on cocaine and, so far, not bored for a second.
There possibly can't be anyone who thinks that -at least the first half of S1- is as interesting as any of the…
Season 2 is better, (I enjoyed both seasons) but there is ZERO character development thru the entire series -- they're the same cardboard cutout characters they were in Season 1. So, if you didn't like the characters in Season 1, you definitely won't like them in Season 2 :).
I enjoyed both seasons, but the lack of character development is a huge failing on the part of the writer. Especially as you end up with no empathy for any of them because of it.
Mostly the same group of people making new accounts and/or tag-teaming and saying the same recycled thing in every…
They're not even smart enough to mark a few dramas "watched" before commenting. Instead -- new account, comment how much they hate the same actress every time, and then leave to open another account and do the same thing.
Most get booted by MDL eventually anyway. Look at the slew of "offended" trolls who went after King the Land and managed to downrate it to something ridiculous like 2.0 out of 10.
Every single account was deleted by MDL eventually, and now the drama is back to the rating it always deserved.
So, basically, a bunch of trolls spending hours of their time to hate on a drama/actress and all that time wasted as MDL eliminates them eventually ;)
I enjoyed the first season of this, but the second one is even better.
The cases are incredibly well-written, the performances are superb (main cast and many of the supporting cast ), and the sets and cinematography are stunning. Just binged 13 episodes in two days. Help!!! :)
Hopefully, we'll get that Season 3 as well, as this series has turned out to be a gem.
EDIT: Just adding, now 18 episodes in, the casting director did an incredible job choosing the guest cast. It's a huge list of people, and so many of them have turned in phenomenal performances creating some truly memorable characters.
Normally watch this on my laptop between work tasks, and its screen isn't that great, but watched three episodes last night on my flatscreen TV and, man, can I just say the cinematography and art design on this is absolutely SPECTACULAR.
Every scene just pops off the screen -- absolutely stunningly filmed. Cast is brilliant too.
They didn’t include the reason shown in the novel—and yeah, that’s annoying. But like… chill. It’s not…
So I'm supposed to watch it on regular speed, waste even more of my finite time just to prove to myself it's still devolved into junk when I can speed read at up to 3x speed and not miss a millisecond of the script?
The reason he survived is actually revealed later, atleast it is revealed in the book. If it is not shown in the…
Oh and the Chinese censorship, I think, is responsible for a lot of the junk that comes out of China.
Compare it to most K-dramas -- they are overwhelmingly better written, better acted, with tighter scripts than most Chinese dramas (not all, there are some exceptionally good ones), and with no worrying about if they finish filming will their government allow what they've filmed to be released?
It's a shame. The Chinese are absolutely spectacular at cinematography, set design, costume design, etc. but then their efforts in telling a solid story are stymied by CCP censorship.
Must be very frustrating as an actor/writer/director etc working in China.
The reason he survived is actually revealed later, atleast it is revealed in the book. If it is not shown in the…
It's odd, isn't it? It started out pretty tightly edited for the first few episodes, and much of what happened made sense, but now the pace has picked up, and bizarre, ridiculous events have become the norm.
To some extent, it almost feels like they ran out of money and so are now frantically grabbing things from the novel and shoving them into each episode just to get the drama finished.
Then trying to edit it all together so it "kind of" makes sense, but omitting much of the explanations.
There's almost a panicked, break-neck feel to it that I find odd.
Like I said, loved the first 12 or so episodes, but am becoming increasingly annoyed with it as each new episode ends.
And now we have a random hole that just happened to cave in right at the perfect moment. -- Hahahaha.
No in the novel it tells u how he digged enough to help him breathe.
Unless he dug a hole right to the surface, nobody survives that. Literally a pool of water over his entire body, which he was lying under, then a foot or more under wet soil. You'd think the original writer could have come up with something more believable.
The reason he survived is actually revealed later, atleast it is revealed in the book. If it is not shown in the…
Hopefully it's revealed. Because, if not, you wouldn't survive 5 minutes in a mudslide that is then flooded with water and you're underneath it all. Ridiculous if they just leave it at that.
The whole thing though has devolved from a very cleverly written first 12 episodes or so to just stupidly unbelievable situations that have had me watching on double speed since about Ep 15.
I generally enjoy this genre when it's done well, and can see what this could have been if it had been better written/edited/directed.
The actors overall are doing a great job with the material they have too (not a fan of Ao Rui Peng but he's doing pretty well in this) but the writing is poor and the choppy editing even worse, which makes it even more annoying.
So disappointed, as I binge-watched the first 12 episodes I enjoyed them so much.
1 
He also seems to despise all of the women and certainly doesn't look like he has any feelings for any of them, so I wouldn't worry about him being a sleazebag. :) At least in the drama (don't know about the novel, haven't read it).
Performances are superb, especially the leads, and the plot is interesting. I have the attention span of a flea on cocaine and, so far, not bored for a second.
I enjoyed both seasons, but the lack of character development is a huge failing on the part of the writer. Especially as you end up with no empathy for any of them because of it.
Most get booted by MDL eventually anyway. Look at the slew of "offended" trolls who went after King the Land and managed to downrate it to something ridiculous like 2.0 out of 10.
Every single account was deleted by MDL eventually, and now the drama is back to the rating it always deserved.
So, basically, a bunch of trolls spending hours of their time to hate on a drama/actress and all that time wasted as MDL eliminates them eventually ;)
The cases are incredibly well-written, the performances are superb (main cast and many of the supporting cast ), and the sets and cinematography are stunning. Just binged 13 episodes in two days. Help!!! :)
Hopefully, we'll get that Season 3 as well, as this series has turned out to be a gem.
EDIT: Just adding, now 18 episodes in, the casting director did an incredible job choosing the guest cast. It's a huge list of people, and so many of them have turned in phenomenal performances creating some truly memorable characters.
Every scene just pops off the screen -- absolutely stunningly filmed. Cast is brilliant too.
Nah. Too busy :)
Compare it to most K-dramas -- they are overwhelmingly better written, better acted, with tighter scripts than most Chinese dramas (not all, there are some exceptionally good ones), and with no worrying about if they finish filming will their government allow what they've filmed to be released?
It's a shame. The Chinese are absolutely spectacular at cinematography, set design, costume design, etc. but then their efforts in telling a solid story are stymied by CCP censorship.
Must be very frustrating as an actor/writer/director etc working in China.
To some extent, it almost feels like they ran out of money and so are now frantically grabbing things from the novel and shoving them into each episode just to get the drama finished.
Then trying to edit it all together so it "kind of" makes sense, but omitting much of the explanations.
There's almost a panicked, break-neck feel to it that I find odd.
Like I said, loved the first 12 or so episodes, but am becoming increasingly annoyed with it as each new episode ends.
And now we have a random hole that just happened to cave in right at the perfect moment. -- Hahahaha.
The whole thing though has devolved from a very cleverly written first 12 episodes or so to just stupidly unbelievable situations that have had me watching on double speed since about Ep 15.
I generally enjoy this genre when it's done well, and can see what this could have been if it had been better written/edited/directed.
The actors overall are doing a great job with the material they have too (not a fan of Ao Rui Peng but he's doing pretty well in this) but the writing is poor and the choppy editing even worse, which makes it even more annoying.
So disappointed, as I binge-watched the first 12 episodes I enjoyed them so much.
Started out great, devolved into absolute garbage.
Thank God it's only 32 episodes. Currently watching on double speed. Wish YOUKU had a 3x speed. I'd finish each episode that much faster.
Wish I had time this weekend to binge :(