NicoM

If you wanna watch it because you heard it’s made after a BL book and you hope to see a romantic-vibes bromance don’t bother. There’s no soulmates kind of friendship or anything else and there IS a female lead. We have a male lead, Tang Fan, a female lead Duo Er La and 2 secondary male characters who because they needed Tang Fan’s investigation skills both cater to that bratty sleuth. It’s Sui who cares the most for the bratty immature Tang Fan while Tang Fan spends the entire time when he’s not investigating revolving around that girl and lashing out at his friends over protecting her. It felt like an unrequited love on Sui’s part while Tang Fan’s only focus and attention was for the women in the series (and his investigation, of course). We have episodes and episodes where they struggle to rescue or to save that female character , wasted so much story arc on her and her dramas that I don’t know why isn’t she listed as main character . Only because she wasn’t available (and she died towards the end) they didn’t get together because if it were for Tang Fan they’d been married and with two kids by the end of the series. I mean, they tried so hard to hide the bromance by throwing women at him and making him so uncomfortable around men, so awkward at expressing friendship and fondness (unlike with the women) and so petulant that his only attractiveness is his deduction skills when investigating. He’s bratty, impulsive, ungrateful and immature. I don’t understand why Sui sacrificed himself over and over for him (and sometimes for her ) because he came across as Tang Fan’s punching bag. Sui Zhou was so so underrated and wasted for this series. They gave him so little protagonism and so little importantance …He was there just to make Tang Fan safe and to help him shine while he remained in the shadow. I would have loved a more intense bromance between Wang Zhi and Sui Zhou because by far the most interesting character in the series is Wang Zhi. He’s gorgeous, smart, witty and wicked. I adored him and I stayed till the end because of him and the royal complot.
The acting was good, and so were the cinematography , the costumes and the interesting cases. I also found the emperors and their entourage very interesting and complex. Not to mention how handsome that emperor was . The found family is also wonderful.
Enjoyable series if you don’t look for bl-bromance.