PeachBlossomGoddess

In the Name of Blossom/国色芳华 picks up where Flourished Peony leaves off. I was expecting this second season to pivot toward the enigmatic Jiang Changyang's story and the plot focus to shift from Mudan's business ventures toward Changyang's court intrigue. The best part of this second season is how Mudan and Changyang's slow-burn romance finally catches fire. Their intense ardor as they transition from friends into lovers made my toes curl.

Unfortunately, as the narrative soldiers on, it becomes quite obvious that the writers simply ran out of plot and should have wrapped this story in one 40-episode season. I was quite done with Mudan's story in the first season and saw no reason to revisit past trauma just to introduce conflict and unnecessary noble idiocy tropes into their relationship arc. With not enough runway to introduce new antagonists, they continued to beat a dead horse with Liu Chang and Li Youzhen, subjecting them to sink even lower into ignominy. As for the final, bloody rebellion arc, there were too many predictable plot twists and reversals and fake deaths that I lost patience with it.

As I had feared in season 1, this turned into yet another empowerment story that gets hijacked by the feminist manifesto. I think in this day and age, it's no longer necessary to go to absurd lengths to prove women can live well without men. I enjoyed the searing chemistry between the two leads, but that was about it. I can only rate this a 7.5/10. I rate both seasons together an 8.0 overall.