3
3
In the domestic sphere it rocks, in the palace environment it rolls - right under the bus…
I watched both parts together and will only write one review. The score I gave to part one is 8.5, but I can’t get anywhere near that for the second half.
Let’s start with the positives, because there are a plenty of them. The so-called “good” characters are both varied and interesting and some of them have interesting character arcs. However, the “bad” characters were unfortunately all cookies cut from the same bitter, extreme and bitchy dough and were interchangeable and forgettable, which rendered parts of the rambling plot incomprehensible. But let’s not get to that yet. Continuing on the good things.
The wonderful humour in part one that was such a delight. The writer excelled in bringing out the nuances within the everyday interactions. As social commentary it is second only to “Heard it Through the Grapevine”. It provided a balance and a foil for the more serious scenes. But alas, where was it in the second half. It died a death along with numberless others, who were victim to the bloodlust of Zi Sheng. In the second half, it felt as though the writer was really our of their depth.
There were some excellent performances from a very large cast. In particular I would single out, Zeng Li as Xiao Yuan Yi (Shao Shang’s mother), Cao Xi Wen as Consort Yue Fei, and in the latter stages Leo Wu stepped up as Zi Sheng.
I liked the costuming for the show. Particularly the military uniforms. And the fact that the early period meant simpler fabrics and elegant lines. The setting too was a great backdrop for the drama, with its huge barren landscapes and harsh realities, in which small oceans of comfort and civilisation nestled.
Okay, I’m going to leave the good there. There’s plenty of reviews that drool over Leo Wu on a horse and such similar attractions. Let’s get out the scalpel.
Save the best to last. There’s a reason this is said. It’s great advice: build, retreat, build higher, rest, build higher, hold, then run vertically to your epic killer blow. Unfortunately the second part of this drama completed the whole course in the first third and then had nowhere to go except repeat until the end. That’s partly the difficulty of writing a 40-hour drama. That’s a lot of story to weave together using original ideas. Okay, to be fair, they split it down the middle, so 20 hours of drama. But, how many times can you watch Leo Wu leap from his horse to save the day/girl at the last possible second. Once at the end would have been impressive, twice would be forgivable, three times unfortunate, but five-plus times? Tbh you’ve seen it all before and there’s no tension only predictability. It was a cast of thousands and fairly minor characters kept blowing up along the route to provide a foil and yet another opportunity for our knight in leather armour. There were so many of them, that I had difficulty remembering what their story arc had been (twenty episodes earlier) that was causing them to seek revenge at this point.
This is a drama built on backstory. Now backstory is never easy to handle. You are in with a chance if it’s the backstory of one of the main characters. But when you are asked to get invested in the backstory of people who either don’t appear in the drama, or who are minor characters overall, and on top of that, you are not even “shown” it, but “told” it in unlikely monologues and stilted “conversations”, then you’re really wading through porridge. Not only was it confusing just to have names without faces half the time, but it was boring too. There was nothing much to generate emotional investment and Leo Wu was on his own boiling up all that vitriol. Admittedly, the scenes when it spilled out were chillingly good and really showcased his acting chops.
To sum up plot-wise, as this rambling, fragmented plot played out I felt incredulity leaking from the pot until I was up to my knees in it, then at some point the swirling waters closed over my nose and mouth and I had to force myself to float on it to the end as I was in danger of drowning in the underground tomb and burning village.
In terms of the characters, the arcs for the male and female leads were largely unconvincing. I was willing to go along with Shao Shang learning to trust Zi Sheng, although the set-up for the punishment scene that clinched the deal was pretty unbelievable. But the changes in the later stages in their relationship had no real credible basis to them. Tbh, the character of Zi Sheng had so many red flags that to me he was unredeemable. The writer was trying to meld together two stubborn and flawed characters by melting them in the forge of saccharine romance tropes. It didn’t work.
Let’s start with the positives, because there are a plenty of them. The so-called “good” characters are both varied and interesting and some of them have interesting character arcs. However, the “bad” characters were unfortunately all cookies cut from the same bitter, extreme and bitchy dough and were interchangeable and forgettable, which rendered parts of the rambling plot incomprehensible. But let’s not get to that yet. Continuing on the good things.
The wonderful humour in part one that was such a delight. The writer excelled in bringing out the nuances within the everyday interactions. As social commentary it is second only to “Heard it Through the Grapevine”. It provided a balance and a foil for the more serious scenes. But alas, where was it in the second half. It died a death along with numberless others, who were victim to the bloodlust of Zi Sheng. In the second half, it felt as though the writer was really our of their depth.
There were some excellent performances from a very large cast. In particular I would single out, Zeng Li as Xiao Yuan Yi (Shao Shang’s mother), Cao Xi Wen as Consort Yue Fei, and in the latter stages Leo Wu stepped up as Zi Sheng.
I liked the costuming for the show. Particularly the military uniforms. And the fact that the early period meant simpler fabrics and elegant lines. The setting too was a great backdrop for the drama, with its huge barren landscapes and harsh realities, in which small oceans of comfort and civilisation nestled.
Okay, I’m going to leave the good there. There’s plenty of reviews that drool over Leo Wu on a horse and such similar attractions. Let’s get out the scalpel.
Save the best to last. There’s a reason this is said. It’s great advice: build, retreat, build higher, rest, build higher, hold, then run vertically to your epic killer blow. Unfortunately the second part of this drama completed the whole course in the first third and then had nowhere to go except repeat until the end. That’s partly the difficulty of writing a 40-hour drama. That’s a lot of story to weave together using original ideas. Okay, to be fair, they split it down the middle, so 20 hours of drama. But, how many times can you watch Leo Wu leap from his horse to save the day/girl at the last possible second. Once at the end would have been impressive, twice would be forgivable, three times unfortunate, but five-plus times? Tbh you’ve seen it all before and there’s no tension only predictability. It was a cast of thousands and fairly minor characters kept blowing up along the route to provide a foil and yet another opportunity for our knight in leather armour. There were so many of them, that I had difficulty remembering what their story arc had been (twenty episodes earlier) that was causing them to seek revenge at this point.
This is a drama built on backstory. Now backstory is never easy to handle. You are in with a chance if it’s the backstory of one of the main characters. But when you are asked to get invested in the backstory of people who either don’t appear in the drama, or who are minor characters overall, and on top of that, you are not even “shown” it, but “told” it in unlikely monologues and stilted “conversations”, then you’re really wading through porridge. Not only was it confusing just to have names without faces half the time, but it was boring too. There was nothing much to generate emotional investment and Leo Wu was on his own boiling up all that vitriol. Admittedly, the scenes when it spilled out were chillingly good and really showcased his acting chops.
To sum up plot-wise, as this rambling, fragmented plot played out I felt incredulity leaking from the pot until I was up to my knees in it, then at some point the swirling waters closed over my nose and mouth and I had to force myself to float on it to the end as I was in danger of drowning in the underground tomb and burning village.
In terms of the characters, the arcs for the male and female leads were largely unconvincing. I was willing to go along with Shao Shang learning to trust Zi Sheng, although the set-up for the punishment scene that clinched the deal was pretty unbelievable. But the changes in the later stages in their relationship had no real credible basis to them. Tbh, the character of Zi Sheng had so many red flags that to me he was unredeemable. The writer was trying to meld together two stubborn and flawed characters by melting them in the forge of saccharine romance tropes. It didn’t work.
Was this review helpful to you?
