rika

I was fully prepared to love this drama. I really was.

Let's talk about what I liked first.

• The acting:
Most of the cast did not disappoint with their acting. I've watched a few of Zhao Jin Mai's previous works and loved her in all of them. If you've read the synopsis, you know that this is a "reincarnation" story where both of our leads get a second chance at life after dying tragic deaths in their first life. You'd think after turning back to her 18 year old self, the fl would be more immature or childish. But no, she remains poised. She carries herself with the grace of a 40 year old grand princess who's loved and lost a lot in life. I mean, it is to be expected of her since this is her second life, but I feel like Zhao Jin Mai portrayed this perfectly. Her expressions were on point throughout the drama. It's always a pleasure seeing her on the screen.
I've watched two Zhang Ling He dramas before but I didn't really like his acting in either of those. I'm not saying I hated it, but I felt like he could do better. And he DID. His acting here was superb. In contrast to the fl, the ml can be very childish at times. But despite being playful, he knows when to get down to business. Since Zhang Ling He's micro expressions are really good, he too, portrayed this character perfectly.
An actor I feel like isn't getting much praise from the fans of this drama is Liu Xu Wei. He plays Li Chuan and honestly, among the support roles, he acted the best. He plays the same character in both of our leads' lives, but with different personalities. And he acted out both of those personalities wonderfully. His acting wasn't without flaws, but his line delivery was amazing and his expression control is quite praiseworthy. I'd love to see more of him in the future.
The actor playing the emperor also did an amazing job. Even some of the younger cast such as the actress playing the fl's step sister was pretty good.

•The Production:
Loved the production. Though they didn't spend an ungodly amount of money on this drama, they did best with what they had, and I respect that. Cuz the end result was amazing. There were no unnecessary, flashy camera work, which is sadly, VERY common in historical dramas. Also, the costume designer deserves a raise. The fl's costumes are to die for.

Now let's get to what I didn't like.

• The plot and the pacing :
I didn't wanna make a separate point for the pacing cuz I feel like the reason the plot became kind of boring at times was because of the pacing. Also, some things just remain unexplained. For example, in episode 11, ml confesses to the fl and tells her he loved her the whole time. It was very dramatic, with rain and thunder and everything. But the thing is, the show never tells us how or when the ml fell in love with her. The story was so interesting up until episode 21-22. Later on, it started to become draggy. Ml and fl have a fight around episode 24-25 where the ml really pisses off the fl so she decides to go to a festival to 'hang out' with other guys. This felt incredibly stupid to me. It felt like lazy scriptwriting. Nothing significant actually happens at that portion of the drama. The story didn't progress much. The pacing was bad, so I had to watch a few episodes in 2x speed. It got better later on but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

• Court Drama:
Political intrigue takes up quite a significant amount of the screentime but it really wasn't intriguing, tbh. The leads didn't actually suffer much. Even if they did, it was only for a short time, cuz they had a backup plan all along :). It just didn't feel realistic.

•The characters :
Worst part of this drama. Listen, just because I liked the actors doesn't mean I liked the characters. The fl is emotionally constipated so she doesn't know how to express what she feels. She doesn't WANT to say out loud what she feels. Then again, she has severe trust issues. But it gets quite frustrating at one point. The ml, on the other hand, is down bad for the fl and I won't lie but his down badness was very endearing at the beginning. But with that down badness comes possessiveness. He's very, VERY possessive of the fl. Remember the fight I mentioned? Well, after the fight, he goes to find the fl, sees her with another guy, gets jealous and tries to force himself on her. Yep, you read that right. He apologized after and the fl forgave him ( obviously) but that one instance ruined his whole character for me.

And of course, how could I leave out Su Rongqing? Your typical "I love the fl but I don't have the ability to protect her so I'll do something that totally doesn't harm the fl at all and except her to forgive me but she won't so that'll be my villain origin story and then I'll die at the end while confessing my undying love to the fl and then she'll finally forgive me cuz I'm not evil, I'm just misunderstood" sml. The writer really tried to make him a complex, multidimensional character but failed miserably. He was just annoying for the most part. His reasoning for not choosing to stay by the fl's side even though he also "reincarnated" and opting to support the noble families instead was so, so stupid. "I'm doing this to keep my family safe" ok well you poisoned your own father. What's your excuse now?? He's the type who'd rather blame others than own up to his own mistakes. Having said all that, I feel like I need to defend him too. People have been pointing out that towards the end, he got more screen time compared to the ml, and they keep bashing him for it. Let's put our brains to use for a second. What usually happens in these dramas, towards the end? By that point, the fl and ml have gotten together so the show focuses more on the other parts of the story. The non romantic parts. So it makes sense that he got more screen time because he's the antagonist. You, as a viewer need to be aware of what evil plan he's coming up with. It'll make watching the drama more exciting for you. It'll make you curious to find out how the leads will outsmart him. If you're gonna hate on a character, at least hate on them for logical reasons.

Before starting the drama, I had heard only good things about it. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Overall, it didn't make me feel like I was wasting my time ( for the most part ) so it gets a 7.5. This could've easily been a 8/8.5 though. Too bad the cons outweigh the pros.

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