Wild ride with unique and likeable characters
At first, it should be noted that this series is intended to be a comedy set in a fictional empire and time period. Its goal is not to portray historical accuracy or the realism of the given era. Therefore, there is little point in pondering the likelihood, logic, and feasibility of individual events. If a realistic measure were applied to this series, no one, or almost no one, would survive the first episode, as they would be sentenced for insulting the emperor. The emperor himself wouldn’t live much longer. By treating the series in line with its intended genre, we are rewarded with great fun. I almost cried from laughter watching the first episodes!
The biggest strength of the series is definitely the characters and the actors who portray them. The Queen - Liu Jin Feng and her parents: her father, Grand Chancellor Liu Xie, and her mother, Yong Fu, absolutely steal the show. The whole family is quite unusual, unconcerned with conventions, direct but more complex than the outward facade they present, incredibly intelligent and cunning, yet loving. The dialogues between them are flawless. The three actors playing them skillfully balance slapstick comedy without falling into absurdity or making their characters ridiculous, and moments later, they shift to seriousness when dealing with important matters. At the same time, they are characters you simply can’t dislike and very quickly start to love. The Queen has a lot of charm and a sense of her own attractiveness, which, thanks to Jackie Li's charm, becomes believable. The Emperor, aside from his obvious attractiveness, initially appears to be quite incompetent ruler, despite thinking about oneself opposite. Luckily he has ambitions to become competent. As the plot progresses, we see his growth and development, which takes place with the guidance of Liu's father and daughter, who we may say use the carrot-and-stick approach (Liu Xie as a strong opponent, Liu Jin Feng with love). The Emperor also has a sense of humor – I didn’t expect Li Hong Yi to excel so well in comedy genre.
All supporting characters are likeable and remarkable, which is quite rare – even Imperial Harem has no villainous women, on the contrary – Empress and Consort and her daughter are quite open-minded, tolerant and likeable. This drama is so refreshing and good joy, that I wouldn’t mind to see the second season.
Lastly I must mentioned the dance scenes and palace radio - both hillarious. I rarely rate the music in chinese dramas positively; I usually consider it positive if it’s not annoying or too repetitive. Here, however, I definitely rate it positively, and the song from the dance scene stayed with me for a long time.
The only flaw that prevents me from rating it a 10 is its length, which causes the pace to drop in the second part, and the plot becomes unnecessarily complicated or dragged out. Reducing it to 20, at most 30 episodes, would have kept the initial pace intact. Nevertheless, thanks to the likable characters – not only the main ones but also the secondary and tertiary ones – it remains enjoyable to watch. A small additional downside in my opinion is the sparing depiction of the romance between the emperor and the queen. A kiss on the forehead doesn’t exactly express deep affection. The series could still be satisfying for me without the romance, or with the romance without kisses, but here I would have liked the creators to approach this topic more boldly. The not-so-attractive and slim queen also deserves a passionate romance.
The biggest strength of the series is definitely the characters and the actors who portray them. The Queen - Liu Jin Feng and her parents: her father, Grand Chancellor Liu Xie, and her mother, Yong Fu, absolutely steal the show. The whole family is quite unusual, unconcerned with conventions, direct but more complex than the outward facade they present, incredibly intelligent and cunning, yet loving. The dialogues between them are flawless. The three actors playing them skillfully balance slapstick comedy without falling into absurdity or making their characters ridiculous, and moments later, they shift to seriousness when dealing with important matters. At the same time, they are characters you simply can’t dislike and very quickly start to love. The Queen has a lot of charm and a sense of her own attractiveness, which, thanks to Jackie Li's charm, becomes believable. The Emperor, aside from his obvious attractiveness, initially appears to be quite incompetent ruler, despite thinking about oneself opposite. Luckily he has ambitions to become competent. As the plot progresses, we see his growth and development, which takes place with the guidance of Liu's father and daughter, who we may say use the carrot-and-stick approach (Liu Xie as a strong opponent, Liu Jin Feng with love). The Emperor also has a sense of humor – I didn’t expect Li Hong Yi to excel so well in comedy genre.
All supporting characters are likeable and remarkable, which is quite rare – even Imperial Harem has no villainous women, on the contrary – Empress and Consort and her daughter are quite open-minded, tolerant and likeable. This drama is so refreshing and good joy, that I wouldn’t mind to see the second season.
Lastly I must mentioned the dance scenes and palace radio - both hillarious. I rarely rate the music in chinese dramas positively; I usually consider it positive if it’s not annoying or too repetitive. Here, however, I definitely rate it positively, and the song from the dance scene stayed with me for a long time.
The only flaw that prevents me from rating it a 10 is its length, which causes the pace to drop in the second part, and the plot becomes unnecessarily complicated or dragged out. Reducing it to 20, at most 30 episodes, would have kept the initial pace intact. Nevertheless, thanks to the likable characters – not only the main ones but also the secondary and tertiary ones – it remains enjoyable to watch. A small additional downside in my opinion is the sparing depiction of the romance between the emperor and the queen. A kiss on the forehead doesn’t exactly express deep affection. The series could still be satisfying for me without the romance, or with the romance without kisses, but here I would have liked the creators to approach this topic more boldly. The not-so-attractive and slim queen also deserves a passionate romance.
Was this review helpful to you?
