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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.

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Real suprising gem I found myself wishing it were longer

Definitely one of the best dramas I watched for last years, which I nearly missed after reading the synopsis and watching the trailer. Watching the trailer, I thought this show would be cringy, with cheesy elements and silly humor. Luckily, I decided to give it a chance and was hooked already during the first episode. None of my concerns turned out to be true—in fact, quite the opposite. It’s a heartwarming series full of friendship, told with tenderness and humor. The appearance of the ghosts of the deceased is handled with the same tenderness, which ensures that, despite their sometimes eerie appearance, the show never veers into anything remotely resembling cringe, gore or Halloween party. The personal stories of the deceased are deeply moving. Beautifully woven into the story, the motif of Chinese calligraphy, plays also a very important role, not only being stunning ornament.
What I appreciate the most are the nuanced relationships between the main characters, and above all, one of the healthiest and most beautiful mother-son relationships I've ever seen in a series.
The cinematography is excellent, and all the actors deliver professional performances—something that should be the norm, but isn't always a given, especially in some last C-dramas I watched. The main actors exude an unspoken charisma that draws you in.
Usually, I believe that shortening the length of most dramas would improve the plot, but this time, I found myself wishing it were longer, which I think is the best recommendation.

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A drama where everything is in the right place

This is a drama where the director knows what he's doing and why, the scriptwriters know how to write good scripts, the scenography department knows how to design the set, the CGI team knows how to avoid making it cringy and fake-looking, and the actors can actually act. It should be obvious, but this is really rare nowadays. This is the second season of SToTD, which is even better than the first one. I stronglly recommend it for ones who like well written detective story with good acting and great visuals.

PLOT
After the first case ends with Lu Lingfeng unintentionally admitting to a certain familial connection, Su Wuming saves him in a way that, at first glance, seems somewhat controversial. LLF is exiled to the distant West. Su Wuming also has to leave the capital. After some time, the entire team, whether by chance or not, reunites to continue their journey to the West, solving more criminal cases along the way. The cases are unique, intresting and not obvious. One of the most surprising cases is when, due to a fortuitous set of circumstances, our team is forced to conceal a murder that took place in a mysterious guesthouse from the other guests. Hiding their true identities, the team, trapped in the guesthouse during a snowstorm, must find the murderer, who is one of the guests. What I particularly appreciate is that the subsequent cases are not merely used to advance the main characters' storyline or showcase their extraordinary abilities. In this series, the victims and perpetrators are as important as the main characters. They have clearly defined, memorable personalities and motives. The perpetrators are not cartoonish, one-dimensional embodiments of evil; on the contrary, they are often complex, and in some cases, the lines between who is actually the perpetrator and who is the victim become blurred. This deserves special mention and appreciation. The plot is intriguing from start to finish, and the pace is consistently maintained.
There are some complaints about lack of romance - both SWM and LLF have women who are the objects of their romantic interest, but the romance is not the most important theme of this series. The series primarily focuses on solving cases, as well as the growth and development of the characters during their journey, and their interpersonal relationships - co-operation, friendship, trust. This bit of romance adds depth to the portrayal of the main characters, makes them flesh-and-blood people. For me it is just perfect as it is and I am glad that this series isn’t trying to be everything and nothing at once by cramming in every film genre.

ACTING/CAST
Not just the main cast, but all supporting and guest roles are well performed. The performances of protagonists or antagonists in a few cases are truly remarkable and leave a lasting impression (for example, the Coroner's mother). The main team has great chemistry, and they truly make us believe in their bonds. The fight scenes are excellent, and I especially appreciate the male lead's scenes and his commanding general’s aura. He’s also a perfect choice for this type of character. In many dramas, the male lead is supposed to be a well-trained general, officer, or martial artist, but their physique tells a different story—often too skinny or lacking muscle. However, this ML is well-built and trained, making his role as Lu Lingfeng much more believable.

MUSIC
I focus on the visual aspects of films; they are more important to me then music, unless it is unique or annoying. Here all is good. As well as the quality of recorded sound .

VISUALS
Visually, it is a feast for the eyes. Some scenes are stunning and memorable. The costumes are beautiful and diverse. What I particularly appreciate is the choice of wigs—the hairlines that can make or break even the most attractive faces of the actors. What I particularly appreciate is the depiction of cultural richness, similar or even better to what was shown in the first season.

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World of drama difficult to live in and even more difficult to watch due to poor writing

I finished watching it thanks to the fast forward button and the actress playing the female lead, who gave good performance and was quite captivating.

The plot drags on unbearably, full of inconsistencies, absurdities, and worn-out clichés. On one hand, we see a society where women cannot appear in public, yet it is a woman who runs the embroidery workshop, and all the concubines and wives move around the city quite freely to carry out their schemes, without any supervision or veils to hide their identities. They even visit prisons themselves. Not to mention that the FL meets her male friend (2ML) on several occasions. In the house with such strict rules maids can interrupt and give their opinions without any consequences which is another example of non-consistent world created by writer. Xu family after their downfall has no backing in government which we can clearly see, but their second son is married with a princess. Given the logic of the Xu family's world, it's unbelievable that no one in this family has attempted to poison the FL or the matriarch (mother in law of FL), who is more scheming and cruel then those supposed as drama villains. Watching her behavior for more than 40 episodes makes her final transformation is unbelievable.

Most of the characters are either caricatures or barely sketched out, despite having 45 episodes. Some characters disappear without a trace after a particular storyline begins, only to return after several episodes. These subplots add nothing except to reinforce the positive traits of the FL. The main antagonists are completely one-dimensional, and the intelligence with which they plot their schemes makes it hard to believe that this family could effectively hide their actions for so many years. I immediately guessed who their spy in the Xu family was.

As the FL is smart, energetic and likeable, the ML is passive and simply boring – that is unfortunately mostly due to poor writing of his character. Because of that, it is really difficult to see any trace of chemistry between main couple.
Visuals are not something worth mentioning with pale coloring and visibly artificial materials of costumes. The positive aspect is music with beautiful songs.

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