Well-written, well-styled, well-acted
Smart, relatable villains with personal conflict, working brains and solid writing from the authors? I'm in.
A gray and weavering good side, with an honorable goal and dishonorable means? I'm in.
Add some 7-8 good actors for the main characters and a solid secondary cast for the secondary characters (which is rare!), and I'm watching. I haven't skipped or ffw anything.
When the villains are cartoon villains, mindless and cackling, who only know how to beat or kill like animals, there is no suspense and there is no display of inner character strength of the good guys. Everybody can decide to take down a cackling cartoony villain, but a person has to have absolute personal integrity and a functioning moral compass to take down a relatable, sympathetic villain they used to like.
When the good side is gray, it's very interesting to follow their journey to victory. I had low expectations, because cdramas are usually too superficial with why the good side must win, but this drama is deeper and grayer than usual. I may have watched less than 15 Cdramas that don't hesitate to paint the good side with dark tones.
The story makes sense, if you don't expect a romance and some decorative battles with little cute blood stains. There are centuries' old secrets that can't be revealed on episode 01, nor wait to be revealed on the last episode. There are interpesonal stakes and grudges and the paths are not clear. At times, there is a fuzzy line on who is on the villain side or whethere there is a line at all.
Even the minor characters have a background story, and I'm glad we are told about it but we don't linger on it with tedious side story arcs. The tropes are well-masked and well-integrated into the story, you never get the feeling that you are watching a to-do list.
The styling (allowing, of course, for the actors' good career management and fandom) is adapted to the story and is not focussed on pretty-pretty, unless the scene is about looking pretty. The cast looks nice, looks scruffy, looks beautiful, looks beaten to death, looks tired, looks ill, looks morning fresh, looks whatever the specific scene is about.
A gray and weavering good side, with an honorable goal and dishonorable means? I'm in.
Add some 7-8 good actors for the main characters and a solid secondary cast for the secondary characters (which is rare!), and I'm watching. I haven't skipped or ffw anything.
When the villains are cartoon villains, mindless and cackling, who only know how to beat or kill like animals, there is no suspense and there is no display of inner character strength of the good guys. Everybody can decide to take down a cackling cartoony villain, but a person has to have absolute personal integrity and a functioning moral compass to take down a relatable, sympathetic villain they used to like.
When the good side is gray, it's very interesting to follow their journey to victory. I had low expectations, because cdramas are usually too superficial with why the good side must win, but this drama is deeper and grayer than usual. I may have watched less than 15 Cdramas that don't hesitate to paint the good side with dark tones.
The story makes sense, if you don't expect a romance and some decorative battles with little cute blood stains. There are centuries' old secrets that can't be revealed on episode 01, nor wait to be revealed on the last episode. There are interpesonal stakes and grudges and the paths are not clear. At times, there is a fuzzy line on who is on the villain side or whethere there is a line at all.
Even the minor characters have a background story, and I'm glad we are told about it but we don't linger on it with tedious side story arcs. The tropes are well-masked and well-integrated into the story, you never get the feeling that you are watching a to-do list.
The styling (allowing, of course, for the actors' good career management and fandom) is adapted to the story and is not focussed on pretty-pretty, unless the scene is about looking pretty. The cast looks nice, looks scruffy, looks beautiful, looks beaten to death, looks tired, looks ill, looks morning fresh, looks whatever the specific scene is about.
Was this review helpful to you?
