KKC

As someone who had nothing but praise to say about the first series, this was a major disappointment. The only saving grace were the acting cast's chemistry (both romantically and platonically), otherwise I would have rated much lower. The story is such a downgrade, I think the writers overestimated how much unnecessary slow burn an audience can take. We left off the previous series on such good terms and you're telling me I had to wait another 21 episodes just for a kiss? I felt like in season 1 (or series 1) every conflict and every hurdle the couple faced felt more intentional and actually moved the plot along... This season felt like "well we can't let the audience have their happy couple yet, otherwise why would they keep watching? lets just make the more one dimension and have them kidnap or assault Mu Dan every time they get closer, so we can reset to them being distant for some reason or another." In season 1 the slow burn relationship was part of the plot and in season two the plot was the slow burn... It made watching the political scene kind of suck too, because I knew Liu-Butt-Face, General Whos-It and Prince-A-Hole were going to recycle the same kind of plans: separate Mu Dan from Jiang Chang, ruin Jiang Chang's reputation. no variety, no flavour.