This review may contain spoilers
Forbidden Love? More Like Poorly Timed Lust in a Plotless Palace
I was starting the drama fully prepared to love it (I guess that was my biggest mistake) due to good casting, an interesting take on what love might be, and the promise of equally smart leads and revenge-plotting. Unfortunately, the series did not deliver on the writing/editing front so much that I struggled to finish it and if not for the good company, I would just drop this.I'm truly sorry for the actors as they were not given much room to shine - every time something that's supposed to be slightly more viewiers-emotions-inducing happens (both positive and negative emotions), the scenes are either cut awkwardly, lead to nowhere, or get lackluster reveals/dialogue lines that dampen the mood. After first couple episodes, the only thing that was tension-inducing up until the last couple of episodes was the TOTAL AND COMPLETE lack of acknowledgement of dangers of cheating on an obsessive emperor. Somewhere around episode 28-29 I was so tired of the leads behaving like rabbits I started to hope they would be discovered asap.
[The story did (not) disappoint and ultimately gave us a proper Coldplay moment for that, too.]
BTW, main romance being sold as forbidden love is a stretch. Well, it's as forbidden as every "she had a husband would you look at that" story - and while the leads had ample time to avoid the FL getting the said husband, they failed. Cause they were rabbiting without remembering that maybe they should first ensure her/their safety (West Shu storyline).
And don't even let me start of the hidden passage. What were the writers thinking. No one needed that Narnia storyline.
Actually, now that I think about it, I can't for the love of me pinpoint the moment when FL fell for the ML. There is a lot about that dynamic that is problematic in terms of romance development (her originally complimenting ML due to not feeling safe around him, ML falling for FL partially cause he felt the comments were real; the entire eunuch plotline) so a bit more clarity would definitely help.
!But: kudoz for the secondary/tertiary pairing (the one with the true eunuch) - great move! (And yet at the same time it only highlighted the fact that the ML/FL feelings felt less romantic and more rabbiting centered)
tl;dr, don't start watching if you're here for the revenge/palace intrigues plot, smart leads, or any sort of tension; it's an OK watch if you're a die-hard fan of the actors, you're into half-watching (kind of watching kind of doing other stuff), or you prefer your drama low-stakes and more slice-of-life than edge-of-your-seat stuff
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