This review may contain spoilers
Great romantic comedy but a little too long
My high rating is mostly for half of the characters and the comedy parts of the drama.
The show was hilarious in the first half and I was hooked immediately. Then it became tedious after ep 20-22 because the FL just couldn't see past her prejudice against the ML and kept hurting him repeatedly. In an attempt to make rational and unemotional decisions she basically stunted her character growth. I understood her mindset in the beginning and not trusting Nan Heng given her initial knowledge of the script. It took forever for Song Xiao Yu/Yimeng to show any mental flexibility despite multiple things happening that should ultimately change her way of thinking. When the main CP still isn't together or at least confessing by ep 30, it makes the romance a little hard to believe in and root for. If it wasn't the beautiful and naturally funny Li Yitong in this role I'd have way less patience with her.
The ML however has grown into a lovely character. I'll admit I enjoyed the Li Shi Liu identity more in the beginning and missed him once he was gone. But once LSL was dissolved, Nan Heng just started to behave like his true self and quickly won me over. He's highly intelligent and has a very forgiving nature. His father and brother treated him like garbage his whole life but he never holds a grudge ( I did the whole drama though lol). He is also very attentive and caring towards Song Yimeng. Even after they get together, it's clear he's still more head over heels for her than she is for him. Liu Yuning is very talented. I'm never disappointed watching him do anything whether it's acting, singing or just being himself on a variety show.
My other favorite characters were the Nightwalkers of course. I liked Yun Long the most, but Shanhu and Shangguan He were still great. I did not care for SH's romance with Song Yiting. Song Yiting was a great sister to Song Yimeng and gave her great advice, which is the only reason I didn't completely dislike her. But when it came to romance she was very toxic. First she tried to force a relationship when she thought SH was LSL, and then she tried to force herself on him physically. That left a bad taste in my mouth. Then she just bullied SH their whole relationship which was funny at times, but ultimately not endearing.
My final favorite is Song Yude, the Song's father. He was just as hilarious as he was wise. Every scene he was in was just gold.
The villains are pretty hard to stomach when they're on screen all for different reasons. Chu Guihong is what I've been calling a plot robot. He's unintelligent and only regresses mentally throughout the show. Chancellor Gao was just painful to watch. The actions of this character were definitely more impressionable than the actor himself. The show also tried to redeem the Emperor, but he's still a villain to me. Believing that his son caused his late wife's death to begin with makes him a braindead and cruel person in my eyes. He can act like he feels bad all he wants. He's still a crappy dad and person. That fact that he ever picked Nan Rui as crown prince over Nan Heng just showed he made decisions out of spite, not out of what's good for the country. And finally, they brought the actual scriptwriter in the last 5 eps or so but put him in the body of CGH's father. I didn't care for this at the end. I think it would've been more interesting to have brought him in earlier as a key player and that would've made for a richer/more interesting villain.
OST & Cinematography: The OST is still stuck in my head. We already knew it was going to be fabulous with LYN on board. The cinematography was good but it was meant to be silly/exaggerated for the parody so there's no fair rating there.
Overall: If they had kept the comedy more prominent throughout the entire drama, I think this could've been a 9 or 10. But the story started to feel stressful once it got serious and then the last 5 episodes were just a hot mess of resets and chaos. The ending was cute though, both the actual and the alternate one. LYT and LYN had great chemistry and were hilarious together. I would definitely watch them as a CP again.
The show was hilarious in the first half and I was hooked immediately. Then it became tedious after ep 20-22 because the FL just couldn't see past her prejudice against the ML and kept hurting him repeatedly. In an attempt to make rational and unemotional decisions she basically stunted her character growth. I understood her mindset in the beginning and not trusting Nan Heng given her initial knowledge of the script. It took forever for Song Xiao Yu/Yimeng to show any mental flexibility despite multiple things happening that should ultimately change her way of thinking. When the main CP still isn't together or at least confessing by ep 30, it makes the romance a little hard to believe in and root for. If it wasn't the beautiful and naturally funny Li Yitong in this role I'd have way less patience with her.
The ML however has grown into a lovely character. I'll admit I enjoyed the Li Shi Liu identity more in the beginning and missed him once he was gone. But once LSL was dissolved, Nan Heng just started to behave like his true self and quickly won me over. He's highly intelligent and has a very forgiving nature. His father and brother treated him like garbage his whole life but he never holds a grudge ( I did the whole drama though lol). He is also very attentive and caring towards Song Yimeng. Even after they get together, it's clear he's still more head over heels for her than she is for him. Liu Yuning is very talented. I'm never disappointed watching him do anything whether it's acting, singing or just being himself on a variety show.
My other favorite characters were the Nightwalkers of course. I liked Yun Long the most, but Shanhu and Shangguan He were still great. I did not care for SH's romance with Song Yiting. Song Yiting was a great sister to Song Yimeng and gave her great advice, which is the only reason I didn't completely dislike her. But when it came to romance she was very toxic. First she tried to force a relationship when she thought SH was LSL, and then she tried to force herself on him physically. That left a bad taste in my mouth. Then she just bullied SH their whole relationship which was funny at times, but ultimately not endearing.
My final favorite is Song Yude, the Song's father. He was just as hilarious as he was wise. Every scene he was in was just gold.
The villains are pretty hard to stomach when they're on screen all for different reasons. Chu Guihong is what I've been calling a plot robot. He's unintelligent and only regresses mentally throughout the show. Chancellor Gao was just painful to watch. The actions of this character were definitely more impressionable than the actor himself. The show also tried to redeem the Emperor, but he's still a villain to me. Believing that his son caused his late wife's death to begin with makes him a braindead and cruel person in my eyes. He can act like he feels bad all he wants. He's still a crappy dad and person. That fact that he ever picked Nan Rui as crown prince over Nan Heng just showed he made decisions out of spite, not out of what's good for the country. And finally, they brought the actual scriptwriter in the last 5 eps or so but put him in the body of CGH's father. I didn't care for this at the end. I think it would've been more interesting to have brought him in earlier as a key player and that would've made for a richer/more interesting villain.
OST & Cinematography: The OST is still stuck in my head. We already knew it was going to be fabulous with LYN on board. The cinematography was good but it was meant to be silly/exaggerated for the parody so there's no fair rating there.
Overall: If they had kept the comedy more prominent throughout the entire drama, I think this could've been a 9 or 10. But the story started to feel stressful once it got serious and then the last 5 episodes were just a hot mess of resets and chaos. The ending was cute though, both the actual and the alternate one. LYT and LYN had great chemistry and were hilarious together. I would definitely watch them as a CP again.
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