I had been looking forward to seeing this one as it promised to be something intriguing. While by far not my favorite costume drama of the year, it kept me coming back for each episode. It had its pluses and minuses; I do however want to say that nothing I write below is to reflect poorly on any actor. Actors work with what they are given both good and bad.
Pros: My two favorite characters of the entire series were Gao Bingzhu and 16th Night. Both actors did a superb job in their characters. Huang Xuan was brilliant in his portrayal of this rogue badass who was hellbent on avenging the deaths of his friends and taking care of all of the people in the Unwelcome Well. His evolution into a more refined badass, didn't take away from his almost psychic notion of who the bad guys were even when they counted in the double digits and could be your closest friends if not family. When meeting Wu Siye and Baili Erlang, these two characters only expanded his already unbelievable ability to digest information that seemed like something in passing to someone else. He also seemed to be extremely lucky in survival no matter how many times he was practically pin-cushioned by 16th Night and others. GBZ was in the thick of it from the moment we met him in the first episode to his absolute last second on screen in the very last episode. This man is absolutely a class act and I would look forward to seeing him in other dramas particularly gritty ones.
Then comes probably the greatest antagonist I've seen in a very long time; 16th Night was absolutely a soulless, brutal killer, who took out adults or kids alike with her creepy three-sided weapon of design, using alleyways and rooftops to showcase almost immortal martial art skills. What made her character particularly amazing was that it wasn't until the episode of her reveal that we even knew she was a woman! Furthermore, she was totally hiding in plain sight and a friend of GBZ, who saved his life on numerous occasions while putting both herself and her "regular" business at risk. Her complete and total double life immersion was very impressive. Sadly, when she killed herself once she was exposed to GBZ, no other antagonist in the show, even the higher ups of the Four Seasons cult were able to replace her brilliance and brutality. Zhang Li who played her was a pleasure to watch.
The two other leads held their own. Victoria Song as Wu Siye had really great martial arts skills and her unfailing loyalty to those who she cared about most was what made her a solid character and leading lady to GBZ. I watched this for Wang Yibo originally as he's the only one I knew in the cast and though Baili Hongyi/Erlang was in a way the brain of the 3 musketeers because he could decode things and figure out maps and plans, his character took a while to thaw out and was reminiscent of his break out role of Lan Zhan in CQL because of his tiny facial expressions even though he had a lot more lines here. However, I appreciated his smarts and solving puzzles and when working together with GBZ and WSY, he was an integral part of the team. Though he couldn't fight and would constantly need rescuing (as the other two would often say to each other "Baili Hongyi is in danger"), he figured ways out eventually to save himself for the short term if nothing else. His and GBZ's hinting towards each other to solve a problem or get someone out of danger was a nice added touch. Showed that they had developed a very good relationship of trust with each other.
Other characters that were notable in good ways were Master Chu, Shen Fei who sadly perished saving BH's life and the sacrificial lamb or scapegoat Li Beiqi. The last was murdered sadly and only at the very end did people find out that he was innocent of all of the crimes against him. And the first always had the best interests of the Empress and people at heart so was reinstated; I actually hope that GBZ returns working for him again.
The last pros were the OSTs, some of the costumes, badass fighting scenes, and the set designs, plus CGI which were simply gorgeous. It was quite obvious where the large budget went.
Cons: In the very first episode, you felt like you already landed into the middle of the series and had to run to catch up. Now some people might like that but to me that's a rather messy start to a series. Furthermore, the amount of characters that were introduced was done at the speed of light and many died before you even had time to blink. You didn't know who was good or bad or why certain ones were killed until maybe the 6th episode in. It was all too hasty and had little cohesion.
The amount of bad guys was ridiculous, most didn't matter and who they actually were more often then not wasn't even properly explained but because there were so many bad guys, you eventually lost track of who the dead ones were. There simply shouldn't be that many completely useless characters running around.
Probably one of the most upsetting things for me was the killer who "replaced" 16th Night was probably the polar opposite of anything I would expect a savage killer to look/act like. Robot Barbie that didn't blink was beyond a cop out. They would have been better off not having another one, because even without the original 16th Night, this chick didn't scare anyone. Nothing about her said scary or killer; Robocop walked with more fluidity.
And how can anyone forget.....EERRRRRRLLLLAAAANNNNNGGG! Dear lord, hold the wheel! 30 out of 39 episodes of this ear bleeding, shriek that happened 76 times per episode. Liu Ran was the clingiest, most cringeworthy, annoying, and dumb as a brick character I've seen in a long time. She was like a pet chihuahua that wouldn't leave her husband alone and wouldn't stop nagging. I was actually amazed they evolved her in 9 episodes into a mature and emotionally stable woman who stood by her husband and trusted him as opposed to running after him and calling his name as she messed up his plans nearly getting them both killed a few times; because those first 30, I wasn't alone in wanting to send her character along with her brother, and maid out of town on the bro's camel!
Romance was the one genre that was not needed at all in this drama. When these kinds of scenes came, it was like throwing a well-oiled machine off kilter. It was unnecessary and extra. The mopey, clingy scenes just poured cold water on a hot detective drama where they just didn't belong. Not every drama needs to have romance because it just doesn't fit; it's like trying to jam a square peg through a circle.
The entire Liu family were either major jinxes or just plain evil. Her brother was another totally unnecessary character and his puppy love for someone who turned out to be also part of the cult, led him down the path of delusion and the even more inconsistent ending to the one character who shouldn't have died as it made zilch sense and made the ending of this series very confusing. Like how did he know where Lord Rodent w/rug would be exactly (a character that was so obviously the big bad since he first appeared on screen, that that revelation in the last episode was beyond underwhelming)? The 3 musketeers work together that one last time was impressive but they lost one. How does one get away with killing a leading inner guard of the Empress and not even get sentenced to prison but to go up a mountain and repent as a monk? That makes as much sense as only 10 days after her death, there was no real feeling of mourning amongst those people who cared about her the most. Again very inconsistent; because GBZ spent 5 years tracking down the murderer of his friends but he won't go up the mountain and take out the moron who killed the only woman he ever loved who actually loved him back w/out strings attached?
And lastly, what was the "greater good" that the cult was constantly yakking about? The massacre of an entire capital? Sounds very Jonestown to me, but it was never explained to the audience.
Would I recommend this drama? Yes, I would. It's a good detective costume drama, but it comes with many errors. So just be aware of that and decide for yourselves.
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