The Double is a drama i accidentally stumbled upon, since I followed Youku on Instagram and they keep uploading short clips of their new dramas. The scene i saw was Xue fang fei getting buried alive and immediately went to watch the trailer, very happy since i loved revenge dramas from my core. What i thought to be just another revenge drama, turned out to be so so much more.

What makes the Double different from the other revenge dramas?
In Double, each and every episode, even the filler ones needed to build the next arc are NEVER boring. 40 episodes felt like nothing and it had me hooked to the screen from the first episode down to the forty episode. Each and every second was important since it very beautifully tied each and every character and their arc.
Secondly, The Double presents us with 3D villains, very complex characters and not a Mary sue female lead, an immediate plus in my cards. Each and every character is very thoroughly layered, have their own motivation and ideologies behind what they do.

Character wise, Our female lead, Xue Fang Fei/Jiang Li, never forgets her ultimate goal. From the bottom of the society, we see her grow to a woman who holds a lot of authority and respect. She is extremely intelligent, a very meticulous planner, brutal when she needs to be. Our woman never forgave the ones who wronged her as it should have been. Her actions or some decisions may seem reckless sometimes, but she plays the game very well. Her cooperation, with the male lead is something worth to be remembered because of them together are absolutely banger. Kudos to Wu jin yan, for making Xue Fang fei, my top FL.

Our Male lead, Xiao Heng/Duke Su, I have no words to explain this fabulous character who infact deserved a lot more screentime. Not just an eye candy, but a full fleshed character who fights for our FL as well as his own battles. XH is cunning, ruthless, merciless when he needs to be and an absolute softie green flag for our JL. He considers life as a play, and carefully selects his pawn's for the revenge he had been eyeing on since many years. His relationship with JL has a VERY wonderful growth, they go from enemies to mutual distrust to acquaintances to mutual trust to friends and then to something more, and the journey becomes disastrous to us viewers as the tension between them is topnotch from the first episode itself. (I squealed like a child everytime they interacted lmao)

And my special appreciation towards the rain scene, which is the most romantic scene i have seen in a while. Even though the kisses are in lack, but the excess flirting and the "looks" are so hungry that it makes up for any intimacy lol. Fire chemistry of our main couple.

Xiao Heng and Xue fang fei, never once, i repeat forget or abandon their own ultimate goal while they constantly support each other, which makes them the finest pair in my eyes.

Coming to the villains, Am i a fan of the villains as well? YES.

Princess Wanning is a character that is worth to be remembered. Do i hate her with my guts? YES. Do i also feel bad for her? Also yes. Xue fang fei and Princess wanning are two sides of the same coin. Both of them suffered injustices, but had a different reaction to it. One fought her trauma and helped herself, the other one bathed in her trauma and tortured the poor innocents.
She was a complete psycho, ruthless, merciless, a villain who would make your blood boil. She suffered the retribution by the own monster she created. Her end was sad and very satisfying.

Coming to ji shuran, or the typical evil stepmother. But was she the typical jealous of her stepdaughter character? no. This was the first drama which made me realize why people like ji shuran become evil. She is smart, but her weakness just like wanning, which is love, destroys her. Her admission to her abusive father that it was him who made her such an unfeeling monster was very surprising, because we realize how one's upbringing and choices lead to such an outcome. A fresh takeout to the evil stepmother troupe for me.

Coming to Shen yu rong, Xue fang fei's ex husband aand the main antagonist of the story. First of all a huge applause for Liang yong qi, for playing this character soo damn well. This character was a character who made me sick and disgusted. He buried his wife alive, but still played the victim almost half of the show, before showing his true colours. A cheating, opportunistic, lying, manipulative bastard whose played half of the characters in the show. I love how he met his end. It was satisfying that Xue fang fei and Xiao Heng could strip off his mask. How delusional can you be to think that your wife still has feelings for you when you buried her alive? like be fr. But not to be mistaken by his initial guilt and grievances, because those were all fake, he played not only XFF but also Wanning by acting as a poor tortured man. The strongest villain in my opinion and the best of them all.

The story started out well, held its momentum, but only the ending was rushed. We needed 50 episodes to make things a lot more clearer. I will not be mad with the open ending of episode 40 since they gave us the married life extra, but i will be forever bitter about the cruel deaths of wen ji, lu ji and tong er, our favorite characters.

So, after a long drawn out essay, if you want a story with witty male and female lead with very competent villains, revenge done right with good osts (Cindy wang's ost was soo good i keep humming even as i write.) fire chemistry which has you kicking screaming even with the lack of many kisses, with a good story where every villain has a satisfying ending.
YOU NEED TO WATCH THE DOUBLE. ??