Not Good, But Kinda.. Enjoyable?

Amateurishly edited and written, but clearly someone trying their best. Acting is uneven, but mostly good enough. Inexplicable insta-bromance, annoying female assistant, stereotypical characters and tropes. And yet.

At a snappy 12 episodes of 20 min each, this drama is tightly focused on solving the main crime. There is no room for the drag or plot-filler typical of c-dramas. The vibe is intended to be serious and grounded in reality (inasmuch as the supernatural plot permits) rather than fluffy or silly/comical. The story--excusing an occasional gap or medium leaps in logic--generally made sense. Until the ending WENT OFF THE RAILS, so bad I LOL'd. They clearly ran out of money, gave up hope for the hinted second season , and closed out the plot lines the best they could.

Verdict: it's not GOOD but...the ride is surprisingly enjoyable?

If you're a fan of investigation in a historical setting, and have low expectations, it's not the worst way to spend 4 hours.

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Story of one rich Shanghainese family and how the three business-savvy sisters weathered through the war years, handled business, and managed their romantic relationships. The setup seems tropey but departs quickly from tropiness, because every character is conceived and acted to have intelligent, perspicacity, with hidden strengths—but managing to still be very different from one another, doing things in different ways, having very different personalities, yet ultimately are closely connected with one another and all working toward the same goals.

Of the three sisters and their love interests, I enjoyed the relationship and character arcs between the eldest sister and her rough-around-the-edges husband the most. They're easily the best actors and fully conveyed and breathed life into their characters. She is calm and cool, perfectly considerate and well mannered, yet her quiet strength and intellect shines in every action, with all kinds of strong emotions flowing just under the surface. He is fierce and rude and hot tempered, loyal to his country and protective of family, while also being super scared of his wife because he loves her a lot but doesn't always understand her. They provide the moments of greatest comedy, but also the most touching, or even sorrowful scenes.

Another standout is second sister and her love interest, another pair with extreme contrast in personality. He is devoted to work, with little energy spared to nurture relationship. She's a business-minded genius who can cut through people like knives with her words whenever her temper flares. They are an odd pair, but the process of their coming together is believable.

But these romance elements are only one aspect of this drama. This main story is about family, about business, about how various people make smart decisions in desperate situations when the world is going crazy around them, and all anyone can do is try to weather each wave and try to survive to see the light, DECADES into the future... Or not, as various characters are also called to act in accordance with their conscience and morality.

As with all Cdrama, it could be 5 episodes shorter and still tell a good story, and the ending is too rapid. Literally, in the last 30 min of the LAST episodes, everyone's lives kinda suddenly worked out and are narrated through decades to the end.. On the one hand, this is kind of disappointing because I'd love to have actually SEEN these things play out some more. On the other hand, I think they were aiming to convey a sense that these were a small number of people's stories who lived through that turbulent time, amoung countless potential stories from countless people.

Overall, I think it's a very good watch!

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The ordinary workplace is a school, a family, a battlefield

Mark Chao as a technically fantastic investor, but too straight /prideful /charmless in the interpersonal department. He completes difficult projects but makes enemies in his company left and right, including all his bosses at every level onward and up. Trying to uglify a former model to be a rumpled middle management is hard work. Mark Chao is always wearing suits and shirts that are a size too big, hanging weirdly, with half combed hair, unkempt beard, trying to achieve that effect...semi-successfully, I guess. But his is a complicated role of a harsh but caring boss who feels all kind of pain when a project he loves can't get sorted, or he has to do things that violated principles, or when he can't give his employees who are loyal to him the benefits they deserve--and he performs this role excellently.

Sun Yi Qiu is an introverted, slow-but-steady, detail-oriented, and principled young man who invests real emotions into investment projects and the people involved, just like his new boss. Due to sheer chance, he drops unprepared into this huge grinding machine of a company and must learn from scratch (not even a basic college degree because he spent his formative years aiming to be a competitive Go player, but ultimately stalled). Eventually though, with some help and hard-won opportunities, he does find a food-hold to stand his own ground in the world of investment banking.

Along with him, there are also 3 other fellow first-year employees, each on their own journey in the first steps of their careers, having their own character arcs, their own stories and volition and perspectives, which are also very engaging.

The acting is really great throughout. I love how REAL everything is... and admit to being moved to tears several times, because the conversations and lessons are the type that everyone can encounter in our IRL everyday lives. Although, that's also why this show is quite stressful, lol. Way more stressful than watching some gods and demons battling over a universe.

Although the story drags a bit in the middle and could have had 10 episodes shrank to 5, the close work relationships everyone form, whether good or ill, is really the best parts of the story. The Chinese workplace is a FAMILY. There are family members who care for you and are loyal to you, or who can't stand you or are jealous of you, or who have their (sometimes very rational and valid from their perspectives) negative opinion of you, or all of these at the same time--but it is your obligation to find a way to coexist together in a reasonably cohesive way if you want to succeed, and become a part of that complicated family. And when you REALLY can't anymore... well, going forth to create your own new family is truly the best and most hopeful option.

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Gourmey food and relationship management!

It genuinely surprises me that this drama has such low ratings. After reading the top popular reviews, I prepared myself for foolish plotlines, silly characters, and lots of skipping.

Instead, I discovered one of the better-paced C-dramas I've watched: it is slow but progresses steadily, never dragged nor produced irrelevant fluff to fill time. All the characters had their distinct personalities, backgrounds, and arcs (excepting the Crown Grandson/Xu Kai's character, who is perfect son and monarch material from beginning to end), interacted with one another reasonably from their unique character perspectives instead of falling into stereotypes or tropes. The plotline generally aligned with historical touchpoints, but spun a lot of creativity into what types of people who might have lived through them and how they might have experienced that life, creating a lot of depth and humanity. This is NOT a romance-heavy story, although ML/FL's relationship is a main throughline of course. Many people seem to watch it mainly as the non-official continuation of STORY OF YANXI PALACE, and either love it or hate it for how well this drama fulfilled that fantasy. While the story does do a lot of fan service to that effect, it would be a mistake to see the story only from that lens. It has its own focus, themes, and things it wants to convey.

SOME CRITIQUE: The acting is mostly good for Idol-ish drama full of pretty people. I do notice that the main pretty actors--ML/FL, Empress Hu, You Yifan--all overly-rely on a wooden face and subdued reaction to fit a somber sense of historicity, but aren't always consistent or able to convey that various thoughts/emotions are running beneath the calm surface, which more-established actors can manage (the Dowager Queen is fantastic, always a clear sense of righteousness and harsh intellect shining through; and Ziping, too, as the rough but loyal friend). This is no NIRVANA IN FIRE, or THE RISE OF PHOENIXES, where viewers are constantly aware of conspiracies afoot and double-meaning in every other phrase. There isn't, in fact, a lot of tension in the political plot line or palace intrigues in general. Often, viewers only realize some early scenarios are supposed to hint at conspiracies or hidden doings, only AFTER everything is already exposed--which is fine if you've been patient in watching to those later episodes, but not so great to keep you gripped while things are actually happening.

VERDICT: But ultimately I don't think the drama is impacted by these issues, because although a lot of the story is based around politics, the main theme is on how to see people, understand their worth, and the value of managing relationships. Treating people well and wisely is more than just a matter of one person with another, but is inherently political and impacts matters of State and power. FL is strategic, self-determined, and kind--but demonstrates that being kind doesn't mean being a pushover, and that kindness will win out in the end because the vast majority of people aren't pure evil. They may harbor their own goals, dreams, hopes, have people that they love/protect/aid, and therefore conspire against you or try to trip you up wherever possible. At the same time, they're flesh and blood too, and are moved by your kind treatment such that at the lowest points they leave a space open for FL to survive, or are slowly persuaded by ML/FL's leading-by-example to see the fault in their own ways, ultimately become redeemed in various ways. This is a hopeful drama that showcases the strength of women, working in one of the only professional places available to them, fighting for a space to exist and prove their worth to others and themselves. It says, everyone has a REASON for being the way they are, and people just want to live their life in the best ways they know how to, whether that way is worthy or full of jealousy and hatred. FL chooses to see and nurture the good that exists in everyone, and ultimately is rewarded by a peaceful marriage, well managed Inner Court, and country, and so it is a very happy ending!

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Some eye-rolling moments, but mostly very good!

Surprisingly well-done and very engaging (true, not procedurally accurate, with eye-rolling moments like the profiler and forensics team participating in active crime scenes) police investigation, solving multiple murder cases. Each case lasts 2 or 3 episodes, long enough to contain some nice twists and turns, and finally culminating in the resolution of a murder mystery that ML/FL were involved in when they studied overseas in London years ago. For most of the series, the vibe is akin to CSI /Criminal Minds /Detective Conan, where characters are basically competently-crafted cardboard to deliver plot.

Toward the final 3rd however, the cases encroach closer and closer to the team's personal lives, and FL and ML come alive as their own individual persons. The story then explores their mutual attraction, mistrust, and growing trust, as either one or the other become buried in plots to trap them by various psychopaths.

The cases are melodramatic and unrealistic, but the shows' atmosphere, storyline, fast-paced plotting with no lag nor filler, and chemistry amongst the actors, sell the whole thing and makes for a pretty addictive popcorn of a show. Recommended!

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Quite entertaining

Low-budget web series, featuring a female "celebrity constable" and a young man who randomly joined her one day to begin solving murders and flirting. There is a slight gender bender element where ML is smart yet weak while FL smart and more action-oriented. She even has a fan club consisting of rich young men of the city. Its tone is generally light but sincere, punctuated with cartoonish humor.

Pros: Strong and smart FL lead. At 12 episodes of ~30 min each, the pace is snappy, with minimum filler. All the characters reveal a deeper side to themselves as the plotlines develop. And best of all, NO weepy silly female characters.

Cons: Smartness in this series comes at the expense of everyone else being dumb. The cases aren't clever: ML and FL's crime-solving analyses are at about kindergarten-cop level. Viewers will be leaps and bounds ahead of them.

Overall verdict: Despite the cons, this series is competently executed and quite entertaining; the actors were good enough and did their best with what they had to work with. As someone who drop series at the drop of a hat, I watched the whole thing from beginning to end ;)

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Interesting journey with a disappointing destination.

Very engaging to watch, with great atmosphere, quite good characters, thrills, suspense, fast and tight plotting--but ultimately disappointing.






Throughout the show, I was convinced the whole thing will turn out to be an elaborate session of experimental therapy--like SHUTTER ISLAND with time travel, or some type of BLACK MIRROR scenario. There were so many plot holes, false or overly melodramatic notes that took me out of immersion, and a ridiculous lack of procedure for a police procedural-related story. All of which I forgave, thinking these are just hints that everyone is actually in some VR dream chamber getting forcibly rehabilitated.

And the ending turned out to be........... sigh.

Pros: an FL you can root for. She's strong without having to force it in anyone's face, calm and self-controlled, intelligent, resourceful, with firm convictions and a sense of who she is and what she is capable of. A decent ML to be her partner, low-key charming, brave, smart, and trustworthy. In fact, all the characters are quite well done, sufficient to evoke curiosity about their background stories and how they really died. And atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere.

Cons: The foundation of the story cannot handle serious scrutiny. The time travel doesn't make sense, it's handwavy and everyone takes it for granted (way too easily!), and we the viewers are supposed to, as well. The psychology of the killer doesn't make solid psychological sense. To enjoy it, shut off the brain and just go with it.

Despite the flaws though, I really enjoyed the journey, and can see why it has rave reviews. It is overall, quite a well done show. Recommended!

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Mixed bag, but more good than bad, and worth a watch if you enjoy Sherlock stories

Another Sherlock pastiche--even the opening theme recalls the BBC SHERLOCK opening theme. ML is gentleman super-sleuth in question, FL is his Watson, a female cop with awesome fighting skills.

First half is somewhere between 6.5 and 7. Chemistry between characters are exaggerated yet awkward; crimes are unrealistic, the solving of which requires some leaps in logic disguised as "deduction."

Second half is 7.5. The cast relaxes into their roles and interactions now seem natural, humorous, warm. The stories, while silly, have an undercurrent of intensity and genuine emotionality.

Sadly, the last three episodes seems randomly tacked on, with a new Moriarty, a new comrade, and a cliffhanger ending revealing ANOTHER Moriarty (!!)--all efforts trying to entice a season 2. Unfortunately, there is no season 2, this one season is it.

I enjoyed this show because there is no drag nor filler. Any C-drama that doesn't prompt me to skip skip skip forward will always be a plus in my books!

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So much fun!

Utterly surprised by this one: every single character is unique, humane, and interesting. At the beginning, ML seemed somewhat flat and overly comedic for me, but revealed himself to be full of depth and intellect and humor. FL also unfolded from a bad-ass-serious-cop stereotype to someone much more unexpected.

There are heart-warming moments, laugh out loud moments, terrorism, explosive killer farts, and all the heartbreaks of real life well-lived. The music is also great?! Fantastic, highly recommended. I wish they would have a season 2 w/ the same actors and writers!

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