very tight, very well done

The whole story happens inside a fortress. The characters can only rely on their wits, their strength, their training and their sense of psychology. The psychological manipulating is well done and expresses the stressful situation and the dangers. every minute counts and every person must be carefuly handled. The plot is written as a comedy but it is not really. Many decisions are hard.

The acting is solid. The idea that we watch the story unfold in, more or less, real time, makes us feel the suspense and the risks.
The filming is quite theatrical and it is sucessful.

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Solid storyline, solid plot, solid character writing.

I'll say one thing: I generally don't like costume dramas and dramas with petty concubines. I also dislike "forced/arranged marriage that turns into real love" dramas. But I liked this one a lot, which must mean something.

The characters were very well-written. Even the minor ones had a reason to exist in the story. The story was not very original, but it was different from other similar situations because neither the ML nor the FL begged to be loved, which was refreshing. The "married without love" premise may be the center of the plot, but the story doesn't really revolve around it. The ML and FL had a life and a complete personality both before and after their wedding and they also had to solve numerous problems that weren't related to their marriage. The interations among the various household characters and their friends and enemies was well-written and believable.

There was some exaggerated acting and some exaggerated sub-plots but they didn't manage to break the show.

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A spy drama that really is about spying and has smart opponents . It's intense, dark and serious.

It was a real spy drama. I didn't even mind that it was a costume drama. I enjoyed it a lot. I think it is the first and so far the only chinese spy drama that didn't make me roll my eyes in despair because of the plot.

The characters are well-written, they have depth and their actions make sense. Both the immediate actions and their long-term plans. The opponents are extremely smart, cunning , sly, treacherous and tricky, which makes the heroes shine more, because the heroes are even more treacherous. Everybody is dangerous, everybody can be a back stabber, there is no safety, everybody can be a double spy, everybody has an agenda., nobody is a friend, nobody is safe and also everybody can be of help if you know how to win them.

If you miss a few seconds of an episode, you will miss a sign or a signal or a word or a message or a hidden weapon that will be crucial later on. The expression of one's eybrows can mean that an army may win or lose 5 episodes later. The intrigue is real, the danger is real, the risk is real, the coincidences are believable, the human mistakes of the spies are believable. In the last episodes, there are surprises, but if you really paid attention in every episode, you understand why and how they happened.

Many people disliked the show because it didn't have enough romance but I think it was a good decision. The story was dark and dangerous, no place for "quirky and adorable" heroines fluttering their eyelashes to melt the heart of the "cold but courageous" sword-swinging hero.

There was some romance, but a) it didn't interfere with the plot and b) it had its own merit in the character building. The romance was not something they added in the story so they can hire a pretty actress. It was something that weighted a lot on the spy's work.

I liked the acting of 90% of the actors, even the minor characters. Also, the actors look adult, which is important for this kind of plot. You can hardly visualize an experienced government worker or an agent that has been undecover for 10 years, when the actor looks at most 19, not to say 17.

Because the story is tight and tightly written and tightly filmed, if you do not pay attention you'll get lost. Therefore, the producers decided to add a "summary" section where one of the characters explains things. I didn't like the idea, but I can understand why they decided to do it.

If you are looking for a palace intrigue wirth concubines, for a wandering warrior hero who flies like an eagle, for a predictable spy work like the japanese era spy dramas or for an action drama where all the bad guys live near the jungle and nobody in authority is corrupted, this drama is not for you.

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what a police drama should look like

It's not the usual "romance in the police station" drama, with pretty leads and a comical team. This police station was serious and the characters of the drama were smart, professional, dark and ambiguous, to the point you never know who is friend or foe. The detective cases were good enough, the solutions, too. The main storyline made sense. The human interactions (love, job, crime, family) were normal and believable, well-written and well acted. The general acting was good. The atmosphere was correct for a dark, gritty, painful story.

Other than the usual obligation to end a drama with positive messages for society, this was a good drama from start to finish.

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It's balanced. All the parts of the plot are balanced.

The episodes are not dragging. The solutions, inside the "universe" of the plot, are logical. The acting is believable. The cooperation between the main actors and the guests actors is good. The problems and life issues are believable. The CGI is good enough. It's funny enough, but also serious, suspensful and some times it's scary (in a mild way). It deals with serious social issues but at the same time it is written in a lighthearted way.
The story background (personal problems, mourning, romances, job etc) is important but it doesn't overshadow the premise of the drama. The heroes have a life, but they don't waste three episodes thinking about it. The episodes revolve around the stories and around character building.

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Under the surface, there is a good and believable story

I can't decide if I like this. I liked the acting of the opera actor, but the other one tired me. So, I couldn't really forget myself in the story and enjoy it. If the actors act like they themselves are the center of the show and the role is not important to them, it gets tiring. Also, there are tons of clichés, lots of unoriginal tropes and lots of predictable subplots.

The premise is good and it has some good sub-plots, but there are a lot of slow scenes and episodes full of repeatable content and a lot of careful walking around the issue. There is strong BL element, although not explicit. However, this is just part of the story. If teh writers didn't try to much to avoid censorship and paid attention to the rest of the plot, it would have been a good plot.

To be honest, I speed-clicked a lot through thte episodes.

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