So. This show. Simply a disaster. The SFX are so lousy that they could be from the 90s. They remind me of "Mortal Kombat" (the 90s movie) and "Hercules - The Legendary Journeys" and that really shouldn't be the case for a TV program that was shot in 2018 (!). The script is just horrible. The similarities to the book are just about there. Instead of ghosts we have aliens (WTF) and of course they tried to completely suppress the whole LGBTQ love story. The episodes are sometimes so damn amateurishly written that it's just embarrassing and so are most of the supporting actors. Many are seriously lousy. Whether it's the really abysmal acting of Xin Peng, who spoils Guo or Ming Tingliu - just awful. Jiang Mingyang (Chu Shuzhi) is the only one who isn't a complete embarrassment, and then there are Zhu Yilong and Ba Yu, thank heavens. Those two are really the only reason I am still watching this show at all. Truly bloody amazing actors, very good chemistry and they somehow manage to bypass the script and still get the book across., which is quite a feat It's pretty clear that the crappy script wants to hammer in that the Shen Wei and Zhao Yun Lan are just friends, but Zhu Yilong and Ba Yu don't play along with that. When Shen Wei grabs his heart with a longing and pained expression on his face after having the chance to touch Zhao Yun Lan in episode 7? THAT certainly wasn't in the script. Guardian absolutely does not deserve the two main leads. I already know that the ending of the book was completely ruined, so I'll probably drop the show after episode 17/ 18, but I still don't regret watching it simply because the two leads are so good.

So, yeah. If the book had received the same treatment as "Word of Honor" then this show could be truly legendary but as it is, it is only legendary for being a fuck-up.