I'm on ep 4, but I have to rec it because I am very very impressed with it already.

Why I started watching it- Because of baby Zhou Xun. Who is excellent and amazing and SO cute back then too. Like.. really actually cute. She's wonderful. I'm not even surprised anymore that old dramas are leagues ahead the ones we have today which are mostly just looks and no substance. It's really really good. Effortlessly funny without being a comedy. Despite being set on Wu Zetian era, it treats even the court and royalty as human beings who are not always so grand and uppity but would do ridiculous things every once in a while. The end result is utterly genuine and adorable AND believable. There's a scene in ep 1, where Wu Zetian stays behind curtain in hall, she can't even take maternity leave because the emperor is so incompetent and lazy. Her baby girl Princess Taiping escapes her clutches and goes onto play with eunuchs' whisks and ministers'robes lol. The ministers try to keep a straight face AND make cute faces at the princess at the same moment. THEN the princess accidentally pees in the middle of court. Wu Zetian comes to the rescue with witty explanation that this symbolizes proper irrigation can save the country from drought ?Not only because of Censorship, I think dramas as a whole these days (kdramas too) try to whitewash things that are unappealing to modern palette.... there are lots of viewers who cannot understand that depicting something that used to happen matter-of-fact does not equate to promoting and advocating such things in real life these days.I always find it refreshing to see old dramas like this that do not shy away from things~ Warning: there's bit of incest in the palace. I mean I'm sure everyone who knows about Wu Zetian's life story alr expect this lol.And the thing that MOST IMPRESSED ME: There's an actual LGBTQ couple here and they actually get to express their love for each other and the entire arc is handled with a respectful and considerate manner and not a negative way.So yeah guys, go watch Palace of Desire! ?

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