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Under the Power chinese drama review
Dropped 20/55
Under the Power
10 people found this review helpful
by GrnGrnTmt
Sep 21, 2020
20 of 55 episodes seen
Dropped 1
Overall 1.5
Story 1.5
Acting/Cast 1.5
Music 2.0
Rewatch Value 1.5

Terrible Drama. Low production and cringe-worthy dialogue

This is such a terrible drama. I am shocked at the high rating. I started it based on this rating and I think it must be a biased rating from the fans of the ML and the FL. There is a reason why this drama was held up for so long after production - it’s just terrible. The underlying story is thin, the “cases” they solve are not interesting and poorly written, the characters are uninspiring and the story drags on and on pointlessly. I have not seen a more terrible drama in recent years. Even the low budget web dramas are far superior than this.

Let’s start with the main characters. Can they be any more cliched? The ML is an arrogant, cold, rich lord who is also a high positioned investigator. Now. I’m tired of dramas that romanticize assholes. He is just a mean asshole and he is mean, rude, degrading and controlling of the FL. I don’t find that romantic in any way. Yet, here we are. I don’t care if he has a trauma related to his mom it still doesn’t excuse his poor behavior.

The FL is supposed to be a lower ranking investigator and forensic analyst but she doesn’t come off very capable. In fact, her deductions are so elementary it’s always the ML that helps her solve the problems or it’s some “test” by the ML to see if she can solve the problems. Like, the FL can’t seem to do her job right without the ML and is relegated to being is lackey. MOREOVER, she has a gun and this is supposed to be her weapon of choice. If that’s her weapon of choice shouldn’t she know how to shoot people with it? Of course not. She is a terrible aim and I have yet to see her hit anything with it, moving or not. And to add insult to injury it’s the sword-wielding ML who “teaches” her how to aim with it! Like, she didn’t learn how to aim the gun when she chose to first use it as her weapon of choice? And then whenever she runs out of bullets in the middle of a fight. She struggles to reload it and it’s the ML that has to rescue her each and every single time. SO FRUSTRATING! Can we please get FL who are at least COMPETENT at her chosen profession? Why must she be a lackey, dumb, incompetent investigator who needs constant saving by the ML??

Then, there is the story and the production. This is SO low budget. I have to go beyond suspending disbelief to watch some of the scenes and it’s tough. Everything down to even the “fresh” flowers clearly look fake. Everything looks like a set, and the swordplay is fake, the action looks overly dramatic, close-camera fake, just everything. It’s like they just didn’t give a shit or they as really really low budget but decided to go all out on these scenes with the low budget they had. If you don’t have the budget just keep the set and props contained. I have seen low budget web dramas look higher quality than this.

And the story is worse. What IS the story? It’s just a series of unrelated and uninteresting cases that shows the evil villain has an evil plan. Yeah, we get the villain is evil and he has an evil plan simply from the fact that they decided to give the villain a glass eye to basically put a sign on his face that says “he is the villain.” I’m half way through the series and it’s just one drawn out boring uninteresting case after another that adds nothing to the plot of character development.

Finally, the dialogue. I thought no dialogue could be as boring and uninteresting as Siege in Fog and this drama proved me wrong. What is the point? And can the FL get better lines then one that is about her eating too much, is sucking up openly to the ML or just otherwise being a loudmouth crude nosy busybody? Ugh.

I am particularly disappointed (to say the least) about this drama because I like the actors who play the ML and FL. It’s so disappointing that they wrote the characters this way and directed the story this way. What a waste. And what am incredible waste of time on you if you spend a minute watching this terrible drama.
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