2
12
3
virgievirgie
Lost in Dramaland
This review may contain spoilers
Could have been great but sizzles out in the second half
Completed - 11/13/2021
I enjoy fantasy + historical dramas and am attracted to the plot summary of "Lost Love in Times". However, after watching the drama, I realized that the MDL synopsis only describes the first 5 episodes of the drama. This drama has so much potential and I enjoy it quite a bit in the first half of the show. However, it lost its steam and the story became just a repetitive court politics drama where everyone fights for the throne. There's not enough magic or battles to keep me engaged.
What I enjoy:
1. Production Value - This drama might not have the same budget as "The Rebel Princess" but you can tell that money is there for it to have such elaborate costumes for its characters. The women have nice beautiful outfits, creative hairstyles and accessories. I really like the style of the princes and their unique little bow in the front of their costumes. They even have different accessories for their hair buns! I don't recall seeing that in other dramas. For some reason, the actual emperor's palace sets do not look very grand, but the princes' accommodations look pretty big and nice, and give off a very comforting feel. I would love to see more CGI with the magic, but what they have, I enjoy. I really like the colored butterflies. What a beautiful and classy way to show magic.
2. Love Square - This drama must have one of the healthiest and most amicable love square between our main and secondary leads. We have our second male lead, 7th Prince, who is not jealous but love our FL passionately yet quietly, and willing to do anything for her. He is not pushy!! We have our second female lead, Princess Duo Xia, who did not turn evil because her love was not reciprocated. She patiently waits for her chance, is not jealous and befriends our FL. How rare is it in C-dramaland?
3. 7th Prince (2ML) - I might have second lead syndrome in this drama, which I usually don't esp. for a historical drama. I like the 7th Prince so much more than our main lead, and feel that at times he has better chemistry with our FL than ML. I enjoy the scenes where they're playing music, simple gardening together and the scene with the blue stone. I can feel his love for FL and the quiet longing and heartbreak. I don't think he's better looking but there's just something about him that makes me love him more.
What I don't like:
1. Main Romance - The whole drama is based upon this great love and romance in the 1st world. Otherwise, FL won't go through all that for ML. However, the setup of this great romance is quite lacking and happens too fast. FL and ML fall in love, got married and willing to die for each other, all within the first 5 episodes of the drama. This drama is 56-episode long and I think it can afford to dedicate a little more time to show us how this great romance develops. Once we enter the 2nd world, the new romance is developed a lot better. I enjoy how they got to know each other, what they went through together in all the fighting and scheming, jealousy and all. But once they got together, the romance came to a stall and fizzles out. Even though there were romantic scenes, I don't feel the chemistry between them. I am not sure if this is due to acting, writing or editing. I also don't think there are enough scenes of the two together in the second half.
2. Pacing - I was cautiously optimistic in the beginning, because the pacing is quite good in the first 30 episodes.
However, it slows down in the second half. We have repetitive scheming for the throne and court politics. We cycled through all the princes but not enough backstory for each of them. There's a lot of telling instead of showing. The plot about the marriage alliance also drags on for far too long.
3. Last 2 episodes - I feel like something is edited out and instead of showing the events that happened, we were told about the decisions. I am especially confused about the ending. Why is FL not going back to the 1st world but stayed in the 2nd? Isn't it the whole point is to go back, otherwise she will die? Or is the time traveling has always been back to the 1st world all this time and they are not parallel worlds? Why is Elder Tao Yao alive? I love a happy ending, but this one doesn't make sense for the two Elders to be both alive again, in either world.
4. Not enough Magic/Action - I would have loved to see magic being used more often in this drama. They tend to only use magic to send messages to each other, or the rare battles. I hope to see more battle scenes - with actual fighting and magic. There's a lot more action in the first few episodes and the last few episodes. When they do fight, the choreography was great and the actors did a great job in sword fighting to make it realistic. I don't see any weak sword wielding or someone who can't hold a sword straight. I just wish there's more action instead of so much court politics, or strike a better balance.
I enjoy fantasy + historical dramas and am attracted to the plot summary of "Lost Love in Times". However, after watching the drama, I realized that the MDL synopsis only describes the first 5 episodes of the drama. This drama has so much potential and I enjoy it quite a bit in the first half of the show. However, it lost its steam and the story became just a repetitive court politics drama where everyone fights for the throne. There's not enough magic or battles to keep me engaged.
What I enjoy:
1. Production Value - This drama might not have the same budget as "The Rebel Princess" but you can tell that money is there for it to have such elaborate costumes for its characters. The women have nice beautiful outfits, creative hairstyles and accessories. I really like the style of the princes and their unique little bow in the front of their costumes. They even have different accessories for their hair buns! I don't recall seeing that in other dramas. For some reason, the actual emperor's palace sets do not look very grand, but the princes' accommodations look pretty big and nice, and give off a very comforting feel. I would love to see more CGI with the magic, but what they have, I enjoy. I really like the colored butterflies. What a beautiful and classy way to show magic.
2. Love Square - This drama must have one of the healthiest and most amicable love square between our main and secondary leads. We have our second male lead, 7th Prince, who is not jealous but love our FL passionately yet quietly, and willing to do anything for her. He is not pushy!! We have our second female lead, Princess Duo Xia, who did not turn evil because her love was not reciprocated. She patiently waits for her chance, is not jealous and befriends our FL. How rare is it in C-dramaland?
3. 7th Prince (2ML) - I might have second lead syndrome in this drama, which I usually don't esp. for a historical drama. I like the 7th Prince so much more than our main lead, and feel that at times he has better chemistry with our FL than ML. I enjoy the scenes where they're playing music, simple gardening together and the scene with the blue stone. I can feel his love for FL and the quiet longing and heartbreak. I don't think he's better looking but there's just something about him that makes me love him more.
What I don't like:
1. Main Romance - The whole drama is based upon this great love and romance in the 1st world. Otherwise, FL won't go through all that for ML. However, the setup of this great romance is quite lacking and happens too fast. FL and ML fall in love, got married and willing to die for each other, all within the first 5 episodes of the drama. This drama is 56-episode long and I think it can afford to dedicate a little more time to show us how this great romance develops. Once we enter the 2nd world, the new romance is developed a lot better. I enjoy how they got to know each other, what they went through together in all the fighting and scheming, jealousy and all. But once they got together, the romance came to a stall and fizzles out. Even though there were romantic scenes, I don't feel the chemistry between them. I am not sure if this is due to acting, writing or editing. I also don't think there are enough scenes of the two together in the second half.
2. Pacing - I was cautiously optimistic in the beginning, because the pacing is quite good in the first 30 episodes.
However, it slows down in the second half. We have repetitive scheming for the throne and court politics. We cycled through all the princes but not enough backstory for each of them. There's a lot of telling instead of showing. The plot about the marriage alliance also drags on for far too long.
3. Last 2 episodes - I feel like something is edited out and instead of showing the events that happened, we were told about the decisions. I am especially confused about the ending. Why is FL not going back to the 1st world but stayed in the 2nd? Isn't it the whole point is to go back, otherwise she will die? Or is the time traveling has always been back to the 1st world all this time and they are not parallel worlds? Why is Elder Tao Yao alive? I love a happy ending, but this one doesn't make sense for the two Elders to be both alive again, in either world.
4. Not enough Magic/Action - I would have loved to see magic being used more often in this drama. They tend to only use magic to send messages to each other, or the rare battles. I hope to see more battle scenes - with actual fighting and magic. There's a lot more action in the first few episodes and the last few episodes. When they do fight, the choreography was great and the actors did a great job in sword fighting to make it realistic. I don't see any weak sword wielding or someone who can't hold a sword straight. I just wish there's more action instead of so much court politics, or strike a better balance.
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