It's worth sticking with the show, even if you struggle with the first few episodes

The second part of this drama is much better than the first. It's yet another example of how a superficial script can lead to poor performances. Once the actors were actually given some nuance to portray, they did a great job. Kudos to Dylan Wang as Dongfang Qingcang and his supporting cast for their emotionally powerful performances. The scene where he cries for his father is still one of my favourites. It made me realise how rare this kind of emotional outburst from male characters is on television!

Esther Yu's character(s) were difficult to watch at first. The voice and one-dimensional character of Orchid and later Xi Yun have thankfully undergone some positive changes. Similarly, Zhang Linghe as Chang Heng felt rather flat for most of the show.

I found the concept of the conflict between the Fairy Realm and the Moon Clan quite interesting, although the Fairy Realm lacked some depth. The main villain of the show ended up being quite disappointing and some of the twists and turns were unnecessary. While I won't be re-watching the whole show, it had some really impressive and memorable scenes that I'll be back for!

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Staying a bit too true to the source material, failing to make a enjoyable TV adaptation

Zheng Shuyi (played by Bai Lu) is an ambitious reporter for a financial newspaper. In order to write another cover story, she wants to interview well-known entrepreneur Shi Yan (played by Dylan Wang). The only distraction from her ambition comes from her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, who is cheating on her with another woman. Zheng Shuyi vows revenge by focusing even more on her career - and seducing the rich uncle of her ex's new girlfriend. A series of misunderstandings leads her to accidentally mistake Shi Yan for him. And then there's Shi Yan's real niece Qin Shi Yue (played by Shen Yu Jie), who soon starts working as an intern at the Zheng Shuyi newspaper under a secret identity. Follow their tangled love story through 36 episodes of misunderstandings, awkward car rides and boring business talks.

I never have high expectations of modern dramas, but the combination of Bai Lu and Dylan Wang got me excited. There were quite a few scenes that made me giggle like a teenage girl, and some of the suspense kept me coming back to the show every day. However, there are a lot of things wrong with this show.

The main problem is the failed attempt to transfer the charm and humor of the web novel directly to the drama, without making an adaptation based on the different type of media. There were many scenes that had the typical web novel/manga elements - frozen characters, puppy eyes, awkward silences. As drawings, these are usually expressed with additional text or symbols. Since this kind of editing is only done in variety shows, all we got was the characters staring at each other or making awkward facial expressions. The show also failed to use music to convey the meaning of these scenes. This left us with a drama that lacked chemistry between the leads and made the acting seem wooden and boring - and this in a drama with the queen of chemistry!

On top of that, the show lacked an interesting subplot. Almost all the exciting scenes and anticipated revelations were related to the niece, who became my favorite character. The business scenes were incredibly badly written. At times, it felt like they had just used placeholder lines instead of writing actual dialogue.

This all contributed to a disappointing drama with some of my favorite actors. If you are a fan, the drama is still is partly enjoyable, but ultimately the weakest work in both Bai Lu's and Dylan Wang's filmography.

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Love can't heal all, but it can make you enjoy this drama a lot!

The word panacea comes from the Greek: panakēs, meaning "all-healing,” it describes a mystical remedy for any disease. In current use, panacea is most often used to decry a remedy that falls short of what some claim it can do. Love is Panacea is not a show about how love conquers and heals all, it's a drama that shows that, while love can be a powerful motivator to achieving great things and helps to cope with hardships, ultimately it's not a magical solution. There only is a strenuous and unbiased medical research. Love is Panacea is therefore not a medical drama in the classical sense, rather a show about the ethics and process of medical science and research. Luckily, that's right down my alley.

The plot and script is the strongest, when it’s focusing on the hardships of medical research and coping with a deadly disease. If you go into this, expecting a romance, you might be disappointed. Not only is this not the focus of the show, the romantic scenes are written and directed inadequately. It’s the worst in the first arc in Lakaya, because they additionally relied on exoticm, which made it hard to watch at times. But it does get better after they are back in China! There are still some unnecessary cliché scenes with questionable editing, but if your love for Luo Yunxi, medical science or angsty romances "Love is Panacea" is an enjoyable and complex modern drama! I only wish, they wouldn’t have ended it so abruptly.

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Story of Kunning Palace has one of the best pacing of any 2023 drama. The storytelling is intriguing, with suspenseful arcs from the very first episode. The show does a great job of introducing the many characters and establishing their motivations. For the first 30 episodes, the twists and turns, as well as Jiang Xuening's personal growth, captivate the audience. The female friendships are beautiful and the discussion of female power is interesting.

The romance isn't the main focus of most of the show. In the beginning, Jiang Xuening struggles with her best friend's romantic feelings for her, while trying to save him and his family this time. In order to achieve this, she begins to plot with her teacher Xie Wei, but only in the last arc does she develop feelings for him. Instead, she longs for her former love, Zhang Zhe, an upright official with a strong sense of justice. One of the main themes of the show is that Jiang Xuening is not a good person, not in this life and certainly not in her last, but she is trying to be better. While Zhang Zhe is not a good match for her, the scheming and violent Xie Wei is. The story of Kunning Palace is not about love, but about intrigue, friendship, ambition and doing the right thing. It's only in the last 8 episodes that there is a real romance, and then the show loses its intrigue.

I was rooting for them right up until the moment their actual relationship developed. Firstly, I'm generally not a fan of the trope of men forcing themselves on women and women giving in until they like it, even if it's under the influence of trauma. Is it reasonable for his character to react that way? Yes, it is. Did the writers have to make him do it? Absolutely not. Especially when it is all framed as sexual tension. They were great as partners in crime, but at that point, is just using trauma for the sake of drama.

Overall, Bai Lu really stole the show. She was absolutely perfect for the part. As for Zhang Linghe, his performance again lacked nuance, but it was better compared to other shows I have seen so far. As for the side characters, the only other one that really stood out for me was Lui Xiening as Princess Le Yang/ Shen Zhi Yi, as well as the scheming Xue Yuan (by Huang Haibing) and his sister, Empress Dowager Xue (by Liu Min). These two were such great villains!

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For everyone that isn't into romances

I started watching this drama a while ago, but gave up after the second episode because I couldn't follow the plot. I'm glad I came back after watching other dramas. They gave me more background knowledge to follow the complex political structures and plots.

While the plot was interesting, it was the characters that really got me hooked, especially Wang Zhi. His character and story had so much more potential and I would love to see a whole show with him as the main character. It kind of blew my mind that he was so young - and while his actions sometimes made you forget that, the show manages to remind you of his youth in some really great scenes.

Overall, the show suffered from the same problems that many shows do: the plot gets too convoluted, the stakes don't fit the established tone of the show and some plot holes are hard to overlook. For example, there should have been a better way to introduce the Empress as a warrior, as it came out of nowhere (twice). While the action scenes were great in the beginning, when they tried to raise the stakes in the last few episodes, it became over the top and felt out of place. Also, some of the serious issues they were trying to address (e.g. PTSD, domestic violence, human trafficking) went nowhere and had no consequences.

Despite these problems, I really loved the show and its main characters. They had great chemistry, and I'm curious to see what a BL adaptation of this show would have been like.

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