This drama deserves a much higher rating than 8! The awesome factor does not end with a gorgeous bad boy with a noble heart for a male lead and a brainy, feisty female lead who would rather appear silly and lazy than compete with other palace ladies for favors or brew up intrigues. The build up of their chemistry is expertly done, starting with his disgust at what he thought was another pretentious and obsequious palace lady he could use to control a prince and her cheeky suggestion to have a powerful eunuch for a sister. Their collusion develops into mutual respect then love. And what a powerful love it is! It's the type that could overrule hatred or ambition, there and then, not the love that waits until all goals are achieved. I rarely see this in cdramas; usually the lead with revenge or financial goal would keep the love interest at bay until the goal is achieved, meaning love is secondary. In this drama, love prevails over everything. I really love it when leads decide to tackle difficulties together.
Another awesome point is how revenge is still achieved without sacrificing love. Still another awesome point is the powerful message against oppression as other commenters have pointed out. The drama really makes you feel disgusted at how the tribute ladies were treated. The obsession of the emperor towards Bu Yin Lou and that of the empress towards Xiao Duo are just as sickening. I think it's brilliant how the drama gives the emperor so much screen time that the audience gets sick of seeing him as if showing us how sickened we should be when we see oppression in action. Those who have been disgusted at how the tribute ladies were treated and those who think the emperor deserves death or a fate worse than death should feel vindicated at the ending. This drama is really a brilliant gem that deserves a much higher rating!
Please note that Flixpatrol is not affiliated with Netflix. It uses flawed logic to derive its global charts. For example, it assigns the same weight to all countries, not counting the number of subscribers in each country, i.e. being #1 in a country that has 10 thousand subscribers is given the same weight as being #1 in a country that has 70 million subscribers. Also, Flixpatrol does not have data for all countries served by Netflix. Thus, it erroneously reported the most watched kdrama of 2020 as It's Okay Not To Be Okay. The most watched Netflix kdrama of 2020, Kingdom season 2, was not even in its top 100 list.
As for All Of Us Are Dead, I know it's an international hit because Netflix says so, regardless of what Flixpatrol says.
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Another awesome point is how revenge is still achieved without sacrificing love. Still another awesome point is the powerful message against oppression as other commenters have pointed out. The drama really makes you feel disgusted at how the tribute ladies were treated. The obsession of the emperor towards Bu Yin Lou and that of the empress towards Xiao Duo are just as sickening. I think it's brilliant how the drama gives the emperor so much screen time that the audience gets sick of seeing him as if showing us how sickened we should be when we see oppression in action. Those who have been disgusted at how the tribute ladies were treated and those who think the emperor deserves death or a fate worse than death should feel vindicated at the ending. This drama is really a brilliant gem that deserves a much higher rating!
As for All Of Us Are Dead, I know it's an international hit because Netflix says so, regardless of what Flixpatrol says.