Acrobit12

The evil criminal guy from today's episodes had remarkably clean hair, it was very noticeable in his close-ups.

I usually reserve judgement until the story is told (unless something is so bad that I just drop it but this isn't one of those, at least not so far, I only dropped one show this year).

Well, as you said even without the poison the tropes would still be there. Maybe the writers will surprise us and tie it all together well. Until then, I will just watch for the eye candy.

Seriously, think of something original already.

I hope you are right. I am so in no mood for this to have a Nirvana in Fire-style ending. I know there is a school of thought that those are more realistic yadda yadda but I don't want to be saddened by my entertainment, there is plenty of crap IRL.

I am also a Yang Yang fan and I agree that the story started out great and lost a lot of emotional depth after the first arc. Since I am not familiar with the source material, I can't say where the fault lies here but it's certainly not with the actors. I wasn't expecting romance from this story so that certainly isn't an issue.

That's fair enough, I guess.

True, the 60s-70s style costumes could have been upgraded, some of them look like they walked right off the set of the original Star Trek. But I can ignore all that for a good story.

The acting is great, the VFX are well-done, the visuals are stunning, the music works, but there is something about this show that's keeping it from crossing from good to great. I guess the story just isn't engaging enough. Certainly not the fault of the cast.

Although I suppose something like this could admittedly happen in a xianxia, I don't watch a lot of it, this is maybe my 4th one if you include WRTW, which barely even qualifies.

I'll believe that they will mention it, but I would be really shocked if they actually showed something like this, even in a very non-explicit way.

LOL, not in a c-drama.

Well, watching the guy run away from all the women who are trying to hit on him is kind of funny :). I don't mind there not being any romance as long as the story is done well and is interesting. But I understand the frustration where the story is billed as a romance and there just isn't any.

wow, the body count! And all the death scenes were so sad!

Just finished this and really enjoyed it (had this on hold in the middle for a while) the cast did a great job, but

Yes, agreed, that's my opinion too.

@Megumi-H, :), yes, this came up in one of today's episodes - the peacock and the FL started looking at records and realized that the four ministers that were targeted for assassination served together on some counsel while the old emperor was ill/dying the year the massacre took place.

@Enigma05, yeah, so far all signs are pointing to it, we will just have to see.

I think the term "chemistry" gets thrown around, but like everything else, it's acting. There are plenty of actors in the history of cinema that couldn't stand each other off-screen or had nothing in common IRL but still lit the screen on fire because they could act and the script called for it. I haven't watched anything with JX before but I know WXY can do chemistry (although yes, there are some famous actors that can't do chemistry to save their lives, but they can't do chemistry with anyone). I think both actors are doing enough to show people who love each other but... for whom their relationship isn't a priority right now. Besides the ML thinks he is going to die and needs to solve the case and clear his name. What are the characters supposed to do, throw themselves at each other? Besides, this is a 30-something episode c-drama not focused on romance, if anything happens before ep. 18, I would be surprised. So I am keeping an open mind and waiting to see if anything happens later in the story chemistry-wise. JMO, of course.

@PeachBae Haven't seen Love of Nirvana - heard it's really good but I probably won't watch it because of the BE. Nirvana in Fire is truly one of the best shows I have seen and I have seen many in three languages. But again, BE (well, it's not BE in a sense that the main character accomplished what he set out to do and could go in peace, sort of, but his life was stolen from him and that could not be undone).