Deirdre19

That would have to be a quantum leap improvement to turn her from a fluff cotton ball into an actress. I feel sorry for any ML being paired with her...

Probably 90% of the people who gave this a very low rating have never seen any of it.
For some reason that was a lot of hate directed at this drama leading some clowns to rate down the episodes before they were even aired.

Just to give you one example, the whole storyline of the fake DZY, her manipulating that dumb bodyguard, taking endless baths or having monologues wallowing in self-pity were annoying and served absolutely no purpose for the plot. A lot of screentime was wasted on this character that could have been better used to show us some of HY's scheming and planning, rather than only reveal it at the end.

More importantly for us non-fans, he showed us that he actually can act. Whether it's with his beautiful eyes or his beautiful hands, I really don't care. Even though I loved him in WoH, I came to this drama not expecting anything much and he really impressed me!
Unfortunately, C-dramaland is full of pretty boys who cannot act one little bit, so it is talent that we should praise more than anything else.

People complain a lot, but mainly about the writing and poor overall production. The fact that most of us are still here despite finding stuff to moan about in every episode proves that it isn't as bad as it looks.
I like the acting of the three leads a lot and even if there are some ridiculous moments writing-wise their acting is the reason why I'm still here.
Give it a try for a few episodes, then make up your own mind.

Poor LMX! Considering his feelings for her are genuine this must be pure torture! The writers really piled the suffering of several lifetimes onto this character 😭😭😭

LOL and a hitlist of the most unbelievable "cheating death" stunts by the protagonists. Some of them are like vampires and only decapitating can really kill them off, but not the multiple arrows or spearwounds to the chest.

The rating on MDL is chronically unreliable. Many sub-par dramas featuring popular idol boys will still be rated 8.5 or higher while other good dramas with real actors are only rated 7.8 or 7.9.

What do you mean "after episode 30"? The script-writing was messed up from episode 1...

I think it's his voice, but I'm not sure...
I'm quite happy he wasn't the ML, because this gave him a chance for a completely different role. I love his goofy antiques!
He stays for a few episodes (until 20, I think) and then apparently returns again towards the end, so I'm holding out until then. Once he's gone the drama became noticeable dull.

Ah, let me know when you get there. I think you won't be disappointed.

Na, some people (especially in xianxia) can spit blood by the buckload and they're still fine. Remember how much blood spitting there was in TTEOTM??
Based on my observation only the people who spit blood in a handkerchief will die, those who mess up the whole floor will be ok.

I have yet to see a C-drama were a bad or incapable emperor gets removed or is forced to resign. All these dramas seem to follow the premise that it is ok to "work around" a bad emperor, but the status quo must never ever be challenged!

Well, who can tell when exactly a friendship starts... it doesn't work like that in life, I wouldn't expect it to happen at one precise moment in the drama either.
Yeah, the endgame was a bit disappointing. In the novel Bai Yaxing is a much more interesting villain and his death had a much better twist, but in the drama version they probably had to conform to the Confucian moral code of the censors.

Yes, I understand what you mean. I guess the problem is that they took a standard detective story and tried to turn it into something different. In the end the story is neither fish nor flesh...
They kept Luo Fei's personality pretty much like it is in the book which is ok for a detective story, but really disappointing in a story about friendship. I was very frustrated by the way he acted in the drama.
For me the main point that makes this drama outstanding is the way it was filmed, the colours, the atmospheric shots of architecture make it really worth watching.

Very true. The number of episodes isn't really an indicator of quality. There are some 30 episode dramas that are still choke-full of fillers and there are others where 40 episodes just aren't enough.
Despite the limitation of episodes we still have the old problem that so much time is wasted in the beginning and then the rushed ending is blamed on the episode limit when in fact it is just bad planning/editing.
One classic example of this is LLTG. The beginning was so repetitive and draggy and despite having 56-episodes, the ending was still a miserable rush-job.

That's another typical C-drama trope. An important person dies and suddenly all the fighting stops and everyone just stands around to watch.

It's like a rite of initiation 😂😂😂

I doubt that. There were kissing scenes in her previous dramas.

I don't get it. They are the actors in this scene. Why do they react like they are surprised by any of this? They must have rehearsed those scenes dozens of times. Even if they haven't seen the final cut, they would know what is happening.