Knavery

I could have lived with the fake-out at the ending and the doctor storyline.

I thought the leads were good and comedy was pretty strong for most of it.

It's a comedy so they ham things up a lot. This was my first short drama out of China and it was enjoyable. The leads were good.

The actress playing the female lead is amazing.

The female lead devolves as the show goes on. The person playing her is a good actress and I hope she gets on something with a better script.

Damn. It's missing from iQiyi's coming soon list but still on their website at least.

A few seem like interesting premises to me, hopefully they get subbed.

I dropped it at episode 9. Yu Da is an annoying caricature and forced on the viewers. I didn't want it. I didn't need it. He's a side character so the question is why is he even necessary? There's no value added and he's a big part of why I'm dropping it. I don't want to watch ~5-10 minutes per episode of an over-animated over-acted character with no depth.

Aside from him the drama itself is pretty weak at moving the story forward. Despite this the female lead is pretty good at her role - the typical innocent female lead who's plucky and optimistic. Male lead of course is some super human that has to be shown off, he played that part well. Kind of lame but I guess I'm numb to this familiar duo whereas I'm not numb to characters like Yu Da.

While the leads have cute moments I'm not sure how they drag this on for 41 episodes.

For me this show was one of those good idea, bad execution shows. I liked most of the cast, the premise was interesting but the execution over 40 episodes left a lot to be desired.

Yeah I'll agree with others that it went off the rails in the last ~5 episodes or whatever it was. Up until that point it was okay. The ending felt like a wild change of pace for the whole show when things could have been better spent addressing the various issues the leads face, particularly the male lead.

Also I've watched a few of these dramas - Chinese dramas need to stay in China and leave it at that. They do a terrible job at portraying other countries and getting the actors to make it convincing. This wasn't the worst I've seen by any means but it's still a weak part of a drama that already struggles with pacing (and those last 5 episodes).

Problem is two fold: the leads are just not good at acting, their faces are almost made of stone and the script is bad in terms of developing the leads and their romance. The plot isn't particularly good either.

I did finish this but basically I watched for side characters who were portrayed by better actors with more expressive faces and had stories that were written somewhat better than the romance of the leads and the plot more generally.

It's not though. I've worked at large companies with multiple offices and if you went against what the CEO did like the branch with the "bad guy" executives, you'd be fired or pushed out. You couldn't get away with all this sabotage.

Or how about the female lead not reporting her former fiancé to save her own ass? Like I said it's silly in a bad way. Yes there can be office politics and unhelpful people but not like this.

The office politics were ridiculous and melodramatic so I had to give it up.

I hope this debuts soon. I noticed iQiyi lists dramas they will load up to December 17th and this one is still listed as "coming soon".

I also liked the second prince more than the female lead. I kind of wish her story was explored more and finished better in the end.

I enjoyed binging it. It's not great by any means but it's one of those dozens of period/fantasy dramas I can get through no problem. Cookie cutter drama in many ways but nothing wrong with that if you enjoy the themes.

I think the only downside from my perspective (as someone who loves costume dramas) is that it had the potential for a great story with Li Xuan and his origins but that was squandered. The story was okay. As others have mentioned below me there definitely are some plot holes so that might grate on you.

She pulls off crazy really well. I think she made the show interesting for the back half.

It's an ensemble cast but I couldn't understand the acting by the female lead. I had no idea what emotion she was trying to portray in many of the scenes.

A ton of action, gunfire and then hand to hand fights. They killed off some characters which surprised me. A lot of twists throughout.

This is far from a masterpiece but I somehow made it through to the end.

Overall a strong show. Not too long and tells a consistent story over the episodes. Well done.

Bai Lu is amazing but her character gets walked over constantly in the first half. I'm on the edge of giving this up.

Like most Japanese TV it's based on absurdity and would have played better as a movie. 10 episodes feels long even with it being a comedy. It's alright mainly because Yuko Araki is amazing.