Just finished this a few hours ago, and as per the title of my review, the drama is quite good, but the storyline is too common for me, and coming from The Double, the theme is too much the same thing, sometimes it felt like I was watching the same story, just with different actors. The trope is used too much until it was becoming too expected and boring, I even watch the last few episodes in 1.25 speed. And even though the title is The Rise of Ning (I assume it was in relation to the FL), I cant help but felt that in the end, the story is more focused on the rise of Shenyuan, rather than Yining. Lol.

Luckily, despite the storyline being too common, the story is saved by the actors who did a good job with what they have. The chemistry between the ML and FL is there. The ML did a nice enough job even though his role is not that different from that of Cang Xuan in LYF. This is my first time watching Ren Min's drama till the end (I just cannot finish The Longest Promise, there seems to be no chemistry at all between her and XZ, maybe too much of an age gap there) and she did ok. Her acting is consistent, even though sometimes her voice stressed me out a little. Oopsie. The storyline between Yixiu/Lin Mao and Han Xiao seems more interesting sometimes.

The villain is quite weak, and Lu Jiaxue irks me so much with his thick face (which part of she doesn't like you anymore don't you understand you pathetic man??!) I felt like pushing him down the cliff myself. Lol. And the writer seems to be quite fond of introducing the main beef out of nowhere rather than easing into it. The way they introduce Luo Shenyuan's vendetta against clearing up his shifu's case, the earlier love/relationship between LJX and LYN, they were all thrown into your face pretty much without a warning imho.

The mansion is beautiful, especially the Lou Mansion (sometimes it was questionable how a relatively less prominent family like the Luos can afford to stay in such a mansion, even the Duke Ying's mansion can't compare to the Luo Mansion in terms of the grandiosity). The custom is also relatively too strict for such a 'non-prominent' family, like how they seem to carry out the daily greeting and even how Lin Da Niang and Lin Mao's having to bow before a maid of their mother who apparently carries the 'oral message' from the Lin Matriarch. Usually I only see that when the eunuch carries a decree from an Emperor only. Lol.

OST is used extensively throughout the scenes, though it doesn't seem to stuck in my head after the completion of the drama. All in all, it was a fine drama to watch for the first time, it might even be quite good if you are not watching too many of Chinese dramas with the same trope.