LivingTheMoment

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There are very few that live up to the quality of A Familiar Stranger or the earlier, popular ones. Lately, they all seem to have the same cheap format and storytelling. These days, I tend to watch the ones that come up with a story line like Zhi Bi = Fortune Writer, that have a little more going on to keep your interest.

Sadly, this year in particular, a lot of the costume dramas that have been released, ended up with way under the 40 episode limit. It appears your point about favoring shorter dramas for monetary considerations is coming true. I had thought that the industry would stick with the 40 episode format. It's disappointing that they did not for all of the reasons that you mentioned.

We went from cute, small and round to tall, skinny and gangly, lol. I'll stick with the imaginary version.

I wonder if they were trying to avoid the criticism of Ever Night by shortening the number of episodes. In Ever Night, the series was criticized for starting with a bang and then dragging for many episodes until ML got to the academy. I personally wish this one was longer as it's a great watch, with a second season or more to come. I'm not sure that's possible though as the number of users / rating are surprisingly low on MDL. There's always hope...

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It's probably a marriage of the sisters dictated by the Emperor, although I don't remember it being explained. The Prince's son was somebody he found on the battlefield and then adopted and the concubine was hired and given a title to take care of him. He's doesn't have a relationship with the concubine other than her duties to his son.

He's fallen for her already as well, so not too unexpected. Nice that the actors have the chemistry to pull this off.

I'm really enjoying this one. Lots of action and the made-up back story that wasn't a part of the original novel is fine with me as it's entertaining.

ML's ponytail hair raising up out of his own blood on the ground after being caned. Pretty powerful filming in this one. Bai Shu is in so many high quality productions in the last couple of years. He's really made a name for himself.

Ser, Reviewer above said yes viewers should watch part 1 first.

Your point is valid. It's just a matter of preference in the end. Glad you're enjoying this one as well. Cheers.

Yes, the balance is rough but her acting is on point. I always look forward to her costume dramas.

Yes, but I think that's why it's getting a bit of flack since he's the more popular actor right now. I noticed early on that people on MDL were expecting to see ML use his martial arts and have an equal role with the FL. I actually like this up-and-coming FL, who is getting some grief here. She was great- and held her own- in Love of the Divine Tree. I think the ratings would be higher if the script had made him smarter in the beginning (like he was) with her catching up , showing growth, so they could both work through issues and use their martial arts. I'm just not used to series sidelining one of the leads this much but I'm still watching and enjoying this one.

People have been comparing it with Coroner's Diary. Part of the reason it's getting a bit of flack is that the story line saddled the ML with being poisoned, losing his martial arts and kind of sidelining him almost to a support character as a result. I'm watching and enjoying the series; however, I wish the ML's character hadn't been written that way. With not much to do because of his illness, he stands around with a stern face part of the time. We all know he can act from previous series so I hope he gets better in this series soon (I'm on ep 11) so he can flex his acting chops..

This should be renamed, "The slaps heard round the World." So silly and yet fun to watch.

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I wouldn't mind the random rap music if it was attached to the Wuxia series, Heroes that has that type of music/theme but, agree, it doesn't really fit here. The Halloween cackle, yes, disturbing, lol.

The sideways view of the guy shows he's the only character with the little rounded chubby part to the side corner of his mouth, which will tell you who he is when he's seen in other episodes. That's the key if you want to use the clue.

...and now our man is unconscious, lol. We need that cure fast! He can't end up like Ren Jialun who always dies in the end when he's poisoned or injured.