Michelle Topham

Same. Really happy to see her in another major role, and this one is great.

Love the hair. Honestly, one of the reasons I first started watching it :) Then stayed for the actors and the well-written plot.

He looks soooooo good with the hair :)

And btw, Art of Negotiation is the first main role Oh Man Seok has had in years. And, for that alone, (well, and the other cast, who are awesome), I hope it's a big success., as he's SO incredibly talented.

And then to see the same rom-com morons downrating it just like they do everything else that doesn't fit into their ignorant, narrow-minded little box makes me so effing angry.

Always nice to see the usual suspects on MDL are downrating a new drama because, apparently, they're too stupid to understand it.

Again, for Chrissake, don't pay any attention to ratings on MDL as, for the most part, good ratings or bad, they're not remotely reliable.

I pretty much know now if a drama has a lowish rating on MDL, I will likely love it.

This one is brilliant. Gorgeous cinematography, stunningly intricately designed costumes, superb performances especially Liu Xue Yi, and a decently written script. Soundtrack is beautiful too.

An easy 10/10. Loving this so much.

Oh go away. So sick of the pro-Hamas crowd I could puke.

Anyone know which episode (s) Liu Xue Yi appeared in? I watched the whole thing, and don't remember seeing him at all.

Help? Anyone? He's one of my favorite Chinese actors. Would love to see his performance in this, as he nails every part he takes.

An easy drop. Can't stand either of the main characters, and the plot isn't written well as it's too confusing (have zero interest in watching something I have to keep rewinding to figure out who they're talking about now). Moving on..

The Korean drama fandom is incredibly toxic, with so many weird people enmeshed in it. People who will literally attempt to destroy an actor's life because of a role they took, some small comment a character they played made, or because they're acting with their favorite oppa.

Vile, nasty, mentally-disturbed people whose opinions should have been ignored, and in some cases sued for, years ago.

Absolutely superb, isn't it? And you're correct on Shi Chun Ling (the Empress). Just the tiny curl of the lip she makes, or the glint in her eyes says volumes. A brilliant performance -- as was everyone else in it. Binge-watching this (currently on Episode 21), and it hasn't lost my attention once.

Absolutely superb. Well-written script, gorgeous cinematography, sets and costuming, and excellent performances from every actor in it. The two male leads are exceptionally good. Especially as both their characters are deeply flawed, and so often react to situations in the weakest or stupidest way possible. Could have been incredibly annoying if the actors weren't so good at what they do.

Looking at the low-ish rating on MDL though, I knew it would be good (my experience has often been -- rated high on MDL = mediocre, while rated lower than you'd expect = one of the best.).

An easy 9.5 out of 10 for me (really only dropped it half a point as Zhang Ping didn't seem to learn much throughout, as he makes the same mistakes over and over again -- and so would have liked to see more character growth). Ultimately though, one of my favorite C-dramas ever.

Edit: Incredibly easy to watch too, as most episodes are only 32-34 minutes long.

MDL is known by anyone who has watched Asian dramas for a few years as a very unreliable site when it comes to ratings. It's always best to ignore them until the drama is at least half over. But even then they will usually be lower than other ratings sites, as there are too many trolls on here that MDL staff refuses to monitor.

Trolls downrating it with ridiculously low ratings because something in it "offends" them or they "hate". It will bounce back up. They always do.

Did you watch the extra episode? Ep 37 - the Epilogue -- as that explains everything that was missing in Ep 36.

I felt like that the whole way through. In retrospect, while I did finish it, I probably should have dropped it, as it doesn't get much better right through to the last episode.

Not the worst thing I've ever watched, but miles away from the best, and quite draggy in a number of episodes. Especially towards the end.

The script is exceptionally well written. Dread to think what you think is good if you think this is bad.

It's really really good. One of my faves in a long time. Currently watching Ep 29 and haven't been bored once yet (and I have the attention span of a flea :) -- Liu Xue Yi is sooooo good in it too.

This is soooooo good. And yet another example of dramas on MDL that deserve much higher ratings. Should be at least an 8.9, if not a 9.1 or higher.

I'm currently 15 episodes in, and this is just about perfection -- superb acting, brilliant performances by the leads, and by the "guest actress" who plays the main character through Ep 3 and beyond, beautiful cinematography, sets and costumes, and a very well-written plot.

Could not be happier about how entertaining this one is.

It's brilliant, Watched 5 more episodes yesterday :) One of most fun C-dramas I've watched in a while.