One of the best C Dramas I have ever seen

The story in this drama does not stop. There is not one minute of anything being boring as it was action packed in 95% of the episodes, maintaining interest as the story rolled on. Even the "down-time" stories were full of content that moved the story forward. I was never confused at what was happening and the timeline was linear and easy to follow.

Even though Yan Po Yue was the main character, the supporting characters all got their own screen time and were essential parts of the story which contributed to the goal of a cohesive unit of people striving to be their best. I was invested in every character, living their highs and lows along with them and I liked all their stories. If you are looking for strong females, you will find two of the best female characters I have seen in Chinese drama in this show.

The acting is incredible by every single cast member, so much so, that I was totally immersed in the emotion of each character's story and hardly ever said to myself "this is so and so acting". (although I did say quite a few times "Wow, Yan Po Yue is so good looking and to a lesser extent, so was Lu Tu"). The amount of physical work involved in acting this story must have been immense, along with dealing with the environmental conditions they had to endure. Every actor in this ensemble did not scrimp on either their preparation or the 100% effort in each scene to make the viewing as realistic as possible.

I enjoyed the traditions and world building behind the special forces this team were a part of and feel this contributed much to the development of the story. I admit that it took me a while to figure out the character's ranks and found myself spending a lot of time looking at lapels and sleeve badges to try and determine who should be saluting whom and who was who during the thick of the action.

The costuming, music and cinematic photography combined well with first-person camera views that sometimes made me feel as if I was a real character playing in Call of Duty. Kudos to the production crew for what must have been an exhausting shoot.

I do not usually like war or "male" action stories (the only other I have enjoyed was Descendent of the Sun) but this one hooked me from the very first minute - I had never seen a situation like this before and wanted to know why this group of people were doing what they were doing in such an environment and I was HOOKED!

My only disappointment was that the series seems to have ended quite abruptly, but that might just be me,

I have seen quite a few coming of age stories and this counts as one of, if not the best, so far. I feel bereft at finishing the series and feel truly aggrieved that I cannot follow their stories anymore.

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Finally! A relatively realistic Kdrama!

As a mature woman I found myself identifying with many of the female characters as I have been in the same life situations. This made it quite an emotional journey through this series.
Thankfully there was little of the typical cringey aspects of fake crying and even faker laughter commonly seen in Kdramas.
I appreciated the whole ensemble getting their own story time.
I know that fashion is subjective but some of the wardrobe worn by the women was a bit out there but I have to wonder whether that is just my age talking or whether it is actually how peoole dress in real life. The male lead fashion was spot on though. Very nice wardrobe for him.
Well done.

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