Agatha Christie meets Jane Austen in this riveting historical romance-mystery. This show was a surprise favorite for me. A diamond in the rough, a show with seriously feminist aspirations and an unapologetic stance on its radical and rebellious views. And the pièce de resistance? It’s an originally written story that avoids 99% of cdrama cliché pitfalls!

If you’re still not convinced that this show is worth a watch here are some more reasons:
1. Pride and Prejudice meets Mrs. Marple!
2. A headstrong, intelligent, and flawed female lead who had a steady personality and an unbreakable spirit
3. An intelligent, nuanced, and flawed male lead who grows and develops through the story with not a single jealous cell in his body…like WOW!
4. An actual good second male lead? With freaking personality and flaws?! Who isn’t a sticky gum and doesn’t scheme against the leads and doesn’t think he knows best for the FL, thus undermining her personhood whilst acting like he’s soooo nice?!?!?! Like...what?! He’s mine now! I have adopted him! He’s my child now, no one hurt this baby! He’s too pure for Cdramaland.
5. A villain who is not an idiot or a caricature who keeps the mains on their toes and is in return kept on his toes by the leads!
6. A truly enjoyable ensemble with interesting stories, arcs, and journeys.
7. A meta-commentary on women’s lives in the olden days
8. Actually good mystery cases
9. One of the best romances I have seen in historical dramas in a while
10. Enemies-to-lovers, slow burn, with “there was only one bed”!
11. Nice parents?!?!?!?! (Is this even a cdrama at this point? Where am I right now?)
12. And more!

Summary: Qiu Yan is the concubine-born daughter of the second master of Qiu family. Everyone in her family dislikes her except for her legal mother who loves her beyond anything. When Qiu Yan was young, she and her biological mother and brother are caught by bandits but a young man saves Qiu Yan and gives her a fan that becomes the symbol of Qiu Yan’s yearning to become educated and step above her station in her deeply misogynistic and biased society. The story follows Qiu Yan as she uses her wits, knowledge, street-savviness, and intelligence to survive and make her way in life. And the ML is Liang Yi. He's pretty cool, too!

Plot: I loved this show and mainly because it was so well-written. The characters make sense, the plot makes sense. The themes are clear and the writer knew exactly how they meant to explore them. No scene is unnecessary. Each character and event had a purpose. The tone is a good mix of romantic, comedic, emotional, and thought-provoking. It hardly has the usual stereotype pitfalls of historical dramas. I have to mention that the show has a very modern tone and the female lead’s opinions are beyond her era and time but the show somehow makes it work. On top of it all, the stories that are explored were stuff I had never seen in any other show which made this very refreshing for me. What was interesting was that I could recognize the plot as mentioned backstories in other shows but I had never seen a show that actually explored the plot, head-on. As for the romance, I loved it! The growth of their feelings felt natural and the progression of their relationship was super satisfying. No unnecessary misunderstandings or overly complicated melodrama.

Acting: I was very impressed by the leads. They had such amazing chemistry. Jeremy Tsui has an amazing voice and since everyone is using their own voice, the performances feel that much more real and authentic. I liked the supporting cast too. Minus one or two cannon fodders, I think everyone did a good job conveying their character and working together.

Music and Production: Music was okay; nothing too impressive. The production didn’t look expensive and it did leave some things to be desired. The cinematography was simple, the clothes and makeup were passable. Overall, this is the section the show might fall short but many of my favorite historical dramas have average or below average productions so I didn’t mind.

Rewatch: Right! Forgot about this! I never rewatch shows but this is a fun show so I would say it's worth it? Idk, watch new shows, why rewatch?!

Negative: There is a slight hiccup in storytelling in the very last episode. I have deduced that the reason is that the show did too good a job at closing all loose ends and just ended up with 20 extra minutes with nothing else happening there so they had to pull a last-minute twist to fill up the time. I didn’t care much for the twist but it didn’t affect the plot at all so I don’t care. What matters is that we got a happy ending and after watching such a good mystery show for 23 episodes, it was easy to see how the ending worked in the context of the whole show. (like I don't want to spoil but you could tell that the twist was super temporary)

Overall: I was expecting something like Jun Jiu Ling or Sword and the Brocade when I started this show but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out the way that it did. I almost dropped this! But I couldn't stop thinking about the characters so I went back and I am very happy with my decision. It was a joy for me to watch this. I laughed in every episode, I cheered for the main cast of characters to triumph and I was heartbroken for them when they suffered. This was one of the best watches I’ve had and though the show may not be perfect, the happiness it brought me made me decide to give it a 10. Because at the end of the day, we watch shows for enjoyment and that is what they should provide. The Autumn Ballad did just that. Highly recommended.