This drama has no right being this good!
I wanted to watch this when it first came out, but was waiting and then forgot about it. I'm so glad that I finally remembered and watched it.
Initially, it was the cinematography that drew me to watch this (I saw some gifs of it and thought it looked so pretty), but now that I've seen the whole thing, I can confidently say that it was the characters, their arcs, and their relationships with each other that really made the show worth watching.
Because it was a relatively short drama, the pacing was also very good. I'm not an expert at all, but I've often thought that the pacing in a lot of cdramas is not very good. A lot of time is spent on useless things and I always get bored halfway, but that wasn't the case with this show. It held my attention all the way through with no skipping on my part (another feat!).
My one complaint is that I thought the final episode was a bit rushed. There were a few things I wanted answered: was the Queen Dowager's crimes properly revealed and did Zhang Ping's clan receive justice? I also wanted Gu Qingzhang to have one final confrontation with Lan Jue and Zhang Ping. The relationship between the three of them was so interesting to me, and I do wished it'd been explored a little bit more, even though we have a pretty clear idea of what they all mean to each other. But I guess it's because of that, that I wanted to see them face each other before Qingzhang walked off into the mist, never to be seen again. It just felt a little anticlimactic, if a somewhat fitting end for him.
Anyway, great show, highly recommend.