This review may contain spoilers
It Could Have Been More Epic
It’s my first review on MDL i think, I’m not well versed in words but I wanted to leave a few for this drama.This review contains spoilers, please do not read if you don’t want to be spoiled.
The Road to Splendor was a difficult drama to rate. 8 seems too low for my rating standards because I am not a picky viewer, I place heart above many things when I watch a drama, as long as it has a lot of heart, plot holes, mediocre acting and so on are usually overlooked. 9 would seem too high because unfortunately I think I really had trouble connecting and relating after that 5 years jump when the drama hits the mid 20 ep mark. But I have rated objectively much worse drama 8.5… I wish I could give this drama a happy 9, because the beginning until that 5 years time jump was so good. I loved it so much I bought WeTV express package the second day the drama came out after struggling with ep 1 however. But from ep 2 onwards to ep 20, the drama had my heart.
Alas, the whole arc in the capital and court politics really lost me quite a bit. I actually really enjoyed the grown up version of Fu Tingyun and Zhao Ling, Zhao Ling definitely changed the most between the 2. But I only actually “enjoyed” his change truly after the death of General Mo Yi. Before that incident, his change was quite empty, I think he was supposed to be empty after that 5 years of war, but it didn’t translate well acting wise and on screen wise. I wanted to see pain, desperation, anger, a man eaten by this desire for revenge or something. I guess I wanted intensity from Zhao Ling, but he just wasn’t. He kinda just was… and I don’t know the right word nor adjective to describe the man that he was.
We are told he struggled, but I didn’t feel like he struggled, I just felt like he was very incompetent in many aspects.
Also, the reunion after that 5 years mark was so underwhelming in every way, I felt the longing and that deadly desire to reunite from our female lead Fu Tingyun, but I felt nothing from Zhao Ling. You can argue that the war took his soul away which would be justified I suppose, but again my problem was that I felt again, nothing from him. I think that his character from the very beginning held onto this unconditional love for FTY and his unconditional desire to protect her and keep her safe. Even if the war has taken every single thing from his whole being and his soul, I think his character would have benefited greatly from this undying inner fire for FTY. It should have been one painfully epic reunion for them, both knowing what awaits them in the dangerous capital. But I had there, after that 5 years time jump, an almost indifferent man feeling wise. Undying fire not because romance is central, but because it would be more interesting to see his characters face all the dilemmas that were coming at him with so much more potence, this inner battle of keeping integrity, morals, while having to sacrifice unimaginable things. Again, and I’m sorry for repeating the same thing, I just wanted to see Zhao Ling struggle and completely defeated and eaten by the inner demons, but he was just so lifeless. Things were happening to him because the script said that it would.
Thankfully the last arc picked up, and things started to dance again. The last 4, 5 episodes really saved the luckluster capital arc.
My favorite scene in the last few episode was actually of Zhao Ling and the Emperor, when Zhao Ling requested to retire from court, it was a beautiful scene, when a man has tasted the bitterest part of life and has the courage to forego it all for the one thing that truly matters to men: freedom and love.
Many dramas end on protagonists making it big in court, I’ve always wanted to see our protagonist walk away from it all.
All I did was talk about Zhao Ling, and not so much about our female lead, but I think it’s because her acting has been more consistent and her character too (consistent doesn’t mean she didn’t grow, just that her actions were understandable or at the least relatable in some way), and I really felt for her and her pain even during those very bad post-halfway episodes. When her and Zhao Ling grew distant, I felt FTY’s pain, not much Zhao Ling’s.
It’s always bittersweet when a drama comes to an end, and especially so when you feel that the drama had so much more potential. Potential to be those 10/10 dramas, it has all the right elements to be one, but sadly wasn’t one.
I might have been a bit harsh, because I really almost dropped around those 23-28 episodes mark, more than once, but I still think the drama had a really great first half, and a solid ending! The chemistry was really there the first half, and then at the end.
It was my first Ding Yu Xi and Deng Enxi’ drama, and I like both of them! Will keep an eye on them in the future.
My favorite character in this drama is Madame Yu, and she was sooo wonderful until the writing decided to kill Concubine Wu’s aunt and FL’s mother… and all the greatness collapsed. She had the potential to be one of the greatest villain in a drama but alas.
I wish everything could have been more bittersweet because I felt like that was what The Road to Splendor set out to be.
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