I was invested in the plot and characters...until around the last 10 episodes, which were a trainwreck. The beginning definitely felt dragged, while the ending was totally rushed and felt like a different writer wrote it. I liked the acting for the most part but it's obviously been dubbed over because the mouthing of the actors is not in sync with the voices. That irked me in the beginning but I got used to it. As usual I love the costumes of historical Chinese dramas. Music was unremarkable. Overall I liked the romance between the main leads, but there is a lot of love triangles and killing for the sake of love. An awful lot of scheming and betrayal going on, which you expect from a drama that takes place in the palace I guess, but at one point almost all the characters are unlikable or evil. If you like that then this is your cup of tea. Like the others have mentioned the ending felt rushed as if they were trying to tie all the loose knots so it wasn't very satisfying at the end. I wouldn't rewatch just cause it's so long, but overall the storyline was interesting if not over the top sometimes.