I am absolutely in love with the concept and idea of this series, what can I say, this drama is just superb. It is one of those shows that has all the ingredients to be everything a show needs. I am also obsessed with Qu Chuxiao since I watched Shinning for one thing, so this is always a plus.
The story, the characters, the passion, emotions and and amazing plots that are far from cliché or repetitive.
A series where female characters are key part of the story, strong, independent and fierce.
I absolutely adore the fact that there's not one woman in this show whining, acting weak, crying for help and asking to be rescued ( like the majority of female characters in c dramas)
So where this show is lacking? Well I am not sure how to explain it but it feels like the story and characters are way too complex and is not really well displayed and orchestrated.
Is it that the show needed more episodes so they could show better the backstories and evolution of everything? Maybe. But it's more likely to be the low budget production and maybe the direction and how it was produced.
So sometimes you will feel they rushed things and events like there's way too much information, details that you won't even understand ( like the political parts, past conflicts or characters that are just mentioned but they won't ever be on screen) and you wish they would spend more time building up that part of the story/relationship ( specially the romance between the main leads and how they fell in love from the beginning), and other times you will feel that the director drags things way to much and unnecessarily.
You will still get to see how beautiful, heartbreaking and thrilling the story is but at the same time the execution of some scenes and dialogues could have been 10000 times better.
Although it might seem like I am complaining or unhappy, it's quite the opposite, I truly believe this is an exceptional series, with a very good script and very entertaining. Just because I liked it so much I am critical and I just want to imagine how much better would this have been with more budget and better production.
Watch this rate gem, you won't regret it.