Compared to Ultimate Note and Tomb of the Sea, which both came out a few years later, it felt lacking. I greatly enjoyed UN and TotS. This adaptation...not so much.

I thought Yang Yang did a great job as Zhang Qiling; however, it was not my favorite performance of his. Futhermore, I enjoyed the actor who played as Zhang Qiling in UN and TotS better. But, I believe this has more to do with the screenwriting, etc. than it does with the actors. Though, I do want to note that I did not care for the actor who played Pangzi (Fatty) at all. For him, I don't know what happened but his character was annoying AF and detracted greatly from my overall enjoyment. It might have been bad acting or a bad script. Maybe both. Nevertheless, I can't think of a polite way to express how much I disliked him...

As for the pacing, it felt rushed and jumpy--almost as if they had to tried to cram a bunch of information into just 10 episodes, resulting in a subpar product. It should have been longer, because many things remainder unanswered or not properly dealt with. And the scenes/answers that it did have, didn't have enough oomph to really make an impression.

Honestly, I watched Un and TotS before this and found that this wasn't even necessary for my understanding of the storyline. If I had watched this adaptation first, I wouldn't have bothered watching the others and might have missed out. So just know that you won't miss anything if you watch UN and TotS. ^_^

I'm on episode six now and seriously pondering whether or not I'll drop it. Probably will.