Go in with very low expectations, and be pleasantly surprised, seriously.

It starts as a very cheesey, silly series and actually grows some serious oomph & ambitition. SFX are a bit dated, and the music gets a little repetitive and obvious, but the cast is stellar and carry off the story, which grows more teeth than you expect.

Hu Ge definitely carries this show, but the rest keep up fairly well with him. I didn't loathe all the female characters, and was glad at least one pair had a happy ending. However Hu Ge definitely seems to like his tortured hero characters! To be fair, he does angst so *very* prettily.

If you can survive the silliness of the first few eps, it will be well worth it. This series punches higher than is immediately obvious from the first eps, and production values.