This show has an identity crisis. It doesn’t know if it wants to be a romance, a fantasy, a palace intrigue, or a historical drama. So it tries to be all of them. What we get is a disjointed mess. Elements are picked up, then forgotten, only to pop back in random places. To be fair, it’s extremely difficult to blend more than two different genres. Very few drama can manage it successfully.

The best way to watch this show is to focus on the romance and tune out everything else. The love story is easily the strongest element here.

The show wants to you think that it’s a love triangle plot, but it really is not. Andy Chen is credited as one of the two male leads, but he is more like a second lead in terms of screen time and character growth. He's just eye candy here. The real male lead is Peng Guanying. The romance is a hate-slowly-turned-into-love progression. This never gets old because there are so many variants the writers can do with it. And this variant is a good one, playing on the strengths of both Peng Guanying and Zhang Hanyun: he is super alpha, and she super cute. It’s very rewarding to watch Yuwen Yong soften towards Qingsuo, and her slowly giving in and allowing herself to fall in love again. With so much time devoted to building this relationship, the ending is just plain ridiculous. There was no foreshadowing, just “bam, we have to throw this in to be historically accurate.” Again, this is what you get for trying to blend too many genres.

The costumes are beautiful and intricate, albeit a little over-the-top. So much so that they get in the way of the actors and make things awkward. There are some scenes where Qingsuo can’t properly embrace her man because her headdress could take out his throat.

I recommend this series, but with discriminate use of your fast forward button.