I want to start by commending the casting director because they did such a fantastic job.
Aside from the script/plot (although I agree it went a little bit sideways in the last 7-10eps) which was stellar, the success of this drama IMO stems from the fact that the casting director and director of this drama didn’t cast any popular “idol” and casted people that can actually act. What a refreshing breath of fresh air to watch a drama where nobody is conscious of their angles and trying to look good instead of actually acting naturally. I totally understand that dramas want to make money and they have to cast this idols and most of them can’t act worth a dime, even to save their lives, but since they are popular and bring in lots of traffic and have fans that will defend their acting until their last breath and swear to the heavens that we haven’t seen acting like that in history and if you dare state otherwise, you are thereafter branded a hater/anti (unfortunately a lot of reviewers fear the attack from the aforementioned mobs so they keep quiet instead of rocking the boat and give their honest reviews if the drama sucked or the acting sucked), this directors are unfortunately forced to work with this very good looking but extremely average actors. Also not just acting, the combination of average and recycled scripts are also part of the problem.
I honestly commend all the actors for a job well done, I can’t emphasize enough what an awesome and stellar job you all did, it was incredible to watch, I want to specially shoutout to the most outstanding character to me and that is Princess Yang Ying aka Prince Li, the Justice this young actress did to her role will go down in CDramaLand history IMO, she was spectacular, she was believable at every point of her journey, I was left in awe everytime she graced the scene, I can’t wait to watch more from her in the future, honorable mention to Yu ShiShan, Alen Fang what a fabulous job you did with that character (and that shimmy was definitely on point)
I wish the last few episodes weren’t so rushed and was fleshed out as the beginning of the drama, it felt like they just threw everything at us all at once but all that being said, IMO this drama is still definitely heads and shoulders above the dramas of its kind this year as at the time of this airing.
My only complain would be in the romance department, if felt like they gave us a lot without actually giving us anything, the romance started out well but it kinda frizzled out as they became a couple officially and this was honestly the worst part of the drama
All in all, I highly recommend.