If you like your drama served wrapped in three layers of deception and steeped in a scheming sauce… Bon appetit!

This will be short, because I already talked myself out on the comments page. I'd just like to summarise quickly why this drama caught and held my attention despite it not being my usual genre:

1. Overabundance of creativity and bold ideas. Honestly, not a single boring cliché on the horizon. Every character has a distinct personality and style. The action takes place in an interesting fictional city where nothing is what it seems. The storyline packs an insane amount of clever schemes and challenging plot points, balanced with funny or unexpectedly moving moments.

2. Original premise/script with a host of very well-written characters. Two things about the writing really stood out to me:
1) logical and undisturbed flow despite people constantly lying and messing with each other, ever changing loyalties and multiple schemes playing out at the same time.
2) three-dimensional characters and complex believable relationships. The writers let us learn about their pasts/goals/hopes/mistakes/regrets in little bits and pieces over the course of the 24 episodes. It really ropes you in and gets you emotionally engaged by degrees.

3. Dark humour<3 mainly courtesy of one inspirational, stylish, clever, audacious, mercurial, murderous maniac named Liang Long!

4. Keeping my mind and emotions fully engaged! I'm emphasising this as it's pretty rare for me - my mind loves to wander and the rest is cynical to the bone;)
This drama moves at an insanely fast pace that barely allows you to blink, in case you miss sth. At the same time, keeping it real when it comes to people, their struggles and life stories unexpectedly squeezed a lot of genuine emotion out of me. Especially since most of the characters' arcs get tied up in a way that packs an emotional punch.

5. Top-tier direction and cinematography - a great mix of fresh ideas and experience. I liked the mind-gaming narration with contradictory hints, that kept challenging my perception of who each character was and what they're capable of. Loved the amazing locations, spectacle-oriented action sequences and hyperkinetic editing. The story flows pretty seamlessly for the first half …by the time the intensity picks up and the plot goes on a mind-bending trip you're already too deep to back out;))

Tbh I'm not sure if this deserves a 9 but that's what I'm giving it anyway - and not just for the fact that I took two hours off work to watch the finale …though how many dramas make you want to do that?;)
I was wondering if I should mention some flaws too. Because there were parts (few) that felt anticlimactic or just plain frustrating… But I don't really care about those at the moment. So let this be my most biased review to date:))

PS: Endings in c-dramaland suck, just saying...