One of my all-time favorite dramas. This is the best script ever!
Everything is absolutely perfect except the lighting. There's a lot of olive tunes to the drama making the actors look not as pretty which is incredible because there are a ton of beautiful actors in here.

For those people that may not like this drama for whatever reason, may missed all the essence of Chinese language word play. There's so much comedy but all lost in translation. Even the names are clever. Sadly, I can only understand 80% of it. I so wish I can read the actual book but since I can't, the drama itself is perfect.

Some Fun Word plays:
Fan Jian - Fan Xian's Dad's name actually sounds like "being bitchy"
Chen Ping Ping - A very girly name for the master schemer
Nei Ku - Treasury sounds exactly like underwear
There are countless of these.

Unique on every level.
1. Political scheming isn't all that interesting to me but it's part of every costume drama you can't avoid. However, it is interesting here because all the characters are all multi-dimensional.
2. Characters. You can't find any weakness here. Well written characters along with perfect casting.
Mini Fan Xian - I could've used extra episode of him. He's so cute and expressive.
Fan Xian - Everybody loves Fan Xian. I am 100% biased here because the actor has been one of all-time favorites.
Wang Qi Nian - The side kick endless funny punch line delivery guy
Teng Zi Jing - The assassin in the beginning that formed such strong bromance
Fan Si Zhe - Did not know the actor is actually a standup comedian but I can see why
I literally loved almost every character big or small. Shows how brilliant the script writer is.
3. Level of literacy
There's a scene of Fan Xian reciting all the famous poems. (no I never got to that level in my Chinese) but it's amazing the actor reciting all those poems in one breath. People with high Chinese literacy will surely appreciate this.