The drama went from solid 9 to 5.5, the plot went from entertaining cunning politics and schemes to repetitive ploys as if everyone got repetitively hit by the white truck of doom and got amnesia every few episodes, deciding to create the same schemes over and over again, for 54 episodes. Not to mention the IQ of the characters going from 150 to -10 as the drama progressed.

You know a show is full of clownery when a character that just has been tortured is being asked “Is it very uncomfortable?”...

I think the most disappointing aspect of the show were all the female characters. All the lead ones, except for Wei Young, had one focus and one goal only - to get the guy they love to love them back. All of them were scheming, plotting, risking their families’ and their own lives for dudes. How pathetic is that? Some characters were literally identical - copy paste. While at first they seemed to show some diversity of personalities, the second half reduced them all to just obstacles on the female lead’s path.

Every few episodes I tuned in for another “Who framed Wei Young this time?” game. By like 5th time it should be obvious that whenever someone accuses Wei Young for anything, she is innocent. The fact that even characters that did not even have a chance to meet her, and she did not affect in any major way wanted to kill her became a comedy of itself.

While I loved the female lead at first, the same traits that made me appreciate her, later became a reason for my dislike. Being patient, more reactive than proactive, acting low-key, never attacking first made sense in the early episodes - she had no power and no allies. Not being hot headed and thinking things through before jumping to action was smart at that time. Enough is enough though. When 90% of people around you want to see you dead, it’s high time to slowly eliminate them one by one, and not just react to what they try to do to you.

Male lead was a boring low-key psycho, who did some amazing job with gaslighting Wei Young in the last few episodes. There is close to nothing to say about him. He was supposed to be intelligent, good, noble, strong, empathetic, without flaws… boring?

I know a lot of people liked Tuo Ba Yu, but for me even he barely delivered as a character. Making his internal conflict more prominent would be better. I felt like with all his plans, he did not really risk that much when he took detours for personal reasons.

Since all the villains' motivations were either weak or boring, there was not that much thrills nor excitement. It’s obvious the female lead will not die 30 episodes before the drama ends, so all the life risking situations did nothing to me. For all the scheming, not that many people died and that’s a bummer.

That said, the drama for sure delivers in terms of acting. Tiffany Tang is a goddess in terms of looks and quite a talented actress. She did an amazing job acting as Li Wei Young. Sure, playing an 18 years old in your mid 30’ mid be a lot, but her performance was strong enough I did not even pay attention to how ridiculous that casting was age wise.

Production wise it has some amazing shots. Some locations they filmed at were breathtaking. There was quite a lot of work put into the details of the set designs. One thing I have to praise the show for is the make up - no one looked like a ghost with the foundation too shades too light cutting off when the neck starts.

Overall, the first 20-25 episodes were quite fun. The set up was strong enough, motivations of the characters clear. But then I got another 30-35 episodes of exactly the same thing. It was the same story told over and over again with few details changed. Instead of this person framing Wei Young for some crimes, it’s this person. How much of that can I take before I fall asleep?