N Whit

Episode 23 and I’m about to bail. Most of the acting is good—especially Bai Lu, who does a terrific job as a woman pretending to be a man. The costumes are gorgeous—I’m shocked they weren’t nominated for a major award. And it’s a interesting to learn about a period of Chinese history that I knew nothing about. But… there are way too many side stories. And the ML acts like an entitled, spoiled brat thro 23 episodes so far, with no character development at all. We’re apparently supposed to think that it’s cute when he throws temper tantrums, but that stopped being cute at about age 6 (if ever). And his self-centeredness is truly mind-blowing. Why would she ever, ever find his behavior appealing rather than just tolerating him? Meanwhile, the guy who I guess is supposed to be 2nd ML (She) is consistently kind, regularly helps her out, and is a decent human being. Of course she falls for him early on. Why would that change? I’ve realized that most reviews are written by people who made it thro every episode, so figured I’d add my 2 cents. I’m very disappointed that this script isn’t better, because it had so much promise.