Mai King

Again, this is one of the shows where the reviews were so positive that I was surprised to have a different opinion. (In most cases, my impression of a show is the same as the majority's, so I don't post, but in cases where I have a markedly different take, such as this one, I figure that a different viewpoint might be useful). The overall story is not all that unusual -- very much like Three Lives Three Worlds in that the characters encounter each other in distinctly different situations, and that the general story is a love story. However, the difference is that this show seems to have main characters that are so irredeemably selfish that they actually seem no better than the villains. SPOILERS AHEAD Every trauma experienced by the main characters was brought on by themselves. Where in other shows, people are foolish enough to hide information that when unexpectedly revealed, produces great harm, in this show, they're hiding information that they plan to reveal anyway, so they cause great harm and they KNOW that they will cause great harm but do it anyway. Tian Qi was willing to sacrifice all of the worlds to save one person, and we're supposed to feel sorry for him for being villified? (Not to mention, if all the worlds are destroyed, the person he wanted to save would have been destroyed too, so exactly how was he helping?) Hou Chi made thousands if not millions of people vulnerable to harm for the chance to help a single person, and we're supposed to feel sorry for her when she's punished or when her love disappears? Everyone knew the evil in Wu Huan but did nothing to stop her at the earliest stages when she could have been stopped, allowing her to go on killing sprees for centuries. Bai Jue/Qing Mu could have spent a happy year (perhaps more) with Shang Gu/Ho Chi had he just been honest with her. Instead, he chooses to hide information from her and then disclose it after his death, ensuring that she feels maximum pain while he's alive (from his shunning) and after his death (by knowing that he was making a sacrifice for her). Being apart served no purpose. It made Shang Gu/Ho Chi no more safe, nor did it help him to defeat the villain. It seemed to do nothing other than to dramatize the pain she felt when he eventually revealed the truth. All of the "heroes" of the show seem to be enormously self-serving and the drama manufactured, which killed off any charm that the show otherwise would have had.

I'm a little puzzled by all of the rave reviews, so am posting an opposing opinion. I will note at the outset, though, that it's possible that the one I'm watching (Netflix) just has a poor English translation, which leads to a negative review. (This is just a guess because some of the action doesn't make sense with the English translation.) I made it through ep 12 before giving up. Wuxian, as a teen, was so selfish and immature that it was hard to see why anyone would befriend him. And the characters would often contradict themselves from one episode to the next; while this is common in long series, where it's possible the writers just forgot what they wrote several seasons ago, this would happen between one episode and the very next one. It happened so frequently that it was impossible to follow the story due to the illogic throughout. SPOILERS AHEAD Here are a few examples of the types of contradictions that made the show really illogical: 1. The Yin Iron is so secretive at the start that Lan Wangji's brother won't even share his suspicions with him until he discovers it himself. And yet, in the next two episodes, everyone is talking about it as if it's common information. (Frankly, it would have made more sense had it been common information at the start considering how many people were being harmed/killed; wouldn't it be better for everyone to know what the problem was and to help with the solution than to remain in the dark?) 2. The Lan clan is so strict on rules that they punish Wei Wuxian for breaking them (even before he was told what they were), and yet, the Wen attendees at the lecture break even more rules and physically harm the Lan people and they're let off with no punishment. 3. Wei Wuxian forces Lan Wangji into breaking the Lan rules such that they're beaten several hundred times. Why on earth would Lan Wangji trust Wuxian (or even get anywhere near Wuxian) when he has proven to be so self-interested that he's willing to overcome someone's else's will to do what he wants? (And for those who say that he tried to take responsibility afterwards, this doesn't absolve him of forcing someone else to do something against their will). 4. The Wen clan seems to suddenly be all powerful starting around episode 10, so much so that they were able to defeat every other clan easily and to force their children to attend their mandatory in-person meeting. First, if a clan is that strong, why didn't they just kill all the others and take over their territories? Second, if a clan is that strong, why didn't they use that force earlier? They knew Wangji had one of the pieces; they could have just killed him and taken it. 5. When attacked by the people controlled by the dancing statue, Wuxian threw up a golden mesh barrier when they broke through the doors. But not until they spent quite some time trying to block the doors. If he had this skill, why didn't he throw up the mesh at the start (and throw up multiple ones in succession if he was afraid that they would get through the first)? It seems that he has a tremendous amount of skill but the writers don't want him to use any of it until a fake struggle in advance. It all seems pretty pointless.

If I could divide this review into two parts, I'd give the first 11 episodes a 5 and the last 5 episodes a 1. The leads are both very good, especially considering that they were both relatively inexperienced at the time. Lee Ahn is charming and pretty hilarious in the moments with his "brother" Sung-Mo and friend Ji-Soo. But the back half of the show made no sense whatsoever, and what was frustrating is that it could have been so much more meaningful if they had taken more care to harmonize the two. So, for anyone who is open to ambiguous endings, I'd say to stop watching after ep 11. SPOILERS AHEAD: What made it so puzzling was that Sung-Mo's reasoning made no sense. If he wanted his father to get caught, on the theory that the bigger the crime, the more likely he was to get caught, he should have just let his father undertake the crime. After all, the explanation in the show was that Sung-Mo figured out what his dad's plan was after finding the dead body in the suitcase so just went again with the plan. But he could have, instead, just called 911 on the dead body. Or just let his dad commit the crimes he had planned. The second would have been pretty heartless, but much less so than the actions he eventually took. Or, more effectively, he could have just killed his father that night. Eliminate the threat directly, which seems to be the best option if he really was as emotionally stunted as the show tried to sell him as being. For a child to become a killer, and to set fire to an entire building, watch someone other than his father be jailed for the crime (though admittedly, he did try to right that wrong a couple of times) ruined a character in a way that did not move the show forward. It could have been handled much more effectively (even with the inexplicable killing turn of Sung-Mo in the apartment complex) by having Ahn successfully reading his brother in time to stop him and to catch his father. Without that type of development, the last 5 shows seem to be more about shock value than about the story or about the characters.