WON'T WATCH AGAIN/CHINESE

All 8 stars are meant as 10 full stars for every part of this production except the writing.  The casting, acting and sets were brilliant...a hardy "well done" to everyone involved in these aspects.  

The writing left me groaning due to how incredibly unrealistic many parts of the plot were.  This is coined as a romance/drama.  I would coin it as an "in your dreams" compilation of fantasy and fairytale...and not in a good way.

That women are portrayed as pushovers aggravates me to no end.  If the guy annoys her enough she will cave and go back to him, regardless of his actions?  It also drives me mad that men are portrayed in a way that presents them as children who only consider their own feelings and not those of the person they claim to love.

Also, how is it that an educated man like the cardiologist (job/career is irrelevant except to denote him) would go from being in love with someone with such a keen mind as the female lead, to a 12 year old child trapped in an adult's body?  What would they talk about at dinner, his cases, her colouring book entries for the day? GROAN!  This entire series says that it's okay to stalk someone if you really love them.  Insert more groaning here.

Sorry for the rant, keep in mind that I'm old and have a very different perspective on life as well as relationships because of experience.

A younger demographic will not see what I do, nor be affected by the cliche boxes that all forms of media put us into, thus they will likely enjoy this.  

I don't want to deter anyone from watching this series, I just want to share my opinion as a geezer for subsequent geezers.

Childish, immature, over-the-top, cliche...ugh.

If it weren't for the writing, the crap dubbing and all of the acting except the ML, this would have been worth watching all the way through the first time and a possible re-watch.  I skipped at least half of the episodes because of cliche character behaviours (which suck the intelligence and logic out of any production) and the dubbing.

As far as the actors go, I can only lay a tiny bit of the load of the blame on them, they didn't write the script and who can know how well they acted when the dubbing is so painfully, well, painful.

I did like the music of the intro theme song enough that I actually noticed it...which I usually don't.   It had a logical progression throughout that did well to drag me into a sense of an arduous journey ahead.  I think the tune had the potential to leave a much greater impact on viewers had it been given the power that it hints of.  I am only commenting on the tune, I didn't read any of the lyrics, so I can't speak for them.

25 minutes into the first episode I had to stop.   I was dumbfounded by the ridiculousness of the writing.  Already, laden with cliche character types, childish and pointless.   I can't even bring myself to skip episodes to see if it has any capacity for redemption.

Bah!  I am so angry at the writers and everyone else in the chain of command who allowed them to destroy the credibility of this production, as this story had the potential to be intelligent and fluid.  

The initial FL's character drew me in and held me to this story...I spent the rest of the series waiting to see her true self emerge through the 2nd FL...she didn't.  Any similarities they shared were no different than those that two strangers would coincidentally share.

Were it me in charge of this mess, I'd have used the initial FL for both and employed a talented FX team for prosthetics and make-up to alter her initial appearance and let her true self be presented through the rest of the production.

The Queen-Empress...whatever...were there two people writing her character...was it one person with a split personality?  How does someone who is, on the one hand, written as intelligent then in the very next breath will behave like an irrational, emotionally driven tween?

ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!

This had the potential to be something brilliant, however, the dubbing is void of, well, everything.   Come ON China, let the talent in your countrymen shine instead of undermining their ability at every turn.  

I would have enjoyed this series if it weren't for how the FL's mother is written,  she's a narcissistic tyrant.  She sucks all the intelligence out of every scene she is in...thanks writers for once again being lazy and defaulting to the never welcome rage-inducing cliches.

I couldn't make it through the first episode.  10 minutes in we were already into the hell bound cliche train; tyrannical matriarch, conniving older relatives, spoiled cousins, nonsensical  scenarios with strangers,  and a severe lack of intelligence in the writing.   

Oh, I really wanted this to be good as I usually enjoy the productions the male lead participates in...I tried for 8 episodes before I just couldn't anymore.   It's just a string of nonsensical behaviours and dialogue that often don't have a common ground with each other from one behaviour/breath to the next.  The ML is written like two separate people within the same body....there is no other way to explain how someone that is originally presented as intelligent and kind, can turn into a violent emotionally driven twat in the span of a thought.  His flip from helicopter boyfriend to tyrant is illogical in the context of the story.

And even more sadly, the token mean girls...why? 

I can't knock the acting, they all did well considering the shite script they were given.  All stars of for them and them alone.

Another production that is just a compilation of random sentences and events.  Intelligent writing is not one of the ingredients.  

Intern wants to become a full time correspondant so live on air she emotionally and quite immaturely brings up the past between her and the guy she's interviewing and then blames her boss for using that and causing the guy grief???

I'm done.

Too many cliches for me.   Without the overbearing mother, the whiney women, and the other nasties, I would have enjoyed a well written script about a contract marriage even though it is such a worn out plot.

A lot of talking, without anything intelligent or relevant being said.  

Female characters that are incredibly immature and annoying.

Actions/ scenes that make less sense than a platypus.

Cringy dubbing.

All stars go toward the actors and the crew members that support them, they did the best they could with the crap they were given.  Every other participant in the chain of the production gets a big fat zero.

FINAL EDIT:

I've watched it all now,  it is REALLY good if you ffwd through the three whack jobs, or if you're not old and grumpy and have a freakishly high tolerance for stupid, over the top and the criminally insane.   As an aside, I had no trouble following the plot even with all the skipping I did.

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FIRST IMPRESSION:

Dammit, I wanted this to be good.   I thoroughly enjoy the leads and most of the story.  HOWEVER,  I skip through all scenes that have the ex-boyfriend, and the 'best friend' and the inspectors daughter. 

So, lets talk about the FL's bestie, shall we.  Hey, we are best friends forever, I'll do anything for you, I'll even tell your ex-boyfriend everything about you, even though he drove a knife through your heart x amount of years ago and totally ghosted you.  OH, and I'll also switch out prescribed sleeping pills with ones your ex-boyfriend gave me and take his word for it that they are safe and that he is only concerned about your well being.  Yep, I'm that kind of bestie. WTF?  Also writers of FL...I'm human and I've had best friends...I'm absolutely sure that if one of them changed out my prescription...they'd not be my friends anymore, ever.   I am the ONLY one that gets to play with my life, NO exceptions!  

It's also disappointing that the female lead doesn't tell the ex to feck off, he's stalking her,  you can see that she feels uncomfortable/awkward around him, yet doesn't stop him????  Come on writers...if you're going to do shit like that you have to make him NOT be such a blatant psychopath.

ANNNNDDDD then we have the ML's brat cousin/sister/whatever.  REALLY????

Because of these three wackos, this series will be very short for me, I just started watching it a few hours ago and I'm already on episode 16.   

Everything else is ace.

This had the potential to be enjoyable,  but I'm only on episode 3 and I've already had my fill of the cliche unjustifiably spiteful and conniving  coworker...ugh!

I didn't have high hopes for this drama because of the age of it, but I really didn't expect it to be this bad scientifically/medically.  

Considering how much cringing I did as a layman, I can only imagine how awful this was for anyone trained in any of the sciences involved with forensic investigation.  

On the upside, the actors and acting are fantastic.   All the writing that has nothing to do actual science is quite good.  Seven stars to be counted as 10 for acting and everything not in the scientific writing chain of command.

Unfortunately, 3 episodes of cringing did me in, I have to drop this.   If scientific facts/practices aren't important to you, you'll probably love this series, so I still recommend giving it a go.

The youngins will like this, I think.  For me it's a little too silly/slap sticky.  I only made it a 3rd of the way through before I had to stop.
 
I've got nothing negative to say about the actors, so a well done to the casting department.

The story is fine, for the most part the writing is also, however, we have yet another meddling bestie that 'was only trying to help', and hurts everyone involved, but that's okay...sigh.  Also included are the seemingly mandatory rotten parents that don't care at all about their child or how their lack of action destroys the life of someone else's child...more sighs.

I watched the first few episodes, then skipped to the middle, then skipped to 21-22.   I couldn't watch the in between parts.

I'm not disappointed that I watched (what I did) this once, but I won't watch it again.

I think this is a series for a much younger audience, so I highly recommend to the under 20 crowd.

I dropped this within the first 10 minutes.   The dubbing is dreadfully out of sync and absolutely no effort was made to disguise the fact that it was done with one mic in a sound booth.

The acting is better suited to a soap opera than period drama.  I'm not faulting the actors since they don't have the final say in what is and is going to make it to the final product.

I started skipping episodes at episode 3 and finally gave up at episode 21.  There were a lot of filler events and dialogue, and a lot of what I found to be unnecessary side plots and intrigue.

I'm on episode 16 and considering dropping this.  It has spurts of mature and intelligent writing but its worth is undermined by immature and overacting characters.   There are also a lot of nonsensical behaviours and events...quite a lot...sigh.

The CGI horses are cringy and most of the dubbing  reeks of one mic for all in a cozy sound booth that is frequented by children given adult parts to read.

I'll report back if I find the courage to go further.  
UPDATE.
So, I decided to grit my teeth and fight my way through this series.  Here and there I had to skip 2 or 3 episodes at a time,  but I made it.   I still stick to my initial judgement.  

Stars off for the nonsensical writing and the horrible dubbing.  A bit of a star off for the cringy CGI.

I wanted to like this because of all the potential it showed, however, at 12 episodes, I can't take it anymore.   The writing runs smoothly for a period of time, then the writers decided that some action or event must be inserted 'here' to set the foundation of something in  the future..., so a question will be asked or a statement made that is COMPLETELY out of context.

It's like two engineers discussing the pros and cons of steel I-beams vs composite beams for a project when one of them randomly asks the other if he likes blue socks...TAF?!  This series is polluted with this behaviour....sigh!

The dubbing is also pretty cringy in places.

I really think this could have been brilliant...it was a waste of an opportunity.

Nope.  Crap dubbing wrecks everything.

Ahhhh, this was quite childish.  If you're fond of adults that behave like spoiled children,  whose sole reason for living is to step on the people around them, who don't have and original thought...ever, who have jobs because they know someone and get to keep their job because they know someone but never have to actually work...because they know someone...and a crap load of other wonderful character traits/behaviours...then this is the show for you.

The female lead is written as intelligent but then behaves like a spurned teenager when she hears things from others about the ML rather than going clarifying with him.  She doesn't do that with anyone else...wtaf?  

I made it to episode 9...I can't take anymore.   It really is a shame as this, in the right hands, could have been written as both fun and intelligent.

Same repetitious crap...different title.   I didn't even make it through episode 1.  

The actors are fine and did well considering the tripe they were given as a script.   The 5 stars are for them and everyone NOT involved in the writing or the okaying of it.

First, I love the FL, she is one of the most endearingly expressive actors I've had the opportunity to watch.   Her innate talent for humour is priceless and a lovely change from, well, everyone else.  

That being said,  I only made it to episode 15 before I had to stop to save my sanity.   There is an awful lot of childish behaviour from every age bracket...sigh...also a lot of behaviour that was logically contrary to how any given character's persona was portrayed to be.   Crap was just thrown in to accommodate what was coming, with complete disregard for what had and was happening...why???? WHY????

I stopped at episode 15, but I didn't watch all 15, I skipped four or five episodes along the way...this is a very slow production with a lot of unnecessary filler.

I don't get all the high reviews either @deuxeve_689 (Viki reviewer).  You made it to episode 10, you are stronger than me, I only made it to the first few minutes of episode 2.

I found it very choppy, like a school play put on by 6 year olds.  There wasn't any flow to the story either.

Episode 2, I'm done.   The ML's first manager is dying so she sells his contract to someone else without telling him, also doesn't tell him that she's dying, also doesn't want anyone else to tell him where she is or that she's dying...He finds her and she's a complete bitch to him to drive him away so he's not hurt by her dying????  Because being cruelly driven away by someone you look at as a mother is a much more bearable knife wound to the heart than losing them to death??  But that's okay, because she can die happy knowing that he will be in the caring hands of the FL... WTAF writers...wtaf??