Zhao Yao is a fun fantasy love xanxia drama where both leads belong to the dark or demon sect. The unconventional "good vs evil" plot challenges the idea of what is "good" and what is "evil" as the good guys are really the bad guys in this drama. The best thing about this drama is the sizzling chemistry between the two leads. What totally really drags it down is that it is littered with fillers - it should at best a 30-40 episode drama. That made me grumpy and is the main reason for the less high rating.

Zhaoyao (Bai Lu) the female lead is an unapologetic bad-ass she devil who falls for the Demon King's son Moqing/Li Chenlan (Xu Kai). Li Chenlan is imprisoned by his father until he can free him from the powerful evil demon force within him. Zhaoyao is raised in solitude by her grandfather; it is their sacred duty to guard Chenlan until the Demon King returns. Led by the powerful immortal Luo Mingxuan, the righteous sects decide to preemptively kill Chenlan before he can wreak devastation on the world. Instead, they accidentally free Chenlan and an injured Mingxuan is rescued by Zhaoyao, who becomes infatuated by his chivalry and righteousness. She is outraged when she discovers his plans to kill Chenlan and boldly rescues him, earning his undying love in the process. She is captured and tortured by the thwarted Mingxuan and her freedom comes at a devastating personal price. Enraged and disillusioned, Zhaoyao forms and builds up her own formidable Wanlu Sect that wreaks havoc on Mingxuan and his "righteous" sects and protects those persecuted by them.

While recovering a legendary sword, Chenlan accidentally releases a deadly force that kills Zhaoyao. Boy is she pissed!!! She returns as an angry, vengeful but much weakened spirit that is hell bent on killing Chenlan dead. By then, Chenlan is practically invincible and it further incenses her to discover he has taken over as the leader of the Wanlu sect. This man enjoys living dangerously - he is so besotted with Zhaoyao that he is amused by and even welcomes her efforts to alternately kill and/or seduce him. The best moments are all centered around their occasionally funny and wholly adorable interactions. He is totally putty in her hands and cannot deny even her most dangerous requests. The sparks literally fly between them and their body language and obvious affection for each other is mesmerizing. All the early to middle episodes of them falling in love were the best and totally re-watchable. Bai Lu's Zhaoyao is just simply phenomenal - she is fiery, fearless, impetuous, occasionally wicked and completely bewitching. She also really brings out the best in all of her co-stars. However, outside of Bai Lu and Xu Kai, the cast is rather dull and didn't to engage me. Two of the other main female characters have a tendency to wail, which always has me scrambling for the fast forward/mute button. Sigh! When will they get it that wailing, whiny and noisy female characters are a nuisance?

The second female lead in this drama plays Qin Zhiyan (Yan Xiao), whose body Zhaoyao shares in the first half of the show while she tries to reclaim her own. The two are polar opposites yet form a strong and cute friendship. I wasn't wowed by Yan Xiao's overall performance, she got too much airtime in the first 20+ episodes that her cuteness turned into boring/whiny. The editing is sloppy - it jumps ahead, flashes back and in some cases explains what happens much later. I would rewind thinking I missed something that gets explained much later on - like how Mingxuan was out of the blue in a sealed state by Zhaoyao. I have FOMO so I hate fast forwarding but there were too many flashbacks and boring conversations between the righteous sects. Both the female and male love rivals were total cliches - they each sought to win Chenlan/Zhaoyao's love by killing off their rival. Wow -such a time tested losing and deranged strategy. The other main antagonist Jiangwu was an immature and swaggering pest until he redeemed himself slightly at the end. There are also a bunch of forgettable side love stories. The pace overall is painfully slow.

This drama went downhill toward the end. It didn't help that they randomly (and unnecessarily) killed off secondary characters. The ending was a bit rushed, garbled, messily executed and a bit wishy-washy when it could have and should have finished very strong. What is truly baffling is the countless wasted filler moments that could have been cut so that the ending could have been done properly.

I still recommend this but wouldn't bother to watch the whole thing. It wouldn't be a bad idea to drop it after Zhaoyao and Chenlan get together somewhere in the early 40s. Fast forward with impunity every time one of the two excellent main leads is not on. I will be looking out for more dramas with them (together would be great) and especially Bai Lu.