The Legend of Hao Lan

I love this cdrama-mdrama the characters show atypical love story and what it means to presevere in times of turmoil and no way out. All of the good characters they introduce all have their charm, wit and endearing quality about them. The only "evil" characters the one that last an impression on me was Empress Dowager of Zhao emperor and the Han concort showed they were more than just lovers but helped the emperor. The only sad part about this drama and ALL historical dramas is you shouldn't get yourself attached to any of the good characters like the supporting characters who helped the leads escape by sacrificing their own lives cause it just doesn't feel right. I'm 50 episodes in and they got rid of majority of the villains in the show except for one and this one is like a fester that just wont be gone! It's the Empress Dowagers daughter and her own jealousy mixed with her cold upbringing makes her an "evil" character that I find hard to feel sorry for. She just continues to mess up Hao Lan and Yiren and BuWeis life!! Her jealousy completely envelopes her and unlike the other evil characters she never leaves! The writers keep writing her in!! But overall the show in my opinion has wit, tenderness, humor and complexity. It's my favorite right now I've binged watched and I just want to find out the ending hoping the writers don't kill off my faves cause that would be heart wrenching!!

I was reluctant to let go of the characters from Story of Yanxi Palace and was hoping The Legend of Haolan would sate said longing. WRONG!

I understand this was an adaptation of true events which meant the writers and creators were restricted in what could be changed, however, the plot was needlessly dragged out with each episode seemingly a reoccurrence of the previous one. Li Hao Lan, the titular character, was played by one of the best Chinese actresses yet even she couldn't breathe life into such a mundane character who was 1-D and completely inept at palace schemes. Time and time again, she's framed for some crime and is saved by either of the two male leads and obviously, this got old very quickly. The actors were hampered by the bad script and nothing could save the series from being just slightly above average.

Jinyan Wu is the Kristen Stewart of China, dull, expressionless, and for some reason all the men in the series are madly in love with her. The script is terrible, full of conveniences and characters taking meaningless actions.

The series is supported by the magnificent costumes and excellent actors (except the protagonist).

Yuan Nie in many moments maintains the series with his charisma and Jing Ning created a very interesting character who is cruel and wonderful at the same time.

It had everything to be a memorable series, but the terrible script and dull protagonist ruined the series.

But in the last episodes the series becomes terrible, boring, almost unwatchable.

The shooting scene is very beautiful, the actor's costume is also beautiful, and the heroine is very smart

Soooo boring and it's worse than Yanxi Palace, the storyline was all about some boring war, failed attempts to escape for several time. So boring hrmm