My Divine Emissary (2024)

ML/FL chemistry fell flat, and story loses focus about halfway through.

This held my attention well and had me interested until about halfway through, and ML and FL have their first kiss. I had been hoping this was a sweet slow-burn, where the attraction ramps up as the story moves along, but it was clear from that first kiss scene, that there is no chemistry between the actors. This appears - to me - to be the fault of the FL, but honestly there's nothing coming from either side that feels like attraction or passion. ML looks like maybe he could act more passionate if it were a different FL. But FL looks like she can't convey attraction, no matter what ML would have been cast. She has a limited range of emotion that she can act. There are some emotions that she does act out well. Sadness, kindness, humor, she is very good at that. But to me, she shouldn't really be doing anything involving kiss scenes.

Because the chemistry fell flat, the drama lost my attention, and I had to really slog through the back half of it to finish it.

Which is a shame, because I was really liking the way they interpreted the story of splash splash love, I liked the problem-solving stuff involving the irrigation and that kind of thing.

At the core of any romance story, should be two people who can convince the viewer that they are actually attracted to eachother. Without that, the romance falls apart, and the story loses its soul. All I got from these two was a comfy plantonic "buddies" vibe, that worked well for the humorous scenes, but not for the actual "romance" part of the romance story.

6.5 because of the way this drama fell off for me at the halfway point. In retrospect, I'd say it was not worth my time. For me, 7's and above are for things that at least I thought were worth watching ONCE. This wasn't.

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You don't know me yet, so I will wait patiently until you can recognize me | Satisfying Ending!

I would like to start my review by telling everyone that this drama is all worth it! I will admit that the first few episodes got me thinking "Let's not take this seriously as it's a fictional idol drama after all" however the more it goes on, the more engrossing it became; and from then on, I find myself binge watching it until I ended up finishing it even ahead of my expected deadline.

I also want to take this opportunity to encourage people to just give it a try and ignore all the negative comments you have read on MDL so far because I assure you that this story is more than those negative feedbacks; and that this show belongs to those dramas who started rough but ended to be one of the most satisfying among its peers. It's like the 'Dark Horse' of the typical tropey time travel idol drama simply because it was able to elevate itself from the disastrous and ridiculous path into a level where it can be considered as one of the better—best even, in the genre it categorizes in.

If I were to describe this drama in two (2) words, I think it would be "Unexpectedly satisfying"— First, I have never expected to like, more so, love this drama even a little bit and I was actually on the 'gradually hating' side along with everyone else who already have prejudice and got little to no expectation of this story and is just watching it hoping that the one (1) positive review I read on MDL is accurate about this drama being good. I can even say that I just took a gamble by watching this drama because that specific review got my curiousity, and I'm just glad I did. Because if I didn't, I would have missed this enjoyable and lovely show. Second, the sudden improvement of the storytelling/writing. This drama started really rough...like the introduction is absurd and the following episodes are unreasonable that I even reached a point where I thought of giving it a 7/10 rating right away because it doesn't conform to any of the basic ethics, etiquettes and customs of the ancient chinese times and even though it stayed that way for almost half of the show I suddenly found myself getting more and more entertained and excited to watch the upcoming episodes to the point where I asked myself "What have changed?" and all I can think of is the sudden improvement and increase of quality when it comes to how the drama became comical in an ingenious way. It's like they hired a different writer in the middle of the filming/script writing which made the story direction become more innovative and interesting as the story progresses.

I also just wanna add up that their silly yet amusing antics made this drama extra entertaining to watch. The Zumba dance exercise is my favorite of them all. Like who would even think of incorporating that into a historical drama? to the extent of making the Empress Dowager dance to it and technically breaking some of the etiquettes in the palace? Not to mention how witty her other ideas are with her phone. Like the voice recording, the calculator stuff, camera tricks and even taking pictures using her polaroid. They really went above and beyond their limit with this drama and although it can be considered as an impertinent move, I just unconciously found myself enjoying it more and more. Maybe because at that time I have already accepted that this is not a serious historical drama and I should just enjoy and absorb all the positivity and laughter I can get from it.

Another important factor this drama was able to highlight is the Parental love and how often children misunderstood their parents guidance into something restrictive and confining. I appreciate how this story showcases the hardwork and selflessness of our parents just to keep us safe and sound. I think this is a must watch for teenagers for them to realize the painstaking their parents have to go through for them to live confortably and worry free. I'm genuinely hoping for more people to discover and watch this sily yet wonderful show.

Lastly is the ending... I'm honestly overjoyed and flabbergasted (in a good way) on how they concluded this drama. I extremely appreciate how they gave us an entire episode and a half (1½) of the characters' life back in the modern world and not just some sneak peek but a whole flashback of what had happened, the progression of their relationship and even a reunion of the whole Gang! This drama truly flattered me in the most special and fulfilling way.

P.S. Its sweet how Qi Yan (ML) waited for Li Meng Meng (FL) to finally remember him. This made me realize that patience and diligence will always be paid off. It also reminded me that "Time" is a story teller and that everyone has their own turn and chance in life. So we must wait patiently, endure and persevere until time aligns with our destiny.

Story - 9.5, Some people may raise their eyebrows but Hell! I don't care! This drama is certainly not perfect and has a lot of flaws in it (specially during the first 1-10 episodes) however what I enjoyed and love about this is that they're able to improve as the story progresses and although some of the scenes may seem jumpy, they will never let any part of it unaddressed. And even when most of the ridiculous scenes on the first half threw me off; I just really found myself vibing and cackling to it as time passes by. I'd say it's on the mentality and your view of the show and on how you would treat it. Like...will you consider it as a serious historical drama or will you categorize it accordingly as an Idol time travel drama? You decide!

Acting/Cast - 9.0, for the major roles I'd say I am greatly surprised on how good they are in executing their characters and delivering their emotions and movements. I really thought they are all ready to take on some serious roles on TV dramas. The supporting roles on the otherhand needs more polishing while the Minor roles needs to be send to the acting class immediately. They're so bad I wanna kick them off of the screen. Lol

Music - 10, I'm in love with the BGMs! Their refreshing and lovely tune made me feel so comfortable at the same time giddy. It also helped me go through those outrageous scenes as well as feel the joy and emotions of the lovely and heavy scenes.

Rewatch Value - 9.5, Honestly, I wouldn't mind watching this again. I have watched a lot of Idol historical dramas for the past few years and I would dare say that this is one of the best among all of them.

Overall - 9.5, It's really funny cause I initially wanted to rate it as 7-8 but then after countless consideration, I have decided that this is the most accurate rating I could give this drama. One of my biggest deciding factor is the ending and how the story captured my attention on the 2nd half of the show. They really went 360° in terms of putting quality and structure to the story.

IF you find my review helpful please let me know.

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