This is a very entertaining Chinese period drama about a lot of very beautiful people with anger management issues. The general treatment of women is pretty dreadful, although I assume it is more or less historically accurate. I love the strong and fierce heroine. Some people may not. When anybody, no matter how powerful, lies, cheats, and manipulates others to hurt her or those she loved, she, um, lies, cheats and manipulates to thwart them or exact revenge. There are two parallel love stories, both involving her. I liked the way one of them developed and was resolved. The other, well, let’s just say that repeatedly threatening to kill you is an interesting courtship technique. The costumes and sets are breathtaking and the music was well done.

I did have issues with a couple of things. In a drama full of great villains, the two biggest villains were too over the top for me. The only thing Consort Gao lacked was a mustache to twirl while hissing, “Curses, foiled again!,” and I got very very tired of the other major villain’s narrow-eyed plotting look, until he started overdoing the pop-eyed crazy look. I also thought that the way the teflon heroine keeps sliding free of consequences (even when others are on to her) sometimes stretches credulity. But I neverthless found myself cheering her on every time she won and had an adversary dragged away to be caned or executed. Because good people are shoved aside or die forlorn deaths in this drama, it's much better to be bad instead.