this was one the best Chinese or rather the best historical drama ive ever seen. the soundtrack, costumes, filmography are amazing but that aside the plot had me seriously hooked. she goes through multiple character developments and every character has their own story and challenges. and in the case of who is the true villain, it's up to your own interpretation but it has shown the true essence of wu zetian, in all her glory. her rise to power, her motivation, her thoughts....fan bing bing was not acting as wu zetian. she'd BECOME her, which I feel is a truly great feat considering how little is known about her character and she showed how she was both consistent and inconsistent at once.
it's not just fan bingbing tho, aarif Rahman played his role to the last detail and considering how he was up against wu zetian, the last strongest ruler and that too female, this id consider one of his best works.
the acting aside, this is really informative and helped me ace my history exam. it teaches u a hell lot about politics and how ppl move abt and what, makes them tick. everyone has their own motivation, strength and most importantly their one fatal achille's heel. since the Chinese dynasty was one of the biggest and arguably the strongest empire ever, seeing how a different culture works, how their harems and courts were maintained, was absolutely fascinating. its been a few months since I watched this, but it is still vivid in my mind.
final thoughts? .....You should definitely watch it.

overall rating: 9.5/10 (0.5 subtracting bc of some inconsistencies in the last few eps bc of censorship issues or smth)