This review may contain spoilers
Great Premise but Quite Boring
OVERALL
It took me yearsss and one drama recommendation for me to watch this drama. The whole drama had such a great premise, even if these aren't ideas that we have not seen before. The characters had a good back story, and the fight scene from the beginning hooked me. However, the drama got boring quite fast. There was so much drag time that I was able to let my mind wander and think about all of the things that went wrong. I don't believe I will be continuing the second season. Not because of the change in the male lead, but because this season was quite disappointing. I am quite interested to see Sang Sang's character reveal, but with the lack of character development in S1, I doubt S2 could do any better. I think after hearing so many good things about Ever Night, I expected more, and I didn't get it.
Positive Points:
-There were a handful of great fight scenes that were well directed and edited
-Good premise for plot and characters
-Good cinematography and CGI
Negative Points:
-Lacked character development
-Lacked plot development
-Felt dragged out with 60 episodes
STORY
So much could have been done to the story to improve it. The issue could have been that we were given so many side characters and so many side stories. We had to learn about the Haotian, Tang Empire, the Academy, Demonic Cult, Xiling Immortal Shrine, etc. The integration of that many groups, their beliefs, and their rules for this overarching theme of "eternal night" didn't feel quite convincing. It wasn't weaved together into a way where I felt like certain groups, scenes, or even characters were necessary to drive the plot forward, but I had to sit there and watch so many scenes of it. I questioned a lot of the characters/groups and their importance for the drama A LOT. I feel like when I question things like that, that lowers my watching experience.
ACTING/CAST/CHARACTERS
I commend the two leads and any rookie actors/actresses in this drama because they worked alongside so many veterans. Not only that, the acting in here didn't felt too forced and was quite natural. I appreciated many characters in here and how they're not invincible even though they reached certain stages of cultivation. They don't always leave unscathed and don't always come off as untouchable.
Ning Que had a great character story on why he felt the need to cultivate and get revenge. His character was a well-written anti-hero underdog that was easy to like and root for. While I liked his character story, I hated how he had little to no character development. This made Ning Que my biggest issue in the drama as it lacked the umpf! and satisfaction I craved for in a main character for this type of drama setting. I feel like this was due to that it was written for the drama to have multiple seasons. Despite that, it made no sense to me why a particular sequence of events went down the way it did for him. Second Brother and everyone saw no worth in Ning Que's ability to cultivate, yet he got into the Second Floor (this could be argued though). When he got to the Second Floor, he was never really taught cultivation, and that's where it threw me off. We see him waste his time running around with no improvement to his character. And these were a good chunk of episodes too. He only got his "real lesson" when the Sage punished him. There's more that I could rant on with his character, but I'll stop here.
MUSIC
The music was quite interesting, in terms of the soundtracks. I enjoyed it, even though it's not songs where I would add to my playlist. There was a mix of everything, and I think it matched the drama well and was well-edited into the scenes. I enjoyed the thought into the editing when adding natural sounds and layering them with music and other sounds (such as during fights).
RE-WATCH VALUE
I didn't love it, nor did I hate it. I just felt like it isn't worth sitting through if you're not a fan of the novel, actors/actresses, or the drama itself. It'll be hard to sit through again, especially since this is just season 1 and currently with season 3 up in the air.
It took me yearsss and one drama recommendation for me to watch this drama. The whole drama had such a great premise, even if these aren't ideas that we have not seen before. The characters had a good back story, and the fight scene from the beginning hooked me. However, the drama got boring quite fast. There was so much drag time that I was able to let my mind wander and think about all of the things that went wrong. I don't believe I will be continuing the second season. Not because of the change in the male lead, but because this season was quite disappointing. I am quite interested to see Sang Sang's character reveal, but with the lack of character development in S1, I doubt S2 could do any better. I think after hearing so many good things about Ever Night, I expected more, and I didn't get it.
Positive Points:
-There were a handful of great fight scenes that were well directed and edited
-Good premise for plot and characters
-Good cinematography and CGI
Negative Points:
-Lacked character development
-Lacked plot development
-Felt dragged out with 60 episodes
STORY
So much could have been done to the story to improve it. The issue could have been that we were given so many side characters and so many side stories. We had to learn about the Haotian, Tang Empire, the Academy, Demonic Cult, Xiling Immortal Shrine, etc. The integration of that many groups, their beliefs, and their rules for this overarching theme of "eternal night" didn't feel quite convincing. It wasn't weaved together into a way where I felt like certain groups, scenes, or even characters were necessary to drive the plot forward, but I had to sit there and watch so many scenes of it. I questioned a lot of the characters/groups and their importance for the drama A LOT. I feel like when I question things like that, that lowers my watching experience.
ACTING/CAST/CHARACTERS
I commend the two leads and any rookie actors/actresses in this drama because they worked alongside so many veterans. Not only that, the acting in here didn't felt too forced and was quite natural. I appreciated many characters in here and how they're not invincible even though they reached certain stages of cultivation. They don't always leave unscathed and don't always come off as untouchable.
Ning Que had a great character story on why he felt the need to cultivate and get revenge. His character was a well-written anti-hero underdog that was easy to like and root for. While I liked his character story, I hated how he had little to no character development. This made Ning Que my biggest issue in the drama as it lacked the umpf! and satisfaction I craved for in a main character for this type of drama setting. I feel like this was due to that it was written for the drama to have multiple seasons. Despite that, it made no sense to me why a particular sequence of events went down the way it did for him. Second Brother and everyone saw no worth in Ning Que's ability to cultivate, yet he got into the Second Floor (this could be argued though). When he got to the Second Floor, he was never really taught cultivation, and that's where it threw me off. We see him waste his time running around with no improvement to his character. And these were a good chunk of episodes too. He only got his "real lesson" when the Sage punished him. There's more that I could rant on with his character, but I'll stop here.
MUSIC
The music was quite interesting, in terms of the soundtracks. I enjoyed it, even though it's not songs where I would add to my playlist. There was a mix of everything, and I think it matched the drama well and was well-edited into the scenes. I enjoyed the thought into the editing when adding natural sounds and layering them with music and other sounds (such as during fights).
RE-WATCH VALUE
I didn't love it, nor did I hate it. I just felt like it isn't worth sitting through if you're not a fan of the novel, actors/actresses, or the drama itself. It'll be hard to sit through again, especially since this is just season 1 and currently with season 3 up in the air.
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