Imara
From Spain
I’m starting to have more free time and I like Zanilia Zhao. These two things could have been enough to start this drama, but, moreover, I have already listened to a lot of good things about this show, and I really love dramas with strong female leads. So, if you are hesitating to watch it, I’ll explain why you should start watching Princess Agents right now.
The good:
It’s completely addictive. I binge-watched it and I almost never got bored, with the exception of some episodes between the 12 and 19 (too much training for me. Everybody knew she was training… why would we need so many episodes with this?)
Even if some people say it is too violent (yeah, it is, no doubt), I liked the first episode. Violent, hard and brutal, but so much action!
The interactions among the main leads are really good. Since the beginning you are going to enjoy them between Yun Wen and Xinh’er, and she and Yan Xun.
I loved the female lead and all the fights, wars and combats she was in. They were amazing. It’s a pleasure to see a female lead that is brave, courageous, honest with her goals and that will do everything in her power to protect what she believes.
The so-so:
The romance. It wasn’t my main interest, so, I wasn’t completely disappointed by the lack of it. But, in my opinion, if you are going to shoot 58 episodes of this, at least the screenwriters could have done their job better. Chu Qiao was with Wen Yue for some time, and she spent three years in isolation with Yan Xun (eight in the novel!). How is it possible we couldn’t be sure she had something with any of them? Or at least, I didn’t get it if she was in love with one or the other. I had the feeling that first she was more in a survival kind of way, and after that, she was following a dream that wasn’t hers but she didn’t know at the moment.
Some of the side storylines were nonsense. The screenwriters started to develop them and they got anywhere. What happened with the concubine who had helped Chu Qiao when she was a kid? In an episode she swore to protect Chu Qiao with her life and almost the next episode, the same concubine suffered a misfortune and although Chu Qiao didn’t do it, she put the blame on her and swore to kill her. And then… we don’t know anything else from here. And unfortunately this is not the only side storyline who goes anywhere…
The “really, the direction and the script should think these things over (and over and over…) and improve them for next time”.
The CGI is deplorable. I think it is the worst I’ve seen since I’ve started watching Chinese dramas. Besides, I saw that there were a lot of scenes from Zanilia Zhao where it was easy to see they were “studio made”. They are not difficult scenes or anything, some of them were just dialogues. For example the FL is in the forest with someone else and Zanilia Zhao is supposed to be talking with this person but you can see the person who is answering back is really in “the nature” instead of Zanilia Zhao, that has the same awful quality as when the characters are flying or riding a horse. I still don’t know why it was like this, if she was sick, or if she is a maniac and could act in front of others… but it is pathetic.
The ending: no spoilers, but the only way I could have stood this ending was looking for the novel online and reading all of it. And that is what I did. So, right now I have a peaceful mind because I could read the book until the end, to know what happened later. In fact, the ending episode was the 194 chapter or so, and the book has 292 chapters… it’s not in the middle but kind of, and there are a lot of things that are still to happen.
What else? I didn’t pay attention to the music, and I’m not sure about the rewatching value, because I loved it very much but there are flaws everywhere. So, even if 58 episodes seem really long, you will be addicted to it in a moment. Try it and don’t get disappointed at the end… there’s a book to finish the job the show didn’t do.
The good:
It’s completely addictive. I binge-watched it and I almost never got bored, with the exception of some episodes between the 12 and 19 (too much training for me. Everybody knew she was training… why would we need so many episodes with this?)
Even if some people say it is too violent (yeah, it is, no doubt), I liked the first episode. Violent, hard and brutal, but so much action!
The interactions among the main leads are really good. Since the beginning you are going to enjoy them between Yun Wen and Xinh’er, and she and Yan Xun.
I loved the female lead and all the fights, wars and combats she was in. They were amazing. It’s a pleasure to see a female lead that is brave, courageous, honest with her goals and that will do everything in her power to protect what she believes.
The so-so:
The romance. It wasn’t my main interest, so, I wasn’t completely disappointed by the lack of it. But, in my opinion, if you are going to shoot 58 episodes of this, at least the screenwriters could have done their job better. Chu Qiao was with Wen Yue for some time, and she spent three years in isolation with Yan Xun (eight in the novel!). How is it possible we couldn’t be sure she had something with any of them? Or at least, I didn’t get it if she was in love with one or the other. I had the feeling that first she was more in a survival kind of way, and after that, she was following a dream that wasn’t hers but she didn’t know at the moment.
Some of the side storylines were nonsense. The screenwriters started to develop them and they got anywhere. What happened with the concubine who had helped Chu Qiao when she was a kid? In an episode she swore to protect Chu Qiao with her life and almost the next episode, the same concubine suffered a misfortune and although Chu Qiao didn’t do it, she put the blame on her and swore to kill her. And then… we don’t know anything else from here. And unfortunately this is not the only side storyline who goes anywhere…
The “really, the direction and the script should think these things over (and over and over…) and improve them for next time”.
The CGI is deplorable. I think it is the worst I’ve seen since I’ve started watching Chinese dramas. Besides, I saw that there were a lot of scenes from Zanilia Zhao where it was easy to see they were “studio made”. They are not difficult scenes or anything, some of them were just dialogues. For example the FL is in the forest with someone else and Zanilia Zhao is supposed to be talking with this person but you can see the person who is answering back is really in “the nature” instead of Zanilia Zhao, that has the same awful quality as when the characters are flying or riding a horse. I still don’t know why it was like this, if she was sick, or if she is a maniac and could act in front of others… but it is pathetic.
The ending: no spoilers, but the only way I could have stood this ending was looking for the novel online and reading all of it. And that is what I did. So, right now I have a peaceful mind because I could read the book until the end, to know what happened later. In fact, the ending episode was the 194 chapter or so, and the book has 292 chapters… it’s not in the middle but kind of, and there are a lot of things that are still to happen.
What else? I didn’t pay attention to the music, and I’m not sure about the rewatching value, because I loved it very much but there are flaws everywhere. So, even if 58 episodes seem really long, you will be addicted to it in a moment. Try it and don’t get disappointed at the end… there’s a book to finish the job the show didn’t do.
Was this review helpful to you?
