I only watched this because I've seen the anime and also read the book. And it is because I've seen the anime and read the book that I was able to make myself finish it.

I don't understand why this became so hugely popular considering the acting was mediocre at best, and the plot whilst they did their best under censorship laws, lost what made the actual story so great and riveting - the gore, the horror of dead corpses, the actual BL romance and not 'bromance', etc.

It is definitely one of those dramas where it was painful to watch throughout - terribly acted out scenes, inconsistent CGI quality, lacklustre fight scenes - but something you can't completely regret watching. I've got to hand it to Xiao Zhan though, because that last cut of his smile actually made me forget how terrible the entire drama was, so I guess there's some reasoning to why he's so famous now.

But no, this is not 'the best drama ever' 'high-quality acting' bla bla. It's just a drama with two good looking leads, a somewhat unique storyline, and a free pass to ship two men because the original storyline has these characters in an actual relationship. Just know that there's also a lot of inexperienced acting, low budget extras and CGIs, forced fanservice by way of OOC lovey-dovey glances from Xiao Zhan to WYB, and a typical plotline of good guy forced to turn evil, rather than the original good guy forced to create evil, which is what makes both the novel and the anime so much greater.