Let me preface this review with a warning - this is a well-loved drama that I simply fail to appreciate. If my criticism of it will offend you or ruin the joy you found in it, best give this a skip.

The soundbites are tantalizing: a taboo romance between a eunuch and a concubine; a ruthless and scheming male lead; a spirited and clever female lead; and palace conspiracies and mysteries aplenty. Not to mention Wang Hedi's Xiao Duo exudes that intense tall, dark, and dangerous kind of sex appeal that screams he is no Lord Varys. So I jumped in despite my reservations over Chen Yuqi's acting. As it turns out, that is one of the drama's lesser problems.

This drama is an inane attempt at dark satire aimed at the obscene privilege of emperors. It opens with the shockingly cruel practice of sending off childless concubines, known as tribute ladies to accompany the emperor in the afterlife. After high powered eunuch Xiao Duo rescues Bu Yinlou from this dastardly fate, an alliance of sorts forms between the two as they navigate treacherous palace politics in a time of power transition. I like how it was just a mutually beneficial relationship initially and how they disliked and were wary of each other; that the romance did not blossom instantly. Where it falters is in showing me why the two most powerful men in the palace connect with and fall so utterly for a woman afflicted by bizarre facial paroxysms.

Xiao Duo's wicked ruthlessness is gleefully conveyed with wit, panache, and flawless comedic timing by Wang Hedi. This is well matched by Peter Ho's slightly over-the-top portrayal of the deceptively simplistic, cartoonish-ly obsessive, and delusional emperor. Both portrayals convey each character's underlying ethos; a past sadness and secret loneliness. Unfortunately, Chen Yuqi’s jarring and tacky comedic interpretation is far more typical of a slapstick comedy than dark satire. Her exaggerated rapid eye movement and outlandish facial expressions had me triple-checking the synopsis to see if the character is supposed to be epileptic, schizophrenic, or simply possessed. While a huge upgrade from her usual vacuous sleepwalking, for the first 14 episodes, there is little beyond brazen tasteless humor in Chen Yuqi's Bu Yinlou. After that, she gets into character and delivers some really good scenes. She has good romantic chemistry with Wang Hedi that elevates her performance and the more serious tone the story takes also helps. But her acting is not consistent and wobbles again at the ending episodes. It highlights her limited range and is quite inexcusable for someone who is an acting school graduate with a long list of drama lead role credits. This is the best I have seen from her in years but that says nothing at all.

This drama's biggest issue is that it is missing a good plot. The storyline is contrived, naive and so ridiculous it is disdainful of audience intelligence. The writer's ignorance and superficial understanding of feudal imperial inner palace workings are embarrassing. It is impossible for someone like Bu Yinlou to waltz in and out of the inner palace like it is a hotel, live at a brothel and gallivant all over the kingdom with Xiao Duo. The production leaked "cut" romantic scenes like a sieve, trying to blame the abysmal failure in storytelling on censorship. The truth is all the kiss scenes in the world cannot salvage the messy plot and inconsistent characterizations. We are told both leads are smart characters but they are actually the architects of their own troubles. The allegedly Machiavelli Xiao Duo wrests the crown prince from the custody of the one person with the highest incentive to keep him alive and healthy and puts him in the hands of the person with the strongest incentive to kill him dead! As a couple, they have repeated opportunities to escape, but choose not to. Xiao Duo's revenge is anti-climatic and hastily swept under the rug once the killer is uncovered. They flaunt their affair with such reckless impunity they so deserved to get busted. I stopped caring if they ended up together and sat on the meh ending episode for weeks. I finally finished watching this so you don't have to. To my dismay, they got an ending they didn't earn or deserve.

The bottom line is Wang Hedi is the only reason to watch this drama. He is sexy even when he glowers and scowls and his costuming and visuals in this drama are swoon-worthy. In fact, save yourself some time and just watch all the fan-made videos of the romantic scenes hard-core fans have stitched together. You can skip all the rest because as foreshadowed by the eunuch theme, this drama has critical missing parts. I can only rate it 6.5/10.0 to finish at the rock bottom of my completed list for 2022.