im 15 episodes in to legend of haolan and i can say that........ yanxi palace was better
granted this isn’t a bad show but idk. feels like nothing... really happens? it’s got a formulaic feel to the episodes, not any real overarching plot that i can see, which is wild since i’m 15 episodes in. i mean yeah there’s the whole “i want power and you’re going to help me get it and i’ll help you fulfill your goals in return” but like. Why? power for power’s sake?? and what does haolan even want??? and the li matriarch never even showed up to see her daughter after she was imprisoned... did she just fall off the face of the earth or smth??? she was such a staunch ally in the earlier episodes and then she just Never Came Back
yanxi was similar wrt the formulaic stuff i suppose but the stakes just felt higher. in hao lan everything seems to have no consequence because the king has like zero object permanence. once an issue is resolved he just forgets about it and the cycle continues. the actors are phenomenal and the characters are interesting but it seems so repetitive..... yanxi actually had consequences that STUCK.
sighs... im gonna have to find something else to watch. might come back to this one in the future though