the moon above the river pavilion.

This drama happens to do that: I love yang yang's face and he looked really good here. Fang yilun holds a special place in my heart as someone who's been around in cdramaland for a while (usually as support role but always leaving a good impression.) I actually am not familiar with zhang ruonan so it was fun to see a refreshing new face to me.

The plot isn't anything new but I enjoyed the emotional narratives of the characters (zhan zhao trying to find justice the lawful way in an overwhelmingly corrupt world after having had a vigilante arc that created new evil; bai yutang overcoming his trauma and learning to investigate (rather than just killing) to finding justice for not just his brother but other people as well; huo linglong going from naive first-timer in the jianghu running from a marriage to facing her enemy head-on with her new skills and experience.)

What really sold me of course is the dynamic of the three. The respect, the care, the loyalty, the occasional angst & hurt/comfort, the mature quality with a dash of pettiness (looking at bai yutang and zhan zhao specifically lmao). And also? The potential of off screen interactions and dialogue!!!

The drama is focused on the plot so ofc they're always moving and doing things whereas my brain is filling in the offscreen parts of the story with much glee and speculation and headcanons. A good drama should always give the audience just enough room to write our own fanfics in our head, lol.

I do wish for a bit more storyline and focus on huo linglong (like her friendship with the tang guy; felt like we could've seen her more comforting him after he was forced to become sect leader or just build on their longtime friendship because that would've been fun) but alas this kind of drama tends to follow the main guy, so.