This drama promised so much at the outset, but delivered so little by the end.
While Liu Shishi/Cecilia Liu's acting cannot be faulted - the point her character was trying to put across utterly baffles me. If she was trying to portray a strong minded, intelligent and forceful woman - indeed a woman ahead of her time - why then after 25/26 episodes does she revert to a doormat that everyone can step on?
And as for romance - what romance?? The two male leads are hardly glowing adverts as far as romance is concerned. One - the Emperor - is already married to a saint of a wife, yet is quite prepared to forget his wife and chase after another woman. The other lead professes his undying love and then marries someone else..
All in all, this drama fails miserably as far as the romance part is supposed to go. The most telling line in the whole drama for me - and this just about sums up the utter contempt for other peoples' lives and feelings that is a constant theme in this drama - is in the last episode, after all the pain and suffering that has been caused to Yunxian (our female lead character) - the Emperor states that although he only cares for her - he has a country and an Empress to look after...!!!
To cap it all - he then later abdicates the throne and goes off to look for our heroine - and the audience is asked to believe that right at the end they both reconcile - so that's that then - supposed true love conquers all....
It could have been so much better. Why not continue the medical theme and cut out the melodrama.. why such a slow pace - so many unanswered questions.
Review of The Imperial Doctress
