I jumped onto this series pretty late, more to fill my time while I wait for other dramas, and for that, I admit, it was a great time filler! But like most of the comments in here, I understand where everyone was coming from and I'll admit, I was skipping a lot towards the mid-end half of the show. The only reason I stayed was because I was curious to find out what the ending was.

Here's what I did like:
Though quite predictable of a family vs power plot, I liked the maturity in the acting. You hated all the evil characters and rooted for the ones you loved. I especially liked that the storyline does put more emphasis on female roles in the family and they made the FL lead look incredibly witty and cunning. I loved that she wasn't weak all the time. I loved that the FL and ML had that mutual understanding and were great offsets to each other and their plans. Unlike the late Matron who you could tell, was so hell bent on scheming like her Mother. I almost felt sorry for the ML to have been married to her for as long as they were.

Loved all the soundtracks to this series! Jin Wen Qi's was my favourite.

Here's what I didn't like:
It was incredibly slow! The series could have easily been a 30-35 pt series and it would have been fine. There was sooo much scheming, plotting, revenge between all the concubines that it was starting to irritate me. But without it, I guess you could say there wouldn't be much to the storyline then.

I'm not a huge fan of voice subbing, so I was a little disappointed that they had Wallace subbed in. But that's just a very personal opinion. I find it a huge discredit to the actors who already put so much effort in memorising lines and acting it out.

I also wasn't a huge fan at the production. Don't get me wrong, the sets were beautiful, outfits were nice too! But the way they cut scenes and faded it out sometimes felt like it was done so hastily and abruptly, I almost wondered whether I was missing scenes or if it got cut for censorship reasons. They could have done the transitions a lot more smoothly I felt.

And lastly, I wished that there were more romance between the FL and ML. Not necessarily physical scenes, but more on the expressing their feelings. I didn't see why they had to wait nearly 35 episodes in before she could have done that. The only moment I really felt the love between the two was at the ending when Shi Yi was going get beheaded and he comes to talk to her in her cell. Though I understand the age gaps that was portrayed in the show, I did feel a disconnect between them and felt their relationship felt more like a business partners than they did as a married couple.

Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it? If you have nothing else to watch, yes. :)