Eeek! Another drama called “Glory”. It’s going to be easily mixed up with “The Glory” from last year! Anyways. this is honestly a ridiculous drama in all the good and bad ways.

It is ridiculously beautiful, at least on the women’s side. All the women from the Rong family are gorgeous with stunningly beautiful costumes.

It is also ridiculous in plot. There are many plot points where you’re like…”WTF” or “???”. Case in point. There’s a suitor who is in line to vie for the female lead’s hand in marriage. Then, one of the head maids, Mama Yan, of the household then solicits this suitor so they can have an amorous night together and she helps him with whatever his family needs. Um…What the heck just happened? It was so out of the blue ridiculous. I mean, good for her, but also, what is happening? Totally not a necessary plot line? But hey! Go for it. 

It’s an entertaining enough drama where you can’t think too deeply about plot since it’s definitely not top tier quality writing. 

This is another Yu Zheng drama. And as is his M.O., he likes to throw all the cliches and tropes into a drama to see what sticks. Here, Gu Li Na Zha is THE bonafide female lead which is great but in 12 episodes, there’s so much random plot points happening, I’m just in awe of how many ridiculous things they’ve managed to throw in. 

The drama decided to swap the tropes of palace dramas where all the women are competing for the Emperor’s attention. This time, female lead Rong Shan Bao, head of the wealthy and powerful Rong family, is selecting a husband and many suitors come forward with their own reasons for wanting to marry her. There are different rounds of competition to see who would be a good fit for Rong Shan Bao and it even escalates to an almost hunger games level when the men are competing in a physical/fighting competition. The stakes seem…unnecessarily high as some men almost lose their lives. 

The core of this drama is supposed to be about tea. The Rong family is the wealthiest tea merchant in the land and they control all the trade. Hence, why so many families sent suitors for Rong Shan Bao. But, it’s not all fun and games because many of the female lead’s sisters are backstabbing her to fight for more power in the Rong family,

For the male lead’s part, he’s an intelligent but arrogant young man who is a new official designated by the Emperor to check corruption and solve crimes. Yet how did he manage to make it up the latter so quickly with how arrogant he is? You would pretty much forget that he’s supposed to be some star detective because the main male lead of course is injured and bumps his head so he loses is memory.  

So…yea… You have a marriage selection process, you have business ventures (in tea), you have problematic sisters, you have detective cases to solve, you have lost memories more! What else could you possibly want in a drama? Except, none of these are executed particularly well…

I’ll continue to watch the drama but I don’t know if my score will change much. I’ll update this review if I have major changes towards the end of the show.