my moral standing is lying down

The Story of Minglan


A 2018 historical drama with 73 eps total.

The premise

Sheng Minglan's childhood is rather terribs. Her mom was the second (and lesser) concubine of a court official. Lin Qingshuan (played by Gao Lu) is the first concubine. She's a woman who schemes every which way in order to get her daughter Sheng Molan (played by Shi Shi) an advantageous marriage.

Because of her father's neglect, the core of Minglan's childhood is abt surviving Lin Qingshuan's traps and abuse. Things take a dark turn when Minglan's mother dies under v. suspicious circumstances. At only 8 years old, Minglan decides to follow her mom's advice (to hide her intelligence and high observational skills) cuz that'd make her a target.

Thankfully, tho, she comes under the protection of Old Madam Sheng (played by Cao Cuifen), her paternal grandmother, who educates and raises her.

The story then jumps forward in time (around ep. 5) from Minglan's childhood to her teen years (by now the character is played by Zhao Liying.) Minglan begins to go to a co-ed school alongside her other 5 siblings. It's while there that she reunites with Gu Tingye (played by Feng Shaofeng), the second son of some noble. [NB: they'd first met when they were children, then parted ways. So their dynamic is a bit more casual and friendlier than expected.]

What follows are a lot of ups and downs that continue after Minglan and Gu Tingyue enter into an arranged marriage. The dramarama steps on the pedal…


FTR, this is way less of a romance and more of a Slice of LIfe type of family drama. The focus is split between Minglan & Gu Tinguye, Minglan's family (including all of her cousins), Gu Tingye's fam, their friends, enemies, etc. It's a HUGE cast.

What makes Minglan likable and interesting to watch (at last to me) is that she's extremely clever in finding the solutions to all sorts of problems. Also, she's got a flair fo sussing people out. And so, whenever there's any kind of trouble, she's able to solve it in a way that makes sense. Her methodology makes sense because the drama shows her learning (from her grandma and a few teachers) things such as how to maneuver around AND through conflicts, the value of patience, and how to prepare plans B, C, and D in case plan A fails, etc. She is (at least for a while) a v. proactive character and that adds to the overall fun.

Meanwhile, Gu Tingye has a darker-than-expected past that makes him an outcast of sorts in the eyes of his immediate family and (to a certain extent) society at large. So he has to make his fortune w/o any familial support and that's a neat change from the regular deregular Male LI. He's complex enough to make him an interesting character to watch.

As a CP, they had a surprising amount of chemistry. [Fun fact: the two actors fell in love, married a few months before the drama premiered, had a kid, and (sadly?) got divorced 3 yrs later.] Fair warning: if you're looking for the characters to be lovey-dovey with each other, then you're gonna have to wait a LONG while! Both MCs have other suitors at different times in the story (and some of them are quite compatible with each MC.) Once the CP marries, tho, the true love aspect of the story actually kicks off. I like the idea of married ppl falling in love with each AFTER getting hitched.

This drama also has good cinematography. Most of the main villains--at least up to the point I stopped watching--are great (the actors make them quite hateable.)

I watched the first 43 eps, btw (so I bounced a little past the halfway point.)

The child actors (who again, only stuck around for the first 5 eps) are ridic good. And the adult cast is talented as well.


Do I have any criticisms?

The pacing is v. slow at times.

I also have a bit of an issue with something that begins toward the end of ep 5 and continues up to ep. 11. Like I mentioned before, Zhao Liying starts playing Minglan in ep. 5. Per the story, Minglan's 15-y.o….but Zhao Liying was 31 when she filmed that drama. Her styling (w/r/t to her hair and makeup) goes so hard in trying to make her look teenager-y that it magnifies the age difference between character and actor.

This problem also happens with the male lead. Gu Tingye is meant to be around 19-20 at that point in the story. However, Feng Shaofeng was 40. The drama works around this by keeping the cameras into soft focus mode for a handful of episodes until enough time passes in the drama and the character is slightly older.

You can most deffo tell they're WAY OLDER than they're supposed to be. It looks as ridic and O__o as you can imagine. So it's up to the viewer to make their peace/accept this just like it is.

MOVING ON.

My yays abt this drama started to wilt around ep. 35. There's a specific repetitiveness to the conflicts that pop up that gets tiresome quick. It'd go like this: XYZ character hates Minglan, they want to bring her down or, at the v. least, "teach her a lesson". Minglan, somehow, outsmarts them. Rinse and repeat. ON TOP OF THAT, it's super weird how EVERY NEW CHARACTER (especially female ones) hates her.

Also, there's a certain "dumbing down" of Minglan once she gets married. Frex, she moves into a new home with her husband. As soon as she's settled in, a whole 'nother batch of characters start to plan how humiliate Minglan. LITERALLY FOR NO REASON.

I gotta mention that BEFORE THE MARRIAGE, Minglan would've not only figured things out, but also come up with Plans A thru Z on how to counterattack anyone. However, now that she's married, she spends a lot fo the time wringing her hands while going "IDK what to dooooo". It's bizarre AND frustrating to see a previously clever lead suffer in silence episode after episode.

Some ppl have argued that, as a married lady, she now has to consider her actions cuz they'd affect her husband's life at court. I don't buy it. To me, it's v. much "previously awesome character gets depowered now that she's married JUST BECAUSE WE SAY SO."


What's the FMC's plot armor level?

Moderately high. She does suffer a lot of abuse and neglect as a child (this isn't depicted in a graphic way, but it's something that's brought up a few times.) Still, she usually manages to overcomes the obstacles rather unscathed.


How does the show handle the inevitable "Oh noes, the emperor's in danger of losing his throne!" storyline?

NO IDEA. As I understand it, the last third of the drama turns a lot more political. Which is something I like. However, I was so annoyed with Minglan becoming a doormat that I couldn't sit through one more episode.


Do I recommend it?

Yeahhhhhhh? IF you think you'll enjoy a mellow, domestic, and slow paced drama that focuses on the families and less on the CP, then this might be worth checking out. Again, the love part of the story is there, but not really intense, IMO.

FWIW, I did wanted to stick with it cuz I love Power Couple Dramas, but there we are. I do need to point out that my opinion is v. much that of an outlier as this is one of dramas that a ton of ppl do like (if not love.)


Queerness level

Nonexistent.


Le trailer

I couldn't find one w/English subtitles, but I wanted to give y'all some idea of the things I've complained abt so here you go:

Watch on YouTube

Under the Moonlight (YouTube)

A 2025, 36-episode historical drama.


The premise

It's the story of Luo Shu (played by Hu Bingqing) who was abt to debut as a courtesan. Due to ~plotty reasons, she got a job with Han Munzi (He Peng), the new local magistrate, as a kind of consultant detective of sorts. (I know, I know. Just go along with this.) Then, Qi Menglin (played by Zhai Zilu), the governor's son, showed up and SOMEHOW ended up tagging along in the investigations.


I'd heard some rumblings abt this drama and was confused as to why it wasn't more popular.

Hu Bingqing as Luo Shu gave a solid performance: her pragmatic view of things and cleverness w/r/t the way ppl behave. As for the rest of the cast, the majority of them were good. Especially the actors for the secondary characters.

The mysteries (well, I only watched the first two out of the 10) were actually cool. They were complicated enough to warrant a few episodes per case. The solutions were logical too. NGL, the mysteries are a big part of the reason why I stuck with the show (even as I had soured on other things.)


Do I have any criticisms?

Well...😬

My ability to suspend my disbelief was nearly broken. I understood that the premise was pretty ridic to begin with. But then, for reasons, Luo Shu (once she stared consulting) did a crummy job in disguising herself as a man. Which included her fake persona being given the rank of captain which EVERYONE IN THE MAGISTRATE OFFICE (down the lowest ranked officer) was A-OK with... 🙃

What makes this so OTT was that the crimes were V. SRS BIZNESS (including sexual assault and grusome murders). At times, I had to ignore the fact that Luo Shu (despite her good powers of observation) had received ZERO training for this kind of job, but OK, drama. XD

THEN, there's the casting of Hu Bingqing as Luo Shu. OTOH, she could convey a character who's ultimately optimistic, focused, smart, and dedicated. OTOH, however, the show made it v. clear that her character was EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD. This was brought up many times during the first 2-3 eps.

Unfortunately, though, Hu Bingqing looked (at best) to be around 10 yrs older. FTR, she was around 31-32 when they'd filmed this drama. In an ideal world, the character would've been aged up OR the production team could've cast someone closer to the character's age.

After all, Zhai Zilu as Qi Menglin was 21 when the drama was filmed (the character's supposed to be 24, IIRC.) This meant that, when the characters are together, Hu Bingqing looked like an older relative of his or someone who is deffo older than him.

Again, Hu Bingqing acted the fuck out of that character, BUT she carrieed herself as someone who is way more mature than the character was supposed to be (given the whole 'SHE'S 18!" thing.)

And then, there's my SECOND issue: Qi Menglin. He's handsome and had some charisma. That said, his personality in this drama was so childish that it put me off. I think this character would've fit better in another type of drama (a romcom one) vs. plotlines that go IN abt how someone killed someone else. So, seeing him bumble his way and act all jokey rubbed me the wrongest of ways. .

AND FINALLY, I didn't believe the CP at all. At first, Qi Menglin was v. rude and bratty toward Luo Shu cuz he thought she's a guy. Once he discovered the truth, he decided to court her cuz why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I didn't like how hard the show tried to make the CP happen. ALSO BASED ON

SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING

he never really grew out of that jokey/prankster mode? And eventually they get married, but not cuz she fell in love with him. Instead, it's more like he wore down her resolve

Which NO, THANK YOU. I'M NOT HERE FOR THAT. As I understand it, the romance was supposed to be a slow burn. Unfortch, there's ZERO chemistry cuz there's NO attraction between them, LOLsob. Instead, they had sibling energy. IJS


What's the FMC's plot armor level?

Fairly strong. Bad things have happened to her (such as being sold to a brothel when she was young, almost getting sexually assaulted onscreen, etc), but all of the terrible things happened to other characters and not her in the end.


How does the show handle the inevitable "Oh noes, the emperor's in danger of losing his throne!" storyline?

NO IDEA! I bounced before any of this was brought into the story. BUT, I'm sure there's some dramarama afoot in the latter half?


Do I recommend it?

No. It's not a terrible drama, but all of the things I complained abt added up to a big "let me stop here and move on." I only watched 6 out of the 36 eps. The series is available on YouTube.


Queerness level

There's a ~vibe between the Magistrate and his second in command that's sort of explained as the two of them being lifelong friends? Though they deffo have MARRIEDS vibe, IMO.. FTR, the show makes it v. clear that neither character is queer (but when has that stopped anyone, LOL?)

Le trailer

I could only find this version of the trailer. It has Portuguese subtitles. Trigger/Content Warning: The first 25 seconds show people getting murdered by different methods. It's graphic enough (there's blood (no gore, tho) and violence) for me to give a heads up.

Watch on YouTube

Re-Reads. HUH.

None for now.


I DNF'd

I actually finished everything I started. O__O


Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there)

* Away Games by Misha Horne (M/M Romance) - A 35k novella that takes place a few months after the ending of Book 2. It has too much football (including an excess of practice and game scenes). The last chapter is a ridic (yet sweet) long porny scene between Caleb and Logan that segues into them talking abt their futures post-high school.

To me, the whole thing read like an epilogue draft since it didn't add anything new to Logan and Caleb's story and it wasn't far enough in the future (say, during their second year of university) to make any kind of impact. I gave this a 2 out of 5.


* She Didn't See It Coming by Shari LaPena (Mystery) - Bryden is happily married to Sam. They have pretty good careers, are the parents of a sweet 3-y.o., and seem to have a fab life. That is, until Bryden disappears...

Extremely readable novel. Good writing (no typos or weird turn of phrases.) Having read most of this author's books, I knew that I was in for domestic suspense, a whole lotta POVs (10 different characters in this novel), and some O___o kind of drama.

I wasn't AS taken with the mystery as I was with the MESSINESS of everything else.

Starting with 2 super chaotic evil characters who were fun to read abt. Even though they gave me the impression to have come in from a totally different book. There's also a 3rd character whose life went off the rails at some point...and that whole thing was never resolved?

Finally, a fourth character had a v. late in the book turn that made me ?????. And, to explain why, I gotta

dive into FULL SPOILERS

This fourth character is not only an abuser, but also a functional drug addict (Oxycontin). This is revealed in the next-to-last chapter and grants that character a full alibi (?!). This character--who has their own POV chapters--is never shown to be thinking abt drugs and/or getting high nor experience any type of physical withdraw from, again, their everyday usage.

It was v. odd that there were no hints abt this from the fourth character or anyone else who also had POVs. This was so UNBELIEVABLE that I 🙄 as the book came to a close.

Had I not been familiar with this author's usual style and that I had borrowed this from the library, I'd have probably DNF'd this book. Although I'm not quite putting this author on 'reader probation' yet, I will reconsider after reading whatever she publishes next. I gave this a 2.3 out of 5.


* Those We Run From by Fiona Zedde (F/F Romantic Suspense) - After finding out that Tilly, her ex-girlfriend from 20 or years ago, is on a hit list, almost-retired assassin Sterling heads to Miami to protect her and find out who wants her ex dead...

OTOH, this book had a v. diverse (in terms of race, sexuality, and gender) cast. I also really liked that the majority of the characters were 39+ years old. Oh, and the author can write actions scenes (including gunfights, knife fights, etc.) really well. She's got a knack for timing and describing the goings on.

OTOH, I had three issues with this 120-page novella.

1. The worldbuilding was incomplete. This story takes place in Miami (FL), the Bahamas, and southern Georgia. But there was no actual sense of place. Like, whenever the story moved to Miami, characters would inevitably think or say "wow, it's so hot/humid." And that was abt it. Same with the Bahamas.

2. Given the premise, i was ready for some goofiness plotwise. But then, a little near the halfway point, when the reason why Tilly has been targeted is revealed, the book moves on permanently to DEEPLY UNSERIOUS LAND. I mentally threw my hands in the air and said "I guess?!", NGL.

3. This last thing is the main reason why I gave it such a low ranking. This involves a mild spoiler w/r/t one of the MCs, but I don't consider it worthy of hiding behind a spoiler tag. Though, again, this is gonna be a MILD SPOILER.

So it turns out that Tilly has a twin sister named Nora. They've never gotten along and it's been a while since they've spoken with each other.

The book never uses words like autistic, autism, etc. However, it's clear that Nora is neurodivergent. The issue is the extremely negative way autism is shown. Especially when the chapter is from Tilly's POV.

Examples from Chapter 21 after Nora shows up. This is 100% from Tilly's POV (Emphasis mine):

It was bizarre seeing her sister again. Hearing her talk. They were identical in looks, but in temperament, in the way they processed things, were as different as dawn and midday. No doctor had been able to explain why. Nora was the analytical and brilliant one their parents never stopped praising. The one who was an ice cube but excelled at everything academic from her very first exam.

They start talking:

Tilly swallowed a few times. "What exactly do you mean by showing up here?"

"I made a gamble I shouldn't have and didn't factor in that I might have been gambling with your life, too." Nora faintly grimaced.

The scream crawled higher in Tilly's throat. "you talking to me like a robot isn't making the situation clearer."

"This is how i talk. There is no other way I can express myself."

That much was true. Tilly let out another sigh. [...]"

And the conversation continues with Nora talking and Tilly being judgy and on the defensive for no reason at all. The book does show Nora interacting with other characters just fine? There's one specific (but v., v. spoilery) convo Nora has with another character in which the other character never remarks on how 'odd' or 'robot-like' Nora is talking to them. So it's basically a Tilly-only issue, IMO.

At best, the way this book approaches a neurodivergent character is quite off-putting and, at worst, is truly worrisome and weird.

On top of that, it simply does not make any sense that Tilly, a 39-y.o. character who works with a variety of clients (she's a boudoir photographer) AND who has a really colorful group of friends AND gives the impression of being quite a worldly character wouldn't know or even consider the existence of autism. Especially in relation to her twin sister. Keep in mind that the story takes place in our world in contemporary times. That's all I'm saying.

ETA: I think I wouldn't have had as much of a problem if one of two things had happened:

1. If Tilly and Nora had been raised in an ultraconservative and super religious community. Since those types of groups tend to avoid/disregard anything that wouldn't be considered "normal".

OR

2. If the story has been set anywhere in the 1970s to 1980s. At those times, the general population's awareness of ADHD, dislexia, autism, etc was v. limited and prejudiced.

But that's not what happened here.


FTR, I was super grossed out by this part of the story, but it was such a short novella that I ended up. No idea if I'll read anything else by this author. I gave this a 1 out of 5.


Good vibes all around

* Comfort Me, Daddy by Misha Horne (M/M Romance) - the 444-age sequel to Hurt Me, Daddy. Logan has moved in with Caleb. There's a big chemistry test he HAS to pass if he wants his scholarship to continue AND some v. important football games he's gotta train for...

The writing continued to be good (no typos, no weird turn of phrase, etc.). There was enough space in the book for Logan to get some more character development. Which isn't to say that he became suddenly mature, but that he had changed (for the better) when it came to his self-esteem and relation to the world. Another thing that was v. clear was how much care this author had in creating all of the characters. Logan, Caleb, Walker, Ellis, and the rest of the guys had distinct personalities and behaviors and that made all of their interactions pretty interesting to follow along.

Most of the Logan/Caleb scenes (both in and out of bed) were fun and/or spicy.

OTOH, the author could've deleted 100-150 pages. Like, the author could've gotten rid of 8 or so chapters (out of 40) and tightened the story a lot.

Then there's a late-in-the-book dramarama involving Logan's mother. It felt kinda spliced into the book because there hadn't been anything working up to it. That said, I figured the author felt it necessary to give Logan some kind of closure regarding that aspect of his life? IDK.

Finally, I finished the book feeling quite dissatisfied with Caleb as an MC. There was so happening (and a lot of it being terrible) to Logan in the first book, that Caleb's steady and focused presence was v. welcomed. However, this book really showed that Caleb (both as a Daddy and as himself) had an infinite amount of patience (as well as all of the answers, I guess.) It flattened him as a character. I wish there had been at least one scene, moment, chapter in which Caleb had an off/bad day. If only to balance out all of the scenes of him being the perfect boyfriend.

Because, even though his care, love, and support of Logan made him a likable character, he didn't have anything else to him as a person. YMMV. I gave this book a 3.5 out of 5.


Current fic tally

Have picked up 160 fics, DNF'd 78


Some Thoughts

Not much in terms of satisfying reads, but I'm not actively regretting picking up most of the books (I still 😒 at Those We Run From, tho.) Thankfully, i have avoided falling into a reading slump, so I'm calling this a win (of sorts, LOL.)


Up Next...

Last time: "I'm now halfway thru the second book of the "The Brat and The Beast" duology, a mystery/thriller, a queer femdom (?) M/F set in space, and a historical paranormal that is NOT cozy."

Finished the first two books, am halfway thru the third one (which is NOT set in space)--though IDK if I'll finish it, and ended up renewing the fourth book before it was due back to the library. I'm also in the middle of another book which is the last one in a series. 🤞🏾 for good reading ahead!