Flourished Peony with Yang Zi and Moonlight Mystique with Bai Lu Off to Similar Solid Viewership But Differing Level of Viewer Reviews
The same day premiere of two period but very different C-dramas Moonlight Mystique and Flourished Peony is now one week into airing and time to check in on the initial results. MM is airing solely on large streaming platform iQiyi while Peony is airing on terrestrial Hunan TV with streaming on Hunan owned smaller platform so it’s hard to compare apples to apples streaming numbers. Both are doing well on viewership and buzz but the reviews are much stronger for Peony focusing on flawed characters with serious takes on period conflict and female struggles, while MM is mostly getting bad reviews for how Bai Lu is playing the exact same character and the plot is so derivative and been-there-done-that in terms of xianxia. MM won’t help or hurt the careers of Bai Lu or Ao Rui Peng but its second female lead Dai Lu Wa who has been getting breakout buzz for her character and performance. And for Peony, Wei Zhe Ming playing the bad ex-husband is getting a tad more attention then male lead Li Xian while Yang Zi remains praised for her performance and her character is fleshed out and nice to root for.
YZ and LX are beautiful together in FP. I’m enjoying this pair so much. The chemistry is chemistrying.
Currently watching Flourished Peony in addition to Guardians of the Dafeng, not interested in Moonlight Mystique for now as there’s too many on my plate currently plus I’m tired of Xianxia.
I’m good with Flourished Peony so far as a female empowerment drama, though it still contains some same old “overcame obstacles with the help of the male lead” trope which I disdain, it has relatively fewer of that. I do like how this drama truly shows the plight of how women suffered in those times (even now as well). But contrary to what you’ve said, I find Yang Zi’s acting to be the weakest link in this drama while Li Xian and Wei Zheming did an absolutely good job. Will continue watching, I hope the plot stays as good till the end.
Ohh wow peony is really doing well in terms of viewership and I can totally see why. The characters aren’t one dimensional, they are fleshed out and complex, it’s not the same ML helps FL out all the time like some other female empowerment dramas, I love the factthat he helps her but only when she asks for it, FL is witty, not goody 2 shoes and is adaptable, yang zi too is surprising me with this being one of my favorite role and drama of hers after LYF, lixian too is pulling off his comedic but undercover persona well, Miles Weiis doing a really good job cause sometimes I pity him and sometimes i just want to *unalive* him even Zhang Yaqing is doing a really good job. The cinematography is so beautiful, the OST is so good. All in all this is a really great start to 2025 cdrama and hopefully this drama maintains this same rhythm till the end *fingers crossed