The Apothecary Diaries is a likeable enough historical drama that is more parts the atmosphere of intrigue than a proper mystery. To be fair to the show, it does not really bill itself as something in the vein of Agatha Christie, where the focus would be on the construction of its mystery as a puzzle the audience might be able to solve before the characters. They are more so storytelling or aesthetic devices, but even then, still leave something to be desired. Much of the show then ends up relying heavily on its character appeal and aesthetics to charm and engage the audience. No doubt this is the source of its digestibility and broad popularity, but it also seems to necessitate a rather feel-good atmosphere that dispels much of the danger and more off-putting elements of its historical setting. Sanding down many of the rougher edges of the period has left the series hard pressed to really drive home any of its themes it occasionally brings up like the cruel nature of the palace and the status of women during this era. All this leaves Apothecary Diaries in a strange position of being an entertaining drama but without much else in the way of thematic substance. While this is certainly still adequate for most people, or possibly more desirable than something tense and incisive, it cannot help but feel like even the show wants more for its characters than just being entertaining for the sake of it.

The mysteries in the initial episodes are broadly effective at establishing the tone and expectation of the series as one built around a core of rather serious palace intrigue and scheming. Yet it also immediately presents the issue that most of them are solved using information kept from the audience, or by inferences that feel too much like leaps in logic with how much they rely on the character’s prior knowledge. This does not start as much of a problem since the viewer is able to see all the intrigue and speculation as part of the plot or atmosphere rather than a puzzle being presented to them. However, as the series goes on, more and more time is dedicated to going over Maomao’s thought process on these mysteries which leads steadily to the impression that they are meant to be solvable by the audience as well. This creates a distinct frustration as there is never much satisfaction in thinking about the problem along with Maomao despite the show gradually encouraging it. It is still possible to infer, or more frankly guess, the answer to the mysteries, but these conclusions lack any textual evidence to support it and often rely on the intuition or genre-savviness of the viewer. Even someone who happens to have knowledge of the technical or scientific elements involved in the mysteries cannot use that to solve them since much of specifics are kept from the viewer until Maomao presents it in her final conclusions. Some degree of this is acceptable as a sort of narrative sleight of hand to highlight the intelligence of the character. However, this eventually presents a disjoint in the series being framed heavily as a mystery or puzzle while having the narrative construction of a drama which has much lower demands in how tight its plot elements need to be.

The mysteries themselves also tend to lack staying power in the memory of the audience since they are mostly one-off occurrences. While they do have the function of revealing things about the characters, it is mostly limited to information about their personal history or showing off some new entertaining quirk to endear them to the audience. Since the vast majority of the mysteries are not particularly long running or complex, they never give a deeper insight into Maomao’s or Jinshi’s ideals or biases, nor do they test them or force compromises which in turn hinders either of them having any real growth. It is not until the latter half of the season, where the second light novel is adapted, that there is any throughline that connects all the mysteries into one larger conspiracy of sorts. Even then, the lead up to the climax is impossibly obtuse, with genre expectations being the only way a viewer can predict how any of these instances could be convincingly related to each other. This connect-the-dots moment does make for a dramatic revelation, but it failed to impress the viewer with the brilliance of a character putting together clues that were also fair game for the audience, nor does it create any tension or emotional connection through a viewer putting things together before the characters and then worrying for them. All this gives a distinct impression that the mysteries which frequently form the centre piece of episodes seem to have very little utility beyond being intriguing for the sake of it. While this is not necessarily a problem, and par for the course in most straight up dramas, it feels distinctly lacking given the framing and potential of the Apothecary Diaries.

With how obtuse and obfuscating the show can be, it is then somewhat remarkable how little subtlety there is when it comes to the more ‘organic’ mysteries about the personal histories of the characters. These are not mysteries in the genre sense of the term but rather the general character unknowns that can be found in any show. Much of the season builds up the implicit questions around Jinshi’s actual role in the palace hierarchy as well as how Maomao came to have such a unique upbringing and intelligence. While there has been some degree of subtly as to Jinshi’s true nature, it is still disappointing that the suspicions around it are mostly delivered through exposition. It feels like a distinct wasted opportunity not to have Maomao engaging in more direct investigation since that would have been a more organic method to reveal this information. Leaving Maomao’s suspicions to be the punchline of jokes feels lacking when this is a prime opportunity to create a real point of tension between them that would reveal more of their characters. On the other hand, in the case of Maomao’s past, the show eventually becomes fairly blatant in pointing the viewer to the answers and conclusions it wants them to draw. It is never as ham-fisted as having to spell things out to the audience directly, at least outside of a few rare scenes, but it still feels lacking given how good the show is at creating the aesthetic and framing of a mystery. The backstories of our characters end up being used mainly in a metanarrative manner to appeal to the audience’s need to satisfy their curiosity, rather than being used to create compelling scenes or develop the characters through means within the text. Perhaps this is not a major issue for most viewers, or even noticeable since it scratches that itch of wanting answers, but it still something that is hard to praise either.

This leaves Apothecary Diaries relying on the charm of its characters and aesthetics to appeal to the audience, and to its credit, it does succeed at this. In fact, much of the narration and mysteries are carried by Yuuki Aoi’s outstanding performance as Maomao. Though much of Maomao’s mannerisms and internal dialogue are humourous and endearing, it also feels like it ends up clashing with the tone of other areas of the show. The initial impression is that the series will have some relatively serious stakes involving the deaths of characters and the machinations of the inner palace. Both the chibi exaggerations and general facetious attitude Maomao has towards what is quite a distressing and even horrific situation significantly undercut any tension to do with the dangers in the court. In fact, much of the court is made out to be a strangely pleasant environment with the potentially lethal plotting and scheming as the exception instead of the rule. There is little danger and only petty antagonism for much of the season, leaving most of the tension and intrigue feeling fangless. While this has certainly made it comfortable for a wide audience to watch, making it a somewhat ironic strength of the show, it creates a significant amount of tonal whiplash. The first time this occurs when Maomao loses her temper, it could be seen as a dramatic reversal of sorts that snaps the viewer out of their false sense of security as well. However, as the show goes on, this kind of whiplash becomes a more common occurrence, making it less dramatic tension and more so the Apothecary Daires seeming to operate on two parallel tracks. One of these is a serious and brooding look into morally dubious court politics while the other is a feel-good idealization of palace life with only minor conflicts. While both of these worlds can and possibly should exist in the same show, they have not been integrated particularly well thus far, feeling more like a jarring transition between two different realities than a flip between two sides of the same coin.

The tonal whiplash leaves the show feeling particularly hard pressed to sell its more dramatic moments or find any convincing depth in its heavy themes. Every so often there will be a narrative tangent going over the extreme nature of court politics or the status of women in a historical setting. These happen as early as episode 3 and do not serve much additional purpose, often revealing little about Maomao’s character despite much of the narration coming from her. Part of the issue is that Maomao does not have a noticeable character arc that can demonstrate any change or response to these happenings. It does tell us about how she became the person she is at the moment, but it does not draw out any further change or really highlight any particular beliefs that form the core of her world view. There is this initial idea that she has developed a sense of justice around these issues that she eventually cannot ignore, but it is never taken much further than that and really used to put Maomao into situations where it can be tested and confirmed as one of her ideals beyond the opening episodes. As a result, it also says little about the setting beyond raising some interesting and dour questions while pointing out the general injustice of historical society. There is certainly merit in bringing up these ideas and they are natural to explore given the premise of the series, however there is little done to tie them to some kind of central plot or to the beliefs of the characters, leaving it feeling more like window dressing. It is hard to tell if this is by design. All the chibi exaggerations along with much of Maomao’s facetious and flippant mannerisms might be the means it uses to alleviate some of the tension from bringing up all these ideas. It is certainly understandable that the show would want to sidestep some of the more heavily loaded issues like child concubines by giving them only a passing acknowledgement since it would be well outside any reasonable remit to attempt to cover such a topic. Yet it cannot help but feel like the show bit of more than it can chew with its ideas given how many of its parts seem to exist in isolation from each other. At worst it can feel like wanting to have it both ways and bring up these issues while still retaining that comforting atmosphere needed for mass appeal. While not impossible, it would require much better integration of its various threads to make work.

Overall, the Apothecary Diaries is still certainly a charming show despite all the flaws that have been brought up. It makes for a comfortable and entertaining watch with characters that are easy to find endearing thanks to some fantastic voice acting. Yet it is precisely because of these elements that there feels like there is not much concrete thematic substance behind its feel-good and occasionally dramatic veneer. There is little else to interest the viewer with most of the cast lacking notable character arcs, the mysteries being rather arbitrary, and the themes being more statements of fact than explorations. Of course, there is evidence that the source material is improving as the books go on and that it will translate to the show well enough. The second half of the season finally introduces some semblance of an opposing force within the court, creating an actual sense of tension and giving some structure to all of Maomao’s and Jinshi’s actions that has been sorely lacking. Yet it has taken far too long to reach what feels like should have been part of the initial premise. There is still ample opportunity to rectify all the flaws moving forward since they are largely a lack of something rather than a problem with the premise or structure of the show. But it is still hard to give the show extensive leeway in taking 24 episodes to find its footing while having yet to set up things as essential as clear character arcs or integrating its themes into a core narrative.

While the show is likeable enough and certainly competent as a drama, it’s hard to rate it more than a 7 out of 10 at this juncture. It is perfectly reasonable to watch this just for entertaining character antics, and perhaps on that grounds it can be an 8, albeit a weaker one. But the show itself seems to want to be so much more and has the potential to do so, making it hard to overlook that. Personally, it has shown enough promise to keep me around for a second season where its full potential is realized, and because the character mannerism of Maomao strikes a personal chord with me, but it is understandable if others choose to bow out since the status quo of the show is more or less established.