I jumped straight from The Imperial Coroner to Maiden Holmes, and I've got to say, the kisses are waayyyyy more steamy in Maiden Holmes. But I think I still liked The Imperial Coroner better in terms of plot development, mystery, and the romance was simpler in that one too (which I generally like because when romance becomes a focus in dramas, it tends to go down poorly written cliche routes). It's like, the less angsty and dramatic the romance, the less steamy it is for some reason. That's what I noticed in a lot of the shows lol. Or is it just my imagination? Either way, this one had a lot of cliches - good/fun ones and somewhat bad ones. The bad cliches are resolved fairly well, and because it's resolved quickly, and the romance was actually good in terms of the male lead respecting the female lead and female lead being useful and NOT annoying, and IS strong and independent, I gave it a chance, otherwise I might've not watched it with all the cliches.

Maybe it's because I've seen a lot of mystery, but the cases weren't anything surprising or unique, but the plot twist at the very end had me - honestly didn't see that one coming. But most of the rest, I've seen them elsewhere before. In terms of the mystery and cases, The Imperial Coroner is definitely superior.

So for a lot of the cases, if not all I've seen so far, in Maiden Holmes used more circumstantial evidence than direct evidence - I can think of many holes for the 'evidence' they present. Not that I focus on the details that much, and it is rather romance focused, so I ignored the holes in the evidence. If you prefer good romance, I would recommend it, but if you want good crimes and mystery, The Imperial Coroner is superior.

A random note: this might be an unpopular opinion, but a lot of people are saying how they can't believe it's the the lead actor's first acting role because it's so good... In my opinion, his acting's good, he has expressions spot on in some scenes, but in a lot of the scenes, his expression looks a little... how do I explain it? I wouldn't say it was stiff, but it was very monotone and hardly considered expressive. It's cute though, but it's not really the most suitable expression in the scenes he's portraying. It didn't match the emotions in his dubbed voice either, but that makese because when I hear his own voice in the extra scenes when the ending song comes up, it is rather deep and nice, but sometimes there's hardly any enunciation in his words and it sounds more like mumbles and... very monotone... and it makes me think, luckily it's dubbed... Like if you just compare the enunciation of all the other characters to the male lead, there's a clear difference. Other than that, he's pretty handsome and cute and I love his character. But I can totally believe it if you tell me it's his first drama, and because it's his first, it's fine, and I'm sure he'll improve. He's only a year older than myself after all hahahha, still young~ :p Maybe I notice it more because I can understand Chinese? Hope to see him improve though :)

Hmmm, overall, I might give it an 8/10. It's generally not one I would usually watch due to the couple of episodes of misunderstandings, but I did finish because it was resolved pretty quickly and all the characters acted mature and independent, which I appreciated, especially the female lead who continued to be strong and intelligent and independent, and the male lead wasn't overbearing or rude because that's not romantic. I dont usually rewatch many dramas anyways. The ending was a happy one too, so that's a bonus~

Mystery and romance wise, I still like The Imperial Coroner compared to this one, but this still worthy a watch.