 |
| The Heir Premiere Sparks Buzz Despite Ratings Battle, While Elvis Han Dongjun Barely Appears. (Credits: iQIYI) |
The Heir (家业) arrived with pressure already hanging over it. Costume dramas this year have been fighting for attention like relatives arguing over inheritance at a family dinner, yet the new series starring Yang Zi and Han Dongjun has managed to carve out its own space almost immediately. Even though its premiere ratings reportedly fell behind Yang Yang and Zhang Ruonan’s Zhan Zhao Adventures, as well as Liu Haocun’s The Lead, the reaction online has been difficult to ignore. Viewers may not have pushed it straight to the top of the ratings chart on day one, but they absolutely turned up for the emotional damage.
The drama wasted no time throwing audiences into misery, betrayal, public humiliation, family collapse, and enough emotional trauma to power at least twenty episodes of another series. Impressively, it packed most of that into just four episodes without making viewers feel like they were trapped in a never-ending flashback sequence. In an era where some dramas spend half their runtime filming people slowly walking through gardens while staring into the distance, The Heir moving this quickly almost feels rebellious.
At the centre of the story is Yang Zi’s character Li Zhen, the daughter of a once-respected ink-making family whose entire world collapses after a catastrophic mistake destroys an imperial tribute ink shipment.
Her grandfather Li Jinshui, played by veteran actor Tian Xiaojie, is the family’s most respected craftsman and the genius behind the famous “Li Mo” tribute ink. But prestige disappears very quickly when royal expectations are involved.
After Li Zhen’s father drunkenly falls asleep while guarding the shipment, a fire destroys everything, enraging the emperor and dragging the family into disaster. The fallout is brutal. Family members are tortured, one dies, another is permanently disabled, and the once-proud branch of the Li family is thrown out by their own clan.
It is the kind of opening storyline that practically screams, “Things will absolutely get worse from here,” and somehow the drama still manages to make viewers emotionally invest rather than simply collapse from second-hand stress.
 |
Years later, Li Zhen appears ready to rebuild her life through marriage to childhood sweetheart Tian Benchang, played by Wang Zihao. Naturally, because this is a costume drama and happiness is apparently illegal, the wedding immediately explodes into chaos.
Clan members storm the ancestral hall and expose Tian Benchang for approaching Li Zhen only to steal the Li family’s secret ink-making formula. Nothing says romance quite like industrial espionage during your wedding ceremony.
The confrontation scene has quickly become one of the most talked-about moments from the premiere week. After discovering the betrayal, Li Zhen publicly cuts ties with her fiancé, while her grandfather humiliates himself before clan elders in an attempt to apologise for the disgrace brought upon the family.
The emotional collapse of both characters becomes the turning point that pushes Li Zhen toward inheriting the family craft herself. Much of the praise online has focused on Yang Zi’s performance, with viewers saying she handles Li Zhen’s emotional progression with unusual restraint and realism.
 |
| Yang Zi and Tian Xiaojie Deliver Explosive Emotional Performances in New Costume Drama |
Rather than overplaying every breakdown, she shifts naturally from sheltered optimism to devastated anger and quiet determination. Fans especially praised how alive her scenes feel opposite Tian Xiaojie, whose performance has quietly become one of the drama’s biggest surprises.
The grandfather-granddaughter relationship is arguably the real heart of the series so far. Their bond feels affectionate but complicated, filled with stubborn pride, guilt, and mutual frustration.
Viewers have described their interactions as painfully believable, especially during moments where both characters clearly care deeply for each other yet refuse to express it properly. In other words, classic family behaviour.
One scene in particular has dominated social media discussion. During the ancestral hall confrontation, Tian Xiaojie’s character becomes overwhelmed by shame and fury after realising the family’s secret formula nearly fell into outsider hands. In a shocking act of self-punishment, he knocks out one of his own teeth in front of everyone before collapsing emotionally afterwards.
The scene left many viewers stunned, with some praising the raw intensity while others admitted they physically flinched watching it. Several netizens joked that the scene carried more emotional force than entire finales from other recent costume dramas.
Meanwhile, poor Han Dongjun has somehow become one of the funniest running jokes surrounding the series despite technically being the male lead. Four episodes in, audiences have barely seen his adult character appear properly at all.
Only the younger version briefly crossed paths with young Li Zhen earlier in the story, leading many viewers to sarcastically nickname him the “background male lead.” Some fans joked that viewers are currently in a committed relationship with his name in the opening credits rather than the character himself.
 |
Audiences do not seem particularly angry about his limited screen time yet, largely because the core family storyline has proven strong enough to hold attention on its own. If anything, many viewers are now increasingly curious about how his character will eventually enter the narrative properly. There is only so long a male lead can remain spiritually present before audiences start filing missing person reports.
Outside the performances, The Heir has also earned major praise for its visual direction. The drama’s cinematography heavily draws inspiration from classical Chinese ink paintings, with carefully framed wide shots and textured close-ups giving scenes an almost brush-painted appearance.
The traditional ink-making sequences themselves have also impressed viewers, many of whom praised the production team for making the craft feel tactile, detailed, and culturally rich rather than simply decorative background material.
The pacing has become another major talking point. Viewers noted that the drama clearly establishes the rise and collapse of the Li family, internal clan politics, Li Zhen’s betrayal, and her emotional transformation all within four tightly structured episodes.
There is very little wasted screen time, which feels increasingly rare in long-form costume dramas where some productions mistake slow motion walking for storytelling depth.
 |
| Yang Zi’s Wedding Betrayal Scene in ‘The Heir’ Becomes One of the Most Talked-About Moments of 2026 |
Of course, not every reaction has been universally glowing. A small group of viewers criticised the heavy beauty filters used in certain scenes, arguing they softened the emotional realism slightly. Others also questioned whether the series can maintain this level of intensity over a full run. Still, even many critical viewers admitted the performances and writing were strong enough to keep them watching.
Veteran actors including Tian Xiaojie and Wu Mian have also received praise for elevating the material with experienced performances that give emotional weight to every family conflict. Their presence adds a sense of lived-in realism to the world of the drama, grounding its more dramatic twists in believable human emotion rather than melodrama for the sake of online clips.
For now, The Heir looks set to become one of the year’s strongest word-of-mouth costume dramas. It may not have exploded out of the gate with unbeatable ratings, but audiences are clearly connecting with its emotional storytelling, layered family dynamics, and striking visual identity. And honestly, if a drama can make viewers emotional over ink-making formulas and ancestral hall arguments, it is probably doing something right.
The bigger question now is whether the series can maintain this momentum once Han Dongjun’s adult character finally decides to properly arrive. So, what do you think so far — future classic, emotional chaos masterpiece, or are viewers getting carried away after four episodes?