擅長于民族國家敘事的ATV故事常常有種崇高感，通過具有金屬感的交響背景音樂的烘托，把觀眾身上的家國基因飆到無限。這種集體意識，往往還通過一個群像來表現(xiàn)。
本劇開篇的木蘭秋狝就是這個群像的典型場景，一陣大氣音樂的烘托，康熙九子分隊出現(xiàn)，左邊八爺黨，胤禩胤禟胤誐等，右邊趾高氣揚的太子等。演員都是當時的演技派中青年啊，個個出彩：《射雕》中演歐陽克的黃允材把大阿哥裝好人，實際上腹黑的神態(tài)描摹地出神；旁邊的八爺吳廷燁也是一貫演心機深沉的陰謀家，瘦長的臉既用余光偷瞟其他阿哥 ，又堅定地面對皇阿瑪；眼睛很爆的去年在杜琪峰《奪命金》中演“凸眼龍”的姜皓文扮演胤禟，惟胤禩馬首是瞻，又桀驁不馴；還有在《天蠶變》中出演路丹的羅頌華演的十三阿哥，和他的其他角色一樣，這里的十三阿哥不顯山不露水，不溫不火；那一邊，老戲骨郭峰演備受寵愛的太子胤礽，年紀顯然比其他阿哥大，又脾氣火爆；旁邊是三阿哥胤祉，劉宗基，和無線亞視里許多不溫不火的綠葉一樣，也正好符合“九龍奪嫡”里三阿哥的文人風度；再過去就是主角四阿哥胤禎了，他看都不看太子一眼，和其他貝勒貝子不同，他的心機更深，早就把眼光放到了皇帝的位子上去；但在這之前，即使擊敗了太子，八爺，他的旁邊還有一位最年幼的弟弟——他的親弟——十四爺胤禛，他的扮演者甄志強出身模特，既能演正直無限的青年，又能演無比邪惡的反派，比如后來《劍嘯江湖》中楚江南（原型來自古龍小說中的律香川）。
九龍一字排開，康熙大帝出現(xiàn)了，不像大陸的焦晃那么老態(tài)龍鐘，不像張國立那么欠扁的臉，也不像英國的張鐵林那么色迷迷，這位清朝大帝讓潘志文來演，真是合適至極，兩撇胡子，把唯我獨尊的外族皇帝表現(xiàn)得十分生動，像佛祖身邊配有善財童子一樣，潘志文的旁邊配了武功高強的發(fā)小——黃樹棠演的韋棠，像其他電視中忠心耿耿的家奴一樣，韋棠極力勸阻廢太子，而韋棠一死，康熙的死神也將臨近，主仆關(guān)系即使如此。蕭笙這位畫家到此還沒為他的康熙出游圖完筆，還添上了最善解人意的文頌嫻。
這樣一個宏大的開篇，包含了接下來無限爆炸的情節(jié)，ATV的故事結(jié)構(gòu)成“T”字行，一線排開：四阿哥與太子，太子與大阿哥，太子與八爺黨，四阿哥與八爺黨，最后，那個異族皇帝能否繼續(xù)掌控大局？是誰在更大的圍獵游戲中勝出？像一場人生賽跑那樣，電視劇給你的是起跑線上每個人的摩拳擦掌，但殊不知，這一切，最后只是為了突出其中四號跑道的那位不看觀眾，眼睛只盯著終點線的那位，他完成了這一切，“T”字的那條豎線一直孤獨地延伸，甚至死也要自己安排。
我們觀眾沉醉了半天的群毆，在獨夫民賊的眼里，都只是他欲望的投射，他意念的延伸，不僅大阿哥，太子，三阿哥，八爺黨，年羹堯，文覺，戴鐸，苗老三，村民，天下的命運在他的手中，連我們觀眾的觀看都要被他左右，放佛整部戲，就是江華一個人的獨角戲。

這部劇不是歷史劇，不要被片名迷惑，否則估計要被氣死。
這部劇不是一部言情劇，若要期待美好感情請點叉，相愛相殺不是不可以，但處理不好就狗血淋頭了。

嚴格說來，這部劇應(yīng)該歸為歷史戲說武俠劇比較妥當，刀光劍影一片，而政治斗爭的情節(jié)太過簡單蒼白，并且嚴重偏離歷史，但以其時代背景來看，拍成這樣已然不錯了，起碼比如今花樣百出的腦殘雷劇要好太多。

劇本以雍正皇帝為主角，可謂我所見過的影視作品中最為心狠手辣，十惡不赦的了，在劇情上堪稱借用全部野史，這樣的情節(jié)若是不融合武俠到真是乏善可陳了，上部康熙九子江湖氣息濃厚，下部血濺太和殿轉(zhuǎn)為宮斗（真心不想用這個詞），一共四十集不算長，私以為下部可看性更強，如果你能忍耐得了前六集，那么恭喜你，后面終于慢慢漸入佳境了。

下部斗爭情節(jié)雖然單一，卻貴在緊湊，張揚狂妄，沒有神經(jīng)病似的糾結(jié)搖擺，虐人虐己，根本就是擋我者死，逆我者亡，一條道走到黑，殺他個片甲不留！讓你不得不一集集追下去，大呼痛快！看完此劇方得知編劇要表達的觀點就是，好人無好報，惡人有惡報！笑~

說完劇情再說表演方面，演員們都是實力派，但表演痕跡太重，稍顯做作，情感外露的過分，看著比較別扭，估計那個時代的影視劇都這樣，唯一可圈可點的是主角選的極其成功，江華把雍正的狠辣和心機表現(xiàn)得淋漓極致，單憑氣質(zhì)來講，算上所有演過四爺?shù)?，無人出其左右。雖說稱不上完美，但天皇貴胄，膽識不凡，一身煞氣，敢愛敢恨，壞的徹底，壞的坦蕩，真正是最有魅力的反派人物，比劇中作為正義化身卻瞻前顧后，婦人之仁的十四阿哥和文覺大師出彩太多，甩他們這兩個角色幾條街不止。可以說，如果不是江華來演雍正的話，恐怕這部劇只能淪為下乘。

另外此劇插曲完全借用黃霑的給另一部戲《情定少林寺》的配樂，為劇情增色不少，如果沒有版權(quán)糾紛，即可謂之另一大亮點。

I have finished Jianghua's 君臨天下. There are several things I like in the series, the actors who played Nian Gengrao 年羹堯, Longkeduo 隆科多 and Dai Duo 戴鐸 are amazing. I like all the princes and Kangxi. The drama is building up consistently throughout the series, and I love it up to the point that Yongzheng sent 14th prince into house arrest and his death. It drops a little bit when Yongzheng is going crazy because his wife, Miaoxin, ran away. But that is fine, there are only 4 episodes left.
The centre point is of course Yongzheng, the first part of the series when he is fighting for the throne really breaks my heart. The second part of the series concentrates on how he ruled and defensed his right to rule. The first episode of the second part is the highlight of the whole series, how he got the throne from Kangxi by murdering his father. Jianghua is impeccable in it. With such determination and ruthlessness, he overcame all the obstacles that his father had always looked down and biased on him. In order to obtain the throne, he also broke through all the ethical high grounds he had set up for himself. He is descending into evil, but at the same time he is alleviating all the burdens he brought on himself. He told his staff that there is no right or wrong when fighting for the right to rule. At the last scene with Kangxi, he intent to kill his father but he also gave his father a choice to step down. Jianghua makes me feel that Yongzheng at this moment treated the throne as his business, very calm with it. He would not be too scared to do whatever it takes to get the throne, no matter how terrible it might be. But he would also be willing to let his father step down peacefully, as long as Kangxi would oblige. Historically, Yongzheng is a very suspicious person and infamously harsh with his ministers, but he still didn't kill his brothers. In the series, he didn't kill them until they formally revolted against him.
I wished that there are HD version of the whole series. Yongzheng Dynasty embroidered the image of Yongzheng by portraying him almost like a saint; while the other precedents demonized him. 君臨天下 although locating right in the scope of romanticization, it gave the character of Yongzheng a more full-body taste.
When Jianghua played Yongzheng again after almost 10 years in TVB, his characterization is already under the influence of Yongzheng Dynasty.