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Review: My Roommate is a Detective (民國奇探) (2020)
Overall, this was an okay show. It started off promising, and the acting and production value were surprisingly good, but the formula of the show lost its charm and I found myself not really caring starting around half way through the show.
I'd still recommend the show as light entertainment, but this isn't the kind of show that I'll be thinking about now that I'm done.
Word ramble ahead.
Spoilers.
Story
MRIAD was unique in that it did not have much of an overarching story line. Most of the screentime was spent on the case at hand. I'd say the few main story lines were (1) Lu Yao and Bai Youning's romance, (2) Lu Yao's family wanting to bring him home, and (3) the meddling of the British. None of these stories interested me.
Like most others, I was just here for the buddy cop moments. A lot of cdramas play up the fanservice and while MRIAD did have some of it, it still tried to keep the story focused on the cases, which I appreciated. However, I suspect that there just wasn't that much fanservice because it was transferred over to Bai Youning for the actual romance between Lu Yao and Bai Youning. So potentially, this show would've been a lot more bromancey.
Basically, this show shone when it wasn't focused on any overarching story. Its strengths were with the short cases and the light humour in the midst of investigation.
Writing
Cases
Most of the cases had pretty convoluted reveals, usually involving a gimmick mechanism. At first, this felt fresh, but it got old real fast. I stopped paying attention to the cases around half way through the show as they were very formulaic.
While the one-case-per-episode was fresh and great for light watching in theory, the biggest issue that stopped me from enjoying it was how the episodes were cut. Cases were always cut in the middle. As a result, I was always forced to remember what had happened in the last episode (usually not an insignificant amount of information). If each case was contained in one episode, then it would've made for much easier light watching.
Dialogue
The dialogue in the show was fairly modern. We're all quite certain that people in Republican China didn't speak this way. However, the modern way of speaking helped keep the tone light.
Characters
This show was Lu Yao's story, and Qiao Chusheng and Bai Youning were just living in it. Qiao Chusheng didn't really grow much and always played second fiddle to Lu Yao. That being said, his character wasn't as irritating as Bai Youning. I'm pretty sure everybody agrees that her character was unnecessary and was likely added at the last minute.
I'll talk more about the characters in their sections.
Production
Casting and Acting
The acting was surprisingly good. I agree with most that this was kind of a breakout role for Hu Yitian. Most only knew him as an actor playing cool handsome men. Before MRIAD, I'd seen Hu Yitian in Twenty Four Hours (the variety show) so I knew he was capable of at some comedy, but he really did do much better in this role than I think most other idol actors would've done.
I think the supporting and guest actors were pretty good. There was minimal cringe and I considered that a win.
Lighting and Filming
This show did have the idol style of lighting and filming, so I admit I couldn't see myself taking it more seriously as light entertainment.
Continuity
There were some continuity issues that were noticeable throughout the show. For instance, there was a scene in which Qiao Chusheng went from an evening date to a crime scene. However, when at the crime scene, it was already day. The plot also implied that the characters went straight from the date to the crime scene.
There was also a case in which Lu Yao had stood up in the middle of a conversation and so the conversation felt a bit off. This was probably more minor, but I truly think it felt like an oversight on the part of editing/production.
Costumes
The costumes were fine. I mean, anything looks good on Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng because they're so tall. Bai Youning had some cute outfits though, especially her little fascinators, though I feel like fascinators aren't supposed to be for everyday use.
Dubbing
There was quite a bit of English dubbing in this show because many of the characters were either foreigners or educated elsewhere. Some of the dubbing was better than expected. Lu Yao's English dubber had a voice that actually sounded kind of like his.
For the foreigners, many of them spoke English or heavily accented Chinese. Which was fine, because it was realistic for the characters, but it was a bit distracting to listen to at times.
This is not to say that the dubbing overall was great, but I felt that the sound department had to do more work cutting and pasting, and casting dubbers who had similar sounding voices and had convincing accents.
Characters
Lu Yao
Lu Yao was the titular detective of this show, and all of the overarching story lines were related to him. Lu Yao was a bit OP. I think he was educated in medicine in math, but really, his skillset extended to everything under the sun. Lu Yao was also portrayed as a stingy guy. He had only joined the force as a consultant because he'd lost his job at the bank, where he was a cutthroat investor of some sort.
Lu Yao's "romance" with Bai Youning did get on my nerves. At no point during the show did I ever feel that Lu Yao and Bai Youning actually liked each other. Nearly all of their scenes in the first half of the show involved them fighting. Then, once in a while, we'd be bombarded with a scene of Lu Yao or Bai Youning showing concern for one another, but it was hard to believe as neither of them ever seemed to show joy when with the other. I never felt like I saw them enjoying each other's company until the second half of the show, but by then, the show had already lost me in terms of convincing me that they were truly in love with one another.
At the end of the show, Lu Yao and Bai Youning got married and went to Paris on their honeymoon. Lu Yao was barred from returning to London because he'd run into issues with the British authorities during his wedding. Lu Yao had received a telegram while on the ship. It's uncertain what was on the message, but I suspect it might've been a message from Qiao Chusheng. As I said, I stopped paying much attention to the show towards the end, so if there was anything that had hinted towards what was in the message, I definitely missed it.
As I said, Hu Yitian did a pretty good job. Nobody expected him to be able to pull off playing a dumb coward (outside of the whole genius aspect), but he pulled it off. He was also able to do so, without losing his charm. He just felt very natural in the role, and I think it was because it was a variation of what he really like in real life. As I mentioned, I'd watched him in Twenty Four Hours, and he had his share of funny and clumsy moments.
As a character, Lu Yao was interesting, and Hu Yitian really did a good job portraying the character. He was a genius with his share of flaws, but not so obnoxious that he was Cumberbatch-Sherlock levels of condescending.
Qiao Chusheng
Qiao Chusheng was really the only sane one in this trio. He was formerly a mob grunt who'd been installed as a police detective due to his boss's influence. This was a promising premise, and set Qiao Chusheng to be a very interesting and morally gray character. As the show progressed, however, Qiao Chusheng faded into obscurity, which I didn't love. None of the overarching story lines had anything to do with him. Bai Youning and Lu Yao wanted him to go to Paris with them, but he ended up not doing so.
At the end of the show, Qiao Chusheng was informed of a strange murder, and he and Lu Yao had been summoned. However, Lu Yao had long gone. Perhaps that telegram was Qiao Chusheng asking Lu Yao to come back.
I did like Zhang Yunlong in this character a lot. He was able to play a very charismatic guy compared to the clumsier Lu Yao. However, as Qiao Chusheng had less to do with the plot other than just being there, Zhang Yunlong had less opportunities to portray his character in interesting ways.
Out of the trio, Qiao Chusheng was my favourite, but I think that he was massively underused.
Bai Youning
Alright, let's open this can of worms. I think most people deduced that Bai Youning was an unnecessary character who was added into the story at the last minute. I agree.
Bai Youning's background was a combination of Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng's. She and Lu Yao both came from rich families, spoke English, and knowledgeable in the areas of Western etiquette. On the other side, Bai Youning and Qiao Chusheng both came from the world of organized crime. The fact that she shared these crucial traits with both of the other main leads implied that anything she did could've been done by the other two characters. Anything that Bai Youning did relating to high class life or contacting Westerners could've been done by Lu Yao. Anything that Bai Youning did relating to her dad could've been done by Qiao Chusheng.
In addition, when Lu Yao's sister came to Shanghai, she met up with Bai Youning, but she also met up with Qiao Chusheng on more than one occasion. It really supports the idea that the showrunners had wanted to make this show more fanservice-y, but had added a girl in at the last minute to make it no homo.
While Bai Youning said she was great at research, we never saw her actually doing research, except for those scenes in which she was at the dining table reading a bunch of papers she had lying out. This would've made sense if she was a character that was added in at the last minute. Otherwise, the writer would've taken more care in showing how she did her research.
Bai Youning got more annoying as the show went on. At first, it was fine for her to be annoying because she and Lu Yao were just getting to know each other. However, as the show went on, we were supposed to be convinced that Lu Yao was in love with Bai Youning. Yet, I could find no redeeming qualities from her. She wasn't kind, she wasn't gentle, she wasn't clever, etc.
Bai Youning also claimed to be just and for the people. Her overly just attitude was sometimes annoying and sometimes outright wrong. I was super peeved with Bai Youning when she got all heartbroken because Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng had given the scoop on their case to Tong Li instead of her. It was pretty painful to watch for me.
At the end of the show, Lu Yao and Bai Youning had an emergency wedding. All of the reporters were suddenly buddy-buddy with Bai Youning and it was one of the few truly cringey parts of the show.
I already mentioned other issues with the romance up in Lu Yao's section.
Bai Youning's character was overall unnecessary. The show definitely would've been smoother and had less bullshit without her in it.
Officers
The officers were surprisingly fun. We had A-Dou, Salim, and Xiaoyu the coroner. All of them had their share of shenaniganery with both Qiao Chusheng and Lu Yao. Xiaoyu and Salimu were both implicated in the last case, which I thought was a great move, but they were cleared soon.
Foreigners
There were two foreigners, Anderson and Norman, who kept showing up. It turns out that Norman had apparently orchestrated or encouraged most of the cases throughout the show. Again, I lost interest towards the end of the show so I don't remember what Anderson and Norman's actual motivations were. I think they were probably political in nature, as many of their conversations ended up with Norman insisting that they had to prevent the Chinese from becoming too powerful.
Overall
This show started out promising, but I found myself really bored in the second half of the show. The formula got too repetitive, and the way that the show was edited and cut made it really hard to focus.
Qiao Chusheng and Hu Yitian were fun to watch, but Xiao Yan was barely tolerable, mostly because of her character's poor writing.
I'd still recommend the show as light entertainment, but this isn't the kind of show that I'll be thinking about now that I'm done.
Word ramble ahead.
Spoilers.
Story
MRIAD was unique in that it did not have much of an overarching story line. Most of the screentime was spent on the case at hand. I'd say the few main story lines were (1) Lu Yao and Bai Youning's romance, (2) Lu Yao's family wanting to bring him home, and (3) the meddling of the British. None of these stories interested me.
Like most others, I was just here for the buddy cop moments. A lot of cdramas play up the fanservice and while MRIAD did have some of it, it still tried to keep the story focused on the cases, which I appreciated. However, I suspect that there just wasn't that much fanservice because it was transferred over to Bai Youning for the actual romance between Lu Yao and Bai Youning. So potentially, this show would've been a lot more bromancey.
Basically, this show shone when it wasn't focused on any overarching story. Its strengths were with the short cases and the light humour in the midst of investigation.
Writing
Cases
Most of the cases had pretty convoluted reveals, usually involving a gimmick mechanism. At first, this felt fresh, but it got old real fast. I stopped paying attention to the cases around half way through the show as they were very formulaic.
While the one-case-per-episode was fresh and great for light watching in theory, the biggest issue that stopped me from enjoying it was how the episodes were cut. Cases were always cut in the middle. As a result, I was always forced to remember what had happened in the last episode (usually not an insignificant amount of information). If each case was contained in one episode, then it would've made for much easier light watching.
Dialogue
The dialogue in the show was fairly modern. We're all quite certain that people in Republican China didn't speak this way. However, the modern way of speaking helped keep the tone light.
Characters
This show was Lu Yao's story, and Qiao Chusheng and Bai Youning were just living in it. Qiao Chusheng didn't really grow much and always played second fiddle to Lu Yao. That being said, his character wasn't as irritating as Bai Youning. I'm pretty sure everybody agrees that her character was unnecessary and was likely added at the last minute.
I'll talk more about the characters in their sections.
Production
Casting and Acting
The acting was surprisingly good. I agree with most that this was kind of a breakout role for Hu Yitian. Most only knew him as an actor playing cool handsome men. Before MRIAD, I'd seen Hu Yitian in Twenty Four Hours (the variety show) so I knew he was capable of at some comedy, but he really did do much better in this role than I think most other idol actors would've done.
I think the supporting and guest actors were pretty good. There was minimal cringe and I considered that a win.
Lighting and Filming
This show did have the idol style of lighting and filming, so I admit I couldn't see myself taking it more seriously as light entertainment.
Continuity
There were some continuity issues that were noticeable throughout the show. For instance, there was a scene in which Qiao Chusheng went from an evening date to a crime scene. However, when at the crime scene, it was already day. The plot also implied that the characters went straight from the date to the crime scene.
There was also a case in which Lu Yao had stood up in the middle of a conversation and so the conversation felt a bit off. This was probably more minor, but I truly think it felt like an oversight on the part of editing/production.
Costumes
The costumes were fine. I mean, anything looks good on Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng because they're so tall. Bai Youning had some cute outfits though, especially her little fascinators, though I feel like fascinators aren't supposed to be for everyday use.
Dubbing
There was quite a bit of English dubbing in this show because many of the characters were either foreigners or educated elsewhere. Some of the dubbing was better than expected. Lu Yao's English dubber had a voice that actually sounded kind of like his.
For the foreigners, many of them spoke English or heavily accented Chinese. Which was fine, because it was realistic for the characters, but it was a bit distracting to listen to at times.
This is not to say that the dubbing overall was great, but I felt that the sound department had to do more work cutting and pasting, and casting dubbers who had similar sounding voices and had convincing accents.
Characters
Lu Yao
Lu Yao was the titular detective of this show, and all of the overarching story lines were related to him. Lu Yao was a bit OP. I think he was educated in medicine in math, but really, his skillset extended to everything under the sun. Lu Yao was also portrayed as a stingy guy. He had only joined the force as a consultant because he'd lost his job at the bank, where he was a cutthroat investor of some sort.
Lu Yao's "romance" with Bai Youning did get on my nerves. At no point during the show did I ever feel that Lu Yao and Bai Youning actually liked each other. Nearly all of their scenes in the first half of the show involved them fighting. Then, once in a while, we'd be bombarded with a scene of Lu Yao or Bai Youning showing concern for one another, but it was hard to believe as neither of them ever seemed to show joy when with the other. I never felt like I saw them enjoying each other's company until the second half of the show, but by then, the show had already lost me in terms of convincing me that they were truly in love with one another.
At the end of the show, Lu Yao and Bai Youning got married and went to Paris on their honeymoon. Lu Yao was barred from returning to London because he'd run into issues with the British authorities during his wedding. Lu Yao had received a telegram while on the ship. It's uncertain what was on the message, but I suspect it might've been a message from Qiao Chusheng. As I said, I stopped paying much attention to the show towards the end, so if there was anything that had hinted towards what was in the message, I definitely missed it.
As I said, Hu Yitian did a pretty good job. Nobody expected him to be able to pull off playing a dumb coward (outside of the whole genius aspect), but he pulled it off. He was also able to do so, without losing his charm. He just felt very natural in the role, and I think it was because it was a variation of what he really like in real life. As I mentioned, I'd watched him in Twenty Four Hours, and he had his share of funny and clumsy moments.
As a character, Lu Yao was interesting, and Hu Yitian really did a good job portraying the character. He was a genius with his share of flaws, but not so obnoxious that he was Cumberbatch-Sherlock levels of condescending.
Qiao Chusheng
Qiao Chusheng was really the only sane one in this trio. He was formerly a mob grunt who'd been installed as a police detective due to his boss's influence. This was a promising premise, and set Qiao Chusheng to be a very interesting and morally gray character. As the show progressed, however, Qiao Chusheng faded into obscurity, which I didn't love. None of the overarching story lines had anything to do with him. Bai Youning and Lu Yao wanted him to go to Paris with them, but he ended up not doing so.
At the end of the show, Qiao Chusheng was informed of a strange murder, and he and Lu Yao had been summoned. However, Lu Yao had long gone. Perhaps that telegram was Qiao Chusheng asking Lu Yao to come back.
I did like Zhang Yunlong in this character a lot. He was able to play a very charismatic guy compared to the clumsier Lu Yao. However, as Qiao Chusheng had less to do with the plot other than just being there, Zhang Yunlong had less opportunities to portray his character in interesting ways.
Out of the trio, Qiao Chusheng was my favourite, but I think that he was massively underused.
Bai Youning
Alright, let's open this can of worms. I think most people deduced that Bai Youning was an unnecessary character who was added into the story at the last minute. I agree.
Bai Youning's background was a combination of Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng's. She and Lu Yao both came from rich families, spoke English, and knowledgeable in the areas of Western etiquette. On the other side, Bai Youning and Qiao Chusheng both came from the world of organized crime. The fact that she shared these crucial traits with both of the other main leads implied that anything she did could've been done by the other two characters. Anything that Bai Youning did relating to high class life or contacting Westerners could've been done by Lu Yao. Anything that Bai Youning did relating to her dad could've been done by Qiao Chusheng.
In addition, when Lu Yao's sister came to Shanghai, she met up with Bai Youning, but she also met up with Qiao Chusheng on more than one occasion. It really supports the idea that the showrunners had wanted to make this show more fanservice-y, but had added a girl in at the last minute to make it no homo.
While Bai Youning said she was great at research, we never saw her actually doing research, except for those scenes in which she was at the dining table reading a bunch of papers she had lying out. This would've made sense if she was a character that was added in at the last minute. Otherwise, the writer would've taken more care in showing how she did her research.
Bai Youning got more annoying as the show went on. At first, it was fine for her to be annoying because she and Lu Yao were just getting to know each other. However, as the show went on, we were supposed to be convinced that Lu Yao was in love with Bai Youning. Yet, I could find no redeeming qualities from her. She wasn't kind, she wasn't gentle, she wasn't clever, etc.
Bai Youning also claimed to be just and for the people. Her overly just attitude was sometimes annoying and sometimes outright wrong. I was super peeved with Bai Youning when she got all heartbroken because Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng had given the scoop on their case to Tong Li instead of her. It was pretty painful to watch for me.
At the end of the show, Lu Yao and Bai Youning had an emergency wedding. All of the reporters were suddenly buddy-buddy with Bai Youning and it was one of the few truly cringey parts of the show.
I already mentioned other issues with the romance up in Lu Yao's section.
Bai Youning's character was overall unnecessary. The show definitely would've been smoother and had less bullshit without her in it.
Officers
The officers were surprisingly fun. We had A-Dou, Salim, and Xiaoyu the coroner. All of them had their share of shenaniganery with both Qiao Chusheng and Lu Yao. Xiaoyu and Salimu were both implicated in the last case, which I thought was a great move, but they were cleared soon.
Foreigners
There were two foreigners, Anderson and Norman, who kept showing up. It turns out that Norman had apparently orchestrated or encouraged most of the cases throughout the show. Again, I lost interest towards the end of the show so I don't remember what Anderson and Norman's actual motivations were. I think they were probably political in nature, as many of their conversations ended up with Norman insisting that they had to prevent the Chinese from becoming too powerful.
Overall
This show started out promising, but I found myself really bored in the second half of the show. The formula got too repetitive, and the way that the show was edited and cut made it really hard to focus.
Qiao Chusheng and Hu Yitian were fun to watch, but Xiao Yan was barely tolerable, mostly because of her character's poor writing.