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Review: Who’s the Murderer Season 4 (明星大偵探 第四季) (2018)
I enjoyed Season 4 of Who's the Murderer quite a bit. I would rank it above Season 2 and Season 3 in terms of entertainment value. In terms of whether Season 1 or Season 4 is better, the cases in Season 4 were more complex and interesting, but there was some magic to Season 1 (as the first season) that can't be replicated. Plus, Season 4 had really long episodes which made it a bit of a drag sometimes.
Spoilers.
Format
The biggest change to the format of the show was the voting system. In cases that was not so straightforward (1 murderer, 1 victim), the voting system would be changed to suit the case. I really liked this change. In the past, there might have been cases with 2 victims for example, but the players could still only vote for one murderer, which didn't make sense. Now that the showrunners are willing to change up the voting system, the writers are free to write more creative cases, and we saw in this season.
There was a guest expert section in the first few cases, but I think th showrunners saw that that section wasn't really helpful or interesting so they got rid of that, which I approve of.
Production
The cases were more complex in this season than ever before, so it made sense that the episodes would be longer. However, some episodes were far too long (reaching nearly 3 hours). I also noticed that there was a lot more variety show-like editing, such as repeating a gag to show everybody's reaction, which got real old real fast for me. I felt that with the episodes that were too long, I struggled to stay focused.
Cases
Episode 1: Escape the Nameless Island I
This episode was a good start to the season. It had a robust cast made up of well-liked actors who most of all are not afraid to get brainy. In addition, the chemistry between the players generated some funny moments. The PSA related to this episode was about internet cancel culture.
Episode 2: Escape the Nameless Island II
This was the first time we saw the new voting format. The case ended with a twist, with He Jiong's character committing suicide because he thought he was in a dream. I thought this twist was super cool because we're so used to the characters being in a dream world, and this was the first time that they were tricked into believing so.
Episode 3: Mysterious Call
I think this episode was the first one to show how creative the stories could really get. The cast was back in the usual warehouse, but the characters were divided into two timelines. I think the case was very loosely based on the Secret movie, but there was enough added stuff that didn't make it a crutch to lean on.
Though the cast was a bit weaker, I think the interesting story helped prop it up, especially after the two timelines were connected.
After this episode, I started thinking that the show could bring back the overviews at the end of the episode to fully describe what was happening.
Episode 4: NZND: Back to the Beginning
I'll be honest, I'm ready to put NZND to bed. As we can see, the NZND cases are much weaker compared to the new level of quality that WTM can offer. It was much simpler, and I think the NZND cases are more fun for the players than the viewers. However, we also see that the same characters are getting revamped in each case, so I wonder whether keeping the NZND "brand" is worth it anymore.
Episode 5: Heaven Apartment
This case was super interesting, because it ended up being that the murderer had minimal connection to the suspects. Instead, it was the suspect who had grudges on one another. I thought this was a very creative new spin on the old typical warehouse cases.
Episode 6: Just Want to Date
The thing that caught my eye the most about this case was the extremely cute premises! It was a bit more minimalist than usual to keep in line with the cute theme, but I really enjoyed just watching the players interact with this cute environment. The case was more standard, but I think it was fine because the environment did a good job of keeping me engaged.
Episode 7: Secret of the Magic School
This was another very standard case, but what stood out to me was that the cast was extremely robust, even with newer guys like Lin Gengxin, who'd proven himself a good player in a previous episode.
Episode 8: The Burnt Rose
I kind of spoiled myself a bit for this case because I accidentally read that there were two timelines. In any case, this was still a very strong and solid case with interesting turns that didn't contradict each other. I think the strongest aspect was still the cast though, who could bring a combination of fun and interesting analysis.
Episode 9: Home with Kids
I think this case was deliberately simpler as there were two new guests who brought on the show, and I think it was apparent that they weren't as familiar with the braininess of the show. Regardless, I think the case was written well to suit the comfort level of the new guests, as they were able to show off their own fun and charming sides without taking away from the complexity of the case at hand. In fact, I wouldn't say that this was a simple boring case, as it did get exciting, with all of the new family relations being revealed lol.
Episode 10: Fantasy Entertainment Resort
In terms of having a case where the suspects had motives for killing one another, I thought that Heaven Apartment was more well done than Fantasy Entertainment Resort. This case was still okay though, just not one of the stronger cases.
Episode 11: Number One Player I
This was a SUPER COOL case because none of the players had anything to prepare beforehand. They only found out their true identities as they investigated further in the case.
Episode 12 & 13: Number One Player II
My only gripe with these episodes was that the format was a bit too complicated. There was definitely a simpler way they could've separated the two groups into the mystery group and the escape room group. In other words, I thought there were way too many steps. They could've just had the eliminated person move on to the escape room, without a weird pre-elimination round.
The mini-cases were interesting, but I think the episodes felt a bit bloated because we had so many of them. As I think about them more, I think these mini-cases actually did have a lot of clues, and thus kind of reminded me of a simpler Season 1 case when there was maybe only one gimmick. These mini-cases were also simplified because they didn't give as much back story to each of the suspects to cut down on time.
The escape rooms were fine. I would've liked to see some of the other players in the escape rooms, other than just Zhang Ruoyun and Liu Haoran.
Overall
Overall, I was mostly very pleased with this season because of it was finally willing to be flexible with its case formats. My only problem with this season was how long the episodes were. I understand that the episodes need to be longer because the cases are more complex now, but in that case, I think the editors should've taken care to cut down on some of the variety show bits and gags. Because of that, I'd recommend this season only for WTM fans and not necessarily non-Cvariety show fans.
Spoilers.
Format
The biggest change to the format of the show was the voting system. In cases that was not so straightforward (1 murderer, 1 victim), the voting system would be changed to suit the case. I really liked this change. In the past, there might have been cases with 2 victims for example, but the players could still only vote for one murderer, which didn't make sense. Now that the showrunners are willing to change up the voting system, the writers are free to write more creative cases, and we saw in this season.
There was a guest expert section in the first few cases, but I think th showrunners saw that that section wasn't really helpful or interesting so they got rid of that, which I approve of.
Production
The cases were more complex in this season than ever before, so it made sense that the episodes would be longer. However, some episodes were far too long (reaching nearly 3 hours). I also noticed that there was a lot more variety show-like editing, such as repeating a gag to show everybody's reaction, which got real old real fast for me. I felt that with the episodes that were too long, I struggled to stay focused.
Cases
Episode 1: Escape the Nameless Island I
This episode was a good start to the season. It had a robust cast made up of well-liked actors who most of all are not afraid to get brainy. In addition, the chemistry between the players generated some funny moments. The PSA related to this episode was about internet cancel culture.
Episode 2: Escape the Nameless Island II
This was the first time we saw the new voting format. The case ended with a twist, with He Jiong's character committing suicide because he thought he was in a dream. I thought this twist was super cool because we're so used to the characters being in a dream world, and this was the first time that they were tricked into believing so.
Episode 3: Mysterious Call
I think this episode was the first one to show how creative the stories could really get. The cast was back in the usual warehouse, but the characters were divided into two timelines. I think the case was very loosely based on the Secret movie, but there was enough added stuff that didn't make it a crutch to lean on.
Though the cast was a bit weaker, I think the interesting story helped prop it up, especially after the two timelines were connected.
After this episode, I started thinking that the show could bring back the overviews at the end of the episode to fully describe what was happening.
Episode 4: NZND: Back to the Beginning
I'll be honest, I'm ready to put NZND to bed. As we can see, the NZND cases are much weaker compared to the new level of quality that WTM can offer. It was much simpler, and I think the NZND cases are more fun for the players than the viewers. However, we also see that the same characters are getting revamped in each case, so I wonder whether keeping the NZND "brand" is worth it anymore.
Episode 5: Heaven Apartment
This case was super interesting, because it ended up being that the murderer had minimal connection to the suspects. Instead, it was the suspect who had grudges on one another. I thought this was a very creative new spin on the old typical warehouse cases.
Episode 6: Just Want to Date
The thing that caught my eye the most about this case was the extremely cute premises! It was a bit more minimalist than usual to keep in line with the cute theme, but I really enjoyed just watching the players interact with this cute environment. The case was more standard, but I think it was fine because the environment did a good job of keeping me engaged.
Episode 7: Secret of the Magic School
This was another very standard case, but what stood out to me was that the cast was extremely robust, even with newer guys like Lin Gengxin, who'd proven himself a good player in a previous episode.
Episode 8: The Burnt Rose
I kind of spoiled myself a bit for this case because I accidentally read that there were two timelines. In any case, this was still a very strong and solid case with interesting turns that didn't contradict each other. I think the strongest aspect was still the cast though, who could bring a combination of fun and interesting analysis.
Episode 9: Home with Kids
I think this case was deliberately simpler as there were two new guests who brought on the show, and I think it was apparent that they weren't as familiar with the braininess of the show. Regardless, I think the case was written well to suit the comfort level of the new guests, as they were able to show off their own fun and charming sides without taking away from the complexity of the case at hand. In fact, I wouldn't say that this was a simple boring case, as it did get exciting, with all of the new family relations being revealed lol.
Episode 10: Fantasy Entertainment Resort
In terms of having a case where the suspects had motives for killing one another, I thought that Heaven Apartment was more well done than Fantasy Entertainment Resort. This case was still okay though, just not one of the stronger cases.
Episode 11: Number One Player I
This was a SUPER COOL case because none of the players had anything to prepare beforehand. They only found out their true identities as they investigated further in the case.
Episode 12 & 13: Number One Player II
My only gripe with these episodes was that the format was a bit too complicated. There was definitely a simpler way they could've separated the two groups into the mystery group and the escape room group. In other words, I thought there were way too many steps. They could've just had the eliminated person move on to the escape room, without a weird pre-elimination round.
The mini-cases were interesting, but I think the episodes felt a bit bloated because we had so many of them. As I think about them more, I think these mini-cases actually did have a lot of clues, and thus kind of reminded me of a simpler Season 1 case when there was maybe only one gimmick. These mini-cases were also simplified because they didn't give as much back story to each of the suspects to cut down on time.
The escape rooms were fine. I would've liked to see some of the other players in the escape rooms, other than just Zhang Ruoyun and Liu Haoran.
Overall
Overall, I was mostly very pleased with this season because of it was finally willing to be flexible with its case formats. My only problem with this season was how long the episodes were. I understand that the episodes need to be longer because the cases are more complex now, but in that case, I think the editors should've taken care to cut down on some of the variety show bits and gags. Because of that, I'd recommend this season only for WTM fans and not necessarily non-Cvariety show fans.