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Review: Detective L (紳探) (2019)
This show as alright. Nothing too deep. It was entertaining because it was such an insulated show, but I think that it sort of dropped the ball at the end.
I'd still recommend it, but just don't expect too much for the last case.
Spoilers.
Story
This was a pretty typical Republican Era procedural crime show. As I mentioned, the show was fairly insulated. The cast was kept very small, and it affected the writing, not necessarily in a good or bad way.
I'd watched Miss S not long ago, and what was funny about that show was that Su Wenli had stumbled upon all of her cases by chance, as a civilian. So she tended to have a personal stake in the mysteries. This was not the case in this show, as Luo Fei was a police consultant and Qin Xiaoman was a police officer. So they tended to not have any association with their cases, though they did stumble upon some on their own time.
Like most procedural crime shows, the last case was supposed to be the big case that our detective personally had a stake in. However, I thought that this show dropped the ball with this last case. First of all, it introduced new characters, which I did not like. I did not care for these new characters, especially not those who were supposed to be Luo Fei's old friends. I didn't have a problem with Huo Wensi being the big bad, but when that was revealed, I'd already kind of lost interest in the case. I disliked the fact that Jin Bubai had set up smaller cases for Luo Fei, as it seemed so small fry. I wish the last case would have spent more time on a more complex case as opposed to several smaller ones, involving people that we didn't really know that well. In addition, this last case ended on a cliffhanger, so there were several questions that we didn't get answered. The looming question over the entire drama was the death of Luo Fei's sister by Captain's hand. We literally learned nothing about Captain, as Huo Wensi had deemed him mentally unfit, and then deemed him mentally fit again, but he had his own ulterior motives for doing so. So the story line about Captain did not progress at all. And then the drama ended with Huo Wensi's fingers on the detonators.
I get that they wanted to end on a cliffhanger, but it wasn't even really a good cliffhanger because the story leading up to it wasn't interesting. Compare that to the cliffhanger in Day & Night. I didn't mind the cliffhanger because at least the case up until them was gripping and actually personally involved Guan Hongfeng and Guan Hongyu.
The cases in general in this drama weren't the best. I can see how the writers tried using misdirection, such as having Luo Fei uncover the true culprit after someone else was arrested. But the progression of the cases wasn't too gripping.
As I said, this show wasn't too deep. It's not such a bad thing, I was watching this show for entertainment. But as a crime show, I've seen better.
Production
This show was stylistically influenced by Sherlock Holmes. Luo Fei's wardrobe was very Sherlockian (in the pop culture sense), and even Qin Xiaoman's wardrobe felt quite Western. The choice of music also reminded me of BBC Sherlock's music.
As for the acting, it was fine. The actors dubbed themselves, and I think that Bai Yu's line delivery isn't the best. There's something about his speaking that feels slightly tired.
Characters
Luo Fei
Luo Fei was our genius detective. Though this show was Sherlock inspired, I felt that Luo Fei wasn't as much of a genius detective. He did have a good eye for detail, but he also spent a lot of time analyzing and doing other grunt work.
The show was angling for Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman to have a romantic relationship, but I actually saw it more as platonic, maybe even in the platonic life partners sense. I thought it was fun that Luo Fei took Qin Xiaoman on his cases not necessarily because he needed help, but because he found it fun investigating with her.
Luo Fei was tortured by his past (as many detectives in procedural crime dramas are). He was a police detective, and his sister was killed by Captain, and since then, he's been haunted by that event. But this show (or this season of it at least) solved none of that :(
Qin Xiaoman
Qin Xiaoman was a new police detective. She was spunky and ambitious, a pretty cute character. She was very enthusiastic about solving cases, but would butt heads with Luo Fei as Luo Fei would dismiss her intellect. I liked that she didn't really lose heart over this, and found confidence in herself to solve cases her own way.
As mentioned, she and Luo Fei were supposed to have a special relationship but nothing about the way it was shown on screen suggested it was romantic lmfao. And I actually kind of like this ambiguous kind of relationship. I think they'd be extremely cute as platonic life partners.
She did get hurt once at the very beginning of the drama, but I thought it was kind of weird that their relationship wasn't even tested at the end in that big high-stakes case. Another reason why this last case dropped the ball.
Ben Jieming
Benjamin? Anyway, he was the coroner character. Before I started this show, I thought this character would be the third in a trio, but he didn't have nearly as big of a role as I expected. He was actually kind of a non-character, only showing up when Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman needed an extra pair of hands to give them information. He popped in as needed, but never got hurt or did anything that had actually consequences other than provide information lol.
Savoy
Savoy was the police chief, the boss character. He was what you'd expect of such a character. He was kind of gruff but also kind of lolz. He would sometimes yield to Luo Fei because he respected his intellect, but sometimes he would be strict with him because of police procedure.
Ye Changqing
Ye Changqing was another police detective at the police station. At first, I thought he was going to be a villain. As is the case in such procedural shows, he was more lazy and bureaucratic. But at the end, we saw that he did become a team member, even going so far as to join Qin Xiaoman and Ben Jieming in trusting Luo Fei. So I guess he's a bro, just of the frat dude variety though.
Wang Susu
Wang Susu was Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman's landlady. She owned an extraordinarily large house?? It was basically the size of a hotel!!! Anyway, she doted on Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman, which was very sweet. She'd make them food, but also ask them to help her with stuff.
Huo Wensi
Huo Wensi's name was probably supposed to sound similar to Holmes. Anyway, he was first set up as something of a nemesis to Luo Fei. He was a psychologist, and Luo Fei looked down on such people. Later on, he was caught as a culprit in a case and thrown in jail. But at the end of the drama, in the last case, he was revealed as the big mastermind, though for what reason we can't really be sure.
In the first half of the drama or so, Qin Xiaoman was supposed to have something of a crush on Huo Wensi because he was proper and kind and gentlemanly, whereas Luo Fei was kind of rough around the edges. Her feelings for him sort of dropped off after he went to jail though she still maintained some respect for him.
It's really hard to say much more about Huo Wensi since his story was literally left unfinished. We don't even really know why he did all of this, and whether he detonates the bombs will be an important part of who he is.
Overall
Now that I've actually written this all out, I see that the writing was actually relatively weak. The cases might have been okay, but the actually character writing wasn't too deep. What we got on screen was fine in the short run, but any attempts at longer character or story arcs were not well done. I'd still recommend this as a show that wasn't too deep, but as I mentioned, it's hardly the best procedural crime drama out there.
I'd still recommend it, but just don't expect too much for the last case.
Spoilers.
Story
This was a pretty typical Republican Era procedural crime show. As I mentioned, the show was fairly insulated. The cast was kept very small, and it affected the writing, not necessarily in a good or bad way.
I'd watched Miss S not long ago, and what was funny about that show was that Su Wenli had stumbled upon all of her cases by chance, as a civilian. So she tended to have a personal stake in the mysteries. This was not the case in this show, as Luo Fei was a police consultant and Qin Xiaoman was a police officer. So they tended to not have any association with their cases, though they did stumble upon some on their own time.
Like most procedural crime shows, the last case was supposed to be the big case that our detective personally had a stake in. However, I thought that this show dropped the ball with this last case. First of all, it introduced new characters, which I did not like. I did not care for these new characters, especially not those who were supposed to be Luo Fei's old friends. I didn't have a problem with Huo Wensi being the big bad, but when that was revealed, I'd already kind of lost interest in the case. I disliked the fact that Jin Bubai had set up smaller cases for Luo Fei, as it seemed so small fry. I wish the last case would have spent more time on a more complex case as opposed to several smaller ones, involving people that we didn't really know that well. In addition, this last case ended on a cliffhanger, so there were several questions that we didn't get answered. The looming question over the entire drama was the death of Luo Fei's sister by Captain's hand. We literally learned nothing about Captain, as Huo Wensi had deemed him mentally unfit, and then deemed him mentally fit again, but he had his own ulterior motives for doing so. So the story line about Captain did not progress at all. And then the drama ended with Huo Wensi's fingers on the detonators.
I get that they wanted to end on a cliffhanger, but it wasn't even really a good cliffhanger because the story leading up to it wasn't interesting. Compare that to the cliffhanger in Day & Night. I didn't mind the cliffhanger because at least the case up until them was gripping and actually personally involved Guan Hongfeng and Guan Hongyu.
The cases in general in this drama weren't the best. I can see how the writers tried using misdirection, such as having Luo Fei uncover the true culprit after someone else was arrested. But the progression of the cases wasn't too gripping.
As I said, this show wasn't too deep. It's not such a bad thing, I was watching this show for entertainment. But as a crime show, I've seen better.
Production
This show was stylistically influenced by Sherlock Holmes. Luo Fei's wardrobe was very Sherlockian (in the pop culture sense), and even Qin Xiaoman's wardrobe felt quite Western. The choice of music also reminded me of BBC Sherlock's music.
As for the acting, it was fine. The actors dubbed themselves, and I think that Bai Yu's line delivery isn't the best. There's something about his speaking that feels slightly tired.
Characters
Luo Fei
Luo Fei was our genius detective. Though this show was Sherlock inspired, I felt that Luo Fei wasn't as much of a genius detective. He did have a good eye for detail, but he also spent a lot of time analyzing and doing other grunt work.
The show was angling for Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman to have a romantic relationship, but I actually saw it more as platonic, maybe even in the platonic life partners sense. I thought it was fun that Luo Fei took Qin Xiaoman on his cases not necessarily because he needed help, but because he found it fun investigating with her.
Luo Fei was tortured by his past (as many detectives in procedural crime dramas are). He was a police detective, and his sister was killed by Captain, and since then, he's been haunted by that event. But this show (or this season of it at least) solved none of that :(
Qin Xiaoman
Qin Xiaoman was a new police detective. She was spunky and ambitious, a pretty cute character. She was very enthusiastic about solving cases, but would butt heads with Luo Fei as Luo Fei would dismiss her intellect. I liked that she didn't really lose heart over this, and found confidence in herself to solve cases her own way.
As mentioned, she and Luo Fei were supposed to have a special relationship but nothing about the way it was shown on screen suggested it was romantic lmfao. And I actually kind of like this ambiguous kind of relationship. I think they'd be extremely cute as platonic life partners.
She did get hurt once at the very beginning of the drama, but I thought it was kind of weird that their relationship wasn't even tested at the end in that big high-stakes case. Another reason why this last case dropped the ball.
Ben Jieming
Benjamin? Anyway, he was the coroner character. Before I started this show, I thought this character would be the third in a trio, but he didn't have nearly as big of a role as I expected. He was actually kind of a non-character, only showing up when Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman needed an extra pair of hands to give them information. He popped in as needed, but never got hurt or did anything that had actually consequences other than provide information lol.
Savoy
Savoy was the police chief, the boss character. He was what you'd expect of such a character. He was kind of gruff but also kind of lolz. He would sometimes yield to Luo Fei because he respected his intellect, but sometimes he would be strict with him because of police procedure.
Ye Changqing
Ye Changqing was another police detective at the police station. At first, I thought he was going to be a villain. As is the case in such procedural shows, he was more lazy and bureaucratic. But at the end, we saw that he did become a team member, even going so far as to join Qin Xiaoman and Ben Jieming in trusting Luo Fei. So I guess he's a bro, just of the frat dude variety though.
Wang Susu
Wang Susu was Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman's landlady. She owned an extraordinarily large house?? It was basically the size of a hotel!!! Anyway, she doted on Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman, which was very sweet. She'd make them food, but also ask them to help her with stuff.
Huo Wensi
Huo Wensi's name was probably supposed to sound similar to Holmes. Anyway, he was first set up as something of a nemesis to Luo Fei. He was a psychologist, and Luo Fei looked down on such people. Later on, he was caught as a culprit in a case and thrown in jail. But at the end of the drama, in the last case, he was revealed as the big mastermind, though for what reason we can't really be sure.
In the first half of the drama or so, Qin Xiaoman was supposed to have something of a crush on Huo Wensi because he was proper and kind and gentlemanly, whereas Luo Fei was kind of rough around the edges. Her feelings for him sort of dropped off after he went to jail though she still maintained some respect for him.
It's really hard to say much more about Huo Wensi since his story was literally left unfinished. We don't even really know why he did all of this, and whether he detonates the bombs will be an important part of who he is.
Overall
Now that I've actually written this all out, I see that the writing was actually relatively weak. The cases might have been okay, but the actually character writing wasn't too deep. What we got on screen was fine in the short run, but any attempts at longer character or story arcs were not well done. I'd still recommend this as a show that wasn't too deep, but as I mentioned, it's hardly the best procedural crime drama out there.