Jianghu World Detective (2023)

A fun, fun, fun, hot mess!

I've only started watching (the first 10-15 minutes)—I love the detective/mystery genres, but it's not from that perspective that I felt inspired to say something about this hot mess.

The production definitely does not scream BIG BUDGET; in fact, it's quite the opposite—dare I say it doesn't even seem to merit a B-grade production (no big-name actors, sub-par costumes, bare minimum sets, etc.). However, almost from the get go, it's stupidly hilarious. It's so awkwardly funny that I couldn't stop laughing pretty much through all the scenes.

Don't get me wrong. It's not one of those, it's so stupid that it's unintentionally funny.

It's incredibly funny precisely because it's meant to make fun of the all around stupid. The fact that the low production quality is so obvious, seems to tie in to the wtf-just-happened humor that the script writers must've had a rollicking hay day writing the stuff (I'm not even talking about the story writing, cuz it's not so much plot driven as it's jokes and pun driven). That there's some detective work in the mix is just icing on this unexpected comedic series.

From the start, I had the thought—what.the.heck am I watching, while at the same time having a big grin on my face and totally enjoying the whole experience. As I'm writing this, I find that it's actually hard to explain why I'm liking this so much; you just have to experience it yourself.

Update: past the initial scenes, the series has calmed down a bit to concentrate on the dectecting/mystery, and I have to say, while it's not the laugh-a-minute it was at the beginning, it's still an engaging, entertaining series.

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