The Truth Within

My dark horse thriller of 2025

In the last days of 2025, three different thrillers aired, and after a rough personal year in the genre, I wasn’t craving anything extraordinary - just good dramas. And, as with many things in life, the positive surprise came from the least expected. That’s how **The Truth Within** turned out to be my dark horse thriller of 2025 - *The Hunt* remains my favourite.

Without diving too much to avoid spoilers, this is a five-case thriller with an underlying mystery (the sixth case), where case-solving and criminal procedures, with a strong emphasis on the forensic aspect, take center stage, very much in the vein of the best era of CSI: Las Vegas. Here, there’s no room for cops’ family affairs, personal life matters, the old master-apprentice trope, or the social commentary we usually see in the genre.

It’s a stylized suspense drama, far away from a gritty vibe but also from the overly artistic aesthetic that’s becoming the opposite trend in the Chinese entertainment landscape since last year.

The two Taiwanese directors - there’s also a third, Chinese one who collaborates with them - have a renowned portfolio in thrillers, and you can tell. I love the storytelling here and how they enhance a solid script. The lighting, the overall cinematography, where the framing and the use of the camera help create the atmosphere, together with neat and efficient dialogue, give this project a distinctive and fresh personality that I deeply appreciate. Silence and unsaid words are also protagonists, but again, used with precision.

The straight, clean, and plain focus on the case-solving process feels refreshing. Although short cases aren’t my preferred jam in any genre or format - and that was one of my two main gripes about it - they have the right amount of length and flow, are interesting, and even tackle a theme I never expected to see in C-dramaland. The underlying mystery is well interconnected too, and the viewer accompanies the investigation team as the clues unfold. Overall, the pace feels right: neither slow nor rushed.

Production is excellent despite it not being a super-budget drama, and my other gripe with this type of series luckily didn’t become a nightmare: procedures don’t have major flaws that make you roll your eyes, and they managed to introduce the main role of the forensic doctor quite logically within the team dynamics and stories, resulting in balanced and fair screen time among the main team, as it should be.

I liked how they presented the dynamics between the characters. I appreciate that every team member has a distinct personality, and that they didn’t go over the top or force comic relief with any of them. Despite the precise approach to cases, you find yourself getting attached to all of them when danger arises - proof of a good script, solid execution, and good acting from the entire cast, not only the main leads (by the way, not the usual suspects in these dramas either).

If I have to remark on the things that bothered me, the one that sticks out the most is the three or four images that were unnecessarily censored around the middle of the drama, once it gained more views.

There were other minor issues that didn’t ruin the overall tone of the show: a subtle (edit: perhaps more than subtle for the trained eye) drop in quality in episodes 14 and 15 - I guess they left the direction to a director’s assistant/apprentice? - and a few inconsistencies toward the last two episodes, where the story changes the vibe a little due to the logical progression of it. Luckily, the uniqueness returns in the last 15 minutes in all its glory, and the show ends on a high note.

**The Truth Within** is not a gritty drama, nor one that delves deeply into social topics and leaves you ruminating after it ends, but rather one that keeps you on the edge of your seat, eager to press play on the next episode.

For those who like this type of thriller and want a project with personality, it’s a very tight drama.

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A thriller that treats the teleporter like a detective too.

Generally, new-generation thrillers spoon-feed you everything, but The Truth Within is different. It treats you like you're part of the team, giving you the pieces to put together, making it so immersive. Everything is so well-written and mysterious. I like series like this, where I'm treated as someone who also wants to unravel the mysteries. The plot involving Qi Sizhe and Han Feng intrigues me so much; I want to know more about them, I want to know the reasons why their relationship is so bad, so bitter, so distrustful. I really like the cast; they're all great actors, and the villains are top-notch. Watch The Truth Within if you like series like Criminal Minds and CSI.

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