This review may contain spoilers
Great Actors, Bad Writing
I want to start with that the show actually started out really strong but declined a lot because of bad writing and scene balancing. I understand that they wanted to emphasize on the victims and families and not the police work but the priorities and balancing of scenes were still very off. Like I was waiting for them to solve that main case and then we got no reunion in the end??? Instead we had so many boring and way too long scenes of side characters that added nothing to the overall story. Like sorry, but after the 10th times of watching the villain drinking his wine for literally minute after minute of precious screentime, I know by now that he is an alcoholic. Why don't give this time to the actual "main character" to give them more depth? And yes, I'm using quotes cuz both of them could have benfitted from way more screentime. I'm especially angry about how bad the interrogation scenes were handled writing wise. They were written by someone who did not do their homework about interrogations.... anyway...
That being said, every actor was really good, despite the writing flaws!!! Especially Zhang Jian Xin.... just wow. I cried a few times because it was really touching. Just from watching the trailer and also seeing the cover, I had different expectations of the series. I was sad that Jin Shijia barely had screen time and that his character barely had any story. I guess coming from “Under the Skin” I had higher expectations, especially towards the story writing. But it was still lovely to see him, even if his character was mostly used as pretty background decoration T_T (like seriously guys, you cast him and then not use this brilliant actor? why?) When he had scenes though, he was brilliant as always. So yeah acting wise the show had a lot to offer, but the writing... oof. I also appreciated that there was no romance! We need more strong female leads with no romance story! (but give them more screentime!)
That being said, every actor was really good, despite the writing flaws!!! Especially Zhang Jian Xin.... just wow. I cried a few times because it was really touching. Just from watching the trailer and also seeing the cover, I had different expectations of the series. I was sad that Jin Shijia barely had screen time and that his character barely had any story. I guess coming from “Under the Skin” I had higher expectations, especially towards the story writing. But it was still lovely to see him, even if his character was mostly used as pretty background decoration T_T (like seriously guys, you cast him and then not use this brilliant actor? why?) When he had scenes though, he was brilliant as always. So yeah acting wise the show had a lot to offer, but the writing... oof. I also appreciated that there was no romance! We need more strong female leads with no romance story! (but give them more screentime!)
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