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Production better than story and execution
Looks good Taiwan Entertainment Industry! Congrats. Great production values, fantastic cinematography, and even some of the music was emotional in a quality-way, rather than the cheesy sentimental slop most dramas serve up.
But the story was predictable after the first 2 epsiodes and the whole thing played out exactly how one assumes it will, with me correctly guessing which scenes would come after each other. It was a paint by numbers show, the worst kind, because there's no mystery, no outside of the box thinking, just straight a to b to c to d storytelling, and when that's the case it all just becomes boring. I also think some of the performances were lacking. The actor who played the leader of the Detectives - he of the wild hair - may be better in other TV and film roles, but here his acting was pedestrian. There wasn't an ounce of charisma or subtlety. He was either barking orders at his men, or yelling at suspects. Watching every scene he was in, was dull not only because he showed no creativity with his line readings, but oftentimes his line readings were just wrong. He yells when he shouldn't. He's casual when he should be more emphatic. For a character with so much screen time to be that boring and predicatible is a crime. The actor who plays main forensic guy who is supposed to have some sort of "asperger's is just not very good. I put aspergers in quotes because he's described that way once by someone who says it in passing, he's not a doctor, so they purposely make his "condition" kinda nebulous. Whatever. The show and the actor were definitely goinf after some ASD type of thing, fine, but how accurate was the actor's performance...because I'm wondering if the show and he really wanted us to think his "condition" also makes him a straight up dick to everyone. Really. Totally unlikable character and perfromance by the actor. I can't believe that everyone with asd is a dick, but it sure seems that way here. Again, lead actor...unlikable for 7.5 episodes. Finally I felt some sympathy for him with one of his monologues near the end, but honestly...this character and the actors portrayal is all on the creators of the show, the writer, the director. Whatver is filmed, remains, so ya know...maybe dial back some of the actors performances and think about how people are reacting to each other. Directing and writing 101.
A Detective show should keep you guessing, and this one didn't. And it's fine if you want to include some emotional scenes - of course - but when they start to overwhelm the solving of the crime and the scenes linger too long and border on melodrama, then you've lost me. Are you a gritty show about solving a series of crimes, or are you know a Hallmark Series where the emotions become more important. The best Detective series have a 85% - 15% ration of this. This one in the end had a 70%- 30% ratio, which is another strike against it.
Anyways, hats off to all involved. Thanks for your hard work.
But the story was predictable after the first 2 epsiodes and the whole thing played out exactly how one assumes it will, with me correctly guessing which scenes would come after each other. It was a paint by numbers show, the worst kind, because there's no mystery, no outside of the box thinking, just straight a to b to c to d storytelling, and when that's the case it all just becomes boring. I also think some of the performances were lacking. The actor who played the leader of the Detectives - he of the wild hair - may be better in other TV and film roles, but here his acting was pedestrian. There wasn't an ounce of charisma or subtlety. He was either barking orders at his men, or yelling at suspects. Watching every scene he was in, was dull not only because he showed no creativity with his line readings, but oftentimes his line readings were just wrong. He yells when he shouldn't. He's casual when he should be more emphatic. For a character with so much screen time to be that boring and predicatible is a crime. The actor who plays main forensic guy who is supposed to have some sort of "asperger's is just not very good. I put aspergers in quotes because he's described that way once by someone who says it in passing, he's not a doctor, so they purposely make his "condition" kinda nebulous. Whatever. The show and the actor were definitely goinf after some ASD type of thing, fine, but how accurate was the actor's performance...because I'm wondering if the show and he really wanted us to think his "condition" also makes him a straight up dick to everyone. Really. Totally unlikable character and perfromance by the actor. I can't believe that everyone with asd is a dick, but it sure seems that way here. Again, lead actor...unlikable for 7.5 episodes. Finally I felt some sympathy for him with one of his monologues near the end, but honestly...this character and the actors portrayal is all on the creators of the show, the writer, the director. Whatver is filmed, remains, so ya know...maybe dial back some of the actors performances and think about how people are reacting to each other. Directing and writing 101.
A Detective show should keep you guessing, and this one didn't. And it's fine if you want to include some emotional scenes - of course - but when they start to overwhelm the solving of the crime and the scenes linger too long and border on melodrama, then you've lost me. Are you a gritty show about solving a series of crimes, or are you know a Hallmark Series where the emotions become more important. The best Detective series have a 85% - 15% ration of this. This one in the end had a 70%- 30% ratio, which is another strike against it.
Anyways, hats off to all involved. Thanks for your hard work.
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