A Good Crime Drama with issues handling multiple romances
This is a review where it sounds like I'm going to be harsher than my score would indicate but honestly let me get this out of the way nowIf you enjoy crime shows that pull no ppunches and will handle subject matter that is DARK...you're good cos you got that this show (even if some of the cases seemed to drag on but we'll talk about that) but if you are someone that wonders
"How do they handle the Main Character and his Sidekick?"
Well in my opinion that is where this show had issues
When the show opens and we see Shen Wan on a boat where the boatsman gets murdered we sort of know this show is going to handle murder pretty brutally...see what happens the second we get into Jingzhou if you don't believe that!
Within the first little bit of the time there we meet the "Black Armor Guard" and the two main members of it: Yan Chi and his Deputy Bai Feng
If you need a good idea of how violent Bai Feng can be all you need to know is he gave an order for everyone to clear out ,a guard refused and well...that was the end of him. Later on he shows his temperment more when he storms down to a prison cell and goes after a prisoner. I will remind you that he's not the lead character but had that kind of energy
Meanwhile there's Yan Chi
I sometimes think the expression
"Stand there and look pretty"
is what we need to say to Main Characters if they aren't supposed to do anything when we first see them because guess what? It's basically how the scene went. Oh and Bai Feng deleting the guard went unnoticed in the scene
The pace of crimes that were shown in the series was actually...not bad but you wondered if there weren't "smaller" cases that could have been used in the show because ,when cases take around 2 to 5 episodes that kind of tells you something with the way they pace out stories in the series and I can tell you I started to wonder what was going on
When it comes to the actual "Romance" stuff I tended to wonder (outside of the one for the main characters that got resolved around episode 30 give or take) what other ones would get focused on
Well we had Yan Li and Princess Yonging so that was cool
...
Oh and there WAS Bai Feng and Fu Ling...although that one is the most confusing of how it was wrote because I love a good "slow burn" arc as much as anyone but my issue was here that...it didn't REALLY feel like they were going to give anyone invested in it the payoff vs. either Yan. Like you could literally watch almost any scene they (Bai Feng and Fu Ling) were in and sort of look at them and go
"Yeah if you ship them you're getting hosed"
Because there were few scenes where I sat there and went
"Eh maybe"
Because it genuinely felt like they didn't have an "Arc" as they did a "rushed romance" (IMHO)
Now one thing I have to say about Cheng Hong Xin is this
Dude can steal scenes
EVEN IF he isn't in a speaking role in a scene he does things that make me crack up laughing...even if its not intentional he does things as Bai Feng that makes me go
"Protect this dude"
There is a scene ,and Lord help me I wish I knew the episode when Bai Feng says and I quote
"My legs are shaking"
I need to find that scene cos...oh boy its lived in my head rent free and will never go away
Basically Xin is a treasure and we need to protect him at all costs...and I put Bai Feng in Cyberpunk 2077 so there's that too!
One thing from a plot persopective that I didn't get was this (well okay the "Romance" section)
Explain to me how ,Bai Feng is probably the most level headed of the two with him and Yan Chi when it comes to relationships and HE gets bullied?! No I'm actually curious about this cos if this was supposed to be part of his "romance arc" with Fu Ling they never found a way to convey that...they DID convey that Bai Feng is "Smoother than Yan Chi" so there is that plus for sure
Also there is some confusion (at least for me) with Bai Feng's rank:
Bai Feng was referred to as "General" but ,in listings on here, he is called a "Deputy" so that's confusing but it's fine...just sommething that I thought was odd
Okay so overall why did I give this a 7.5
Story - It's not bad but if you go in expecting evenly fleshed out romances...don't. I can recommend a Thai BL Drama that does a better job of that honestly
Acting - Despite my qualms with the story the Acting is great and Ao Rui Peng does great job of not just being the "Serious General" but can also be funny when he needs to be. I talked about Cheng Hong Xin in his role and even Landy Li (Plot Armor and all) did a great job as Shen Wan. No complaints there
Music - PERFECTO and a big reason is when they had tp do a scene that showed a breakdown of how the crime happened that was awesome AND the opening theme is haunting as hell
Rewatch Value - Honestly...if this didn't have romance in it I would go higher because the cases are fun to watch through but its the "baggage" of having to shoehorn in romance that makes me go
"Ehh..."
Like remove the romance its 10/10 but having romance in crime shows just doesn't work for me as a viewer and reviwer...its NOT what I signed up for
take care
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