novalinnhe
UK
A fun, Holmes-esque detective drama - just don't expect too much.
I really did enjoy this drama overall. I had a real fondness for the back-and-forth, bickering relationship between the two main characters, and think each of the recurring side characters had great characterisation in their own way, particularly the lodging owner (Wang Su Su) who I wish would've had more screen time!
However, as a real lover of detective fiction I personally found some of the cases a little hard to follow, before eventually realising that Detective L should be treated a little like Murder She Wrote. By this I mean the charm of the series isn't necessarily in the mysteries themselves, but in the characters we're watching solve them.
You see, one of my favourite things to do with a detective story is to try and solve the mystery alongside the detective. The problem is, in Detective L you are often given clues at the same time as, or even after the detective has already solved whatever mystery it would have helped you piece together. For example: in one case there's a clue in a ventilation pipe which helps explains something that's happened. However, we only find this clue after the detective asks his assistant to fetch it, and explains why he knows it's there (essentially "solving" the clue before we've even seen it).
Murder She Wrote suffers from the same issue, where the crucial clue is often explained to the audience at the end when Jessica Fletcher has already solved the case. You don't get the opportunity to figure the mystery out for yourself, but that's okay - because the warmth of that show comes from its lovable cast of characters, not the gritty realism of the case. And that's the same with Detective L.
TL;DR - If you're starting this show looking for interesting cases you can solve alongside the detective, you might be a little disappointed. However if you approach this more as a typical drama with the setting of a crime or detective show, you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of the series overall. I definitely did in the end. :)
(P.S. Be prepared for some blood/gore - particularly during the autopsy scenes.)
However, as a real lover of detective fiction I personally found some of the cases a little hard to follow, before eventually realising that Detective L should be treated a little like Murder She Wrote. By this I mean the charm of the series isn't necessarily in the mysteries themselves, but in the characters we're watching solve them.
You see, one of my favourite things to do with a detective story is to try and solve the mystery alongside the detective. The problem is, in Detective L you are often given clues at the same time as, or even after the detective has already solved whatever mystery it would have helped you piece together. For example: in one case there's a clue in a ventilation pipe which helps explains something that's happened. However, we only find this clue after the detective asks his assistant to fetch it, and explains why he knows it's there (essentially "solving" the clue before we've even seen it).
Murder She Wrote suffers from the same issue, where the crucial clue is often explained to the audience at the end when Jessica Fletcher has already solved the case. You don't get the opportunity to figure the mystery out for yourself, but that's okay - because the warmth of that show comes from its lovable cast of characters, not the gritty realism of the case. And that's the same with Detective L.
TL;DR - If you're starting this show looking for interesting cases you can solve alongside the detective, you might be a little disappointed. However if you approach this more as a typical drama with the setting of a crime or detective show, you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of the series overall. I definitely did in the end. :)
(P.S. Be prepared for some blood/gore - particularly during the autopsy scenes.)
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