Reviews

"The truth depends on who tells it best"

Copycat Killer was a copycat of numerous serial killer stories, set apart only by its relentless and gratuitous images of young women been tortured and murdered. Told in a time before social media, it tried to paint television news as bringing as much chaos to society as the brutal murders of imperfect victims.

The drama utilized character types we’ve seen before. Chris Wu played the brilliant and moral prosecutor with a tragic past who is a thorn in everyone’s side for not tolerating any dishonesty and doggedly devoting his life to solving crimes. I found this confusing. Prosecutors in my country use the evidence police bring them to go to court and try the cases, they don’t dig up the evidence themselves. Cammy Chiang was the overly earnest young reporter disillusioned with the news media. The criminally underused Ko Chia Yen was Wu’s ex and a psychologist to help him make sense of the killers’ motivations. Ko is a gifted actress who had few scenes and none of which showed her range. Ruby Lin’s news anchor and producer had potential but the writing let her down as well. The villains ranged from mildly complex to laughable.

Copycat’s writing was uneven and the pacing slow. The first three episodes were more confusing than world building. Story lines that promised follow-ups were dropped. In the initial episode, a killer made the statement, “As long as the evil in your heart is triggered, anyone out there has the capacity to become a killer…Do you think there’s no evil in you?” The writing clumsily tried to push Wu’s prosecutor into that ethical corner. The news media was shown as morally bankrupt, uncaring of how much damage their coverage did to victims and their families as long as the ratings were high. Due to their race to air the most graphic or emotionally volatile content they became complicit in the killers’ crimes.

Aside from the writing and pacing issues, the main problem I had with this drama was its depiction of women. It tried to have it both ways-repeatedly show scantily clad women tortured and murdered in a titillating manner and then call out the media and society for blaming the victims. One character that was written for us to empathize with due to his loyalty and connection to main characters simply emphasized how unimportant young women’s lives were. The noble citizenry vilified the imperfect young women as being unworthy of justice and finding their killers a waste of tax payer money. The old myth of only the perfect victim, the chaste and obedient woman from a good family, being worthy of our sympathy or help was trotted out again and again. Perhaps Copycat was highlighting how victims and their families are often victimized as much by “righteous” people as the criminals who committed the heinous crimes but the lingering shots on chained women or extended scenes of gratuitously murdered women muddied those waters. The drama also briefly addressed the troubling old belief that the family of a perpetrator was as guilty as the criminal and not worthy of a happy life even if they had nothing to do with their relative’s actions.

Copycat Killer was a disturbing drama, not because it dealt with serial killers or had gory scenes, which it did, but because in trying to show society’s misogynistic and limited views of women they simply reinforced violence against women as a means of entertainment.

11/17/23

Read More

Not bad actually

Romance comedy drama wrapped in a law story. I had high expectations when I wanted to start watching this drama from episodes 1-7 I really liked it and wanted to give a score of 10, but after episodes 8-14 I skipped a lot when ML and FL broke up and ML received a lot of problems in her case. I don't know why but I felt a bit bored when the FL and ML problem wasn't resolved, the director focused more on the side characters which I thought was a bit of a waste of time, and I skipped until ML and FL relationship improved and they got back together. While episodes 15-16 are not too bad, there are only minor problems and I think it was handled quite well by the director. My rating is 8.5 for this drama or maybe 8.

Read More

Frustrated by a Plot Hole in Episode 2 but It was Good

I was enjoying but Episode 2 hit a snag. The main lead faces false surgery accusations, yet the show conveniently ignores what happened to the surgery recording. Did it disappear into thin air? No explanation. Realism matters, even in dramas. A simple line about the footage getting corrupted would've sufficed. I’m pretending that it’s just a live feed, not a recording and watching the show now. Annoying gap, hoping they patch it up in future episodes.

Continued after 2nd episode it was good but not that good. Some series make me drop in the middle but this was watchable. Sometimes I felt that the main leads could have been smarter. I don’t know how the law works on recording the surgery I continued watching considering that it’s was just a live feed.

Read More

it was my first drama and i am glad i chose to watch it is quite fresh and the CGI is great i recommend you to watch this if your new to watching dramas its quite short and simple and cute i love the Fl and ml is great guy i loved their chemistry the fact that the guy is game developer is so nice and his friend's rare so funny overall its a great drama

it was my first drama and i am glad i chose to watch it is quite fresh and the CGI is great i recommend you to watch this if your new to watching dramas its quite short and simple and cute i love the Fl and ml is great guy i loved their chemistry the fact that the guy is game developer is so nice and his friend's rare so funny overall its a great drama

Read More

Another Bo Young win.

I don't think I have ever watched something with Park Bo Young that I didn't like. The beginning of this drama was a little rushed, but thing got explained through the episodes. Villains were okay, but the one that remained and the one that didn't had their endings badly chosen. The one sticking point sometimes was actually Anh Hyo Seop, not because of his acting but something about him didn't really fully click with his the way he was portraying his character. Secondary characters were pretty good too and I liked how Go Seyeon's father didn't take the whole situation at face value. It added some realism to it.

Read More

Should be a good one, but it has some negative points

I dont care whether a drama has happy / sad ending. It wont affect my rating

This drama whole plot is fine. But it has some negative points

Chinese drama lately often picture a marriage which not approved by parents. Gu Yun Zheng couldnt forgive his father until the end. This is BAD example for family in real life. I dont think govt should approve this / keep promoting this kind of culture

This Gu Yun Zheng always to find perfection but in the end he also couldnt save his most loved person.

I couldnt understand why if SWA doesnt have hipertension, why she wont try to take HDQ 39. Since it only has negative adverse effect for hipertension ppl such as her aunt

Acting is good
Ost are excellent
But morale story i dont really like at some points. Ending is good though IMO, realistic

80% of Cdrama based on novel, this make drama plot cant have creativitiy. Stick with novel although it is unrealistic at some points. They should have more dramas NOT based on novel so can have free, creative and realistic scenario

Read More

Realistic plot tragic yet heartwarming

Thank you for the beautiful story, guess it's same w/ novel? I didnt read it. Realistic, why she rejected him many times but at the same time she love him, she give up her studies & love, but he give her courage the reality slap her again, but Dr.Gu persist, he changed his research direction and restart after 9 yrs studied other illness though that one have good result. The flow never had overdo something, when they fight, have nice pace & reasons, the conflict & outcome. I so agree w/ him never forgive his father, no need to hve so called happy end (I can related bcs not everything we can forgive right?) The villain, she lost everything but she never did real crime so maybe what she got its what she deserve? The man duhhh he lost his mind & jail, dont force your fault bcs of other ppl, other ppl is hurting & thats not right! Spoiler sorry!
SU WEI'AN gone but DR.GU always bring her name as one of the team, she's legendary without phD holder! She's also the one who contribute a lot for this research ?????? and I think he never annnounced her death though ?

Read More

INSANELY HOOKED

If I hadn't seen the thumbnail on YouTube I'd have missed this gem.
There hasn't been much noise about this so I'll be saying all the well done and a few things that could've been better abt this drama.

GOOD THINGS
1) Story has the ability to get you hooked. You keep wanting to see what going to happen next
2) The actors did very well. Every emotion is conveyed very well.
3) If you like a strong-minded, powerful female lead this drama is for you.
4)Amazing chemistry between the leads.
5)Cinematography and music are well done

THINGS THAT CAN BE IMPROVED
1) Even if the story is good it can't be stretched too long, I feel this could've been shortened to 36 episodes.
2)Character development for 2nd FL would've been more appreciable.

That's it for now, I hope you watch and enjoy it!

Read More

I thought I lost my ability to feel chemistry!!!

Let me get this straight. I gave myself a break after not finding any good drama for a while. A few months ago I read the novel and I dropped it halfway because the STORY was boring. But I knew I had to watch the drama for my favourite C-actress Bailu(not anymore). I read a few reviews here and there about great chemistry and went for it.

THAT'S A BIIIIG MISTAKE I MADE THERE
After a few(18 episodes) I was seriously questioning myself if I lost my interest in dramas or smtng. But that was not the case, it is genuinely so poorly done. The script itself is trash. They made great-looking leads to do questionable things. They have so much potential to bring something great but they all gathered and decided to do this and find it okay??? I genuinely hope actors choose better script, and stories like this stop being made into drama.

Read More

Tan Jian Ci / Xiang Liu ALL THE WAY

While Xiang Lu is not a good person I still think he's the best option.As koalasplayground.com(LYF translator) well said

"...not because Tushan Jing isn't a wonderful guy who is a good fit for Xiaoyao, it's just that someone else may be an even better fit that's never going to be explored."

It seems that she can settle for any of the two guys(Tushan Jing or Xiang Lu) given that they only have to focus on her, but XL can't hence that, and so he may never be fully explored as her lover.Though I am not overlooking his evil doings but none of these nobles are saints so they can have each other.

And I find Tushan Jing too perfect. Like let's be real, 'I torture you and you forgive me since your stepmother never loved you'. And nothing is ever his fault, it's just icks me. Why can't they just say that he's an angel who fell in love.

Read More

Short but pretty enjoyable.

This was a really good series actually but it was too short, so as a result it lacked depth. I would have liked it even more if it was a bit longer since due to the short episodes and run time it kinda felt rush. Also they tried to run even a second plot, even though the supporting characters actually didn't have much connection with the main. It felt rather ridiculous that the father who is just as cruel will care about a queer student. But atleast it gave me a happy ending. Even though the father died happily not accepting the fact that his son is gay and Zhi Chen was forced to marry a girl and have a CHILD just to please that old fart smh, we should really normalize leaving these types of parents at old age home the moment we get the chance or leaving and never come into contact again. But all is well that ends well I guess.

Read More

i don’t know why but i’m gonna continue it

I have very mixed feelings about this series. First episode was quite boring, second and third episodes were definitely better, although not perfect at all. In general, the story is not original, slow-paced and not credible. The actors are clearly trying their best, and I saw that for many of them it’s the first acting project, so not terrible to be the first time, they definitely have time to improve. In spite of everything I’ve said so far, there’s something that is making me want to continue it, at the moment at least, probably some sparks of chemistry between the main characters (it’s not great, but it’s okay, I think it will get better in the next episodes), and I’m quite interested in what could possibly happen in the story. Or maybe I just need something to watch on Fridays, lol.
I wouldn’t exactly recommend, but you can give it a try and see if you like it, which I think it’s possible if you like the enemies to lovers trope (and if you lower your expectations).

Read More