Touted as Taiwan’s first ever forensics drama, iHero (????) is a solid offering—nothing spectacular, but well worth the watch. I found the cases fascinating not for the investigation itself, because they were rather predictable from start to finish; if the culprit’s not so-and-so, then it’s naturally so-and-so else, kind of like the initial frenzy over the villain’s identity in The Girl Who Sees Smells (??? ?? ??) (c’mon, we all knew it was gonna be either Song Jong-ho or Namgoong Min!). Not many twists and turns really, just a lot of clue-hunting so as to incriminate the suspect in question. In the end what I really liked the cases for were their resolutions and/or lessons learned; some villains were too far gone for redemption as the show does have a fair share of crazies, but others truly got a taste of their own medicine when informed that their misguided crimes were committed in vain. It was a good weekend marathon, definitely!
I came into this very much content that there would be no romance but was pleasantly surprised to see a subtle loveline between the leads à la Dr. Frost (?? ????). It’s not too much romance to douse the entire show with cheese (thankfully) but works very well as an brief tension-breaker in the midst of serious investigation, so I’ve no complaints whatsoever. Light romance does imply ordinary leads, but again it’s such a rarity to see a drama of this genre in Taiwan that I really don’t mind the baby steps at all—antiheroes and characters of the like require a deft writing quill, and there’s already enough on the writers’ hands what with all the crime procedural technicalities. What did make me ecstatic was the directing; it’s a really beautiful experience seeing a narrative unfold on a dynamic screen for once, from Taiwan at least. I know it’s rude and totally baseless of me to overgeneralize about Taiwan—but blame it on my watching too many SETTV dramas lately, of which the camerawork is often so boring I could drop asleep without even being narcoleptic. As such, the cinematography in iHero is a breath of fresh air.
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I think is something worth your time to watch and highly recommend this.
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