My Roommate Is a Detective (2020)

once again, annoying FL ruins the show

i don't get what it is with cdramas and annoying FLs. it's even more infuriating when they force-feed one into a BL work. her entire existence is to be a sounding board for Lu Yao (to explain his thought process to the audience) and provide convenient case details. all while playing her role as annoying "tough" reporter who publishes whatever she wants.

i almost want to give it a lower score, but the cases are interesting enough, and the two MLs are great. even with the butchered to hell bromance, their chemistry comes across. also, Lu Yao is a hilarious ML and I really like how his character is written.

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This is NOT a BL drama

Be warned that this is NOT a BL drama! This way you won't be disappointed and post hateful comments because you don't like the fact that the ML and the FL can end together.

I saw so many hate towards the FL and when I ended the drama my thought was "we watched the same drama??" I just loved Youming! She is brave, smart, determined and will do everything to protect Lu Yao, who is a genius but lazy, weak and coward. They are perfect together. I just loved the three leads, their friendship. I've already watched a numberless of detective dramas, series etc, and for me, the protagonists and their dynamics are almost more important than the cases and My Roommate is a Detective delivered both: very likable characters and enjoyable cases.
The drama has its flaws but overall is very funny and a I think you should give a chance if you like detective stories.

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Bromance or RomCom detective drama?

Good looking cast, interesting cases and an OK OST. But..

Contemplating really hard, trying not to drop the show as early as the third episode. Mainly because of the FL. Seen her on a few drama, this is the worst.. She's a journalist here, who writes pretty much anything that she wants and to hell with the consequences. Its really annoying and irresponsible..

Also skipped too much, not just fast forwarding scenes but skipping whole episodes and feeling like I haven't missed much. So I guess this one ain't just for me, even though I tried so hard to like it.

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This drama is pretty freaking good. Even though like I said before the plot takes a while to unfold and its a little lacking in character development too but not to the point where it's boring because it's not, it's very entertaining the bromance alone I was hooked cause bickering couple: check. Cute looking : check. Memorable bromance couple: check.

And honestly the fl definitely grew on me, I was into her when they sneak off at night after she cries over her father's ridiculous behavior.


But where they lost me was when they tried to make me ship them. It just came out of NOWHERE and left me feeling icky. And it sucked that the two male leads who were literally perfect for each other, in the end it was the same old tired Chinese drama routine - 'sacrificing' true love (I mean Qiao and lu yong obviously) for 'duty' (can you say propaganda).


Lost Tomb constantly does it, Novoland did it, even UNTAMED you can hate me but c'mon they deserved a better ending! And don't even get me started on Beloved Enemy! OMG the amount of distress I suffered at the hands of the writers lol I still can't get out of my head.

The ONE drama that didn't make me resent it, the sole bromance exception is.. drum roll ... GUARDIAN.

You can disagree with me but that ending even though sad, and they don't actually end up together, it hits DIFFERENT. It's different because even though Shen Wei leaves the world with Ye Zun and technically picked his brother and duty, all you remember, the image that you're left with, is Shen Wei saying 'I waited for you for 10,000 years.'

So, yes I just really enjoyed this bromance and the crime stories and the sugar daddy dynamic between them xD it was really fun to watch.

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Annoying Female character ruined the whole thing

I think I'm a masochist watching this Horrid drama
I kept watching for the friendship ,, but I was so annoyed with the female lead and ridiculous passiveness of the first male lead
I struggled to keep watching ,, I kept skipping a lot
I can't imagine How much the writer and director hated that actress or hated that character
they perfected the portrayal of the most annoying love interest ever
and I'm not exaggerating
How can the smartest person in the story get hit and bullied all the time by this girl that he likes
He was also greedy ,, didn't appreciated a lot of his best friend's kind gestures
I really tried to watch this drama objectively but couldn't
I don't think it's considered Bromance because I didn't see much of that in this

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EXCELLENCY AT ITS FINEST!!

I can't even describe how absolute this drama is. Everything is exceptional. It is such a flawless piece that's very rare to be found on this Era's drama land.

Something I love about this drama is how analytical, tricky, confusing and crazily critical the cases were. It always blew my mind everytime Lu Yao is explaining his hypothesis and providing technical explanations on how it happened. To make it simple this drama higlighted how stupid I am Hahaha! Well i'm not someone who's in the medical field so...

Another charm of this drama is the Dog & Cat relationship of Lu Yao and Bai Youning. They never disappoint and bored me even once. Their relationship throughout the series was well paced and has the 'normal' development so when they've decided to escalate it to the next level, it just felt so natural and didn't bother me at all. The bromance between Lu Yao and Chu Sheng maybe underwhelming to others but it just sits enough for me. This ain't BL anyways.

Story - 10, Absolutely without a doubt. People who give this Drama's story direction below 10 better be genius or else they're just butthurt.

Acting/Cast - 10, They DELIVERED and EXECUTED exceptionally. Everyone in this drama gave it their best shot and it was defined through it's outcome.

Music - 9.5, I was never a fan of Chinese Rap (Opening) but it just grew on me so i'm giving it 9.5. Thank god i'm a man of Music so with time, I can naturally learn to appreciate genres and music itself.

Rewatch Value - 10, Definitely! I would also recommend this masterpiece!

Overall - 10, Any scores below 10 is utterly hatred. It sated my satisfaction and just thrilled that I was able to watch it.

Please let me know IF you find my review helpful.

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Must watch

I really love this.
I guess the romance is the only thing I wish was not included. I mean the boy-girl thing.
This is the role which showcased #HuYiTian's acting talents. I am thankful he was given this role. He is the reason why I watch Chinese dramas.
#LeonZhang is a darling. He is so delightful to watch. I promise to watch more of him. (can't say the same with #HuYiTian because I have seen all his work... Giggle... and I'll have to wait for his next ones...praying... Make them sooner please. )
I was mislead when I read some of the reviews. Watch the whole show and interpret it yourself. Don't just rely on the reviews here.

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Main leads are both way too much and there are better detective dramas.

This will be one of the shortest reviews. I found the ML annoying and the FL lead equally annoying, Their were written as cartoon characters and never fully developed. I do not understand at all how these two became a couple or why. So it is really difficult to watch the show. The cases were sometimes interesting and sometimes down right simple. There are better detective dramas for anyone interested that have a better storyline around the cases. Basically for me it didn't work as a romantic comedy, nor did it work as a Sherlock Holmes type detective story.

The only thing I liked in the drama was the second ML who was the police inspector. His character had depth and some growth. He was the only reason I gave the acting score a higher mark.

Overall ok to watch, but I cannot imagine sitting through this show again.

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Great Series and some political insight to 1910s and 1920s China

SPOILER ALERT. This review does not talk about details of episodes, but does contain information about the main characters, that only comes to light in the later episodes. Comedy, family-political-romantic drama, mixed with crime mysteries. The summary and other reviews are accurate. Imo, this show has a lot of creativity and depth. Inspector Qiao, a one time mob capo for the Bai crime family, has become a doggied police inspector with an odd sense of seeing justice done. Although, he still carries some of his former tendencies of a cold hearted mobster, willing to use torture to resolve an investigation. His relationship with Boss Bai is still from a sense of loyalty. Leon Zhang does a great job of showing the internal conflict Qiao has struggling between loyalty and justice. Episode 1 shows Qiao unsuccessfully trying to resolve a murder case. In comes Lu Yao, an intelligent, educated and handsome young man with OCD. The OCD is one of the main driving forces behind Lu's never-ending pursuit to solve cases, always ensuring the culprit is discovered. Hu Yi Tian portrays Lu as cocky and confident, all the while Lu is almost sub servant when interacting with his family. Just as Qiao and Lu begin to bond advancing the investigation, reporter Bai You Ning enters the picture. The beautiful, energetic, Bai is just in the way at every turn, setting the relationship between Lu and Bai on a course of constant dispute. Qiao and Bai You Ning know each other, as it turns out Boss Bai is her father. Thru Lu's brilliant deductive skills, and aid from You Ning and Qiao, the cause is solved in a dramatic fashion. Xiao Yan is the reason I started this series. Her part as Green Snake in the drama The Legend of White Snake made me a fan. She does not disappoint. Silly, cute, annoying when needed. Xiao brings her serious, thoughtful, and beautiful persona to life just when her relationship with Lu needs to take the next step, on multiple ocassions. So sets the format of the series. You Ning and Lu, thru fortunate or unfortunate circumstance, become roommates in a rental flat. Separate sleeping and living areas, so it's all good. Thru the course of the series, Qiao and Lu develop a bromance lite relationship. Lu and You Ning work closely together on cases and sling insults at each other at every opportunity. They do become the love interests of the show. The crime part of the series is creative, if somewhat fantastical and silly. Just as in the Murdoch/Holmes/Poirot shows, a little factual science turns into over the top crime mysteries. Thru it all, there is ultimately a main culprit, but you'll have to get to episode 35-36 to see it all brought together. Bolstered by the great acting and charisma of Qiao, Lu, and You Ning, and taken at face value, this series is top notch niche entertainment. I binged it and enjoyed every episode. Not cluttered with outsized emotional drama, the show really keeps the mystery at the forefront.

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Comical detective combi duo (trio?) who will brighten your day

"My Roommate is a Detective" is a light-hearted and quick-pacing detective drama with great main lead chemistry. For me, it was the perfect drama to watch in this slight depression period.

What this drama has done very well:

♡ Excellent character design and acting:
Unlike many other detective dramas, the detective (aka Sherlock) in this drama is not this far than perfect. Lu Yao is socially awkward, cares only about himself, and has only eyes for money or food. And did I forget to mention that he is also a coward? But to complement his characteristical flaws, LY has an eye for details and is extremely intelligent. At the start, he sorely started cooperating with Qian Chu Sheng, the police officer, for money and self-satisfaction. However, LY realizes later that his work reveals the truth and provides justice to victims. That is when he starts to care for the people around him genuinely. LY develops a more mature personality and realizes that the purpose of his existence is no longer to only care about himself but also to fight for those he loves. What this drama has done very well is to focus on the dorky and shallow side of his character at first and slowly reveals the depth. LY gives me a feeling of finding him cute and funny at the start but later on liking him more after "knowing him better".
Many netizens say that Hu Yi Tian has had a breakthrough with acting as LY. I agree. I have only seen HYT playing Hua Wu Que in Handsome Siblings (2020). At that time, his acting skills did not impress me and I, in particular, did not get attached to him. But this time, HYT was able to become one with LY and expressed all the flaws and strengths of this character and their attached emotions exceptionally well. What also impressed me was that HYT's own personality is nothing like that of LY. I am looking forward to seeing more of HYT's future work.

But the drama's real highlight for me is the performance of Zhang Yun Lun. Between his character Qian Chu Sheng and LY's characters, LY has the more interesting personality. QCS (aka Watson) is the cooler and sporty womanizer, who grew from an ex-gangster to a police officer. A popular type of male lead character but not new nor difficult to act. But ZYL has made this character alive. He was able to show "love", "heartbreak", "care," and "concern" so vividly with his facial expressions that he genuinely moves my heart. I am especially in awe of ZYL's beautiful smile, such as when he laughs about the stupidity of Lu Yao or when the team successfully solved a case. What makes my heart jump is that he shows his "miracle smile" rather seldom due to the more serious nature of his character. Reading the live comments of the netizens during those scenes, I clearly was not the only one.
I have never seen ZYL's work before. Later I found out that he is the more mature actor who has starred in many dramas and movies but never really made it to the top. That explains why his acting is so natural and offers magnetic attraction. When MRiaD aired its last episode, ZYL published a personal letter to QCS, beautifully describing the inner emotional world of his character. In his letter, he expresses his empathy, knowing that QCS puts on a tough and player cover, chooses to live without attachment is because QCS is afraid of making others heart-broken should they lose him. In the world in which QCS lives, tomorrow is never certain. But it is Bai You Ning and LY who came into his life that he realized that there is another way of living, that he does not need to face the world alone anymore. It is such a marvelous letter, and it truly shows how much ZYL has researched his character and understands how he feels.

What needs to be highlighted is the excellent character design of all supporting "culprits", "victims," and other "suspects". Though most characters appear in no more than 1-2 episodes, all of them have a story, and the acting was superb. I felt sorrow and sympathy after hearing their stories. MRiaD showed a world that there is no clear line between white and black, good and bad. LY and QCS never preached after solving the cases but quietly hand over the culprit to the police with expressions of compassion.

♡ Beautiful chemistry between two male leads:
Both actors have an in-depth understanding of the psychological structure of their characters, and they work marvelously as partners. Though it is not a BL drama, they have a few extremely sweet moments together. It is very clear that their relationship is not simple. QCS quickly discovered the detective talent to LY and convinced him to work for him. Despite how selfish and improper LY often acts (e.g., stealing objects from the crime site or eat at a restaurant without picking up the bill), QCS would clean after him. These scenes always trigger fans to comment frantically: Awww, QCS is spoiling his wifey again! I soon noticed that those annoying expressions of QCS slowly evolve to smiles of acceptance. And this process is so sweet to watch. Whoever watches this show would agree with me that the couple QCS x LY is one of the best couples of 2020.

♡ Quick pacing of the story: The fast forward button is my best friend when it comes to watching draggy Chinese dramas. However, when it comes to MRisD, I have not used that button once. There are over 20 cases in that total of 36 episode drama. The quick revealing of the mystery is very satisfactory. After each case, the shows quickly introduces the next victim so that netizen comment with love: welcome the next "dying person" on stage! There is a rumor that the scriptwriter might be very famous in the past but has not been writing because of some personal scandal. It is not very certain who this person is, but it could be his protest to the Chinese drama industry to stop producing lengthy and poor written dramas.
I also need to mention how happy I am that this is the first republican era drama that I know of in which Japanese is NOT the evil behind everything! I am really tired of this type of one-sided bashing towards the Japanese, and this is the main reason why I tried to avoid republican era dramas as it gives me the strong flavor of propaganda by the Chinese party.

Now a few words on what this drama could have done better:

❤︎ Lack of realism in the cases: I have to say that many cases in this drama have the flavor of Detective Conan. To create more dramatic and higher satisfaction of case solving, the writer intentionally creates highly peculiar crimes (e.g., disappearing trains, bloodsucking vampires or self-flammable man, etc.). As a result, the process of conducting the crime had to be remarkably complicated. It is difficult to imagine that it would work in reality. Also, because the stories are high-pacing, there is not enough time to leave hints to create enough audience involvement. Besides looking at supporting characters' facial expressions to guess who the culprit might be, it is nearly impossible to guess the mechanisms. At the end of the series, similar to many detective dramas, it becomes clear that all cases are linked to each other and backed by a "big boss". This process felt very forced and not at all convincing to me. Those who often watch detective dramas with more thought-through cases and proper audience involvement might be disappointed here.
Overall I was not this happy with the ending. It felt abrupt, with LY's family playing a major role in it. I am not going to spoil anyone, so I would not go to detail here, but their motivation for their actions is not logical, and it was only written this way to create the dramatic for the ending.

❤︎ Questionable female lead character design: MRiaD has three main leads: LY, QCS, and the female lead Bai You Ning, played by Xiao Yan. She is the daughter of elderly Bai, the gang leader and boss of QCS. Because of her righteous character, she does not support his dad's business and becomes an independent reporter from a small newspaper who has a strong character. She is the roommate of LY in this drama. After watching a few episodes, it becomes obvious that this character was added after the script was written. Moreover, her character seemed to have been carved out from LY. Unlike the two male leads and many supporting characters, her character lacks depth and even shows conflicting behavior. Her actions are predictable and often not necessary to the main story. Ther is a strong assumption that originally, QCS was supposed to be LY's roommate (noticed that the drama never showed where QCS lives?!), but because of some commercial or political reasons, the makers decided to add a third female main lead.
Xiao Yan didn't do a bad job playing this BYN, and though her personality was not likable at the start, it added humor to the drama. Later one she underwent a positive character development, which made her presence more pleasant. I just wished that when producers and makers who make these types of decisions that decrease the quality of drama due to some odd reasons, they shall rethink again knowing that audience are not stupid.

Because of the last two points, I rate this drama as an eight. But overall, I really enjoyed and would recommend it to anyone who loves detective, comedy, brotherhood/two male leads/BL, and republican era dramas.

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