This review may contain spoilers
Detective Tang Lang was a very refreshing and relaxing drama it brought me lot of laughs and yet I did not expect that, it was not excessively funny (and maybe I'm exagerating) but the comedy touch here and there was a very plus and made this drama much more enjoyable ! I have to admit I decided to watch this one because of Wei Qian Xiang, he is my favorite Chinese guy this is just like that and I can't really explain why but since Lan Ling Wang I could not forget him and I always wanted to watch something else with him just I needed to find the right drama and I think this one was perfect and I even love his character the most, the silliest. So I started it three weeks ago but that's when I realized Huo Wallace was in there too, I completely forgot that detail ! Just I think the poster misleaded me a little bit cause at first I really thought it was a modern Chinese drama only when I read the synopsis I knew it was set in Republic of China.Now back to the story, this is about a police officer, Tang Lang who got fired and then decides to open his own private detective agency, he then drags with him his friend Xiao Shan, well he leaves him no choice but to follow him in this new adventure, the only problem is that they don't have enough money for a location. Fortunately Huang Que, a Lawyer with whom they both had some issues, has an office with two rooms and out of kindness she proposes them to rent one.
That's how the story really began and both Tang Lang and Huang Que ended up working together, at first they were not willing but since their cases were connected, their only option was to cooperate.
In this drama for me the most interesting part is not necessarily the cases but the characters, I really have a crush on many of them : Xiao Shan, Tang Lang, Rong Ge, Luo Lan and Fong Da Yong (aka Pig head hehe) . I'll start with our main guy, the perfect words to describe Tang Lang are self-centered, smart, penniless and over-confident, but that's what makes him who he is , because of his ingenuity he always manages to solve the different cases he is working on, that's the difference between him and the Police!
The main girl who is working with him,is for me just normal there's nothing special to say about her plus I don't think she was particularly clever she knows about body language and that is a good point unfortunately she rarely made good use of this abilitie of hers.
Xiao Shan is for me the 3rd main character here and I don't really understand why he is not on the poster whereas he has more screen time than Xie Tian Hong, so yes I loved him and he was my absolute favorite character, he is so funny and most of his scenes made me laugh so hard as he is so spontaneous and always says what's on his mind he does not care if the person before him his a police officer or a member of mafia he just tells honestly what he thinks of them straight in the eyes, and I loved that so much. Plus I have to say that his first appearance was just memorable. He and Tang Lang made a perfect pair, I love their interactions . In short the bromance here is to my taste.
Fong Da Yong is a brainless police officer who always wants to steal Tang Lang's limelight but yes like I said he is stupid and so he never gets the chance to prove himself, instead he always put the Police in trouble. It was so funny how all the people in the drama called him Pig Head, he really is one!
Other two characters I like were Luo Lan, Tian Hong's wife, I love her calm, kind and beautiful nature, she does not get much screen time but she managed to leave a great impression on me and for me she was the only female character who stands out the most, she's not noisy or annoying just a simple woman who only wants to help her husband and her friends (Tang Lang & Huang Que) simply there for them no matter the situation .
And last, the super cool and funny Rong Ge, I loved him till the end (well just something that bothered me and I'll write about it under spoiler tag), I really had a soft spot on him he was so adorable and unpredictable, plus his haircut oh my what a funny one, that made him so ridiculous but I think that was part of his charm. He was really a breath of fresh air in this show and I loved seeing him prowling around Huang Que, I shipped them so much!
I won' t say much about the rest cause there's nothing special to say, Mei Lun was nothing special, Tian Hong was annoying and compared to Tang Lang he lacks charisma ...
Before ending this review I'll talk about the flaws and the reason why right now I can't give more than a 6.5, well I'll change the rating after some time, probably when I won't be as frustrated as I'm with this ending which came from nowhere and was not adequate ( as for the inadequate part that's because I can't accept all what happened after ep 28, just why did they have to do that, why? I was really pissed off).
Then, almost everything is predictable, that's not really a bad point but it was a bit too much and I did not really like that all the cases were linked, and I also think that the drama could have ended after ep 26, that way I would not be so upset.
As for the costumes somehow I don't think they really fitted in this context, and sometimes I did not feel like watching a drama set in the 20's/30's.
And one last thing, is about Su Ying Ying, I'll write in comment section too, but that is one of the thing I could not swallow, definitely not !
But overall that was a really fun ride and this is a drama I would definitely recommend to everyone, the eps are short and 30 eps is not that long especially for a Cdrama, the characters are all very funny and interesting on their own way, the drama was entertaining mainly thanks to them. Last but not least I think it can be marathoned in 4/5 days, I just took my time since I did not want to leave them so soon especially Xiao Shan, Tang Lang and Rong Ge <3
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Storywise, it's pretty average for a mystery show. They tried to build too much suspense in certain areas, and too many twist and turns that it gets a bit tiring and even predictable after a while. What elevates the show is definitely the characters. There's lots of bantering, snarks and all the characters seems to have a sense of humor. This makes the show really breezy and easy to marathon through.
One thing that really bothered me was the voice-over of one of the character, Xie Tian Hong. I thought the voice-over did not match the character at all so it was a bit off putting whenever he spoke.
Overall solid story, entertaining characters. Rewatchable for the laughs.
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