Dream Detective (2020)

Starts off fine but becomes increasingly far-fetched

Another drama set in the Chinese Republican era, Dream Detective starts off as a somewhat fine mystery series, but it eventually ditches the detective/mystery genre in the biggest story of the series. The shifts in genre are not a problem in themselves, but the story does become weaker towards the end as the greatest villain is revealed.

The special skill of the "detective" in the series is his ability to enter dreams and solve cases (as well as other problems). Because of absurd censorship rules in China, this ability must be portrayed as being scientifically explainable and akin to hypnosis even though it would make more sense to just write it as a sort of superpower or supernatural ability. (This is uncannily similar to Psych Hunter.)

Some of the detective cases are fine even if a little predictable. The one involving someone with a multiple personality disorder isn't great on its own, but is fairly standard detective story material. It also hints at the possibility (for later in the series) that the main character has a multiple-personality issue too. However, it is easy to guess that the same plot device won't be recycled unless the writing is really, really dismal.

From early in the series, the set-up is done for the entry of the main villain (the masked person) in the show who is involved in some of the cases investigated, so the story of the masked person is intended to be the main draw from the start. It's not just a weak segment of the story but weakens the story as a whole.

A few interesting side characters are created and they could have had a greater role in the story. Bai, the warlord, is killed just as the character reaches a rather interesting point. His daughter, Ling Xi, could also have had a more interesting story as a deceptive, power-hungry psychopath, but this is dropped about the same time her father is killed. Bai and his daughter are more like red herrings, as are the police officer Guan Yun Qi and the pathologist Liu Zi Ren, who are imbued with an air of mysteriousness for no other purpose than to keep the audience guessing.

By the time the masked man's identity is revealed, the plot becomes excessively convoluted and the explanations of his motivations are labored. The last three episodes are a little too draggy with dream sequences that feel a little to long (made worse by the dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream scenes, though the dragginess of these scenes may be better than the worst of Psych Hunter). The one good thing that comes out of protracted dream sequences is the clever suggestion at the end of the final episode that the good guy didn't win and is merely still in a dream--he has lost his watch, the last-resort tool he uses to get out of the dreams he enters. (Also, he has used his skills so much that he is on the verge of dying in one scene, but in the next scene, he is already well.)

The gun battle scenes in the final episode are laughable (though somewhat stylishly filmed)--not only does it seem impossible that some of the characters emerge unscathed, it's funny how they do not seem to run out of bullets despite being policemen on the run (and they are fighting against army troops with abundant ammunition). Or perhaps this is really meant to be an indication that the occurrences are really taking place in a dream too. (But does this really make the story any better?)

Perhaps the series has tried too hard to be different. Abandoning the masked man angle altogether and focusing on developing the stories of the warlord family would have been more conventional but also more satisfying. It deserves some marks for effort, but the effort has not yielded great results.

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