No Room for Crime (2024)

Erm….

This drama started off pretty well with action and a massive PTSD situation that have our main characters have huge changes to their careers. We get glimpses of PTU and OCTB working together and it is great… but…

What makes this drama quite annoying to me is that the wonderful Rebecca Zhu is a lead investigator in the OCTB and scenes with her were great, but the drama focuses too much on the PTU that we don’t get enough scenes with her! Why? Why do this?

And boy, everything bad keeps happening to Jonathan Cheung and his family. He is not even a main character, but for reasons only the writers can understand, all the crazy stuff at the beginning of the drama all happened to him, and I found it such lazy writing, like a school accepting bribes, his kid getting kidnapped, his kid nearly dying, getting abducted and beaten up in a case of mistaken identity, his son stealing money from the family because he joined some small time triads, his mother-in-law stupidly getting conned out of her lifesavings so he has a huge debt to pay on her behalf, wife having to deal with his father hiring illegally for cheap labor, like nearly everything happens to this family. Come on, please give this family a break! I started shaking my head whenever something happened, so I know later more stuff would happen to his family because the writers are clearly sadistic.

Then we have Owen Cheung as the classic trope of someone undercover for the cops and having to carefully navigate his way around the Police and the triads. This was so predictable that I called it immediately when I saw him and it got boring real fast. He really wanted to desperately become a cop again, so I knew the drama would throw something to prevent such a thing happening and boom… he has a brain bleed that impairs his vision so he can’t be a cop anymore. And in typical TVB nonsense, he tells nobody about, not even his handler.

Talking about his handler… the handler just sucks. He sucks in this role and he sucks in every role. I can’t remember his name but what this show really needed here was Michael Miu as the handler. Jesus, I miss Michael.

Joel Chan is the other male lead and he is okay. I mean in all these action dramas his role is pretty much the same so when you see him in a public servant uniform you know pretty much how it is going to turn out. I like the guy but these roles for him are pretty safe and, if I’m honest, a little boring.

By far the most annoying person in this drama is played by Adrien Yau. I cannot stand him in this role as a rebellious moron trying to be a gangster with his 3 other young friends. I understand his back story and him trying to portray an impetuous youth but come on, you have better people for this! Even Ricco Ng would be a better choice as he has infinitely more charisma.

Surprisingly, the best roles are were with Hugo Wong and Benjamin Yuen. They are both undoubtedly villains and really hateful ones as well with no compassion at all for anything or anyone save for one or two people, but their conflict really was a great story driver. You could cut the revenge story out of this drama and make an entirely separate drama from it without an issue. But of the two of them, Benjamin edges out slightly because he was such a huge bastard and steals every scene he was in. He is unpredictable and you don’t know what he would do next, like when his underling messed up. The underling apologises and asks for some money so he can go into hiding, and Ben replies “sure. Hey, have some noodles before you go.” And as the guy sits down and gets ready to eat, Ben says “you want money? Get it from down there.” And throws the underling from the roof of the building. That’s hardcore.

The score for now is 5 out of 10 because sadly Hugo and Ben have stopped appearing in the drama, so we’ll have to see where it goes. We all knows Ben is still alive after the implied “death” and if he comes back it’s an automatic +1 point to score but for now it’s meh. So far I’m episode 17.

Episode 19: yup I called it. I said before Jonathan Cheung’s family would end up with more nonsense happening to them and boom, it happened. His wife, played by Kelly Fu, wanted to go out and work to support her husband after her idiot mother was conned and fell into all the debt her husband had to repay. She got a job at a hair salon her old friend opened and she was doing okay but suddenly young girls started chasing after her and asking for refunds. Turned out her boss said he could get Blackpink tickets easily, which are usually sold out, so Kelly thought she could make some quick cash by essentially being a scalper. Each ticket costs 1000 HKD at face value but she charged 6000 HKD, and once 20 young girls purchased them, Kelly sent all the money to her boss to get the tickets. Her boss suddenly replied “oh sorry I couldn’t get the tickets” and before she could ask for the money back, her boss flew to Japan for “business”. Suddenly, Jonathan now has an extra 6000 HKD x 20 angry girls = 120000 HKD of debt to repay thanks to his wife! Like what was his wife thinking? There was foreshadowing of the wife’s naive nature when her son didn’t want her to go out to work because she was so gullible and easy to con, but man I felt so bad for Jonathan when this occurred.

And to top it off, you would think the notion of going out to find work and helping your husband repay your own mother’s debt was noble, but after she started working there were no arrangement on who would look after the 3 kids at home. Jonathan would have to ask his own mother to help out or be at home to take care of the kids when he was not on duty as a Police Sergeant. Jonathan had to take care of everything. And when Kelly got her first pay-check the first thing she did was buy gifts for everyone. Kelly, honey, your mother has a huge debt your husband is paying off for you. Stop wasting money. Even better, stay home and look after your kids since you’re easily conned and you can’t afford a babysitter.

Episode 20: oh my God, Kelly is at it again with another job, this time as an insurance sales rep. Do you wanna bet another TVB trope of “hey you're a woman trying to sell me insurance, have sex with me and I’ll sign” will be in play? Possible attempted rape later as well. Look, after the Blackpink you would think she would stay home but nooo. Let’s see how this unfolds.

And man, Adrien Yau is still being an idiot. The cops chase after someone shoplifting a phone and coincidentally Adrien steps out of the public bathroom and is stopped by cops, and he has the same model phone on his person. This was bought legitimately like 10 minutes earlier, so all he had to do was politely suggest to the cops to go back to the shop and compare the IMEI number of his phone with the one stolen and get the purchase receipt from his girlfriend and boom no problem. Instead, he gets all upset and actually punches the cop. Ffs, when cops are involved just cooperate and you can be smug later when you’re proven right. All he did was make his life harder by attacking a police officer.

Episode 22: oh look, Kelly is again in deep doo doo. As an insurance sales agent she also dabbled in cryptocurrency so managed to make a lot of money, at least on the surface, so she started disrespecting my boy Jonathan. But then, later while she was in Singapore on a business trip, her mom runs to Jonathan and says “Oh no she might be in trouble” as it is revealed she dabbled in crypto and might have been conned. Wtf? So she now has another lump of debt for her husband to repay. Jonathan tried to call her but can’t get through. Good work Kelly, you stupid b….

And boy the worst acting in the drama was in this episode. Carmen Ngai is at hospital because her dad, a triad boss, had died and she had to identify the body, but my goodness she didn’t even shed a tear for her dad. She was making crying noises but it was so fake like come on Carmen! You graduated from TVB academy right? Wtf was that s**t? Just awful.

Best part was with Owen Cheung and Elaine Yiu as Owen now knows that Elaine found out he is an undercover cop. The conflict is predictable but after the other nonsense of the episode it was a welcome bit of drama to cleanse the palate.

Oh yeah, and Adrien’s girlfriend had both her kidney’s harvested in Thailand while she was trying to be her own boss. I should feel bad but at the same time I just thought “pfft serves you right” as she was young and naive but wanted to get rich quickly.

Completed: okay, I’ve finished the drama and I can say the ending was so unsatisfying. There was a hint of Rebecca Zhu getting back with Joel Chan, but instead Joel marries his crappy girlfriend that kept running off on her worldwide escapades with Rebecca’s younger brother. Like what a terrible couple they made and it screams divorce if there is ever a 2nd season.

And Benjamin came back! I knew he would return, but I didn’t expect the plot twist of his wife still being alive. That caught me off-guard and the explanation for how she survived was such nonsense but boy can Benjamin emote really well. He is still a hateful and disgusting person, but his devotion to his wife was very touching and I couldn’t really hate him. Instant +1 to the overall score.

We also get to see Owen Cheung become a cop again. It was touch and go with him not really wanting to return as a cop, but in the end he showed up as a constable and surprized Joel Chan by being in uniform. Owen’s complicated relationship with Elaine Yiu made for great drama and conflict, but it was all so predictable. Plus, despite everything he did, Adrien never had a good life and ended up in prison anyway, so all that effort was just a waste of time.

So Benjamin ends up dying at the end of the drama for real, and we get a post credit scene where someone in a mask and black overcoat is seen cutting something up. It turned out Benjamin’s body was stolen and his flesh was minced up and fed to dogs. Everybody I spoke to seemed to think it was Owen that did it, but I’m not convinced. I think this is setting up a season 2 and this mysterious person is the next major criminal mastermind. Overall it was okay with some great performances from some actors, but overall just average with an unsatisfying ending.

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Boring Subplot

This has to be one of the best HK police dramas of this year (emphasis on this year as there are way better police dramas before this with a better story) with intense action scenes, more violence (TVB is finally letting loose after the reduction of violence, hated the black and white filter they used to censor it) new locations instead of using the same places over and over again (I'm tired of seeing the same abandoned oil refinery building that is used several times in many dramas). But, the most obvious problem in this drama, is that they center mostly around the supporting characters, making them feel more like the main characters instead of the actual leads as they got more screentime than them. The fact that there were more problems surrounding Jonathan Cheung more than Joel Chan is absurd, there were even episodes where Joel doesn't even appear in it at all! The chemistry between Owen Cheung and Elaine Yiu were the saving grace of this drama, and their love theme was the best of the drama. However, the chemistry between Adrian Yau and Michelle Tsang was too lackluster and took up most of the episodes. Would've been better if they made it shorter, hired better actors to play them as Adrian didn't have the enthusiasm and Michelle was new to the industry. The rivalry between Benjamin Yuen and Hugo Wong's character was the best part of the drama, and should have been the main focus instead.

OST was pretty good, wasn't the traditional TVB theme song for the intro, but it still sounded cool and catchy. Ending theme was really good, an English song sung by JW who's voice is great as usual, and the love theme for Owen and Elaine was the best part of the drama, which was sung by Jinny Ng who also sung the Line Walker love theme.

Overall, it was a pretty good drama, better action scenes than Sinister Beings 2. If they had a better script writer and actual good gun muzzle flashes (they were too small when viewed on screen which did not have an impact during the gun fights) it would have been the best drama of the year. Competition for this year is pretty small, so this could win best drama of the year, unless No Return can beat it as the trailer impressed me a lot.

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