C-noir dramas

Absolutely amazing from start to finish. Far too unique and too great to be missed out on. The cinematography is mindblowing. The characters are just amazing, the acting is perfectly awesome. The adventures and action scenes are balanced with in-depth dialogues. People sitting down, talking and  telling their stories, having meals together. These things make this very different from the usual action-adventure dramas.  We truly get to know and care about the characters. Maybe this drama is not for the faint hearted bc the setting is a place of complete lawlessness, corruption and warfare. Some of the stories are quite dark. But this isn't actually a stressful drama to watch, more like Raiders of the Lost Ark in the midst of Apocalypse Now. Every episode we think "this is the end, there's no way they can get out this" but they always magically figure out a way to turn the tables. We get to trust that. One of the best dramas ever made.

A fascinating, gripping drama. Psychological suspense drama done perfectly is a rare thing.  All characters were grey, which I truly appreciate.

Unusual police and crime drama. The heavy focus on aethetics and ambiance makes this different from the usual police procedural dramas. This doesn't try to be realistic and isn't, in the way the crimes are solved. The pacing is excellent. When the most interesting aspects of  a criminal or a case are revealed, the plot moves very quickly on to a new case. Much of the drama revolves around Shen Yi's thought processes and visual observations, which are very unique and fascinating. Du Cheng is the more solid bread and butter police. Their teamwork is one of the enjoyable aspects.

Producer Zhang Yiyun explained:
“Traditional crime dramas often focus on realistic styles, hardcore reasoning, and strong plots to tell stories. But we’ve been exploring how to create a non-traditional crime drama in terms of narrative style, visual aesthetics, and thematic expression. For example, we avoid overly complicated cases, gruesome criminal methods, or overly brain-twisting reasoning processes. Instead, we focus on the dramatic changes in character fates and relationships, using them as the core suspense and plot twists. The show emphasizes the emotions and humanity behind the cases.”

Zhang Lai said: "Writing about crime is not to showcase evil, but more importantly, to explore the multifaceted nature of humanity. Good and evil stand side by side, but love is the antidote to redemption, and the law is the thunderbolt that punishes evil. This is our ultimate message."

The Under the Skin series tells its story through Shen Yi's perspective, so the puzzles are naturally solved by him." Zhang Lai added: "'Drawing the heart' is actually another level of exploration for a forensic artist after capturing the likeness and spirit of a person. In the second season, Shen Yi aims for breakthroughs beyond his achievements, using this method to make society better."

A very good noir crime / police drama. Not too violent or too gritty, although it touches dark themes. The police team's friendship is close to the "found family" trope, which I like always. The villains in this drama are not painted as purely bad characters, which I also appreciated. I almost wanted the main villain to be able to escape, bc we could always see the abused child in his eyes. The only thing I didn't like was the romance side plot. However, that didn't take too much time. The whole story arc was very logical and well written from start to finish.

The Bad Kids is completely unpredictable with so many twists that you really didn’t even know what to believe.  A crazy good psychological thriller with excellent child actors, suspenseful intelligent storytelling, and beautiful cinematography. Highly recommended.

A fast paced crime & detective drama. We get attached to the 2 main characters. Zhuang Wen Jie is a Sherlock Holmes type and Captain Luo an authority but protective type. There's something fundamentally satisfactory about how well they and rest of the police work together. Entertaining and refreshing.

Exactly in my taste. Starts slowly, but gets more and more intense towards the end. This is dark but not depressing. Plenty of twists and turns that keep the suspense up troughout. We really get attached to the characters. There may be a ton of plotholes, but that didn't bother me.

A highly sophisticated crime and detective drama. The plot is fairly predictable, but there's a lot to recommend it. Cinematography,music, acting, dialogues, all of this has a pull-in power that's hard to resist. There's virtually no action, it's all about psychology. There were some Hitchcockian undertones to enjoy. I found the middle part jarring, and this would have been better if it had been 10-12 episodes. The female detective's home troubles didn't get a credible a treatment, and seemed superficial additions.

Another c-noir drama that is simply amazing. This is truly clever writing.

Calmly paced, sad drama depicting the pain of families whose kids have gone missing. No action, violence, flashiness or shock effects. I love how they relied on the weight of the story alone to grab watchers. And the personalities and dedication of the police officers. This was very emotional, especially the relationship between Seven and Officer Wang was precious. This didn't end the way I expected it to, but I didn't really mind. A very good, different drama.

A grim, suspense filled c-noir crime drama. Maybe these dramas are underrated because there's no flashiness; no rich people problems, no idol actors. The whole thing relies on the story and characters. The location is a middle size factory town, where the people are struggling and it rains most of the time. The main character is a young (17 years old) girl who is dead set on finding out what happened to her friend. Nothing stereotypical about the main characters. The twists and turns of the plot are completely unpredictable. You can't foreshadow anything really. I wasn't bored for a minute, I was pulled in from the start and invested in the story

Solidly told story with complex timelines (3). The last episodes are heartbreaking.