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This review may contain spoilers
Mixed feelings
We all know crime series are dramatized for entertainment. I'm usually happy with it as long as there aren't any glaring laziness or sloppiness around the lowest bar of common sense. This one was done relatively well in terms of how they analyzed and resolved the different crime cases. And because the cases are mostly episodic, I don't fault the speed of the resolutions either because they did a decent job in wrapping each one up. However, around the underlying case that connects the two male leads together - this one leaned toward some goofiness.
Nevertheless, I quite liked the character of Shen Yi and how his life evolved from his experiences. I even enjoyed how he uses his extreme artistic and analytical skills to help solve pretty much every case. And if my art classes were taught the way he taught his, I think I might have deeper appreciation of art in general. But... I'm not the biggest fan of his partner and this is what made me want to drop the series a couple of times. Although they tried to cast him as a hot-headed but capable detective, his hypocrisy and inability to empathize was annoying for me. They had him learn to trust Shen Yi over time to but he had pretty much no character growth at all. He didn't give a crap about how his words impacted Shen Yi's youth when he unfairly blamed him for everything. Then instead of developing a real connection as partners, it just felt like he was using him and protecting him for his own selfish reasons. He never tried to understand Shen Yi's pain and only cared about his own.
So overall, the main reason why I watched the series was because of Shen Yi and the episodic crime cases. These two factors kept it entertaining alongside good and steady pacing. There was pretty no room for lag as they jumped into cases almost immediately after the prior one is resolved. It also isn't one of those where everyone involved is melodramatic which is a nice change. If they had only done a better job with Du Cheng's character, I would have given this a higher rating but also note that this aspect was a personal pet peeve.
Nevertheless, I quite liked the character of Shen Yi and how his life evolved from his experiences. I even enjoyed how he uses his extreme artistic and analytical skills to help solve pretty much every case. And if my art classes were taught the way he taught his, I think I might have deeper appreciation of art in general. But... I'm not the biggest fan of his partner and this is what made me want to drop the series a couple of times. Although they tried to cast him as a hot-headed but capable detective, his hypocrisy and inability to empathize was annoying for me. They had him learn to trust Shen Yi over time to but he had pretty much no character growth at all. He didn't give a crap about how his words impacted Shen Yi's youth when he unfairly blamed him for everything. Then instead of developing a real connection as partners, it just felt like he was using him and protecting him for his own selfish reasons. He never tried to understand Shen Yi's pain and only cared about his own.
So overall, the main reason why I watched the series was because of Shen Yi and the episodic crime cases. These two factors kept it entertaining alongside good and steady pacing. There was pretty no room for lag as they jumped into cases almost immediately after the prior one is resolved. It also isn't one of those where everyone involved is melodramatic which is a nice change. If they had only done a better job with Du Cheng's character, I would have given this a higher rating but also note that this aspect was a personal pet peeve.
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