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4
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5
A masterpiece, an almost flawless crime drama with brilliant & intelligent writing.
First of all, I’m contemplating whether I should rate this drama 10/10 as its almost flawless in term of everything. I almost never rate a drama full 10/10 so this is a huge compliment and a big thing for me. However, after sitting one whole day, sinking in the whole drama and its resolutions, I believe it deserved this score and here’s why:
The most important thing for a crime mystery drama is the mysteries and plot twists so I’m not going to reveal anything in my review. Here, I’m just going to objectively review why this particular crime mystery drama is brilliant in my book with no spoilers at all.
MASTERFULLY WRITTEN WITH COMPELLING AND INTRIGUING PLOT
A compelling mystery drama is defined by perfectly balancing the intellectual puzzle of a mystery with the emotional depth of its characters. Unlike pure question of ‘Who did it?’ which focus entirely on clues and mechanics, an excellent mystery drama prioritizes character psychology, stakes, and atmospheric storytelling which Abyss truly excelled at.
The mystery is solidly written with great pacing. Very intelligently constructed with many details and clues and trail of evidences. Some clues are mind-blowingly subtle but some are as clear as the clear blue sky and can be seen as early as Episode 1. And no false narratives to misled us so what you see on screen are all clues that contributed to the end revelations including all the snippets from the novel, as confusing and random as it might be.
So the fun part is the guessing games and the list of suspects that you come out on your own based on the evidences so during revelations, all your efforts feel earned since all the clues already being there no matter how small it is. It seemed like watching a movie with how tight is the plots and how fast paced is the story with literally no filler scenes at all.
Also, making Li Cheng as a novice police officer is a brilliant decision as it did help to make viewers more immersive as you see the drama from his lens without years of police experience. Here, you will find yourself asking the same questions as him -- its almost like a dejavu how things that comes out from his mouth mirrored mine.
THE ‘FAIR GAME’ ELEMENT
The best part of the drama is that its playing the ‘fair game’ of a good written mystery story as what the police know is what we know too so no surprises that only they know. So here, we are actively solving the case together with them. This establishes an honest social contract between the story and the viewers as hiding critical clues until the final scene feels like cheating rather than a clever twist which Abyss clearly avoid.
While viewing this drama, it transforms our passive viewing into an active intellectual puzzle where the audience has a genuine shot at solving the crime alongside the police. Some writers sacrifice this element by concealing some information in order to make the main character as a genius and know it all or the smartest in the room. While this elevates the character, it also eliminates excitement for the audiences as we always know the said character going to pull some unknown information which made the story less intriguing and impactful.
SHOW INSTEAD OF TELL
Another favorite of mine is how this drama depends on showing instead of telling since it trusts the audiences’ ability to grasp the complex story and narrative. It is a very smart and intelligent crime story that didn’t take the audiences for granted — either our understanding of the story and our the ability to grasp the complex web of crime. What made it so well written as the story has staged for everything since early on so when it happened, it clicked to you right away.
And the acting truly made the show as the drama rely heavily on the acting of all the characters since some clues are reflected straight from their reactions and actions. For an example, we know right away that Li Cheng has a relationship with Bi Dehua with the way he lashed out in one of the earliest episodes. We don’t know anything about their relationship at that time but we knew they are somehow close. Also, some revelations are only shown instead of the characters spelling it for us. For a drama to trust the audiences to collect all this little clues one by one is such a breath of fresh air. Every single thing that happened in the drama -- they already provide us the answers we just have to read the story to get all the connections. They might not explicitly tell us some things but focus on the expressions of the actors that basically tell us the real truth. You just have to be extra attentive to catch all of this nuances in the story.
PERFECT PACING AND ‘BREADCRUMB’ TRAIL
This is what the writer truly excelled at which is the ‘breadcrumb’ trail -- a meticulous distribution of information scattered throughout the story. Clues are dropped consistently, logically, slowly and subtlety so the audience can actively participate in solving the puzzle. And despite the abundance of information and clues, it still always feel that they are bigger and greater truth that we still haven’t figure out yet -- constantly looming in the background.
EFFECTIVE USE OF RED HERRINGS
Red herrings are used so marvelously in this drama. The red herrings that are scattered all over the drama are used to smoke screen the real truth. But instead of making these red herring as something that totally deflected from the real truth, it also contains some truths or clues to the big revelations at the end. This what makes it very compelling when you realize everything shown on the screen are the truth, but how all of it comes together flawlessly at the end without any inconsistencies is what makes it very compelling.
UNEXPECTED PLOT TWISTS
Another excellent part of the writing is that halfway through the drama, you basically can figure out what happened already. However, the fact that the plot twists are still very surprising and unexpected and still making sense — ALL at the same time made the writing truly memorable and excellent.
NO PLOT HOLES OR INCONSISTENCIES IN THE WRITING
Some crime dramas have this problem when writer wrote their stories into a corner and start leaking some plot holes in the storyline just for the ‘shock’ factor which Abyss clearly avoid. If you see any inconsistencies in the story, characters’ narrative, props -- its all are clues instead of mistakes made by the production team. As someone who pay attention to details and very familiar with crime dramas, I found many inconsistencies in the story and thought it is a mistake but no, its actually clues for us which made me respect the writing even more. For an example the tore picture between Bi Dehua and Han Pinmu -- it is a solo picture of Bi Dehua in his room (Episode 1) but it was a trio picture in Han Pinmu’s room (Episode 3). At first, I thought it’s a mistake but it wasn’t. This picture is one of the biggest clues that connect the whole mystery together. You will also find yourself asking why this and why that. Why the novel only surfaced now? Why the murder stops for 8 years? Why rape and murders are inconsistent in the 5 cases? Why they let the last person to survive? All this MO didn’t match the normal serial killers and YES, all these inconsistencies are clues to the mystery.
NO INTROUDCTION OF NEW CHARACTERS AT THE END
People might said that there is one character that suddenly made an appearance near the end, and no, it isn't really a ‘new’ character as his presence has always been there and serve as a ‘ghost’ entity that being discussed and brought up subtlety since the beginning. You thought its just some other random character but its not. He is always there hiding behind all the other red herrings.
BRILLIANT CLIMAX & EMOTIONAL RESOLUTION
Abyss has a payoff that feels both surprising and inevitable. Everything that happened in the end are carefully constructed and planned since the beginning so you can see the connection since early on. As a good mystery drama, the story answers the core question while providing emotional closure for the characters and gives you the ‘gotcha’ moments. The drama also explored thematic subtext in its storytelling on family dysfunction, friendship gone wrong and how one wrong moves led one crime to another.
NO UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
By the time the drama ended, literally all your questions will be answered no matter how small it is. Why the crime stopped? Why now? How Song Laifu knew Xiaofei home? Is Li Cheng meant to be part of the games since the beginning? Why despite working so close with the murderers, Chen Chunli never in danger? Why there is inconsistencies in the crime? Why the victim survived? Literally everything will be answered. Some answers can be traced back in the first episode. You will be surprised on how many clues are there in the first episode alone. Every clues and inconsistency that seemed to be out of ordinary made sense at the end. Everything just flows beautifully. I applauded the writer for closing all these loop holes at the end.
TOP-NOTCH ACTING THAT SUPPORT THE DEPTH OF THE SCRIPT
I love how committed is Ren Jialun for this role since even his teeth has natural color like a normal joe. I’m used to watch his sparkling white teeth so its interesting to notice this. Also, he always has this regal or ethereal aura in his dramas but here all those are gone since he is playing a rookie police officer. Even the awkwardness and out of place attitude he sports on is refreshing to watch. He is known to always embodied his character fully so you can see the only times he overacts is when he is with Han Pinmu at the café since he is indeed ‘acting’ as an unemployed collage graduate. But aside from those scenes, he gave a particularly a nuanced and grounded performance as a rookie police officer. One thing that made Ren Jialun’s acting special is that he always feel authentic and genuine like he meant every words that comes out from his mouth. Like the first time he said ‘Thank you, Shifu’ you can see how he meant it truly – he always look at his Shifu with full of adoration and his Shifu also always look at him with such kindness and warm. This is what quiet chemistry feels like. Ren Jialun and Zhao Qianzhe have this unspoken sparkling chemistry that is so beautiful to witness. Qin Junjae also gave a very compelling performance and Han Pinmu. His conflict and how he lives in a shadow and his double lives can be reflected everytime he strokes his rings – this to give clues and the personal internal struggles and dilemma he faced everytime he has to lie. And these conflicts are portrayed excellently with no words at all.
The real truth, the whole casts’ acting is particularly amazing especially all the veteran actors. You see them as their characters, totally immersive with the kind of conflicts and struggles they face. The whole police force is especially lovely especially Li Cheng’s Shifu and his constant smiles. I literally can feel Chen Chunli’s pain when she testified on her hospital bed. Then the death of Xin Jiran’s son is another excellently directed scene, you basically can feel how he is slowly dying trying to catch up his breath. Then the excellent directed emotional scene in the drama hits different on how they mostly shot in silence which add more heartache and emotional weight to the whole scenes.
HAPPY MAIN CHARACTER
I know this is funny but I felt for the first time, we actually have a main character that is actually have a happy personal life. It is so refreshing and almost non-existence in crime Cdramas to have this type of character. Li Cheng has a happy family and supported by countless of really lovely and friendly police superiors and colleagues. This resulted with this drama having this calm and almost serene effects despite its dark subjects. The chemistry between the casts is effortlessly the glue that made this drama shining brightly. This is what perfect casting feels like – every character served their purpose whether it is small or big regardless of their real life status or popularity.
CLUES IN THE OPENING INTRO SONG
As a good mystery drama, even the intro gives you some clues for the mysteries. There is the important date flying through the screen which gives you the clue on who is the real mastermind. The number of falling people, the number of people in the building, etc. etc. Also, there are clues in the intro song all along -- Ayanga's title song is actually from the mastermind’s POV. Also, the intro shows at the end 3 chairs changed forms — from wood chair to gaming chair to police chair. It reminds me like The Bad Kids’ intro where the plot twist is in the intro after all.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it’s a brilliant drama through and through with great writing, directing and acting. Literally no plot holes or inconsistencies in the script at all. A strongly written drama with excellent pacing till the end with clear end resolutions and unexpected plot twists. Watching the drama is like playing an interactive game where your brain actively spinning to connect all the dots.
The most important thing for a crime mystery drama is the mysteries and plot twists so I’m not going to reveal anything in my review. Here, I’m just going to objectively review why this particular crime mystery drama is brilliant in my book with no spoilers at all.
MASTERFULLY WRITTEN WITH COMPELLING AND INTRIGUING PLOT
A compelling mystery drama is defined by perfectly balancing the intellectual puzzle of a mystery with the emotional depth of its characters. Unlike pure question of ‘Who did it?’ which focus entirely on clues and mechanics, an excellent mystery drama prioritizes character psychology, stakes, and atmospheric storytelling which Abyss truly excelled at.
The mystery is solidly written with great pacing. Very intelligently constructed with many details and clues and trail of evidences. Some clues are mind-blowingly subtle but some are as clear as the clear blue sky and can be seen as early as Episode 1. And no false narratives to misled us so what you see on screen are all clues that contributed to the end revelations including all the snippets from the novel, as confusing and random as it might be.
So the fun part is the guessing games and the list of suspects that you come out on your own based on the evidences so during revelations, all your efforts feel earned since all the clues already being there no matter how small it is. It seemed like watching a movie with how tight is the plots and how fast paced is the story with literally no filler scenes at all.
Also, making Li Cheng as a novice police officer is a brilliant decision as it did help to make viewers more immersive as you see the drama from his lens without years of police experience. Here, you will find yourself asking the same questions as him -- its almost like a dejavu how things that comes out from his mouth mirrored mine.
THE ‘FAIR GAME’ ELEMENT
The best part of the drama is that its playing the ‘fair game’ of a good written mystery story as what the police know is what we know too so no surprises that only they know. So here, we are actively solving the case together with them. This establishes an honest social contract between the story and the viewers as hiding critical clues until the final scene feels like cheating rather than a clever twist which Abyss clearly avoid.
While viewing this drama, it transforms our passive viewing into an active intellectual puzzle where the audience has a genuine shot at solving the crime alongside the police. Some writers sacrifice this element by concealing some information in order to make the main character as a genius and know it all or the smartest in the room. While this elevates the character, it also eliminates excitement for the audiences as we always know the said character going to pull some unknown information which made the story less intriguing and impactful.
SHOW INSTEAD OF TELL
Another favorite of mine is how this drama depends on showing instead of telling since it trusts the audiences’ ability to grasp the complex story and narrative. It is a very smart and intelligent crime story that didn’t take the audiences for granted — either our understanding of the story and our the ability to grasp the complex web of crime. What made it so well written as the story has staged for everything since early on so when it happened, it clicked to you right away.
And the acting truly made the show as the drama rely heavily on the acting of all the characters since some clues are reflected straight from their reactions and actions. For an example, we know right away that Li Cheng has a relationship with Bi Dehua with the way he lashed out in one of the earliest episodes. We don’t know anything about their relationship at that time but we knew they are somehow close. Also, some revelations are only shown instead of the characters spelling it for us. For a drama to trust the audiences to collect all this little clues one by one is such a breath of fresh air. Every single thing that happened in the drama -- they already provide us the answers we just have to read the story to get all the connections. They might not explicitly tell us some things but focus on the expressions of the actors that basically tell us the real truth. You just have to be extra attentive to catch all of this nuances in the story.
PERFECT PACING AND ‘BREADCRUMB’ TRAIL
This is what the writer truly excelled at which is the ‘breadcrumb’ trail -- a meticulous distribution of information scattered throughout the story. Clues are dropped consistently, logically, slowly and subtlety so the audience can actively participate in solving the puzzle. And despite the abundance of information and clues, it still always feel that they are bigger and greater truth that we still haven’t figure out yet -- constantly looming in the background.
EFFECTIVE USE OF RED HERRINGS
Red herrings are used so marvelously in this drama. The red herrings that are scattered all over the drama are used to smoke screen the real truth. But instead of making these red herring as something that totally deflected from the real truth, it also contains some truths or clues to the big revelations at the end. This what makes it very compelling when you realize everything shown on the screen are the truth, but how all of it comes together flawlessly at the end without any inconsistencies is what makes it very compelling.
UNEXPECTED PLOT TWISTS
Another excellent part of the writing is that halfway through the drama, you basically can figure out what happened already. However, the fact that the plot twists are still very surprising and unexpected and still making sense — ALL at the same time made the writing truly memorable and excellent.
NO PLOT HOLES OR INCONSISTENCIES IN THE WRITING
Some crime dramas have this problem when writer wrote their stories into a corner and start leaking some plot holes in the storyline just for the ‘shock’ factor which Abyss clearly avoid. If you see any inconsistencies in the story, characters’ narrative, props -- its all are clues instead of mistakes made by the production team. As someone who pay attention to details and very familiar with crime dramas, I found many inconsistencies in the story and thought it is a mistake but no, its actually clues for us which made me respect the writing even more. For an example the tore picture between Bi Dehua and Han Pinmu -- it is a solo picture of Bi Dehua in his room (Episode 1) but it was a trio picture in Han Pinmu’s room (Episode 3). At first, I thought it’s a mistake but it wasn’t. This picture is one of the biggest clues that connect the whole mystery together. You will also find yourself asking why this and why that. Why the novel only surfaced now? Why the murder stops for 8 years? Why rape and murders are inconsistent in the 5 cases? Why they let the last person to survive? All this MO didn’t match the normal serial killers and YES, all these inconsistencies are clues to the mystery.
NO INTROUDCTION OF NEW CHARACTERS AT THE END
People might said that there is one character that suddenly made an appearance near the end, and no, it isn't really a ‘new’ character as his presence has always been there and serve as a ‘ghost’ entity that being discussed and brought up subtlety since the beginning. You thought its just some other random character but its not. He is always there hiding behind all the other red herrings.
BRILLIANT CLIMAX & EMOTIONAL RESOLUTION
Abyss has a payoff that feels both surprising and inevitable. Everything that happened in the end are carefully constructed and planned since the beginning so you can see the connection since early on. As a good mystery drama, the story answers the core question while providing emotional closure for the characters and gives you the ‘gotcha’ moments. The drama also explored thematic subtext in its storytelling on family dysfunction, friendship gone wrong and how one wrong moves led one crime to another.
NO UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
By the time the drama ended, literally all your questions will be answered no matter how small it is. Why the crime stopped? Why now? How Song Laifu knew Xiaofei home? Is Li Cheng meant to be part of the games since the beginning? Why despite working so close with the murderers, Chen Chunli never in danger? Why there is inconsistencies in the crime? Why the victim survived? Literally everything will be answered. Some answers can be traced back in the first episode. You will be surprised on how many clues are there in the first episode alone. Every clues and inconsistency that seemed to be out of ordinary made sense at the end. Everything just flows beautifully. I applauded the writer for closing all these loop holes at the end.
TOP-NOTCH ACTING THAT SUPPORT THE DEPTH OF THE SCRIPT
I love how committed is Ren Jialun for this role since even his teeth has natural color like a normal joe. I’m used to watch his sparkling white teeth so its interesting to notice this. Also, he always has this regal or ethereal aura in his dramas but here all those are gone since he is playing a rookie police officer. Even the awkwardness and out of place attitude he sports on is refreshing to watch. He is known to always embodied his character fully so you can see the only times he overacts is when he is with Han Pinmu at the café since he is indeed ‘acting’ as an unemployed collage graduate. But aside from those scenes, he gave a particularly a nuanced and grounded performance as a rookie police officer. One thing that made Ren Jialun’s acting special is that he always feel authentic and genuine like he meant every words that comes out from his mouth. Like the first time he said ‘Thank you, Shifu’ you can see how he meant it truly – he always look at his Shifu with full of adoration and his Shifu also always look at him with such kindness and warm. This is what quiet chemistry feels like. Ren Jialun and Zhao Qianzhe have this unspoken sparkling chemistry that is so beautiful to witness. Qin Junjae also gave a very compelling performance and Han Pinmu. His conflict and how he lives in a shadow and his double lives can be reflected everytime he strokes his rings – this to give clues and the personal internal struggles and dilemma he faced everytime he has to lie. And these conflicts are portrayed excellently with no words at all.
The real truth, the whole casts’ acting is particularly amazing especially all the veteran actors. You see them as their characters, totally immersive with the kind of conflicts and struggles they face. The whole police force is especially lovely especially Li Cheng’s Shifu and his constant smiles. I literally can feel Chen Chunli’s pain when she testified on her hospital bed. Then the death of Xin Jiran’s son is another excellently directed scene, you basically can feel how he is slowly dying trying to catch up his breath. Then the excellent directed emotional scene in the drama hits different on how they mostly shot in silence which add more heartache and emotional weight to the whole scenes.
HAPPY MAIN CHARACTER
I know this is funny but I felt for the first time, we actually have a main character that is actually have a happy personal life. It is so refreshing and almost non-existence in crime Cdramas to have this type of character. Li Cheng has a happy family and supported by countless of really lovely and friendly police superiors and colleagues. This resulted with this drama having this calm and almost serene effects despite its dark subjects. The chemistry between the casts is effortlessly the glue that made this drama shining brightly. This is what perfect casting feels like – every character served their purpose whether it is small or big regardless of their real life status or popularity.
CLUES IN THE OPENING INTRO SONG
As a good mystery drama, even the intro gives you some clues for the mysteries. There is the important date flying through the screen which gives you the clue on who is the real mastermind. The number of falling people, the number of people in the building, etc. etc. Also, there are clues in the intro song all along -- Ayanga's title song is actually from the mastermind’s POV. Also, the intro shows at the end 3 chairs changed forms — from wood chair to gaming chair to police chair. It reminds me like The Bad Kids’ intro where the plot twist is in the intro after all.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it’s a brilliant drama through and through with great writing, directing and acting. Literally no plot holes or inconsistencies in the script at all. A strongly written drama with excellent pacing till the end with clear end resolutions and unexpected plot twists. Watching the drama is like playing an interactive game where your brain actively spinning to connect all the dots.
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