Okay, suckered again by the rating and reviews. This is the first Chinese cop show I’ve watched and as this one is reputedly the crême de la crême (MDL rating 8.7, March 2023), then it will probably be the last. Don’t be deceived into false hope by the quality of the murals at the start of Ep 1. It’s not going to live up to them. Every time I thought, oh this is getting better maybe it’s actually quite good, something eye rolling would happen.

Having said that, the ideas are not all bad and in better hands, given more time and depth, some could have been good. However, it’s got a cater-to-the-lowest-common-denominator type of script with dialogue that’s way too banal and explainy. That’s coupled with a shallow and pedestrian execution complete with impossible leaps of logic and events that catapult you forward way beyond the bounds of credibility. It does improve as you get further into it, and has flashes of inspiration, but you have to wait until the last few episodes. Overall it never really manages to be anything other than heavily flawed.

I was hoping for something deep and convoluted, but it mainly comprises sequential procedurals of unrelated crimes lasting one or two episodes, that are far too easily solved with:
1) a remarkably surprising lack of leg-work;
2) a forensic artist who could put a collaboration between Sherlock Holmes, Sigmund Freud and Leonardo da Vinci into the shade;
3) criminals who obligingly fess up before they’ve even been asked to, or roll over and spill the beans the moment they get rumbled.

The police characters have no real distinguishing marks and range from featureless to faceless. For the first 6 eps no one shouts, no one laughs, no one reveals much emotion and about the most impolite you get is entering the boss’s office without knocking. Any aberrant, impulsive behaviour needs to be (quote) “supervised”. Wow, what an ordered, stress-free life the Chinese police lead.

The most interesting character, and the best performance, is the forensic artist, Shen Yi, well played by Tan Jian Ci and mercifully he is centre stage for the majority of the time. This paragon embodies every speciality that is needed to solve the crime, including that of a handwriting expert. But you have to wait until Ep 8 for his story to really begin to unfold.

It’s a story shared with his cop partner and as it is the most interesting part of the drama it would have made a good central focus with the whole thing built around it. But instead it’s just a hastily composed fragment rushed through at the end.

Look I’m prepared to stretch credulity on occasion, but there were a lot of scenes in this drama particularly regarding client confidentiality, colour blindness, gun procedure, DNA extraction, virus tracking, lack of procedure and the take down scene at the end, that had me snorting with laughter. I mean really folks, handing out guns to untrained people like candies to children—there’s a limit… Research! Just do your job and research before you put fingers on the keyboard to write the script unless you intend for it to be comedy.

On the upside, the creative artwork and cinematography are a total joy. You also get to learn a lot about the world of the forensic artist and the techniques they employ, even though, I swear, some of it is lifted from a fairy tale.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.