Art with a dash of Crime! My new Cuppa!

Under the Skin

I absolutely loved this show to bits. From the first episode to the last episode. There was not a moment I felt a scene was unnecessary. The show had a very solid production, excellent music and perfect casting.

One of the biggest strengths of the show is the script. I thought it was a very intelligently written show and the direction surely brought the vision on screen. What differentiates this show from generic crime shows is that it took forensics as a focus, specifically artists/portrait sketchers in forensics and stuck to it. This helped get into the details of a single aspect of forensics and get to see cases from a very unique perspective. Sometimes, it felt a bit unreal, but as the show progressed a lot of it got explained or made sense to me. The show chose not to show the full spectrum of case solving and it was left to us audience to understand that there is more to a case solving than what is just shown. (e.g other detectives are doing their work finding past crimes or doing field work etc which wasn’t the focus of this show.)

One thing that struck me most in the show is how women were portrayed here. Be it the professionals, the criminals or victims. Women were not exploited or shown with intent to victimize women from a voyeuristic male gaze. Women were part of crimes at both ends. I would even say it was mostly a women-centric drama. What made is even more special to me was that it was not shown from a female viewpoint. Usually, women centric shows end up having women leads. This show did a great job in casting two men as the leads and still making this a women centered drama. Kudos to the team for this!

Shen Yi! My heart! When was the last time we had a male character who was sensitive and so empathetic?. I don't think I have seen one. I loved how they made him so sensitive to his emotions and others around him (very relatable to artists) yet not making him an emotional vulnerable mess, but a pragmatic police officer! Case in point, when he had to deal with his partner being a suspect - he was overcome with his emotions but he still did the right thing as a police officer and as a partner (asking and listening to him).

Art: I loved how much research went into tying the art pieces to cases. I loved reading up on the art and its meaning. It was all seamlessly done and really added a lot of depth to the cases. (Also made me go to the internet for research and slowing my drama watch). They also made a lot of subtle social commentary here, without coming across as preachy. This show made me realize how much female artists have been sidelined over the course of history and made me look up female artists in history and I am hoping to learn about their works over a period of time.

And like many have said, the art porn in this drama is insane. Truly phenomenal and inspiring. It makes me want to sketch/paint more.

Overall Rating - 9/10

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Gripping workplace drama!

I loved the whole corporate setup. It depicts corporate workings, politics and the inner workings of holding companies and subsidiaries exceptionally well. It was hard to define right vs wrong as there is never a solution that pleases everyone in a company. Is it shareholders? Is it employees? Do employees matter when the company will shut down if it doesn’t make profits?
Due to this, I could never tell which character is good vs bad. They all seem to work in what they believe to be right in their own way.

The biggest strength of the drama is casting, in addition to writing and screenplay. This is my first drama of Sun Li and she really made me believe in her journey. An idealist straight shooter working her way in a corporate world. I could relate to her. Extremely smart and hardworking but very rigid as she struggled with networking and people skills.
And then there is Xia Ming, played to perfection by Mark Chao. An extremely smart engineer who is a class A genius in manipulation and working the system. He is ruthless when it comes to others and works on his agenda.

OTP: There is hardly much romance. But the slow burn romance makes you crave for more. When they finally get together the kilig moments were worth all the wait. Even the angst was well done. As professionals with polar opposite beliefs and conflict of interest they handled this as mature as possible.
The ending felt a bit rushed. Would have definitely liked a few more episodes.

And Mark Chao is 😍🥰😘

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Solid take off, bumpy landing!

This drama is a very ambitious story about a female pilot and her struggles in surviving the misogynistic world and having her own personal career growth. Cheng Xiao’s growth from a freight pilot to a passenger flight Captain was very well done. Finding a mentor in Gu Nanting, she slowly evolves to be a responsible and mature person, while falling in love during the process. Seven nails this role and as always it’s a joy to watch her.
The romance is ‘slow burn’ and the leads really sold the romance. Gu Nanting’s personal issues and the way he overcame it over time was relatable. Frustrating at times but was in sync with his character. Wang Kai brought Gu Nanting to life.
The biggest flaw of the drama is the last few episodes before the finale. They dragged the plot with unnecessary legal stuff, mother’s arc etc. All these we could have done without. It brought down the momentum.
Overall still a good drama. A solid 7.5. Would have been a 8.5 if it landed well.

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