Excessive exaggerations

Inconsistent ml character portrayal, from supposedly using his smarts without using martial arts, to super heavenly master of martial arts. Just feels cheap and he also cheated. If the story stayed consistent with just using strategy and the smarts, it would have worked, like a Zhu Ge Liang, strategist. The story should have stopped at episode 30, because everything after was nonsense and over exaggerated without any strong motive. If they were moving towards martial arts, then put in real choreographed fights, not some cheap CG and offscreen pretend fights. There were also excessive females in the cast and not all can act. Just too many characters to remember or make an impact on the story.

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Cheap writing and overly dramatic without logic

When time loops are involved, it just gives the writer the infinite possibility to write whatever they want, being sloppy and illogical. I only enjoyed up to Lu Di’s story, then come episode 8, and it got overly dramatic and emotional. I only completed the drama to try to understand why people gave it 10. Plus I don’t like dumb leads, who seem to forgot what did work the previous time loop. All they had to do was tweak “the solution” a bit and it would have solved the problem. Don’t put a muscle man in the show if his muscles were only for show. The acting was disappointing, very much overacting and trying to portray as much emotions as possible just to show off who can get red eyes and tears the fastest. After X loops, is there any more shock value?! Why are you still acting all shocked?!

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Binge worthy crime drama

This is a new take to crime dramas centered around a portrait forensic artist, instead of just a policeman. It gives the crime solving plot a different feeling, which was very refreshing. I love art myself, so seeing art used as a way to solve crimes is so intriguing. I don't know how much of this is real though. Maybe it's too exaggerated in some cases? I think they could have toned done how "genius" Shen Yi is with his portrait accuracy.

Talking about Shen Yi, the actor Tan Jianci, did a really good job portraying his character that was mentally, psychologically scarred by a crime that changed his entire life. He had this baggage that I felt in his eyes. He acts with his eyes, and subtle facial expressions. One scene when he cried, a tear ran down his face. I actually felt the sadness. I am impressed. I've never seen any of his other works, so I'll be interested to watch more of him. It could be that this character finally gave him that break through. I'll give him a 10/10 on acting.

Du Cheng's character is the typical rash policeman, so nothing special about this character. I didn't feel Jin Shi Jia's acting, which was usually sprinkled with loud and exaggerated actions. hence why I dropped acting down from a 10. The reason was in his "sad expressions", when someone dies or some sad scene, I can't feel his sadness. In some scenes, he looked like he was smiling not frowning. The tip of his lip was supposed to angle downwards, but it twisted upwards a bit. His facial expressions seem hard and stiff.

The story started with the main "crime" that interweaved throughout the story and of course ended the series. It was well paced and told well overall. No major plot holes which are common in Chinese dramas. The lighter crimes sprinkled throughout the series had their pros and cons. I liked the high school crime story most because it had a sad theme around the whole situation, that feels realistic (except how Shen Yi got to the victim's portrait!). The small crimes were mainly there to show different situations of portrait forensic artist's job. At the same time, it built up the trust between Shen Yi and Du Cheng. Their character relationship development was built up in a well paced manner. I felt their bond, especially in life and death situations. It was believable.

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