When the writer doesn't get it right......

If you want to punish yourself for some evil thing you did to your good neighbor, watching this drama series might get you through the punishment of a half-hell. Three or four episodes into the series, I wondered where the story was going. In the end, I then realized it was nowhere interesting or surprising. I also learned the art of writing an easy tv script: boring monologue or dialog that keeps going over the same grounds, silence being golden, long pauses to fill the gap between meaningful words, lots of tears, then a pat on the head, a big hug, a kiss (whether forced or consensual). In this day and age, this script writer still seems to encourage physical/ bodily touch between boss or supervisor and subordinates, as if charges of harassment were a foreign thing. I felt sorry for the actors who tried hard to inject life into a dead script, but too bad, it's too dead to be resuscitated.

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Entertaining without cheap thrills

A light comedy with a fine cast (except, perhaps, for Nishino Nanase, who appears a bit weak and timid to look like a police officer). The scene in the first episode when the station chief does his routine inspection of the men and women under his command is hilarious. Toda Erika has the maturity of age and looks to be convincing as the stern but caring training officer, and Nagano Mei is refreshing as the starry-eyed rookie. The narration takes the form of her letters to her father and has the authenticity of inner thoughts confided by a daughter. Muro Tsuyoshi is always good in his quiet, withdrawn way that combines affection and distance, wisdom and cynicism. Miura Shohei and Yamada Yuki also perform well and add a comic touch to many of the situations. Kudos also to the direction and editing that make it an endearing series.

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Highly recommended

I thought of giving up after the first episode, which didn't seem well organized or interesting. I'm glad I didn't. It turned out to be one of the best drama series I have recently watched. Kitamura Yukiya is excellent in portraying a man, who wants to live as a woman after having married and fathered a daughter, and does so without annoying mannerisms to caricature his character. The scene of his getting re-acquainted with the daughter after seven (?) years is both touching and funny, calm but powerful. Nagasaku Hiromi is marvelous in playing the character, who always wears a smiling face to mask her wisdom, defiance, and pain. The story of redeeming herself over a hasty report that caused irreparable damages to her subject ten years ago is skillfully and convincingly told (a rare feat for a TV drama series involving a long time gap). The series also ends with another moving story to raise awareness and encourage action on the part of mass media to report truthfully and responsibly. Maiguma Katsuya gives credibility to the character of a boy friend torn between his love of the girl and his rivalry with her for being in the same business. Finally, Yoshine Kyoko has a perfect balance of dramatic and comic qualities to play her role, a young reporter with heart and commitment. Is there really a magazine office that is so relaxing and friendly?

I changed my score for music. There is Bach in the background piano music, though not quite the tempo and version I would like, but it's still Bach!

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Disappointing

It's a chop suey mix of the occult and cult, history and mythology, crime and religion, politics and terrorism, and in short, an ambitious and pretentious attempt that fails to entertain or thrill. It starts out with a good mystery but seems to be going nowhere except down the path to dreadful confusion. The end seems to promise a second season, as there are indeed questions to answer, loose ends to tie up, but please, don't let it be. It's one of the worst drama series I've watched recently (the other being "Lion no Oyatsu"; both seem to have a similar location of a nice villa perching on top of a hill overlooking the ocean).

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Wishing for season 5

The series has little to offer by way of a usual cop show, without gruesome crime scenes, chasing (physically running after) criminals, etc. Instead, fine story-telling and acting make this a compelling drama and probably the best of the four seasons so far. Amami Yuki delivers, as do other actors playing her colleagues on the same team. I like, in particular, Tanaka Tetsushi, who, I think, is an underrated actor. The main story that runs through the two beginning episodes and two at the end is nicely wrapped up by a crucial line from Amami Yuki's character as she steps out the office of a newly appointed cabinet minister: "You don't think that we didn't make a copy of the contents of the cell phone" (or, something to that effect), that is, before the phone, with incriminating information on it, was returned by a good-natured boy to the politician. It is for fear of subsequent exposure and scandal that he resigns shortly after rather than because of the boy's innocent words and gesture. Without that line, the drama would have appeared sugar-coated with the cliche, "Good triumphs over evil." With it, the accusation of the depth of political filth is briefly but loudly restated. The script writer(s) deserves kudos. Season 5 is still possible, though the team is supposed to have been dissolved. TV magic can resurrect anything. Let's hope this will happen.

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Thumbs up

I am not familiar with the original TV series on which this dramatization is based. But this series is a brilliant effort to portray life's different situations. The stories are bold, absorbing, and well told. A few of them are downright touching. Ryusei Ryo has a relatively lighter role this time, as the focus is, and should be, on the characters in the stories. The acting is fine on the whole, and Gouriki Ayame's performance elicits so much sympathy that one would want to give her a big hug at the end. A better make-up job to reduce or hide her facial glow or radiance could make Nonami Maho's character more believable as a dying patient. This is the kind of short programs that tend to be overlooked. But you would miss a gem if you did overlook it.

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Another one of the season's worst

In this silly escape from reality as it relates to love, marriage, relationships, work, family, etc., the adults on hand all encourage the high-school kid to pursue the woman 10 years older; no one cares to remind him of the need to get serious about his education and goal in life first before plunging himself into such an affair. We are all supposed to appreciate the kid's playing ridiculous games to get compensation for the ruined painting that doesn't belong to him in the first place. After a recent failed marriage, the woman seems happy to get into a new relationship so soon and limit her choice to either one of the two brothers. A supposedly prosperous household has only one helper, who is chauffeur, house-keeping maid, cook, games companion, etc., rolled into one. A former schoolmate stirs up trouble for everyone ten years later because of her twisted mind and with a face that plastic surgery did not really make attractive. The title makes poor to no sense by forcing a connection with the Cinderella story.

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