I watched this a while ago when I got sick, no reason why I started it except seeing chen xiao and a few other actors I like (liu yijun). Normally, cop dramas aren’t my cup of tea, I still watch them but not to an extent of getting invested in them but I still went in. To my surprise, it was really fresh to see polices getting involved with drug circles, at least in the scope of what I have watched before. Guessing who could be the informant among polices was rather amusing. Furthermore, the chemistry of the characters hit off really well. For example, younger and rather impulsive but smart police officer, chen yu, and a long-time captain of yunhe counter-narcotics who’s always stressed out because of his subordinates and senior, lin dezan. You might think the whole show might be “oh so serious” because of its theme and colors, but such relationships brighten up the whole drama and make it fun and wholesome. Wu zhenfeng is one of the most different roles chen xiao has ever tried and I couldn’t even recognize him when I first saw the drama. His wu zhenfeng is pretentious (not in a bad way), got beaten up and did a lot of questionable things but he made it all quite charmingly, you can’t help but root for him. Chen yu played by wang yibo was rather relatable, his character brought the perspective of the viewer into the drama, wondering along with him, which is why at times I got a little distressed at chen yu’s impulsiveness but it was only because he carried it well. Wu zhenfeng questioned the polices while chen yu stood for it. The two characters were like cat and mouse, chasing and running; their development really took the longest, which is a shame cause I wanted to see more of what happened later but by that time, the drama has already ended. Lin dezan played by actor wang jingsong was remarkable, he’s got to be my favorite character from the beginning to the end, you will know when you watch it. Him and Mr. Yang (played by liu yijun) also had a situation similar to chen yu and wu zhenfeng, and it’s good to see them in parallel. Guo xiaoting’s ling ling also brought the freshness to the drama, played a key factor between lin dezan and mr. yang. The villain characters were quite human like rather than being portrayed as “absolute evils” which kind of weakened the plot but also brought certain richness to it. All in all, characters’ chemistry and acting are solid 10/10.

Writing & Editing: Both started off really well for the first half. Every episode kept me seated, wanting more. A little until towards the end, the writing kind of became messy. Flashbacks were repetitive, and the characters can’t stop referring to what happened 3 years ago. Repetition of such events kind of robbed the backstories of certain characters, like how close chen yu and wu zhenfeng were, how did ling ling and chen yu meet, how close were wu gang and wu zhenfeng, etc. However, I feel like a lot more of it was made up in the story between captain lin and his nephew. So for this department, it would be 7.5/10.

Cinematography: night scenes are beautiful. The red & blue hues are very mesmerizing.

IMO, I do really wish there were more episodes so that all the backstories of the characters can be covered. Nevertheless, a lot better than I assumed despite the theme and I had so much fun watching it. Some moments were amusing and made the drama a whole a lot lighter and relatable, despite its heavy topic.

Would I recommend? Yeah, why not? especially if you want to try something else than murder mystery. Would I rewatch? Rewatch value is low since this is suspense drama but I still would rewatch it for the sake of characters.