Detective L
Feb. 6th, 2023 03:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452So, I wanted to talk about Detective L.
Or, more specifically, two of my favorite characters from Detective L.
Ben Jieming = my precious cinnamon roll, must be protected at all costs
Huo Wensi = my poor little meow meow, my special little guy who has committed atrocities and who I enjoy seeing getting whumped and bloodied
Obviously, like with most who have watched the drama, I immediately adored Ben Jieming the moment he was introduced. He's just so awkwardly adorable, soft-spoken yet kind but also very much a troll like Luo Fei, it's impossible to resist that face. (It's also ironic because he's not only the tallest but is also the oldest of the entire cast, and yet he's totally babie in this role.) So yeah, it was a given that I would instantly love his character from the jump.
However, it's Huo Wensi that was a total surprise for me.
It didn't happen as immediate as it did with Ben Jieming, although I was definitely drawn to his character the more I watched, and then suddenly I was totally swept up with, well, everything involving him. It wasn't until the arson/diamond case that really kind of further by interest with Huo Wensi even more, which then grew from there. He's such a fascinating character, mainly because of the reveal in the end it made me really think about his motivations which, sadly, given that the reveal happened in the final episode with minimal information of wrapping things up, not to mention the cliffhanger that will never be resolved, it's made looking back at his episodes an interesting task at noticing the little things.
Although what really grabbed me by the throat was theunresolved sexual tension between Huo Wensi and Luo Fei. Their whole dynamic is just so fascinating to me. I mean, you'd think that they'd known each other previously just by how much bitter ex energy Luo Fei radiated due bitchy he was towards Huo Wensi when he was introduced, and yet that was their first time meeting each other, and it just continued on from there. It just made me so curious about that relationship, why Luo Fei was reacting that way, and what's even more interesting is how Huo Wensi doesn't at all seem offended, just amused, to the point where I truly think he wanted to get underneath the man's skin. I mean, the final episode reveal aside, there's so much going on beneath the surface that it makes me want to dissect everything about them. It's just all so, crunchy, I love it.
(Plus the fact that in the final episode during their confrontation Luo Fei not only beats him up, but how much Huo Wensi seems to like it? As if he was anticipating, expecting this confrontation between him and Luo Fei, wanting it even. Just, whew. Delicious.)
So yeah, Huo Wensi and Ben Jieming are my favorite characters in the drama, my blorbos, my beloveds. They're both just so my type, it's not even funny. Not just aesthetically but also their character types, as well. I just wish we had more time with them, I wanted to see more flashbacks to how Ben Jieming and Luo Fei ended up befriending each other and working together, I also wanted to see Huo Wensi be a little bit more unhinged because that last episode was such a delicious treat that it's a shame we didn't get more of that. Oh, and I also kind of wished that they had worked together at some point. Obviously Huo Wensi was zeroing in on Luo Fei specifically since he was essentially setup to be the Moriarty to Luo Fei's Sherlock in the end, but he was already on friendly terms with Xiao Man (again, mostly to get to Luo Fei) that I could also see him working and being friendly alongside Ben Jieming, as well. That would've been fun to see.
Also yes, I ship both Huo Wensi/Luo Fei and Ben Jieming/Luo Fei, with the possibility of Huo Wensi/Luo Fei/Ben Jieming.
In general, Detective L was a fun little detective cdrama. Visually and aesthetically, it was vibe. The cases, for the most part, where interesting and I liked the way things were handled and solved, I also liked that each case had three episodes (twenty-four episodes, eight cases total) so nothing went on longer or shorter than the others. I liked the way we get inside Luo Fei's "mind palace", if you will, whenever he's attempting to solve a case or figure out a problem, the filming for those moments are always a nice little treat. I mean, it wouldn't be a Sherlock-inspired story without something like that featured where we see his method of solving cases, getting inside his brain.
Unfortunately, with the drama ending on a massive cliffhanger with no possibility of there being a follow-up leads to a lot of understandable frustration. I know some desperately wish for a second season, but cdramas rarely get more than just one, which makes the decision to end things there even more baffling. It makes me wonder if they had intentionally planned on there being more episodes, but they were suddenly cut down for whatever reason (time, budget, other restrictions) so they had to rush the ending. It's clear that the finale was their version of "The Final Problem", the bridge confrontation to mirror Reichenbach Falls, and while I enjoyed watching Huo Wensi finally be stripped of his mask and be unhinged, they could have done a better job with setting that up. In fact, if they had just gotten an extended three more episodes that could've been their last case, unraveling the mystery that was Huo Wensi and getting a clearer answer to his motivation and involvement, the hows and whys and all of that.
On one hand, it is frustrating, on the other hand, the cliffhanger does leave things open-ended to where the audience can come up with their own conclusions to how things could potentially end up, since there are endless possibilities to explore.
With that being said however, I still enjoyed Detective L for what it was.
Or, more specifically, two of my favorite characters from Detective L.
Ben Jieming = my precious cinnamon roll, must be protected at all costs
Huo Wensi = my poor little meow meow, my special little guy who has committed atrocities and who I enjoy seeing getting whumped and bloodied
Obviously, like with most who have watched the drama, I immediately adored Ben Jieming the moment he was introduced. He's just so awkwardly adorable, soft-spoken yet kind but also very much a troll like Luo Fei, it's impossible to resist that face. (It's also ironic because he's not only the tallest but is also the oldest of the entire cast, and yet he's totally babie in this role.) So yeah, it was a given that I would instantly love his character from the jump.
However, it's Huo Wensi that was a total surprise for me.
It didn't happen as immediate as it did with Ben Jieming, although I was definitely drawn to his character the more I watched, and then suddenly I was totally swept up with, well, everything involving him. It wasn't until the arson/diamond case that really kind of further by interest with Huo Wensi even more, which then grew from there. He's such a fascinating character, mainly because of the reveal in the end it made me really think about his motivations which, sadly, given that the reveal happened in the final episode with minimal information of wrapping things up, not to mention the cliffhanger that will never be resolved, it's made looking back at his episodes an interesting task at noticing the little things.
Although what really grabbed me by the throat was the
(Plus the fact that in the final episode during their confrontation Luo Fei not only beats him up, but how much Huo Wensi seems to like it? As if he was anticipating, expecting this confrontation between him and Luo Fei, wanting it even. Just, whew. Delicious.)
So yeah, Huo Wensi and Ben Jieming are my favorite characters in the drama, my blorbos, my beloveds. They're both just so my type, it's not even funny. Not just aesthetically but also their character types, as well. I just wish we had more time with them, I wanted to see more flashbacks to how Ben Jieming and Luo Fei ended up befriending each other and working together, I also wanted to see Huo Wensi be a little bit more unhinged because that last episode was such a delicious treat that it's a shame we didn't get more of that. Oh, and I also kind of wished that they had worked together at some point. Obviously Huo Wensi was zeroing in on Luo Fei specifically since he was essentially setup to be the Moriarty to Luo Fei's Sherlock in the end, but he was already on friendly terms with Xiao Man (again, mostly to get to Luo Fei) that I could also see him working and being friendly alongside Ben Jieming, as well. That would've been fun to see.
Also yes, I ship both Huo Wensi/Luo Fei and Ben Jieming/Luo Fei, with the possibility of Huo Wensi/Luo Fei/Ben Jieming.
In general, Detective L was a fun little detective cdrama. Visually and aesthetically, it was vibe. The cases, for the most part, where interesting and I liked the way things were handled and solved, I also liked that each case had three episodes (twenty-four episodes, eight cases total) so nothing went on longer or shorter than the others. I liked the way we get inside Luo Fei's "mind palace", if you will, whenever he's attempting to solve a case or figure out a problem, the filming for those moments are always a nice little treat. I mean, it wouldn't be a Sherlock-inspired story without something like that featured where we see his method of solving cases, getting inside his brain.
Unfortunately, with the drama ending on a massive cliffhanger with no possibility of there being a follow-up leads to a lot of understandable frustration. I know some desperately wish for a second season, but cdramas rarely get more than just one, which makes the decision to end things there even more baffling. It makes me wonder if they had intentionally planned on there being more episodes, but they were suddenly cut down for whatever reason (time, budget, other restrictions) so they had to rush the ending. It's clear that the finale was their version of "The Final Problem", the bridge confrontation to mirror Reichenbach Falls, and while I enjoyed watching Huo Wensi finally be stripped of his mask and be unhinged, they could have done a better job with setting that up. In fact, if they had just gotten an extended three more episodes that could've been their last case, unraveling the mystery that was Huo Wensi and getting a clearer answer to his motivation and involvement, the hows and whys and all of that.
On one hand, it is frustrating, on the other hand, the cliffhanger does leave things open-ended to where the audience can come up with their own conclusions to how things could potentially end up, since there are endless possibilities to explore.
With that being said however, I still enjoyed Detective L for what it was.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-08 04:57 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think I'll pass because detective shows (any shows that are only/mostly about solving criminal cases) are honestly the one genre I find the least interesting. Bai Yu's character does sound awesome though because I adore Zhao Yunlan so far. :D And the historical aspect sounds intriguing too, hmm.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-09 07:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-11 05:47 am (UTC)Honestly, the reason this genre doesn't work for me is that I'm straight-up incapable of caring "what happens next" (in any fandom, medium, genre I've ever experienced; which is also why I personally can't comprehend that a cliffhanger could be either a problem or something that would make me curious about its resolution, even though I obviously know that this is what it does to other people; and also why I always put a book away not just mid-chapter and mid-paragraph but usually also mid-sentence), I can only care about what happened up to this point.
And the 'criminal case' genre (which I don't know how else to call because it's definitely not mystery or procedural, because there are mysteries or procedurals about other topics than criminal cases) seems to be the main genre where you're supposed to be curious about what the final answer/resolution/culprit/whatever is, and it's not something I can do, so it feels like the genre is constantly poking me to do something impossible and it doesn't feel nice or interesting. xD I'm weird. xD But if this is out of the picture because the "of course you WANT to know what happens next, who wouldn't?" element is small enough to ignore, then I have no problem with this genre itself. :)