Mini Review: Ancient Detective
Jun. 7th, 2020 01:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rheasilviaAn amnesiac detective in Wuxialand attempts to find out what happened at a devastating battle eight years ago; he woke up on the battlefield with no memory of the events, and has been trying to find closure ever since. Along the way, he solves a series of murder mysteries, meets and befriends a diverse cast of characters, and falls in love with a beautiful ex-assassin.
This series is basically a series of locked-room murder mysteries, linked together by the overarching plot of the main character’s search for his past. There are a number of interesting characters, but they take a very long time to develop – almost the entire series in some cases. The same is true of the plot, which only really gets going in the last ep. This is when many characters (including the lead!) become truly interesting for the first time, various relationships come alive, and riveting plot potential for an entire series materializes… with absolutely no time left to do anything with any of this.
The last ep showed me a drama that I might have *loved* to see. This series could have been that drama, if they’d condensed the first 23 eps down to maybe 8, then had now-ep 24, and then gone on to use the remaining 15 eps to narrate what happens after – with an actually fascinating plot, as well as characters and relationships that have acquired depth, interest and potential.
The drama features two noteworthy organizations that I’d like to mention briefly.
This series introduces the idea of the Historical Office: An organization of roving historians who travel the countryside and record anything interesting/important that happens. They are at every major event that takes place, like to attach themselves to interesting people that are likely to be involved in record-worthy events, interview anyone they come across, and are always taking notes. They never intervene, and are completely neutral. Their only interest is recording history. (In one situation when a historian fears he will die, he is terrified his notes will be lost, and entirely consumed by finding a way to preserve them and make sure they get to the archives.) It’s lovely and wonderful and bizarre and I just love this idea.
The drama also has the Ten Killing Gates, a widely feared, fabled organization of assassins that everyone talks about in hushed tones… but that is hilariously incompetent as shown. The assassins kill each other all the time (and get killed by various unaffiliated murderers), but never successfully murder a single person who isn’t part of their own organization. Not one. They always dispatch the BEST of the BEST, each assassin with a more terrifying reputation than the one before, and they all fall flat on their faces. I don’t think they are intended to be seen as hilarious failures, but man. These assassins suck.
As an example: Two elite assassins on the job are called to a more urgent project, so they take the time to meet up with their prospective victim and inform him they were about to kill him, but have to do something else first, so they’ll be back. It’s mind-bogglingly, gloriously ridiculous. In another case, different elite assassins are undercover as hotel employees. They watch their intended victim for days, are alone in various rooms with him, and could of course also resort to such methods as poison or creeping in bedroom windows at night. However, they do nothing, except grow increasingly frustrated at how impossible it is to kill this guy. (Guys. It is seriously not that hard. Come on.)
The Ten Killing Gates also manage to get a list of their undercover operatives into the wild, and are then utter failboats in their attempts to retrieve it. Oh, and their members all have one of two last names, and often actually use this name when stealthily undercover. And they don’t use normal weapons; instead, every one of them chooses a household item of some kind (like an umbrella or scissors; also a great idea for stealthily undercover people).
Would I recommend it?
Maybe? I do love the roving historians, and the ineptitude of the Ten Killing Gates is good for a laugh. There are some nice bits and characters, and the last ep is lovely. But overall, I have to say that to me, the entire drama seems like a prologue.
Where can you find it?
Ancient Detective is available for download here (hardsubbed).
Have you watched this drama? Do you think it sounds interesting? Would you like to be a roving historian? Let me know! :-)
This series is basically a series of locked-room murder mysteries, linked together by the overarching plot of the main character’s search for his past. There are a number of interesting characters, but they take a very long time to develop – almost the entire series in some cases. The same is true of the plot, which only really gets going in the last ep. This is when many characters (including the lead!) become truly interesting for the first time, various relationships come alive, and riveting plot potential for an entire series materializes… with absolutely no time left to do anything with any of this.
The last ep showed me a drama that I might have *loved* to see. This series could have been that drama, if they’d condensed the first 23 eps down to maybe 8, then had now-ep 24, and then gone on to use the remaining 15 eps to narrate what happens after – with an actually fascinating plot, as well as characters and relationships that have acquired depth, interest and potential.
The drama features two noteworthy organizations that I’d like to mention briefly.
This series introduces the idea of the Historical Office: An organization of roving historians who travel the countryside and record anything interesting/important that happens. They are at every major event that takes place, like to attach themselves to interesting people that are likely to be involved in record-worthy events, interview anyone they come across, and are always taking notes. They never intervene, and are completely neutral. Their only interest is recording history. (In one situation when a historian fears he will die, he is terrified his notes will be lost, and entirely consumed by finding a way to preserve them and make sure they get to the archives.) It’s lovely and wonderful and bizarre and I just love this idea.
The drama also has the Ten Killing Gates, a widely feared, fabled organization of assassins that everyone talks about in hushed tones… but that is hilariously incompetent as shown. The assassins kill each other all the time (and get killed by various unaffiliated murderers), but never successfully murder a single person who isn’t part of their own organization. Not one. They always dispatch the BEST of the BEST, each assassin with a more terrifying reputation than the one before, and they all fall flat on their faces. I don’t think they are intended to be seen as hilarious failures, but man. These assassins suck.
As an example: Two elite assassins on the job are called to a more urgent project, so they take the time to meet up with their prospective victim and inform him they were about to kill him, but have to do something else first, so they’ll be back. It’s mind-bogglingly, gloriously ridiculous. In another case, different elite assassins are undercover as hotel employees. They watch their intended victim for days, are alone in various rooms with him, and could of course also resort to such methods as poison or creeping in bedroom windows at night. However, they do nothing, except grow increasingly frustrated at how impossible it is to kill this guy. (Guys. It is seriously not that hard. Come on.)
The Ten Killing Gates also manage to get a list of their undercover operatives into the wild, and are then utter failboats in their attempts to retrieve it. Oh, and their members all have one of two last names, and often actually use this name when stealthily undercover. And they don’t use normal weapons; instead, every one of them chooses a household item of some kind (like an umbrella or scissors; also a great idea for stealthily undercover people).
Would I recommend it?
Maybe? I do love the roving historians, and the ineptitude of the Ten Killing Gates is good for a laugh. There are some nice bits and characters, and the last ep is lovely. But overall, I have to say that to me, the entire drama seems like a prologue.
Where can you find it?
Ancient Detective is available for download here (hardsubbed).
Have you watched this drama? Do you think it sounds interesting? Would you like to be a roving historian? Let me know! :-)
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 10:43 am (UTC)Honestly, it's not at all a bad series - I kept watching it to the last ep, after all. I just think they dropped the ball on the pacing and character development. Which is actually a shame, because the potential is definitely there!
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 06:19 am (UTC)This so much. I mean, I enjoyed the drama, I had fun watching it, but I only became really interested during the last episode. This is what I wanted to see the most - what happened after. It's clear that they hoped for the 2nd season and it's a pity that there probably won't be one, since the drama wasn't popular.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 10:56 am (UTC)Yes, exactly! I mean, I did get to the last ep, which does say something. Mostly I just wanted to know WTF happened at that battle, honestly, but if the drama had been truly bad, I would have stopped before that.
I think it also helped that the assassin suddenly came alive and became interesting in ep 19 or so (?), which really surprised me at that late stage - and sadly it wasn't in combination with the hero, but the young Chief. But I just thought, huh, look at that. She CAN be interesting. With other people. *g*
(And then in the VERY last ep, Ming Yue pulled the same trick... and so did the hero himself. Just. Why did they wait that long?)
It's clear that they hoped for the 2nd season and it's a pity that there probably won't be one, since the drama wasn't popular.
Well, I can understand why it wasn't popular. If you have such a lovely and gripping plot idea, don't save it for a second season that might never materialize. Plus, fully developed characters might also have helped.
ETA: Since you've also seen the drama - what did you think of the Ten Killing Gate?
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 05:30 pm (UTC)I'd really love to know whether TPTB intended the Ten Killing Gates to seem this ineffectual, or if it just happened.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 07:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 11:05 am (UTC)Pro tip, PTB, don't wait until the last second to reveal your lovely plot and bring your characters to life...
Anyway! Hopefully I have saved you some time. :-)
(I have two more cdrama reviews in the pipeline... I didn't even realize I've been watching so much of this stuff. *g*)
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 01:55 pm (UTC)The roving historian idea sounds like I've heard it before. I don't remember where, but probably in a book. Maybe it'll come to me again.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 05:42 pm (UTC)The roving historian idea sounds like I've heard it before.
Oooh, interesting! Please let me know if you think of the other "roving historians" canon - I might want to check it out. It really was enormous fun in this drama!
no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-07 05:44 pm (UTC)