For the strong of stomach, there's fun to be had with Crime Crackdown.
But at 48 episodes, this one takes some endurance. Part of the pain is from unn
ecessarily drawn out dialogue (GET TO THE POINT!!) that originally pushed this to 70 episodes...
The side story with Jiang Shuying and Zhang Yixing is also hard to sit through.
Watchability: 7
Nevertheless I give it a yangguizi watchability score of 7 out of 10. The usual disclaimer: In the end this is a soap opera with themes promoted by an authoritarian communist regime. Adjust your expectations accordingly!
What makes it watchable?
Unflinching portrayals of local government, law enforcement and property developer corruption were enough to make me angry and care about the characters.
The cat and mouse crime story is excruciatingly slow at times. But it's set against the backdrop of a fictional third-tier southern Chinese city, replete with a swirl of applicable social ills. That texture keeps it interesting.
If you can stomach painfully drawn out (or not relatable to Western audience) scenes driven by a master-apprentice bond, and a through line extolling the virtue of “humbly working within the system,” there are redeeming qualities that make this worth a watch.
Bottom Line: You can get something out of this one.
Kommentare