This Taiwanese drama begins with Lin Ting-yu, also known as Youzi, a high-profile influencer with over a million followers across social media platforms. He stages an astonishing public incident outside a police station. For a moment, it appears to be a stunt done just to grab the attention of the people, a sort of bid done to increase followers. But this ends up catching the attention of an experienced veteran detective, Chen Chia-jen, who tries to understand the case. Being the professional he is, Chen Chia-jen dives deeper into the case and finds many dark secrets emerging. Post this incident, a series of murders takes place. All these murders were predicted in advance by an unknown online figure by the name Baba the Witch. Baba’s post was cryptic and was rapidly spreading across many platforms. Soon enough, Baba was treated as a real figure since his predictions came true. However, there is a small issue: Chen Chia-jen isn’t very tech-savvy. But every problem has a solution, and therefore, he continues to rely on Li Hsin-ping in order to understand the latest trends and patterns. On the other hand, Lin Ting-yu continues to get deeper into the case by going live and sharing information that influences public opinion. His move becomes complicated, which makes the case even more complicated. Now the question arises, will they succeed? Is Lin Ting-yu involved in any way?
In all honesty, I found the plot really complicated. It has too many twists and turns, which get deeper and deeper with every episode, and makes the overall plot of the series really confusing. At one point, it is indeed very difficult to understand what exactly is happening, especially with Lin Ting-yu’s role in the series. Perhaps that’s a big drawback that the makers could have thought about. I wish they had seen it coming and reduced the number of twists and turns. The series started well, no doubt. But with time, things just go from bad to worse. It started off well, but sadly, these very twists make us lose interest in the show. What could have been a great investigation drama is left out in its own spiral.
Another issue was the pacing. The uneven pacing is the reason why the show gets boring to watch. It goes slowly and then sometimes fast. As a result, this complicated plot line is hard to understand. In addition to this, the character development feels abrupt. For example, Lin Ting-yu is still unclear to me. I didn’t understand what she was or what she played. She was supposed to be some sort of answer to a puzzle, but god knows what it turned out to be. They even tried to make Chen Chia-jen some sort of upright mysterious character, but again, that doesn’t happen well either. At one point, I remember thinking to myself, " What and why am I watching this series. Eight episodes feel too long to watch when you are trying to figure out what exactly is happening across.
Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Neerja Ch
Follow @NeerjaCH on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times