Tie tan

It will be the first TVB drama in Netfix. Hope this will help promote the Hong Kong made drama.

This series is casted with the rising star in TVB, Yuen Wai Ho, as well as Cara Wai, the many best actress winners in various different ceremonies. It is my first time to see Wai's performance. Well it is incredibly good. No doubt she is a frequent winner of best actress award. She acts as an assistant director of police. Her acting is solid and terrific, portraying to the best a forceful and aggressive police chief. Given her long acting history, she looks young, slim and fit. Simply a model for all the actors to follow.

Yuen is now the youngest and the best among TVB male leads. His acting is no less powerful comparing to Wai.

And casting of supporting actors is equally strong. I would say all the characters are carefully chosen. I particularly appreciate the mature acting of all the police chief in the drama. Interaction between the chiefs making up terrific scenes you cannot miss.

The story of the drama is ok. Sometimes it is a little bit illogical but on the whole an acceptable plot. The drama details the life of police and works of different sections within the police force. The health condition of Yuen who is shot by head portrays the danger of being a police officer. Many in depth research must have done in this aspect.

There is no reason not to see it, as soon as it is available.

The performances of the actors were okay, but the characters settings were a bit weird. I don't know if it was gradually influenced by the mainland's atmosphere, there were always a few inexplicable and brilliant characters in a drama. The narrative structure was incoherent, and the overall feeling was anticlimactic. Can't compare to previous TVB dramas.

The story is mainly about the corruption of high ranking officials in the police department and how ruthless ambition blinds them to true justice. The cast is excellent but I feel the story becomes too dragged out and would have benefitted from less episodes. Having said that the interaction between the criminals, the officials and the ordinary constables holds your attention.

TD is a good old cop drama. Many of the best cop dramas start w/ the buddies (comrades? Cronies?), then the crime, the crookedness, & finally, court... fade out to the harmonica~> country. There's impossible supervisors, unbridled ambition, coworkers who are brothers while others are enemies, departmental friction & competition, blame-gaming, the truthless press, confidential informants, depraved criminals, criminals that are more likable than some cops, & families that are left behind. Every decision & action is second-guessed. Some of the characters are all bad, & nobody is 100% pure. It's an impossible job. Let's not forget, on top of it all, there's corruption.

Benjamin Yuen is HK police detective, Sing: He's got the failed romantic relationship (He's always working) & the kid who longs to see him more often to prove it. His baby-mama (whom he wishes was his wife) was told by her uncle that there's 2 kinds of cops: The greedy (or ambitious) & the wicked. Sing's ambition prevented their marriage.

Sing appears first & he certainly is the main protagonist, but Bingo might match him in terms of significance. Bingo's story arc is the most interesting. He was a recruit who Madam selected to go undercover & she used & abused him until he was tarnished beyond repair. Now he's a thief w/ the 💛 of a cop. All he wants to do is take care of his mother who's suffering from dementia. While everyone on the force sees him as scum, the viewer must watch him, time & time again, in difficult situations trying desperately to do the right thing. As I'm writing this I'm on ep21. I don't know what's coming for him, but I'm rooting for him.

Ben Wong plays "Samuel". He's a straight shooter who does not bend easily. He's fair-minded, does not play favorites. Of course, is the perfect internal affairs Ofr. Wheelchair bound, he was paralyzed from the waist down in the line of duty. His current wife is a rival's ex-wife (Kan). His dream is to clean up the force & revamp it. What he needs to learn are people skills & a little flexibility. While in the wheelchair, Sam gets an action scene. It's amazing!

"It seems I'm not the only one w/ life imprisonment," says one felon to Madam (Kara Wai). She's better at being a toxic narcissist & bully-boss than a director or a mother. I've known destructive bullies w/ the exact same smile. The show's opening is her w/ a scorched earth background. The more we watch her the more it makes sense. Narcissism is merely unbridled pride. Madam has truly convinced herself that Hong Kong is better w/ her in it. This gives leave for her to do all kinds of things to maintain & augment her power. Would that this was an unusual thing, but it's the norm. Thus that adage about power & corruption & whatnot. In that way, pride is deceitful. It encourages us to lie to ourselves. Pride is probably the most destructive /vice/, but since it's everybody's worst problem, society has decided to collectively ignore it. We don't like narcissists - we can all agree on that - but we excuse our own selfish actions & words. Pride shows up in other ways: Self-absorption (even if it's self-loathing, it's an obsession w/ self), constant comparing & competition, unforgiveness & bitterness, constantly being angry or offended, & gossip, to name a few. Every society has a pride problem, but in Asia it's weaved into the fabric of society like no other place, it seems. The tragedy is that living a self-first life only leads to one's own misery & the misery of every poor soul around one.

In typical fashion, mgmt is quite sympathetic to their own perceived plight while looking at underlings as mere ants. Madam is given multiple chances - more than any ordinary employee would be granted. She squanders them all, opting to plunge the knife in deeper.

Madam's oldest son was murdered by the Beast in an undercover operation a few yrs back. Her obsession w/ vengeance against this drug lord has driven her to steamroll her remaining son, Matt, who has turned into a rigid dogmatist about the rules. He takes over as Sing's supervisor. There's constant tension between them over sticking to the ⚫&⚪ script, or doing the right thing (on paper) vs the thing that will actually work & bring about right results. Sound familiar, anyone? There's nothing new about the concept of child sacrifice to ensure success. Joshua pronounced a curse on the rebuilder of Jericho ("he shall lay its foundation w/ his firstborn, & w/ his youngest he shall set up its gates") that was later recorded as fulfilled. GRRM includes child sacrifice in the conclusion of A Dance w/ Dragons. In modern society people sacrifice their kids in more genteel, but equally destructive ways.

Sacrifice is a theme, but the #1 theme in TD is: Don't pi$$ off a woman too much. Madam goes off the rails in ep23! Let's just call ep23 ladies domnificent. "What does macho mean?" Sing gets this question after he told his daughter he used to not care about her mother as much as he should. He was too "macho" then. "Uhhh, macho means a bad guy," he responds. (The little girl playing Sing's daughter is utterly precious). Treating women (& others) w/ dignity is one of TD's worthiest themes.

Sing & detective "Happy Kok" are BROS. Yes, one of the characters goes by the nickname "Happy Kok". It's attributable to culture disconnect, & it's innocent. No matter how conservative you are, if that doesn't make you chuckle a tad, you probably have let your sense of humor dry up. What isn't happy, though, is how Madam did a number on him, too. Furthermore, the woman he fell in love w/ while undercover is being used up by mob bosses. He can't rescue her.

Some characters are oversimplified, like Benz Hui's smarmy Kan Sir, head of narcotics. He's waaaay out of line, making it too easy for the viewer to see what his character is. More subtlety would be better. Some vignettes & scenes are oversimplified as well. This watch, as a whole, is not. There's an educational benefit to watching: One of the baddies they are after has symphorophilia, or the love of disasters. Per Shortform, It's "a condition in which people find se×ual pleasure in witnessing an accident. In some cases, the condition has driven people to destructive acts." He also has paraphilia~> He's a freak, & se×ually gets off on dark stuff.

"Am I a cop or a thief? Sometimes I can't even tell." We follow confidential informants & undercover cops. It gets a little fuzzy telling the difference due to the translation. It seems that that criminals/informants can become part of the force. To a certain extent, the viewer has to ride along w/ it. Things aren't 100% parallel to Western ways. In the show, the word "defected" is used to describe confidential informants who have gone rogue. They "can do anything," Sing says. They are the "worst criminals." After a mission that might be deemed a success, but for the tremendous casualties, Sing's focus shifts to Bingo. Sing believes he has correctly pieced together what went wrong & believes Bingo is responsible. His mission becomes: Finding Bingo. He doesn't know that all of Bingo's wrongdoings were ordered by Madam.

Crime, & fighting crime, is shown as a bitter war of attrition. More in the world of crime than the world of law enforcement, Bingo finds himself forced one day to explain to an 11 yr old girl that her father is dead, his body won't be claimed, therefore he'll be cremated & labeled "unclaimed remains" & buried in an unmarked grave. She needs to mentally prepare herself b/c there will be nowhere to go to mourn her father. It's a powerful scene. The outcast cops end up forming a motley crew. "Between cop & criminal, see if there is another option," Bingo pleads. "I thought I would be receiving flowers from him, but here I am the one buying the flowers." Just after a man confesses his love to a woman, after she waited for so long, she has to bury him. The show starts to break our 💕.

Based on a true story, considering the population of Hong Kong (7.346M) this is an impressive production. The budget betrays itself most w/ the sound quality, which is very 20th century. Once the viewer gets to the last third of the show, s/he has to remind h/hself that this is based on actual events. It gets pretty outrageous. Viewers might think they have an idea of the way the show will go, but there's a plot shift 1/6 of the way in. As the show goes on, the action ramps up & it gets exciting.

This was my 2nd Hong Kong show. Both, though VG, have a coldness. It's too early to tell if that's reflective of the culture. Still fairly new to (& very much enthralled w/) East Asian dramas in general, it's weirdly reassuring to see that fundamental human behavior is the same world-wide. Characters who are noble, angry, shifty, & happy are no different at the world's antipodes, but for nominal cultural differences. Sarcasm, love, hatred, joy, & rage look largely the same there as they do here. A mother sobs when she loses her son in Hong Kong the same way she would in New Jersey. Couples bicker the same way too. "Madam" is the perfect queen b!+ch / toxic mother on a crusade for revenge. We root for Bingo (Philip Keung). Some of us have keenly felt the tug-of-war between work & family time, like Sing. The "Beast" looks authentic, not overdone. The girl informant defrosts our hearts & Loony... well, we've all seen terminators depicted on screen before... there aren't many of him, thankfully. As if Loony isn't entertaining enough, Yeung Chiu-hoi is superb as triad psycho, Kong Ching-lung. The acting is truly excellent. All the elements are well done. It's a worthy story told in a worthy way. This is SO worth it!

〰🖍 IMHO

📣8.2 📝8.5 🎭8.5 💓5 🦋3 🎨6 🎵/🔊6 🔚8.5 ♦ 🌞5 ⚡8,2 😅2 😭7 😱5 😯5 😖3 🤔7 💤0

Age 15+ violence, scary, adult situations

Re-📺? I wouldn't hesitate to show this to someone else

Recs:A Beautiful Life-7.4, K2-8.

My first time (I believe) watching an action and police procedural tv show from Hong Kong. Quite an amazing show it was!

The different dialogue's totally fit the character's who uttered them. As I progressed bit by bit through the show, I could feel my liking for certain characters building all the time, as well as my hatred for other characters. I was silently cheering and praying for the main character, Sheung Sing, who had been horrifically wounded with a bullet to the head, but miraculously survived. Now, as he battles this memory, he has a lot more on his plate, including, catching "The Commander" and his crew, who were responsible for his injury, be around more for his little daughter and wife, and, keep an eye on, and expose the inner ambition and selfishness of Man Hei-wah, the Assistant Commissioner, who is stopping at nothing to have her way, and become the leader Commissioner.

I especially loved all the stunts and action! All the car flips, crashes, and explosions were so lifelike and realistic! In the final episode, the stunts were so epic, I was holding my breath, crossing my fingers, and cheering the heroes on, in their final confrontation with The Commander.

The Defected will show you the struggles of keeping authority, law, and power in the right hands, and using them in the best way, for the greater good of the city, its people, and for you and your workers. Check it out on Netflix or Tubi!