Lighthearted, Witty Republican Era Detective Drama (with beautiful costumes)

Overall, great drama - characters, acting, and cases are all very interesting. It's a fun, light-hearted detective drama set in Shanghai during the Republican Era. Highly recommend if you're looking for a drama with a good story and acting that's not too serious. What I really like about this drama is that it has a more mature undertone against the overall lighthearted, fun vibes - the director did a nice job here. I often find that lighthearted dramas sometimes end up being too childish or immature. I just want to smack some reality into those characters. Here, the characters are more mature. Though the Miss S (FL) is flirtatious and witty, she has her life together. Detective Tan (ML) is also a smart, serious, and hardworking professional. Though there is romance, FL and ML are not running around like teenagers obsessed with love. Note - romance is not the main focus of this drama. There are cute scenes, but this is primarily a detective drama. See below for more details and a brief comparison with other detective dramas.

Acting
Ma Yi Li (FL) and Gao Wei Guang (ML) are terrific. It's so fun watching their interactions. Ma Yi Li plays the witty, flirtatious, and beautiful Miss S. It took me a few episodes to get used to this character because of her lasting impression as Zi Jun in First Half of My Life. Gao Wei Guang's acting has improved a lot since Ten Miles Peach Blossom, and his more serious personality is a nice contrast to FL's. Second leads are also great. They are cute, less mature, but fun. I'm impressed by the number of extras that they have for this drama.

Costumes
AMAZING. FL's outfits are stunning - she has beautiful qi paos (traditional attire) and Western formal wear. Ma Yi Li's outfits are amazing. I don't think I realized how beautiful she is until this drama. ML has sleek attire as well. I would say there not as eye catching as FL's, but then again, Gao Wei Guang looks good in anything.

Story
Interesting overarching story with romance. You learn very early on what the overarching story is and get fed bits and pieces as the drama progresses. The last episode wraps everything up, and I think they did relatively good pacing towards the end. It's a little rushed at the end, but not that bad. Ending is plausible. I wonder if there's a season 2...Regarding the romance mentioned earlier - romance is nicely incorporated but not overpowering either. FL and ML are so fun to watch. I would say that don't watch this drama just for romance. At the end of the day, this is a detective/ crime drama.

Opportunities ("Cons")
- Case complexity: I thought the cases overall tend to be a bit too complex. There was one case that completely did not make sense to me (granted I'm watching raw and Chinese is a 2nd language...). The positive side of complex cases, is that you can't really figure out who the actual criminal is early on. This keeps the case interesting. However, sometimes I find they are unnecessarily overcomplex. It doesn't necessarily give the vibe of 'draggy' but more of unnecessary.
- Music: I found this a bit weird, but most the memorable songs are in English...not sure why this bothers me a little. I give them kudos for finding English singers without an accent. My biggest pet peeve is when they find people to sing English songs but have heavy accents - might as well just use Chinese lyrics instead.

Detective Drama Comparisons (also recommendations if you liked Miss S)
1. My Roommate is a Detective (MRIAD): both are Republic era dramas set in Shanghai. I prefer Miss S 100xs over MRIAD - the only reason I didn't drop MRIAD is because I got really bored during quarantine. Leon Zhang was the saving grace of that drama. FL drove me nuts - she's so immature, noisy, and unreasonable. I almost dropped it because I couldn't stand her bickering. Also, the cases there were too simple. Once you figure out the pattern, you can easily figure out who the criminal is early on. The ending was also too rushed in my opinion.
2. When a Snail Falls in Love (WASFIL): both are detective stories and I think the balance of detective/ crime story vs romance is similar. Romance in both isn't overpowering but a secondary theme. I like both Miss S and WASFIL - hard to choose with is better. WASFIL is more mature than Miss S - I feel like it's a bit heavier, probably because of the types of cases they deal with.
3. Love Me If You Dare (LMIYD): Miss S is much more lighthearted and fun that LMIYD. Don't get me wrong, LMIYD is a really good drama (Wallace Huo is fantastic!). However, it's a bit heavy and has elements of a thriller drama. There are a few parts that are a little disturbing - not to the extend of Criminal Minds, but it's not lighthearted stuff either. Would recommend LMIYD if you're looking for a good detective drama and you know what you're getting yourself into (aka watch the trailer first).

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Historic Drama with Fresh Story

Pleasantly surprised with this drama due to its solid storyline. I feel that many historical dramas have very similar storylines - either love story between a prince and commoner/outsider, uncovering court intrigue, or power struggle to inherit or usurp the throne. This drama had a fresh spin on these storylines. You can get a sense of where the story is heading, but can't really predict the details. There was also a solid ending, which I feel like I can't say for many historic dramas. There aren't many loose strings, and I feel like almost every character gets a satisfactory ending (note - I'm not implying happy or sad with satisfactory. I mean that I feel that the ending does the characters and story justice). Highly recommend this drama.

Strengths:
1. Storyline - see above. Also, I don't think drama is super draggy either. I did skip through a lot of the antagonists' scheming, but mostly because I really wanted to know what twists they were going to put in the story.
2. Bai Lu's acting - she does an amazing job balancing serious vs light-hearted matters.
3. Secondary characters' acting - Zhao Wang, Xiao Qin, Yan Bin, Tai Hou, etc are all really good. They're pretty funny and lovable.

Some aspects that I would warn about:
1. Male lead's acting (Lai Yi) takes a little getting used to...he's a good actor, don't get me wrong, but I don't think he's used to having a lead role. Bai Lu is such a strong actress, that when his acting is juxtaposed with her's, it falls a little short. I do think his acting is a lot better the second half of the drama, where his character becomes more open and less rigid. I know some people are turned off by his acting, but I would encourage you to give this drama a try. I do think it's worth it.
2. Music is subpar. I think I've been spoiled by beautiful OSTs from this year's dramas (e.g., Go Ahead, Love & Redemption, Eternal Love of Dreams/ Pillow Book). The music that do have is pretty good, but I think there are only ~3 songs
3. Not exactly related to the drama, but I would NOT recommend watching episode previews (especially the ones from Tencent). They totally give away the entire story...grrr regret watching those.

TLDR: highly recommend this drama because of its fresh storyline and lighthearted, comedic nature.Please don't be dissuaded with an 8.0 rating...I'm pretty conservative with ratings. 10.0 is Nirvana in Fire level, 9.0 is anything close to NIF but a bit short.

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