Everytime I'm watching a mediocre police show like Zettai Reido, I keep thinking about Rinjo. It was the one cop show that did procedures really well and didn't go to far with melodrama. It didn't have an oversized team of useless characters but rather concentrated on a small team of 3. Rinjo does so many things right that I must have underrated the series last year because of my expectations from Gonzo. Rinjo can never be Gonzo because every episode stands alone and there is no big mystery in the background.
Sadly, Rinjo 2 is has not been fansubbed so I had to fall back on horrible HK subs. Good news is that the subs are not as bad as the ones in Keishicho Shissonin Sosaka. I didn't have much trouble understanding the cases. Uchino Masaaki is back Kuraishi, the super police coroner who always solves murder cases for the investigation team but gets no credit. He has a slightly cocky air about him but that's because he is the best at what he does. Kuraishi also has the tendency to not let his colleagues and thus the viewers know who he actually suspects as we see him go around collecting clues.This makes the dorama more fun because you can try to determine the criminal based on what Kuraishi does.
Takashima Masanobu is Tachihara, the leader of the investigation teams who always gets angry with Kuraishi's antics despite Kuraishi's track record. I think its a case of professional jealousy as he always acts upon Kuraishi's discoveries. I just accept it as a plot necessity. Kuraishi needs some sort of antagonist in the police though Tachihara now shares that job with the new police chief who just wants results.
Kosaka and Ichinose are back and they get their own personal episodes. So is Kuraishi's ex sister in law though she only serves no other purpose than time filler and serving drinks. The first two episodes is a really good two-parter murder mystery to get thing going. The overall quality of the stories is pretty strong except there's too much of a tendency to have Kuraishi deliver long lectures at the end, especially in the first half of the series. There's one lecture he gives to the mother of a dead son that just gets way too repetitive. Otherwise, I have no complaints.
My favourite episode is ep 9 which is about a homeless guy. The story is sort of similar to Suspect X but it doesn't feel like a copycat and gives a human face to the seemingly result orientated police chief. Another thing of note about Rinjo 2 is that it has an incredible array of guest actors. Note actors and not guest stars. Usually they are hot MILFs but wow, what a difference good guest actors make to a series as apposed to most idol based doramas where its more about getting famous faces to rather than making the story believable and real.
Really awesome series and if you enjoyed Rinjo, this is a must watch though I'd recommend not watching the whole thing in one go like I did which sort of diminished the impact of the individual episodes.
I sort of dismissed the 2nd season because the first season is actually based on a series of short novels by a famous mystery writer, and he only wrote 8 of them. I may check out season 2 when I have time, since I think it ended up being the highest rated show of last season (even out rated Fuji's getsu 9 drama Moon Lovers).
ReplyDeleteBTW, this season's JOKER is one of the better written Japanese cop-shows I've seen in a while (albeit only after watching 2 episodes) and certainly blow last season's Zettai Reido away.
If there were Justice in this world, every dorama last season should have outrated the horrible Moon Lovers and Rinjo 2 would have been fansubbed.
ReplyDeleteI believe no one's subbing Joker though.