It has been a while since I watched the first season of Double Cheat. A reskinned version of Kurosagi for an older audience about a police officer who scams the scammers. I had forgotten a lot of the first season by TV Tokyo but I remember the premise and I remember the ending.
Season 2 continues where season 1 left off but the main character is now this scammer Tago Yuto played by Ichihara Hayato who has just been released from jail. Tago does a job for this scammer Kizaki who runs scams on behalf of this mastermind called Kaito Shu. Tago convinces Kizaki to make him his partner and together they do a way too obvious pyramid scam.
At this point I am wondering why should I care about this random bad guy character while I try to remember what happened in season 1. Luckily the episodes are rather short at 25 minutes so I kept going and the show got more interesting as Tago's plan is slowly revealed.
Season 2 got better in the second half and Ichihara Hayato's character turned out to be the most interesting character in the end. After Octo, I am just happy to have a decent police show, though I would say Double Cheat is more of a scam show.
Just an observation but it was obvious that Double Cheat did not have much of a budget despite being a TV Tokyo and WOWOW collaboration. Scam shows are cheaper than your typical police show to shoot because it is less action and more planning. I am all for collaboration so tv networks can share the cost and tell good stories.
The weakness of season 2 are the same as season 1. Uchida Rio is not the most convincing detective but I guess no one can be as unconvincing as Ueto Aya. In season 1 they had Uchida Rio finishing her calculations asap so she could do investigating but that is forgotten in season 2. Same with S1, you have to turn off your brain a bit for the show to work.
Season 2 of Double Cheat starts out slow but keeps getting better. Thanks to Edward Wong for subbing and I got the raws from his public server. Double Cheat on the whole is a watchable show especially if you like stories about scams and dislike Kurosagi like me but it takes a while to get interesting.