[Rating: 7/10]

Genre: suspense, drama

Narita is a young aspiring lawyer whose world turns upside down when he is framed for the murder of his boss and mentor. The series depicts his adventures while on the run and his race to find the real criminal, and the lives of the people he touches along the way.

This series is one that is full of constant action in the sense that Narita is always moving. There is quite a lot of information to remember as each episode builds up to the next and nearly everything is related. Also later on it turns from a standard murder mystery into a political one as the world of politics converges into it, throwing even more information at the viewer. Yet it while heavier than other mystery jdramas I’ve seen, the pace was pretty decent, albeit a little long drawn at times, especially in the first half when everyone’s trying to figure out what the heck happened. Narita isn’t too naive and idealistic which made him likeable, and the twists are well executed. I was thrown off with a couple of the characters’ real motives and while I talk about this actor alot, Kitamura Kazuki really took the show on a ride; this man plays morally ambiguous characters really well, and the big reveal with his character at the end surprised me. What I found rather unbelievable was the female lead instantly believable that  Narita as the culprit as  she seemed fond of him, and considering Narita’s relationship with her father and family. Also I think the information given to the viewers could have been spread out more evenly rather than rushing everything in the last couple of episodes, as opposed to the ample amount of time of Narita helping the people he met while on the run.

While I’ve seen better mystery series, the twists and suspense in this one kept it riveting. It would suit someone who wants to try a darker and more serious law show.

State of Play

[Rating: 8.5/1o]

Genre: Political Thriller

Many were stunned when Congressman Stephen Collins displays a sudden fit of emotion on public tv regarding the death of his lead researcher, Sonia. It turns out that the congressman had been having an affair with her. Collins enlists his old friend Cal McAffrey,  a reporter, to assist him with investigating her death, and it is slowly revealed that Sonia’s death was linked to something bigger and more sinister than anyone could have imagined.

Wow. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a political thriller, and even longer since I’ve watched a thriller that totally captivated me from start to end, and not just in a ‘I want to see what happens’ way. Here we have a pretty powerful cast, and admittedly they were much better than I thought they would be. My favourite characters were Congressman Collins, Della Frye (the blogging reporter assistant McAffrey) and Cameron Lynne (the iron-fisted editor of the Washington Globe).  Collins, despite what he had done still managed to be sympathetic – for once I’d say it wasn’t really the guy’s fault for the affair – and I have a new found respect for Ben Affleck who carried out the role with unexpected finesse. I have been an Affleck fan for awhile, but was a little doubtful about him playing this edgier and meatier role… oh well, I’d say this movie, coupled with his performance in He’s Just Not That Into You made a strong comeback for him this year. And Della Frye was also a rather likeable character, she’s focused and driven and thankfully wasn’t cast as the annoying assistant. It was nice to see that there was someone to represent the world of blog reporting. And Helen Mirren was just delightful to watch. She has this understated presence and her character, Lynne had this dry straightforwardness, which held me from the moment she compared the pros of hiring Frye to McAffrey (she said something about Frye being cheaper but able to churnout new content every hour). In this show, characters are neither absolutely good or bad, which made it all themore enjoyable. Recently I seem to be liking shows with characters like these.

Also the show was not too long-winded and the action/dialogue scenes were well balanced, which something I find rare in political shows – the dialogue/political bits tend to be complicating, dry and wordy for me, but I didn’t have much trouble understanding what was going on in State of Play. The interesting twist at the end was good, even though it left me a little sad. Something else that held my attention, was that despite the main story being political thriller, it was also very much an insight into the process of publishing a newspaper article, from the first sparks of idea to the final product getting churned out by printing press machines. I wonder if that was deliberate, or if it’s it’s just me who thinks that. Anyhow, it was interesting since I just did a course on publishing and editing. The story also raised a bunch of interesting ethical issues about how decisions are made as to what goes into the article and how a investigations should be carried out.

A solid, well-paced political thriller that isn’t too heavy on the politics and can be enjoyed by the general mystery fan as well.

Team Batista no Eiko

[Rating: 8/10]

Genre: Medical Drama, Suspense

Taguchi Kohei, a bumbling doctor is sent to investigate a string of mysterious deaths that revolve around a reputable team of surgeons who perform the highly-risky batista heart operations. Were the deaths simply due to natural causes or is there a murderer amongst the team? And can Guchi prevent his own growing sympathies towards the team from getting in the way of his investigation?

This show was rather intriguing. Unlike Iryu (Team Medical Dragon), there was more emphasis on individuals than that of promoting team spirit which was interesting to see for a change. If not for the main protagonist, the whole show would have a rather solmen air about it, so I think that it balanced out nicely. It focuses mainly on the investigation and the team with the rest of the hospitable barely appearing at all. The entire show was filled with twists that made me think and rethink the identity of the murderer, or perhaps there was no murdere at all and perhaps the operation only worked on children and not adults. And when the truths were revealed one by one, they weren’t anything like I expected, and the characters being ambiguous in their motives also added to the tensions. I thought the ambiguity of the characters made the show stand out from other medical shows I’ve seen. I wouldn’t say the cast was stellar but they played their parts well enough, definitely not sloppy at all. I can’t say that I like any character in particular but cast-wise, Nakamura Toru was awesome as Shiratori, I think he outshone Taguchi Kohei  even though the latter is the main character. A notable role would have to be Shirota Yu as Himuro the Anaesthetician (did I spell that correctly?), I did pity the guy despite what he did, the scene of him eating with Guchi’s family just gave me the warm fuzzies. He did not deserve to get offed like that, but what can I can, karma comes back with a vengence. Personally I feel that was Shirota’s best performance to date, followed by his portrayal of Mariya in the detective drama Koshonin, he plays the misunderstood, underappreciated character pretty well. Team Batista no Eiko is definitely interesting and original compared to the more popular medical series, but it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.