*outline*
Honestly, I didn't know what I was expecting when I first began the drama. I felt like it was going to be way too concentrated on crime, yeah, but I didn't expect THAT kind of crime. It was just stories within stories and it was all so confusing that I had to keep bullet-pointing the story at whatever faces they were linked to. But I regret nothing. That was actually the most interesting part - after the ships.


*analysis*
STORY : Every HIStory drama has a moral it teaches us and is most definitely unique. You don't expect what's coming for you, and this one definitely kept up to the mark. This particular one explored the feeling of love and belonging. The pacing was brilliant. I feel no scene got wasted throughout the whole series, maybe a few here and there but those just explained emotions and backstories a little more to get the gist of what was happening and why. The episode length fed to my needs. I always try to look for shorter episodes so that I can finish off the drama to my own pace. Usually longer episodes bore me easily because I feel the director is just trying to long out the drama for no reason. And I mean this generally. The love scenes were the best; whether they were confessions or rejections. I loved all the ships and this is probably the first drama I've ever watched where I felt the ships were perfect and I was excited for every couple moment.

STORY / ACTING : Jake Hsu's acting in the beginning just seemed a little too far-stretched, like an amateur's would be. Every movement, every line, everything would just be over-exaggerated. But his acting got way better after the first, maybe, 3 episodes so that's why I didn't rate it too low. Chris Wu had his moments too but- actually, it was only one moment... But all the secondary actors performed exceptionally well. I never came across any secondary character where I thought "oof calm down" or "okay no, that would never happen and we both know that". It was a real boomer I had to feel this way with one of the male leads honestly, but it really does stop after the first few episodes.

MUSIC : Okay, so I watched this drama on YouTube by BL Everywhere. And there were around three long intervals of unrelated music so there were moments I couldn't hear the genuine track in the drama. But overall I found that all the tracks were decent; not exactly the type of music I'd listen to, however. Despite all that, the reason I rated it so high is because the tracks were played beautifully and at the perfect moments throughout the whole drama.

REWATCH VALUE : To be honest, I do see myself coming back to it because it's an easy watch that I could complete in a day if I ever felt like binge-watching a BL. This has to be one of few I'd put at the top as priority. I even binge-watched it last night and got no sleep, knowing fully well I had school to attend to today. Major oof because now my eyes keep closing.


*recommendations*
I would definitely recommend this to a friend, especially if they want a little bit of everything - genre wise. There's crime, action, mystery, and it also gives off a few thrill vibes here and there because of the dark aura of crime the drama is practically drenched in.
If you'd already watched this, then I'd recommend watching the rest of the HIStory dramas, especially 'Crossing the Line'. These two are now my favourite HIStory's.