I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED SEASON 2 OF DANGER ZONE!! It really should not have taken me this long BUT HERE WE ARE! This also means that you FINALLY are getting a drama review for Season 2. This should have really been written and released in 2021 but HEY, at least I am releasing it now. Have you read my review of Danger Zone Season 1? Well, if you have not read that review, HERE is where you can find it.
*Now as per usual with any review I write, I will not be including any spoilers in this review.*
A QUICK SYNOPSIS OF DANGER ZONE SEASON 2 - The continuation of Season 1 where the cops are still working with a criminal to solve a serial case but also this season explores the mysteries and questions that surrounds the main characters' lives and pasts as well.
Overall, I liked this drama. I will say I liked Season 1 more than Season 2. Season 2 did air right after Season 1 ended so I think if I had kept up with this drama and didn't get distracted, I would have liked it more. Since it took me so long to finish Season 2 of this drama and there were long pauses between watching the episodes, it affected how I felt about Season 2. What I loved in Season 1 I still liked a lot in Season, overall.
WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THIS DRAMA
THE ACTING - A highlight for me in Season 1 was the acting. It is the same for Season 2. The cast whether they were in Season 1 or were new additions in Season 2 were still amazing. THEIR ACTING WAS A JOY TO WATCH! There were more emotional scenes where the cast got to show their wide range of talents. I always like when a drama provides scenes and a story that can test the actors and give them moments to stretch their acting abilities and really show them off. Season 2 again shows that the cast and production supported and cared about what they were putting out in the drama.
THE OSTs - I loved the OSTs just as much in Season 2 as I did in Season 1. I can get really attached to a drama's OST and I can tell I am going to be listening to both Season 1 and 2 of Danger Zone's OST for AWHILE! I love that it is different from other dramas. I tend to find with crime dramas from whatever country it is from, the drama experiments more the with OSTs. Maybe adding more rapping or rock sounds or guitars. The OSTs are grittier and reflect what the crime dramas are about. Danger Zone OSTs are the same way. This is probably why I love them so much.
FOUND FAMILY - I think this Season had more of a found family than Season 1 which I liked a lot. I am a sucker for the Found Family trope, and you do see this a lot in crime dramas. You have a team of cops who are together all the time and work together and then go out after work and drink together. This group of cops' families all know each other because they have worked together for a long time. It is only natural that this group of cops would be a found family. The characters who aren't cops even had their own little found family because they worked together to figure out certain mysteries in the drama. I just loved watching these characters work together and hangout together.
THE PRODUCTION - Just like Season 1, The production of Season 2 was TOP NOTCH! The quality of this drama just stands out. I hope iQIYI makes more Taiwanese dramas because if they all look like this, I will watch all of them. Again, Season 2 played with color grading and cinematography. The cinematography and color grading were character based again. I felt that when the villains/bad guys were on screen, both were done a certain way versus when a good guy was on screen. Sometimes the cinematography and color grading even changed if that character perceived themselves as a good or bad guy. It was really interesting to watch and see play out. I again in my Season 2 watch thread tweeted multiple times how much I loved the camera angles and cinematography of this season.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
FLOW OF STORY - I felt like something was missing in Season 2. I thought the flow of the story was off. Sometimes it was moving just fine and then something would happen and I would ask myself, why did the writers tell the story this way? Now, this might be because it took me so long to finish Season 2. I had a long pause between when I started the drama and finally finished it. That might have affected my momentum with watching this drama. I did find myself getting bored with some scenes in the drama. I just think the flow was lost in Season 2 and I don't know if Danger Zone would have just not done seasons and made it one long drama would have helped or not because it did air back-to-back. I will say though, even though the flow might have been off with Season 2, the drama still had SOME GREAT twists and turns in the story.
BROMANCE - With Season 1, one of the best things was the evolving bromance between the characters Liang Yan Dong (played by Vic Chou) and Ren Fei (played by Berant Zhu). In Season 2, it just came to a SCREECHING halt for a good portion of the first part of this drama. I understood why the bromance and relationship took this turn and why the characters chose to do the actions that they did in the story. That doesn't mean I was happy with the writers' decision to write the story that way. The characters were essentially avoiding each other for a good part of Season 2 and another character even called them out on it, which was quite amusing. Again, I understand why the story took this direction, but I wanted the see these 2 characters work together more, not less.
PLOT POINTS - While I did feel that we got a satisfactory ending and all the plot points were tied together and had a good ending, I wanted more. This drama actually has a really sweet ending which I liked a lot. Some of the plot points I wanted more of an emotional connection and conclusion. I also seemed to miss some of the conclusions because the drama seemed to pass over them. The drama concluded it but because these plot points were just wrapped up with one conversation and/or thought and I was assuming it was going to have a more emotional reaction, I didn't realize that conversation or thought was the resolution of that characters' story or the end of that plot point until later. I just would have done some of these scenes differently but maybe this is me being selfish. 😂
Rating: 8/10 (Streaming on iQIYI now)
If you are curious about my reaction to the drama IN REAL TIME - here is my tweets/watch thread for the drama
AND THAT IS MY REVIEW OF DANGER ZONE S2!! Did you watch Danger Zone Season 1? Did you watch Danger Zone Season 2? What did you think of the drama? Is it on your list to watch? Will you watch this drama (both seasons) now after reading my review?
WE NOW ALSO HAVE A DISCORD SO TALK TO US ON THERE AS WELL!?