REVIEW: ‘GG Precinct’ Is A Hilarious Fun Time

With the arrival of GG Precinct, fans of Marry My Dead Body rejoice! Featuring the return of Wu Ming-han (Greg Hsu), Lin Tzu-ching (Gingle Wang), Chang Yung-kang (Ma Nien-hsien), and Chubby (Flower Chen), our favorite, slightly incompetent team of detectives is back in this spinoff series. This time, they are plunged into a series of murders with one common thread – Chinese idioms, aka chenyu. At just six episodes long, this comedic series is a breeze, and the future of this squad is bright despite their lack of smarts.

Not too long after the events of Marry My Dead Body, Ming-han is back in fighting shape and as rude as ever. Unfortunately for his fragile male ego, he is immediately smacked in the face with the news that Tzu-ching is now his superior. After her success in their last case, she was promoted. Much of the tension from the beginning is centered around these two, with Ming-han’s misogyny and Tzu-ching’s stubbornness butting heads.

Crime waits for no one, and a strange murder case lures the chaotic precinct of detectives into its web. Inspired by an idiom gone wrong, it’s not long before another murder in the same vein crops up. The cases remind Yung-kang of a similar case he worked on 20 years prior with the infamous Chinese Idiom Killer (Tai Chih-yuan/Tony Yang). With the GG Precinct struggling to figure out the idioms used, solving the cases seems hopeless.

Left with nowhere else to turn to for help, Tzu-ching collaborates with the convicted killer, leading to more questions than answers. At the heart of it all, his wisdom opens doors and reveals uncomfortable truths. And for the bickering crime-fighting duo, they have to learn to work together before more dead bodies pop up. This comes into focus when one of their own gets taken.

Much like Marry My Dead Body, GG Precinct excels in its impeccable comedic timing. The cast members, both new and old, work well together in this world created by writer/director Cheng Wei-hao. New cast members Lulu Huang, Ng Ki-pin, and Da-her Lin get their moments to shine as the newcomers in GG Precinct. Despite this, there’s not too much time spent developing these newcomers, leaving them as thinly sketched-out archetypes.

In GG Precinct, more time is spent fleshing out Tzu-ching, but not by much. Gingle Wang still plays the character as the straight-man type, but someone has to be on the team. When no one on the staff takes things seriously, it’s no wonder Tzu-ching got promoted. If you’re looking for a character-driven series, GG Precinct won’t hit that spot.

GG Precinct works for fun comedy and face-palm inducing moments. The plot itself moves at a rapid pace, and things move up nicely. This is particularly surprising given the original eight-episode order the series had to start with. Wei-hao’s focus on plot over character development isn’t so bad of an issue when the actors nail the comedy. Regardless of where they land on the criminal spectrum, the characters are all so likable that it absolves any glaring sins that make themselves known. Well, almost.

The CGI elements continue struggle in this universe. The chase scenes and mad dash action moments are poorly executed to the point of being hilarious. It’s shockingly out of place. Thankfully, the lack of supernatural inclusion in GG Precinct keeps the CGI usage down to a minimum for the most part.

There’s also the admirable effort to touch upon important issues, but it’s questionable whether or not things are resolved entirely in the end. GG Precinct highlights Taiwan’s declining literacy rate, an all too relatable topic globally. The importance of imparting knowledge to the next generation resonates with the Chinese Idiom Killer filling that void for those within his periphery. While Tzu-ching and Ming-han seem to absorb his lessons, it’s hard to say how long they’ll stick.

In its new episodic format, GG Precinct easily builds on what was established in Marry My Dead Body. The pacing issues have been resolved, and the forward-bounding plot takes precedence. While there are still some issues with CGI and fleshing out the characters beyond their respective archetypes, GG Precinct is a wildly silly and entertaining fun watch.

GG Precinct is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.