Judge Dee’s Mystery

Netflix is now showing a Chinese TV series called Judge Dee’s Mystery. It's based on the 18th century detective tales that come to us English speakers as Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, which I read back in 2012.

I have only watched the first episode and found it to be a lot of fun. It takes place during the Tang Dynasty, I believe, but I am unsure of the exact year. The Tang Dynasty lasted from the 7th until the 10th century so there's a big time frame here. Our hero, Di Renjie, was a real Chinese magistrate who lived in the 7th century so perhaps that's when it takes place.

So far he has demonstrated some superior fighting skills as well as a preternatural ability to observe his surroundings a la Sherlock Holmes. There is a trio of sidekicks and we've had a small dose of supernatural wuxia. Lots of Steadicam and/or crane work as there is an abundance of smooth camera movement around the big sets. I think each mystery takes 3 or 4 episodes to solve so I have barely dipped a toe in the water.