Shadow Punisher

The story is set in the thirty-seventh year of the Hongyun era, in a fictional realm called the Great Shi dynasty (大世王朝). The court keeps an elite investigative office, the Divine Constable Bureau (神捕司, Shen Bu Si), to solve the strange cases ordinary magistrates cannot.

Li Si (黎斯), played by Luo Yunxi, is the court's Fourth Prince, long declared dead, who goes by the cover name Lord Qingyang (青阳公子). He gets himself into the bureau to find out what really happened behind his own faked death. His new colleagues have codenames by specialty: Meng Rui (蒙锐), the "ghost hunter" (鬼捕, gui bu); Bai Zhenzhu (白珍珠), the "frost hunter" (霜捕, shuang bu), a coroner; and the bureau chief Xuanyuan Shan (轩辕善).

Each arc is a self-contained case wrapped around a longer thread. The cases include puppets that kidnap children and a carved box said to predict the death of whoever sees it. Behind them stands a remnant of a fallen kingdom, Liluo (离罗), working toward something larger.

The series is adapted from a novel of the same name by Wang Ke (王珂).

Overseas reception is mixed to warm. Fans praise the lead pairing, the soundtrack and the cases. Doubts concern stiff acting, bright costumes that clash with the dark subject and a slow first two episodes. One viewer liked that the bureau chief, played by He Hongshan (何泓姗), is "a middle-aged female character that is not a wife, mother, concubine or servant".

As a rule of thumb, watch through episode six before you decide.