The Knockout

It opens in 2000. Gao Qiqiang (高启强) is a fishmonger with a market stall, bullied by local gangsters. That year he crosses paths with An Xin (安欣), a young police officer in Jinghai (京海) and the foster son of a senior police official. Their relationship over two decades is the show's spine.

The two men are built as opposites. Gao's path goes up: each rung brings a protector, a partner or a marriage, and he keeps becoming someone new. An Xin's path goes sideways: an incorruptible policeman whose postings do not help him build a case, and who stays the person he was in 2000. The show keeps them in each other's line of sight. The closing stretch is set in 2021, when a project team is formed to investigate Gao's company, Qiangsheng Group (强盛集团).

The drama jumps forward in stages, with main points in 2000, 2006 and 2021 and a further stop in 2014. At each stop the people change, and so does the city; nobody in Jinghai changes alone. The fictional city sits against China's campaign against organised crime, known as saohei chu'e (扫黑除恶, "sweep away gangs and eliminate evil").

Xu Jizhou (徐纪周) directed it and wrote it with Zhu Junyi (朱俊懿); a novel version of the script has also been published. Zhang Songwen (张颂文), who plays Gao, was 46 and not a household name when it aired. This was his breakout, and the role asks one man to play both the early fishmonger and the later chairman.

Reception was strong. By late January 2023 more than 120,000 people had rated it on Douban (豆瓣), China's main user-review site, averaging 9.0, and it settled at 9.0 by the finale. At the Magnolia Awards (白玉兰奖) the drama, Xu Jizhou and Zhang Yi were nominated for best drama, director and actor; it won none.