#i m crying about this show tonight i love it v muchTT

[potahun]

help whenever mxdzt posts from you popped up on my dash i assumed it was another acronym for like, a webnovel or donghua or something but i only just looked it up and learned it's a cvariety?? anyways please go ahead and pitch it to me/ramble if you want because i am intrigued

THANK YOU FOR ASKING AAAA <3 sobs a little bc mxdzt/明星大侦探 is so niche here but to be honest, i think it is one of my top comfort shows if not The comfort show and i usually feel very alien to the term 'comfort show'. it feels fair to say mxdzt is one tho TT

Concept:

It IS a variety show, you're right. It's like a reality show but mostly a murder-mystery show, initially co-hosted by CCTV presenter Sa Beining and the He Jiong, the He laoshi himself that everyone and their mothers know ...except, for once, they're not there hosting as the top MCs they are. They, and the guests, 85% of which soon became regulars, are playing a murder-mystery game. Each episode, each of the guests embody a character within a story, and a murder (or several) happens, that the players have to solve together. Among them hides the murderer (or several), who is the only player allowed to lie, and whom the other players have to try and vote out at the end. Also among them, one player will be the Detective, who has an extra vote, and has to act as a leader of the good guys.

(Side note: From S4 onwards, there is also a Detective Assistant, who's basically a smart non-celebrity helping to take notes, sometimes having a minor role to move the plot along...In time, the team of Detective Assistants have gotten their own spin-off show called 名侦探学院, because they're a riot (Xiao Pu is my favorite))

It's almost jarring the 1st time you watch it if you know them as celebrities, because the show starts and they're in-character right off the bat. They break in and out of character, sometimes to laugh their heads off, but mostly, they act a role with different levels of seriousness throughout the episode, so it's a very different vibe from regular c-varieties where they're themselves :D At the same time, it's clearly a reality show in which those people are extremely familiar, casual and silly with each other. Players often refer to each other only by their last names in the show for this reason, so that it refers to both player and character.

So yeah, there is 开始推理吧 with Zhou Shen and Liu Yuning, and there is MXDZT, which is its still enduring predecessor. mxdzt is pure murder-mystery without the escape room element. But it does have a lot of times where the guests are really pulled into the story, and events happen in-game, moving the story along. And oh boy, those are intense stories sometimes...

General facts:

Each season has 12 episodes, and there are currently 9 seasons. Most episodes are stand alone, even when verses are recurring, it's fine to watch them out-of-order. S8 is the only exception where it introduced a central character and a story that tied half the season together (TT<3). Another exception is the season starters and finales (eps 1-2 and 11-12 of each season) which tend to be stories in two parts with a deeper mystery behind the setting.

From S1 to S6, Sa Beining and He Jiong were the main hosts, with regulars being the likes of Zhang Ruoyun, Da Zhangwei, Wei Daxun, Bai Jingting, Wang Ou, Yang Rong, Gui Gui, Wei Chen and Liu Haoran. After S6, Sa Beining left due to CCTV not allowing him to work in other channels' shows :( but more regulars returned or joined, like Wu Xin, Qi Wei...An array of people I didn't know much before watching but all grew to love.

The show functions using rounds of group discussions and evidence-searching time, and then final votes, to get to the murderer and reveal the story. Players will not speak about themselves unless triggered by the right evidence, but once evidence is found, they cannot lie about it...unless they're the murderer.

Charm points?

The stories...While S1 was still simple, MXDZT evolved rapidly over time and by S4-S5 became a mammoth of story-telling, creatively exploring a whole range of themes like smiling depression, societal obsession with beauty and its tragedies, toxic masculinity, generational conflicts and reconciliations in families, mob mentality, the danger of cults, and the individuality of thoughts vs collectivity etc etc...in more and more depth, through intricate stories with memorable characters and great delivery and wild plot twists. There are always clever ways in which something will trigger a character story, mixing story and gameplay, and it helps that most of the players are actors: sometimes, they do get invested in their own characters! The range of acting goes from exaggeratedly bad for laughs to heartwrenching and elegantly grave. You thought it was a donghua I was babbling about for that reason in part, bc it's as much variety as it is about stories TT The show reuses its verses sometimes, too, so it's always a pleasure to see the running gags or the expanding lore.

The laughs. As the seasons progress, the show did go from a simple game to building real poignant, and deep stories with a message, some of which have made me cry ;~; BUT all the while being an absolute laugh-riot full of Ace Attorney-style names (pianist called Zhen Huitan? sketchy doctors called You Maobing? a man called He Baodan?) and so many PUNS and jokes and a loving post-prod that is so good at putting the right captions and effects. Not only this, but the show is not afraid of swerving back-and-forth between outright crack and the most touching storyline. Emotional whiplash is a big thing in the show. But when it's funny, god, it's FUNNY. and it is So often funny...

Cast. As mentioned, most of the cast rapidly became regulars. The show requires a lot of IQ, focus, thinking and also relative eloquence, and just a set of skills that isn't for all celebrities tbh. So those who stayed did for a long time, and grew comfortable with each other. I rarely watch a variety in which the cast has so much chemistry and are so chill with each other. They casually ship each other (so many ships), poke fun, develop their inside jokes... He Jiong x Sa Beining alone was the epitome of a self-proclaimed married-and-divorced-and-remarried-and-re-divorced miracle. It's also difficult to explain before watching but it's a very refreshing feeling to watch them slip in and out of character, giving this seamless mix of players being themselves, and also a character within a story and a fictional universe.

Gameplay! You can solve murder too as you watch! You can figure it out along with the players. But if you don't want to, you can just watch and wait for it to unfold! Both are ok!

Freedom to cherry-pick: While 9 seasons can be daunting and the episodes are Long TM, the show also makes it incredibly easy to watch out of order... or just watch the ones that intrigute you.

Episodes Recs:

IF you are a looking for an episode to start with, my rec is always S5E1 and S5E2, called Pianists on The Sea. You can skip the piano competition at the start of Ep1 (it's so incredibly cringe and lasts 10 mins. i love those idiots but it's so cringe). S5E1 is a murder-mystery as we know it taking place on a cruise, but what's wrong with the boat...and then S5E2 is just. oohhhhh my god. so much is wrong with the boat. The reason I pick this one is that it illustrates very well the kind of breadth the show has ;W;

Also, S6E1 and S6E2 Midnight Hotel which packs an absolute PUNCH.

I would recommend watching S6 as a whole, every ep is fun. Same with S8, which punches me in the gut again and again.

I also have my other rec lists here (with some explanation on the premise of eps recced) and here (i believe this was before S8 broke my heart (positive)) if ever helpful.

Voilà, here is my rambling for MXDZT, thank you for giving me the opportunity to babble about it <3 I haven't encompassed everything that makes this show wild and incredible, but it has to be lived. One thing is for sure though:

MXDZT is a show in which anything, and i mean literally anything, can happen.

And it's beautiful <3