Million-Follower Detective 2026 Tv Show Review
Apart from its tentpole IPs like Stranger Things, Emily in Paris, Squid Game, Wednesday, Bridgerton, and Monster, the crime genre is clearly Netflix’s bread and butter. I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment when this obsession started, but, yeah, the streaming platform has cultivated such a dedicated audience that it can release the trashiest series or movies; as long as it’s set in some subgenre of crime, it’s going to be a hit. And the most obvious side effect of this phenomenon, much like every phenomenon in the world of entertainment, is the emergence of a formula, because that’s something that allows a factory to pump out a product in large quantities without really investing in the quality. You have some kind of a troubled detective in the role of the protagonist, the most unsuspecting person in the cast is the actual antagonist, there are a bunch of red herrings to stop you from figuring out the twist too early, and then everyone goes home happily ever after. Sure, some creators are allowed to toy around with this format, but most of them have to stick to the routine, because the producers are just too afraid to take a risk. Does Million-Follower Detective break the mold? Let’s find out.
Shaun Su’s Million-Follower Detective hits the ground running by having an influencer named Meng-Yen show up in front of a police station with a gun. Meng-Yen just stands there until he catches the attention of the police officers and they try to take him down. Well, Meng-Yen gets what he wished for, as Officer Chia-Jen discharges his weapon and shoots him in the chest. This altercation causes a massive crowd to gather, and as everyone is trying to figure out why such a popular influencer took such a reckless step, the officers discover that his gun didn’t have any real bullets in it. Which means that Chia-Jen has shot Meng-Yen for nothing. This turns the entire city against the police, which prompts Chang Jie, the chief of crime investigation, to order Chia-Jen to partner up with a relative newbie, Hsin-Ping, and get to the bottom of this matter. This leads them to the discovery of another mystery influencer, called Witch Baba, who has gone viral for her accurate predictions about catastrophic incidents. Given how it seems like this Witch Baba is orchestrating events to make it look like she has precognitive abilities, and she is going after other influencers, Chia-Jen thinks nabbing her will put a stop to such crimes. However, little does he know that Witch Baba is just the tip of the iceberg.
I think Million-Follower Detective functions on three levels: it’s a revenge story, it’s a story about corruption in the police, and it’s about a father trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter amidst all this chaos. Yeah, I know you are thinking, “But does it have anything to do with influencer culture?” Well, yeah and no. Initially, it does seem to be a scathing critique of this phenomenon, and how “content creators” doing all kinds of irresponsible nonsense to earn a quick buck can jeopardize lives, but then the whole commentary deviates into “copaganda” territory. Because Shaun Su wants to tell influencers that if you can use your social media reach and cooperate with the police, the world can become a better place; and that’s just the most tepid way of dealing with this issue (calling it an “issue” is an understatement; it’s an epidemic). Shaun Su’s inability to commit to the topics that he’s trying to tackle doesn’t stop there. The manner in which he sabotages the revenge arc is one for the history books. His critique of the law enforcement hellscape is just limited to one corrupt police officer because he doesn’t see that guy as a byproduct of a corrupt system. As for the father-daughter stuff, it’s just too saccharine to be impactful.
What Shaun Su lacks in terms of writing, he does sort of make up for through his directorial skills; emphasis on the “sort of.” Since we see so many movies and TV shows set in the city all the time, we don’t realize how hard it is to shut down lanes & control the crowd to get a single shot. That’s why you’ll see many directors setting every other scene indoors or, even if they are outdoors, the actors are hidden behind green or blue screens. There’s a third option where they recreate parts of the city and then try to integrate it with actual parts of the city through VFX and CGI. However, Shaun Su, along with his crew, does a great job of treating the city as a character, thereby instantly immersing you in the story. The attention to detail, in terms of the production design, art direction, costume design, and the hair and make-up, is solid. The action is surprisingly great, with one particular set piece involving a moving car with Ekin Cheng (and his stunt double) on its hood undoubtedly taking the cake. Despite the cliche nature of the narrative, the show never really feels like a chore, which is to say that the pacing is quite decent.
The performances in Million-Follower Detective were serviceable. Ekin Cheng had to do most of the heavy lifting, and he’s neither good enough to be memorable nor so bad as to make you turn off the player. Shou Lou, Patty Lee, and Chen Yan Fei were alright. Wang Po Chieh and Lee Lee Zen steal the spotlight. Even if you are miffed at the writing around their characters, you can’t deny that they absolutely knocked it out of the park with their acting prowess. Chloe Xiang, Lyan Chen, OuYang Lun, Kent Tsai, Zhan Huai Yun, Yan I Hsuan, and the rest of the supporting cast get the job done. Also, a major shoutout to the stunt team for making all the action scenes look so convincing. So yeah, to answer the question that I posed earlier: No, Shaun Su’s show doesn’t break the mold because it doesn’t really want to. I can’t blame him because if something works, what’s the point in trying to “fix” it? That said, I don’t think the need to adhere to a formula can be an excuse for unimaginative storytelling. Everyone who wants to make a killing by riding this wave of crime-related stories is free to do so, since that’s what the audience wants, but will it really hurt them to show some flair? Will they be jailed if they inject a little bit of complexity into the character? Will the world explode if they try to reinvent the wheel? I guess we’ll never know.
