I'm always on the lookout for serialized crime thrillers, the closer to "24" the better. That means I'm looking for stories with conspiracies, moles within government agencies, tech nerd hackers, and lots of action. "Black & White" is a 2009 Taiwanese drama that hits all of those notes superbly.
It starts off with an undercover operation led by maverick cop Wu Ying-Xiong (literally, Hero Wu) to chase down the supplier of a devastating hallucinogenic drug called Dreamer. The operation goes wrong, and the bad guy gets away, in part because Wu gets stopped by another cop, Pi Zi, who just transferred to the district and doesn't know Wu is a cop. Pi Zi is a lazy cop who's more interested in hitting on good-looking women than he is in solving crimes (even though he has a stellar record). Because of the disastrous outcome -- the bad guy got away with the drugs and $100,000 that the police borrowed -- the supervisor forces Wu and Pi to work together. This part of the show is a fairly typical "Lethal Weapon" kind of buddy action-comedy.
A key character in the series is Chen Lin, the daughter of the head of the Sanlien Group, which is basically a front for a Triad branch. She becomes a part of a love triangle with Wu and Pi -- actually, it becomes more like a love pentagon or hexagon by the time you count up everyone who ends up liking someone else...
There are 24 episodes in the series (just like "24"!), and it ends satisfyingly, though there's room for more. Since it's been 14 years, though, it's not likely there will be a follow up. (There are two prequel movies.)
It's currently streaming via Netflix.
