Professional participants

In addition to The Knockout, a number of other dramas concerning anti-graft work, crime and the judiciary, such as In the Name of People and Draw the Line, have won audiences over the past few years.

Their popularity not only lies in people's increasing demand for the rule of law, but also in the professional guidance of the judicial authorities and their strict review of relevant works, experts said.

"In some works made by producers and scriptwriters who have no legal backgrounds, the rule-of-law content was sometimes divorced from reality and inconsistent with the legal procedures. Those directors and scriptwriters pursued dramatic effect excessively and were not knowledgeable about judicial procedures," Geng Huidong, secretary-general of the Police Literature and Arts Association of China, told Legal Weekly in a recent interview.

He added that scriptwriters who want to create law-based movies or TV series should be fully prepared before shooting.

"That means they need to collect a large amount of detailed legal material and specific cases to ensure professionalism," the paper quoted him as saying.

For instance, Draw the Line, a 40-episode TV drama that was created and produced under the guidance of the Supreme People's Court, the country's top court, used vivid depictions of actual cases to illustrate how judicial reforms have continued to unfold.

The program took three years to make and its script was revised 20 times, according to the court.

It added that arrangements were made to allow scriptwriters, directors and actors to conduct research in more than 60 courts nationwide and talk to over 200 judges before filming started.

Moreover, some 500 lawsuits were used as material to prompt further adaptations.

Thanks to the professional guidance and full preparation, the drama — broadcast online and by Hunan Television — bolstered public interest in how courts work and resolve hot legal issues, including those related to livestreaming, sexual harassment and justified self-defense, and showed how green law school graduates develop into experienced judges, it said.

Data provided by the top court show that episodes of the drama have been watched nearly 1.2 billion times on Hunan TV-affiliated streaming site Mango TV since it started being aired on Sept 19.

"It was the top court's guidance and assistance in filming, as well as the creators' efforts, that made it a hit show that gets closer to both real judicial work and public concerns," said Zhang Dexiang, vice-chairman of the China Literature and Art Critics Association.

Meanwhile, Sheng Boji, an expert from the China Television Artists Association, said the research undertaken in the courts helped the creators to vividly portray how judges work, "which helps the audience better understand laws and the judicial system".