Picture a typical scene in an antidrug drama: capable police officers, shrewd criminals, and high-octane stunts like gunfights and car chases. It is a familiar formula.

However, The Devil Between Us, a new series streaming on iQiyi since Feb 23, aims to break new ground by focusing its story on the lives of ordinary people.

Starring actress Ren Suxi as a female police officer and single mother of two young boys, the 16-episode drama opens with a cascade of incidents. Ren's character, while on leave, unexpectedly gets drawn into a drug trafficking case. At the same time, a desperate father portrayed by Wang Xiao, searching for a healthy kidney to save his gravely ill daughter, attempts to make a deal with an organ seller. Instead, he returns with a young woman who has swallowed a bag of drugs to serve as a human courier.

Through these intersecting storylines, the series shifts its focus from spectacle to the gritty, personal realities of the drug trade. Alongside the central plot of hunting down traffickers, the struggles of ordinary civilians are woven throughout. These include the workplace stress faced by the father, an accountant at an electronics factory, and the dangerous temptations lurking in local bars.

Developed along two parallel lines — one following Ren's character and her fellow officers as they pursue criminals, the other tracing Wang's character as he walks the edge of illegality to save his daughter — the drama explores human complexity while highlighting how the rule of law is upheld.

Director Teng Huatao said he was drawn to the original story's premise of "a drug case set in a small town", where everyone is connected.

"Just after a few turns, people are either relatives or friends. Placing evil in such an environment makes the complexity and struggle of human nature all the more compelling to watch," he said, adding that he believes a close-knit, acquaintance-based community provides the ideal framework for amplifying moral conflict and enhancing dramatic tension.