Just finished: Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de

Just watched the last episode and, well, that’s a lot of talking. On the bright side, there’ll be no spoilers in this review, because it would take at least two whole paragraphs to explain the twisty turny solution to the final murder.

In the last episode, the writers give us a lengthy solution to the two murders from the previous episode. There’s a little bit of comedy and investigation, but mostly it concerns endless flashbacks and explanations to every tiny detail. The trouble is, it was far too complicated for such a simple murder.

That was also a problem with episode eight, in which the murderer is revealed halfway through and the rest of the episode was just talking. It was as if the makers of the programme just thought that as long as Kitagawa Keiko and Sakurai Sho were onscreen then that was enough. It didn’t seem to matter that they weren’t saying anything useful.

I enjoyed this show, the comedy was funny and some of the crimes were interesting. But the programme often got the timing wrong on when to change from investigating to explaining, so that there was too much time spent with people sitting in one room discussing the crime.

It ends with the hint of a second series. I’ll be watching it when it comes out, and hoping that they get the mix of words and action right.