Currently watching: Higashino Keigo Mysteries

Phew. A few weeks without a decent internet connection, and I have no idea what's going on in Japanese dramas. Whatever I chose, I'll be playing catch up with all those episodes I've missed. However, this is a series of short stories so it's not a problem that there was a long gap between me watching episode two and three.

As the title suggests, these are all from the pen of Higashino Keigo. This highly respected writer of murder mysteries has had mixed success when it comes to television adaptations of his work. But first impressions for this were good, as it starts with a man standing over his own dead body explaining that he's been murdered. This turned out to be the introduction to each story, as each week the story of his murder includes an aspect reflected in the main story.

This is a very good idea, since the problem with short stories is that if you miss one episode, it's not so important. But now we have a murder that runs for the duration of the series which will keep people tuning in for the next instalment.

The stories are fine, but as you'd expect, some are better than others. The first two are quite good, but the third and fourth really didn't involve any real detective work, and the twist in the tail was a little unsatisfying. The direction is also quite bland.

If it weren't for the mystery at the start of each episode, I probably wouldn't see this series out until the end. Whoever decided to format the series like this is a very clever person.