Mystery to Iunakare (2022)

over-hyped but worth a watch anyway

While I'm enjoying this drama, I'm not loving it. The cases are too formulaic, the "mystery game" set of episodes makes no sense (3 out of the 7 invitees know his history and the history of the house, so how can they fairly be involved in the game play?), and I was having definite "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," "Diagnosis Murder," "Castle," and "Murder, She Wrote" flashbacks. That's what happens when someone who is not a PI or an actual law enforcement officer ends up embroiled in mysteries. They can be fun to watch, but usually nothing more because they're falling back on overly-used tropes that have been around for decades.

I like Suda Masaki. Most of the time. Here, he's entertaining, but the character doesn't have a whole lot of depth other than being a fairly smart-mouthed college student with so much intellectual prowess that he has a superiority complex. Rather like a certain literary detective everybody keeps alluding to. What that means is that this has been done before, and better, by far more skilled storytellers. And I am not impressed with any of the secondary actors. They're rather lackluster and only in entertainment would cops actually allow a citizen to help with crime-solving. Plus, the female cop is driving me bananas. If she had more confidence in herself than others would have more confidence in her. And she has no chemistry with the ML who she is supposed to be crushing on. So that side plot is just irritating.

The drama is certainly worth finishing. But in the mystery/thriller genre, it's not going to be a favorite. I won't regret watching it, I know that much, but there are already other mystery dramas that I like so much better (Shoutai, Seigi no Tenbin, Gourmet Detective Goro Akechi). It reminds me of "Strawberry Night Saga," so much anticipation and a bit of a letdown. I don't mind camp. Sometimes I actually prefer it because it works with the story (like Gourmet Detective Goro Akechi). What I hate is pretentious writing and this drama is full of it. And this is coming from someone who loves Jdramas.

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What a great series!

Love Masaki Suda in this series. When he makes his curry before going on his date and then processes that this is going to be a date - I have shown that scene to so many people. Always makes me laugh.

Love his character. Love the attention to detail. Love the stories and how they all tie together. I won't bog you down with a detailed analysis but, I will say that I keep this in my watchlist so, I can go back to it often whenever I need a Sherlock Holmes type fix. My favorite episode is when he encounters the bomber who has temporary amnesia - so well done.

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