Death and Other Details

The series has an affable comedic mystery tone, interesting stock characters, decent performances and an engaging pace. Direction and dialogue are generally good.

The main detective repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to exort the audience to pay attention to details and nudges us to notice things. We're apparently meant to follow along and solve the case with (or, if we're sharp enough, ahead of) the protagonists. It's a nice concept for a mystery series but the writers don't even try to pull it off. Instead whenever they paint themselves into a corner they use a flashback to add facts, information, scenes and/or backstories that retroactively alter previous events. No matter how closely you pay attention you can't notice details that won't exist until a flashback exposition dump three episodes later. The writing turns an active concept into passive viewing.