Someone posted a link to an archive.org page that had the entire series of Ninzaburo Furuhata and I was looking for something new to watch and have decided I'm gonna watch some on a whim.
It's described as "Japanese Columbo" and while it's a Howcatchem like Columbo, you can definitely feel the fact that these are hour block episodes instead of the feature length episodes like Columbo. Feels much more like they need to get the plot beats out faster but I don't think it's bad so far. Just different.
Having watched two episodes so far, digging this show. It's like what if Columbo was paced liked Murder She Wrote.
Okay, the circumstances from the third episode of the murderer to get the victim to be in a safe spot to kill was so contrived that the murderer should have been allowed to get away with it.
The more I watch this show I'm watching less for the reason that I watch Columbo, which is "Man, this show is just really smartly developed", and more going for "Man, what if Columbo was even more of a troll, had a butt monkey sidekick, and have solutions that have the energy of Encyclopedia Brown"
That's not to say it's less entertaining, but its more that I'm definitely watching it for a different reason now.