Gotcha Mysteries
I definitely spent a few hours this week (in bits and pieces, not marathon style) watching the animated series Detective Academy Q. Yes, it’s Japanese - 探偵学園Ｑ (Tantei Gakuen Q). And yes it’s subtitled. And yes, it might possibly currently be available on video sites like Veoh…but I can not confirm, deny, or link to it. You can search for it if you want it. 
Anyway, similar to the series トリック (Trick) that Clay got me hopelessly addicted to, it is an episodic mystery show with the occasional long case that spans a few shows. It got me thinking about what I call the “Gotcha” mysteries, the ones that aren’t fair game for the person reading along or watching. For me, most of the fun of mysteries is in attempting to figure out the puzzle before the lead investigator can. Sometimes I succeed, but I usually fail. With “Gotcha” mysteries, you can NEVER win. Why? They pull some factoid or gimmick or prior knowledge out of thin air at the end of the case to wind things up. Something that was never presented to the viewer. That’s lame. (The series is still fun, but I think I liked it more when I was watching it to study Japanese…now that I’m just watching it, it has become easier to criticize.) The best mysteries are the ones where it’s all infuriatingly dangled in front of you, and sorting out what is and isn’t important and how it fits together is your challenge. Presenting a mystery where the detective winds up at the end and says “I know something you don’t know” is just frustrating. Ugh. 