Kagi no Kakatta Heiya eps 1-6

I had no expectations for this dorama since it was a johnny one but Kagi no Kakatta Heiya was been a pleasant surprise. Kind of reminds me of Furuhata Ninzaburo except the the hook this time is that they are all locked room mysteries and  you don't find out who the killer is until the end.

What is similar to Furuhata is that its mostly about the case and the main character Enomoto breaks the fourth wall at the beginning of the episode to give the viewer a hint to solving the crime. No waste of time characters. No lame attempts at doing 'touching' stories and some of the methods to produce a locked room are quite ingenious.

Besides watching to see what new ways to produce a locked room the writer can come up with (its apparently based on novels), the three main characters have great chemistry. You've got the expressionless Enomoto so the guy doesn't have to act. There's a Toda Erika as Aoto, who functions as Enomoto's sidekick and finally  there's Serizawa (Sato Koichi) Aoto's boss and a partner in a law firm that specialises in corporate law who somehow gets involved with in locked room crimes.

Serizawa is the comedy relief of the series and he does so without resorting to the usual overacting. He is petty, pretentious, reluctant to get involve unless there's a beautiful woman and is willing to take all the credit. The chemistry is great and all three characters play their role perfectly; the problem solver, the sidekick/audience view character and the comedy guy.

 
The best way to put it is that the characters don't overwhelm the mystery but rather enhance it. Really solid dorama and it was fun to watch, especially with the bevy of guest stars. On par with Furuhata Ninzaburo IMO.