h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can't be 2legs... not enough smilies!

I'm up to Season 8 of Bergerac. I must say the plots are getting better. More complex. You still know up front who the villain is or can eaasily guess if it isn't shown, but at least they seem better to me. Remember, I didn't say they were always believable, but they are more entertaining. Or maybe my brain is numb at this point and I've finally fallen under the Bergerac spell. You know, the one that kept it on the air for 9 seasons.

You've only got a season and a half to go, then.

I usually guess television detective stories within the first few minutes. If I don't, it's usually because the writers were cheating. It's a matter of playing by the rules.

For instance: In Season 3 of 'Dexter', there is a serial killer loose. (Besides Dexter, of course.) The police are suspecting a certain drug dealer, but we already know that the drug dealer is dead, killed by Dexter.

At this point, I decide that the killer is one of two Hispanic tree-trimmers in Miami. Why? Because they were introduced, briefly, as witnesses to the discovery of the first body. There was no reason to waste that much airtime on them if one of them wasn't the killer.

Several episodes later, Debra the detective figures this out.

Rule: You need to introduce the perp early, unless you're writing an L&O script, in which case you can follow the chain of evidence like an RL cop.