Crime shows, 5 minutes and knowing whodunit.

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Anyone else here watch alot of crime shows?

All the CSI's, Criminal Minds, NCIS, ...

Sometimes they have twists in these shows with late introductions of characters, but even then I usually know within the first 5 minutes of the show that thats going to happen.

So? Anyone else able to see whodunit quickly in nearly all shows?

Sometimes I figure out who did the crime.

NCIS is my favorite show!

Much depends on the writer.

In mystery, you can tell the story where you pretty much know who did it and the story revolves around the antics of the criminal and the detective getting to exposing that openly.

Another way is where you don't know who did it, and you watch as the detective tries to figure out who did it.

I like the latter. I feel the former caters to viewers with short attention spans, but the Columbo mysteries of the '70s were entertaining.

I remember when Frankie Muniz and Alex O Loughlin were both guest stars on Criminal Minds. I kinda had a feeling that they would be the unsub.

Sometimes the fun is how they did it.
I seem to remember a TV show back in the 70s that started with 'whodunnit' at the very beginning, and you watched how they'd trace things back.

Not particularly difficult, given the quality of most television writing out there. To be fair, it is very different to establish a complex story, and to resolve it all within 47 minutes.

If the screenwriter leaves too much out, then you have the "Agatha Christie" problem, where there is no textual support for the solution until the deus ex machina revealed in final pages. If the screenwriter puts too much in, then the story becomes a dull, linear story.