Likely Suspects

This aired for a few months when I was in sixth grade, and it was certainly a hit for my friends and I. We watched it every week and talked about it the next day and tried to figure out clues and patterns - one friend claimed that the killer was always the person who said some variation of "I may not be an angel, but I DID NOT KILL HIM." I wish the show was around so I could go back and check him out on that! A fun twist on a very traditional mystery setup (every ending was similar to the old "I guess you're wondering why I've gathered you all here in the drawing room...") that deserved better than it got.

The show was wildly ahead of its time. In this show the viewer is the newest member of the homicide division and has a veteran member of the force as their partner. The murder is committed at the start of the show and together you and your partner solve the case.

What made this show so unique was the first-person perspective. The actors all spoke to "you". You interviewed witnesses and suspects.

At the end of each episode all the suspects were rounded up and your partner spoke about each of their various motives, chances, and in the end whether or not they were guilty. There was even a gag once where a TV producer is a suspect has an idea for a show and is pitching it to a network on his cell phone. The "show" he's describing is "Likely Suspects".

Like the other reviewer who posted a few years back, I have only a vague recollection of this program. While it's true that the show only lasted a few episodes, its content was so original that it has not fallen into oblivion, at least for me personally. The style and execution was unlike anything before or since (to my knowledge); it was to be viewed from a first-person perspective - the actors talked directly to "you", as you played the role of the lead detective trying to solve a murder mystery as the clues were unraveled. By the end of the show, if memory serves, there were choices (or maybe just questions) that required you to determine - well, guess more than anything - whodunnit. Given the complexity of writing clever stories that could workably unfold without giving too much or withholding too much, I figured it wouldn't last. But then again, look at Law and Order, which has lasted for over a decade.

I would imagine that no one remembers this show, which is a shame because it wasn't half bad. Basically, it was a murder mystery that profiled fictional cases, and the viewer along with the detective, had to solve them. Unfortunately, it wasn't very popular and they only put out a few episodes before it was canceled. I can't even remember any of the details since it has probably been about eight or nine years since I last saw an episode. Overall, it was pretty neat. I honestly can't say I've seen a show like it since.

I'll repeat the comments made by the others. It was an extremely clever and original idea that I'm puzzled that, first, that it didn't attract as much interest when it first aired, and second, that it didn't get picked by anyone even as cable channels proliferate.

The key feature of the show, to repeat others, was that it assigned the viewer to the role of the unseen Rookie, following around the veteran hard-bitten detective as he went out investigating murders. The show was extremely quick-paced, as it was fit into a 30 minute time slot, and had certain comic elements that made it a quasi sit-com in certain sense...although cop shows about murders isn't exactly comedic material, I suppose--but, hey, it worked!

Maybe it's just us handful of oddballs, but if there're enough of us, maybe we could petition Fox so they might release it in DVD some time in the future?