It's true. I binged-watched this series, and my thumb never hit the fast-forward button. How's that possible? Almost 12 hours, and I watched every single episode the way they wanted me to: fully engrossed, and worried I'd miss something if I blinked. This series is really good, as in, 'WHOAH, DON'T MISS THIS ONE, IT'S SO GOOD'. I don't even want to think how much coffee the writers had to swill to come up with such evilly twisty who-done-it plot lines.

Though I was put off by the main character in the beginning of the first episode, I grew to love the reluctant-sleuth Kuno Totono. Like Sherlock, he's got astounding observation skills and a mind made for matching clues to motive and means. Unlike Sherlock, he's not instinctively compelled to follow the trails all the way to the bad guy. He's more like the kid that unravels a sweater by absently pulling on a loose thread of yarn. He didn't start with the intention of deconstruction, but once the sweater began to not look like a sweater, he got interested in how it was made. This brilliant kid is an outlier; he's all alone in the world; and at the story's onset, he seems determined to remain so, for reasons that become somewhat clearer as the story progresses. That detached mindset suffers a subtle erosion as the episodes pass, and that is the major part of MtI's hook: the more you watch the kid fight it, the more you want this kid's protective bubble to be sandpapered down. So, does he change a little bit? Can't tell you, that probably falls under Spoilers, Sweetie. I can say this though: you know how your throat hurts when you really want to ugly-cry but you're too old to ugly-cry over a tv show, so you suffer with wet eyes and a sore throat? Well, they might have got me there. Okay, I broke my ankle, and I'm wearing a cast and I'm pretty much super glued to the couch, so maybe I'm a little softer than usual, but, I'll admit it: for ten minutes during one delicately rendered emotional moment, they absolutely got me. That script and those marvellous actors (I'm looking at you, Masaki Suda) managed to bring me to the borderline of the ugly-cry.

Grumble alert: hey producers, if you're going to push the writers to position the series for a second season, be forthcoming with details of the when and where.