gridoon2024 Review of Whodunnit?

Whodunnit? (1972–1978)

One of the cleverest, most challenging, most unique, and most purely enjoyable TV shows ever; I wish there were 48 more episodes to watch!

[8/10 · 17 December 2020]

I loved this show. All 48 episodes are good-to-very-good, which is extremely rare for such a long-running program. Sometimes I got angry watching it - but not at the show, at myself: how could I have missed THAT? Some clues are obvious, some are obscure, but all are there - you just have to pay attention on the screen at every second. It tests the viewer's observational and compositional skills to the max. The writers did a great job of outsmarting me - out of the 48 episodes, I guessed correctly....round about 12 times (that's only a quarter). After a rough first couple of episodes, they found the perfect way to reveal the culprit ("Will the real whodunit - or dunits - stand up, please?"), and the production values upgraded as well, with a new set each week matching the theme of each episode. The guest panelists are fun to watch (even though many celebrities will not be known by non-English viewers under the age of 50 anymore) (I loved Lisa Goddard's unpretentious enthusiasm), and the actors who play the suspects also deserve kudos for responding quickly (and sometimes hilariously) to questions that (I assume) they were not prepared for. The show does reflect its age in some ways (chain-smoking inside the studio (!), sexist (if good-spirited) comments towards some of the female guest suspects, etc.), but that also gives it extra value as a time capsule. And in its format and its plotting, "Whodunit?" hasn't dated one bit. A total delight that I'm going to miss now that I've watched every episode. 8/10.