Galileo - drama series review

 As registered in this space many times prior, I am a big fan of Keigo Higashino. Galileo is his famous creation in the lines of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, i wasn't able to land on any of the translated version of this series and to my sweet surprise, ended up with this drama series in Netflix, which are based on those books. The series is in Japanese with original audio but the subtitles are quite efficient and makes up for easy following. Each of the episode starts off with a murder or some mishap that might sound like typical police case only to have an unusual angle which piques the scientific curiosity of the professor, who is often approached by the police for scientific consult. Each of the ten episodes have such unique point of contention which seems perplexing to start with and becomes clear as water once "Galileo" clarifies the scientific explanation for those events. The very first episode in the series is my personal favorite of the whole lot. A group of rouge guys causes ruckus and disturbs the peace in the nieghbourhood. One of the residents in that area, watches this from behind the curtains of his window, having been disturbed from his recording sessions. he is seen pressing some numbers in his mobile phone and suddenly one of the guy's head starts burning. Spontaneous combustion is suspected to be the cause and the obviously intrigued professor comes into party. The way he analyses the scene and comes up with a solution is top class. While the police validate the theory put forth by the professor, he still continues with live experiment of his solution. He fails 42 times to recreate the scene of crime and like the audience the police also wonders why that man is hell bent on getting it right when the crime itself is solved. His explanation after the successful completion of the test, not just tilts the scale against the perpetrator but sheds a whole new light on the personality of the criminal. It was possibly the best of the lot. The finale episode of season 1 reminds of the Moriarty element from the Holmes. While it doesn't excite as much as the other episodes it talks more about environment and how humans impact the nature by their careless attitude. A wholesome series nevertheless and though you wouldn't understand a word of the spoken dialogue, with the help of subtitles, you can surely enjoy the thrill. Looking forward to season 2 and hope Netflix airs it soon. A definite treat for Keigo fans.