Review: Galileo
Japanese TV Series Where Physics Genius Solves Unsolvable Cases
A detective and a professor solve mysterious cases through the detective's uncanny intuition, and the professor's ability with science. (6/10)
Summary
Having worked most of her career as a junior officer, Kaoru Utsumi has made her way into the department of criminal investigation as a rookie detective. Kusanagi Shunpei, the star detective in the department, has just been promoted to another branch, potentially opening a window of opportunity for Utsumi to step up herself. Seeing the promise and potential that Utsumi shows towards the work of investigation, Shunpei lets her in on a secret that has lead to his success as an investigator of cases that others would deem unsolvable. He tells her about his friend Manabu Yukawa, a college physics professor at Seito College, who is an absolute genius, but a bit of a social nut. Shunpei tells Utsumi that Yukawa, nick-named “Weirdo Galileo”, is accredited with helping on all the cases he has solved in his career. Teaming up with “Galileo”, Utsumi goes on to solve her own cases and discovers, despite her initial dislike of this weird scientist, a profound respect for his genius mind.
Review
Galileo has the feel of certain American crime shows that utilize the expertise of a certain individual to help solve a case (ie. Numbers, Medium) The idea, while not entirely original, is well thought out, and provides for an interesting plot. While there is little to relate each episode to the next, the high entertainment value of each individual segment is enough to keep viewers interested, a task particularly easy because of its short ten episode format. A major criticism regarding plot development, which is huge in a series where there is nearly no continuity to begin with, is the abruptness of the last two episodes. A ghost from Yukawa’s past comes back, and suddenly he becomes a major villain, an adjective I can hardly justify because of the insignificance of his presence in the series, apart from his role in the climax and subsequent closure of this drama.
Besides the necessity for more plot movement and the lack of any semblance of a main sequence throughout the drama, the drama is much too straightforward; that is, there are hardly any plot twists or important turning points in the series. Of course, this makes for a program that is easy to watch and is quite entertaining to boot, but for a crime drama, and one that flaunts the expertise of an amazing scientist, it’s somewhat disappointing that the entire series goes by without so much a minor failure on the part of “Galileo”, or even Utsumi, the rookie detective. The writer probably anticipated this, so to compensate for the lack of dramatics, he attempted to tie in some comedy to salvage this sinking project. For what it was worth, the subtle puns actually made the series decent, although I would never classify this under “humour”.
Kou Shibasaki and Masaharu Fukuyama either have actually problems with each other in real life, or did a great job in the initial few episodes introducing the friction between their characters, Kaoru Utsumi, the detective, and Manabu Yukawa, the scientist. Although this drama does not do justice to her abilities on screen (Shibasaki’s acting in Good Luck!, Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call), and Battle Royale are more legitimate samples of her talent), the success of this drama (if it can be called a success) was really the work of Shibasaki’s professional relationship with Fukuyama. (Well, it definitely helps when a team can pull in actresses of Maki Horikita and Kyoko Fukada’s status to cameo throughout the series.) Ikkei Watanabe, as Hiromi Kuribayashi may not win any awards as the assistant professor to Manabu Yukawa, but he was an important character who kept the series interesting with his dialogue and resistance to Utsumi’s character.
Don’t be disappointed if this drama wasn’t adrenaline pumping or full of excitement. For what it is, a half comedic, half intelligent-based crime series, you won’t regret worth sticking it out till the end of the ten episodes. Released late in 2007, it’s one of the better non-romantic drama series out there on the Japanese market to date.
