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Mystery of the Week
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| Synonyms: | Murder of the Week, Murder a Week, Case of the Week |
| See also: | Monster of the Week, FOTW, Police procedurals, Case fic |
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Mystery of the Week and the related terms are a short-hand way of describing a type of show format that has been typical of many police procedurals, crime or mystery shows over the decades.
While a number of shows have moved away from or experimented with different formats — such as having one mystery run for an entire season, having an overarching mystery that runs over a season or more alongside mysteries of the week — the mystery or murder of the week format remains very popular.
Fandoms based around shows with this format will often have a higher proportion of case fics which follow the same format of a mystery/murder/case of the week. This is sometimes paired with an overarching storyline added by the fic author, such as bringing together a fanon pairing.
Examples
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fandoms
- Cold Case - The entire set-up of the show is based on the premise of solving one cold case per week, with the show having scenes of present day and the past alongside one another. It is quite common for fics in the Cold Case fandom to follow a similar set-up.
- Rizzoli & Isles - While longer-term storylines were introduced as the show went on, the basic set-up of a mystery or case of the week remained at the centre of the show. There are a number of fanworks which continue this while exploring the developing Jane Rizzoli/Maura Isles fanon femslash pairing.
Fanworks
Common Tropes
Discussions
Fan Rec Discussions
- "Overarching Plots in 'Case-a-week' Shows". Archived from the original on 2025-03-27.
- "Good case-of-the-week murder mystery shows?". Archived from the original on 2025-03-27.
- "Quirky murder-a-week shows". Archived from the original on 2025-03-27.