Motive is a very special treat. I love how instead of figuring out "who dunnit" the show is based on "why they dunnit." It's such a great twist to try to come up with the motive. A show giving you the victim and the killer right up front is really turning the tables. You have to think in a slightly different way. It's a great concept that works. Sometimes murder mysteries are easy to figure out and very boiler plate. In Motive the acting is excellent. The stories are well thought out and don't follow a cookie cutter format. I look forward to every episode. I hope this show goes on for many seasons because quality TV is so very hard to find. This show is a gem! I highly recommend it!

Despite the unique approach to the narrative (reveal killer/victim at beginning, and concentrate on the "whydunit"), the episodic stories are often weak (1), not unique, and incredulous ... one wonders that given the story's hypothetical plotting and circumstance, why a human being would resort to the ultimate crime (2)... That incredulity (i.e., unbelievability) is a big minus in my book ... However (and effectively) .... the incredulous story is encapsulated by a lots of pluses, including:+ Cinematography;+ Editing (tight) -- scene-to-scene "morphed" transitions are effective;+ Direction;+ Actors/acting (especially main/lead);+ Music score (good use of ambient dark/rhythmic composition by Shawn Pierce. I disagree with other reviewers in that there is too much music or it's too loud. Yes, the music track is used more than in other series. However, this adds atmosphere/tonality, rhythmic pace, as well as important emotion/melody);+ ...OTHER: ++ Flow/pace ... camera often moving; pulsing drive of score ++ Temporal economics/efficiency: best use of 43m run time ... scene content/length seems just right. Plotting seems decent, and distinguished from overreaching story elements ++ Nuances: incl. witticisms, dry humor.Some of the guest actors seem to have been selected for image/"presence"/attractiveness ... as is the use of classic cars.Bottom line: Weak stories (3) encapsulated by great music and textbook/cutting-edge film-making .... watch/study this series for these virtues alone.===EDITS/FOOTNOTES===(1) The human story is the CORE component of a fictional program (this includes TV, movies, books/novels and comics). It's also the the hardest component of a program to "pull off" successfully. Suspending disbelief can be a tall order. I think the creators of this series (as well as fans of the genre) want/expect serious realism, and to keep the story entertaining/interesting, on a repeatable basis (weekly ... and not running out of ideas/motivation .. why all series eventually canceled). This includes studio and sponsor demands. Concomitantly, this is tough cocktail to mix by bartenders.(2) Despite popular sensationalism, ACTUAL *motive* for murder in the human species is not that common (although "though-murders" are quite common and natural... evolutionary psychologist David M. Buss topically discussed this in his 2005 science book The Murder Next Door).

This show is a complete rip off of Columbo where you knew the killer at the beginning. I don't like how the show is trying to be funny and what-not. And as most of the acting of today, its not a treat. Along with the acting, the actors themselves are just very strange and awkward. I've also never liked Kristin Lehman or anything she has ever been known for. You would think they would get a actual actor that we know. All-in-all i will never like this show. And I think Peter Falk would be disappointed if he had heard of this show. I don't have a real recommendation because absolutely no one on this show has done anything acceptable. But that is my opinion...or is it?

So the concept of Motive is simple: show the killer and the victim outright, and then leave the audience to figure out the motive. Interesting if done correctly, but for the most part... this isn't.Motive is shot well, but that's largely ruined by the terrible color correction many crime dramas use, leaving everything green, grey, and black.Thankfully the acting is convincing, though the detectives are totally generic, making them far less interesting than the characters you'll only see for one episode. And that's saying something, because as other reviews have stated, the writing is terrible.The show is filled with character actions that don't make any sense (which won't be revealed due to spoilers, but they're the kind that will leave you yelling at the TV wondering why they're doing that). Even worse, Motive contains laughable dialogue like a teenager saying, "Dude, it sounds like someone's making the beast with two backs!" When my high school English class was reading Othello, kids thought that phrase was ridiculous enough in Shakespeare, let alone using it in a normal conversation.But wait, maybe the unique twists presented by the concept are enough to save it! Well to pull this off, a show has to have the big reveal leaving the viewer thinking, "Man, I'm so stupid for not figuring that out!" The exact wrong response is, "What. You leave that major piece of evidence until the very end? How was anyone supposed to get that?" Guess which response Motive will leave you with?An interesting idea, ruined by abysmal writing. Motive did manage to keep my attention, but half of that was to see what line would make me laugh next.