The controversial practice of closed police interrogations gets the TV drama treatment on the two-hour mystery "Yoru no Owaru Toki (When the Night Ends)" (TBS, Monday, 9 p.m.). After the naked body of Detective Tokumochi of the Fujimi Police Department is found, a childhood friend named Sekiguchi is arrested for his murder. Tokumochi had been investigating Sekiguchi for the blackmail of a prominent actor, and while Sekiguchi admits to the extortion charge, he denies killing his old friend.
Detective Sugai (Goro Kishitani) finds the case frustrating, since he isn't satisfied with the interrogation methods his department used on Sekiguchi. Things get even more complicated when he starts seeing a woman named Chie (Kimiko Yo), the wife of a man who is about to be released from prison. Chie tells Sugai that her husband heard something very interesting about Tokumochi's murder while he was in jail.
Comedian Yoshio Kojima is this year's acknowledged overnight sensation who will probably be gone by this time next year. However, for the moment, his routine of following one-line jokes with the phrase "sonna no kankei nai (who gives a damn)," while dressed in only a Speedo and pumping his arm and leg in a curious piston fashion, has captured the imagination of people all over the world thanks to YouTube.