History Main / AlwaysMurder

* ''JonathanCreek'' played this straight most of the time, though it was occasionally averted in later seasons.

* SinCity stories always involve murders... usually a [[UnderStatement lot of `im.]]

--> "I'm so used to thinking of the victim as a dead person 'cause we're always on murder cases"
** The context for this LampshadeHanging is that Phoenix's latest case involves robbery, not murder. But, as it turns out [[spoiler: the robbery was being used as an alibi--by both the defendant and the real criminal--for the murder which took place across town at the same time.]]
** Phoenix Wright also gets bonus points in that ''nearly all'' of the main characters end up as the main suspect for the murder at least once, and in [[spoiler: Maya and Edgeworth's]] case, ''twice''.
*** Phoenix himself holds the current record, with 3 accusations.
*** Wasn't [[spoiler: Maya]] a suspect 3 times, but only arrested twice? Since in the 3:5, suspicions falls on her rather than [[spoiler: Iris]] when the [[spoiler: Murder location changed, and Maya and Pearl were the only still people over there, and there was no way for anyone to get over there at the time of the murder, and Maya's name was written on the lamp.]]. Making her a suspect in every game she actively appeared in.
*** And as of ''Investigations'', [[spoiler: Maggey's gotten accused three times. If not for Edgeworth's timely intercession she would have been arrested.]]

* {{Heartbeat}} dealt with other kinds of serious crime too - including abortion in one episode (which was still illegal at the time the series was set).

** Similarly, the (fictional) county of Midsomer in ''MidsomerMurders'' has a murder rate that should have left it a ghost town (well, county).

* ''MidsomerMurders'' tends to have not one but four (at least) murders per episode. You've got to wonder how this supposedly small village in the English countryside keeps its population up.

* ''{{CSI}}'': Over 8 seasons and counting, this trope has only been averted just once, in the early season episode "Suckers". The ColdOpen shows us a dead body in a pool, but we find out quickly that it's just a lifeguard training dummy used to distract hotel security from an antique theft. Also note that it was only averted in this one plot; the [[TwoLinesNoWaiting B Plot]] was a straight up murder.

* All of the cases in ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' seem to involve a murder of some kind. Indeed, the one case Phoenix took that wasn't a murder [[spoiler:turned out to be a cover for a murder across town]]. Maya lampshades this in the 3rd game:

In nearly any CrimeAndPunishment show, by the end of the episode, someone will always be heading to the coroner's office, no matter how things start out.

** Also, in Ace Attorney Investigations, the third case [[spoiler: starts out as a kidnapping, until someone ends up dead. He turns out to be a kidnapper.]]

* In the MrsMurphyMysyeries there is always murder, and often other crimes as well.

->''"Murder isn't the '''only''' crime in the world, it just seems that way around us."''
-->--'''Caroline Julian''', ''{{Bones}}''

Generally, the vast majority of episodes will be about a killing straight through, from beginning to end. It'll either be a straight up murder or perhaps a burglary gone wrong, but by the time our heroes are on the scene, there's a dead body and someone out there to answer for that. But that's not all. In the other episodes, when the show will start out investigate a missing person or a heist or something, someone will inevitably end up dead halfway through, killed by one of the perpetrators of the original crime. It's a law of nature.

* ''{{Cold Case}}'' usually plays this trope straight. However, there were at least four deaths ruled as accident ([[spoiler:"Fly Away", "The Boy in the Box", "Yo, Adrian", and "Roller Girl"]]) and at least three others ruled as suicides or as a result of suicides ([[spoiler: "Daniella", "Best Friends", and "Two Weddings"]]). Heck, one case even had the presumed victim still be alive ([[spoiler:"Fireflies"]]).

** Phoenix Wright also gets bonus points in that ''nearly all'' of the main characters end up as the main suspect for the murder at least once, and in [[spoiler: Maya's]] case, ''twice''.

** The only Monk episode without a muder was "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny" where the worst thing done was a kidnapping of the titular granny, [[spoiler: and then her captors let her go because they only wanted her chair which was worth a fortune]].