While Nowak's other series O Walzer fuer die Luftwaffe and Ivanco No Goto are plays on the Slice of Life and Chop Sockey/Film Noir genres respectively, Gumshoe is a melting pot of a wide assortment of satires, mostly of 1970s pulp fiction and grindhouse cinema, all wrapped up in a Gag Series package. The combination of its unique, fast-paced humor and its unusual plots make for quite the memorable read.
This series provides examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: Happens all the time.
- A duo of background tenants get a plotline where they're revealed as secret agents.
- The flophouse landlord.
- Vitoria's younger sister Gemella.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Vittoria is head over heels for Moe, but the guy could honestly care less for her.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: For how much the ensemble cast act as a constant nuisance towards each other, there are a couple of folks in the series who generally have great friendships. This includes Moe and Jeri, Cacao and Dolores, and Vitoria and Pelagatti.
- Big Eater: The Fuori sisters, big time. They are so gluttonous that they get into highly choreographed battles for food, frequently pilfer the tenants of their pantry, and are a threat to restaurants everywhere.
- Butt-Monkey: By all means Jeri, but to be fair a majority of the cast applies at one point or another.
- Drop-In Character: Quite a few examples.
- Dolores, who suddenly appears to tidy up
- Byron, who likes to disguise himself before meeting up with Stofer and Mel.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: When Tupfen starts getting into astronomy, he admits that he thought that meteor showers were made up simply because he had never seen one.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Many chapters spiral further and further out of control, oftentimes with nothing ever getting resolved in the end. Even so, by the next chapter everything will be back to normal.
