Is it because I have now consumed one thousand real cold case murder stories and it just feels so good to consistently see variations where things are always solved and the guilty person is almost always still alive and able to be punished? Or is it just the music manipulating me, now that I'm actually watching the endings and not just going "ah, we've hit the music montage. Show's over," and tuning out early?
Also good lord, I had forgotten how well this show established time periods in their flashbacks. Hell of a costume & set design/decorating department.