Resonance and decay phenomena are ubiquitous in the quantum world. To understand them in their complexity it is useful to study solvable models in a wide sense, that is, systems which can be treated by analytical means. The present review offers a survey of such models startingt he classical Friedrichs result and carryingfu rther to recent developments in the theory of quantum graphs. Our attention concentrates on dynamical mechanism underlyingre sonance effects and at time evolution of the related unstable systems.