Aging granny solves another crime read all about it (Murder, She Wrote)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Murder, She Wrote
Date:	13/10/07 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, easy going, not too violent, easy to get into, likeable lead

Disadvantages: Believeabilty issues, plots aren't fantastic, seen it all before

Murder she wrote, stars the fantastically talented old lady (Angela Lansbury) playing Jessica Fletcher (also called J.B. Fletcher) a crime mystery writer from the small village of Cabot Cove.

The show originally aired from 1984-1996 in the US on the CBS network in America but the roots of the show were sown almost 10 years earlier when in 1975 "Ellery queen" which had a similar premise of a writer solving real life crimes was shown. Ellery Queen was canned after the first season and featured a middle aged, good looking male lead.

Why am I going on about Ellery queen you may ask yourselves, thinking I've gone crazy as I've left you lot alone far too long. Well Ellery queen was written and produced by Richard Levinson and William Link, who 8 years after the end of Ellery Queen wrote and produced the first season of "Murder, She wrote". The change to a an elderly widow seemed to catch the publics attention and the show caught on.

After the 7th season the ratings had fallen from the once high top 10's in the us ratings figures to the mid 30's and CBS brought in a new produce and exec. producer who helped it work it's way back into the top 10, with Jessica moving from Cabot Cove to New York and brought a more realistic approach to the writing schedules (though oddly the realism in relation to something else was never changed).

During the 12th season CBS changed the time slot as part of a marketing campaign, and put Murder, She wrote in direct competition with the eagerly growing sitcom Friends (no wonder who won that rating battle).

Now where was that snide remark about the lack of realism? The lack of realism is that murders seem to fall down at Jessica's feet (sometimes quite literally). Now remember their was 12 seasons (well over 250 episodes), if I was a detective, I'd have a sneaky suspicion that the crime writer was probably involved, who'd expect a gental old granny to be a mass murderer?

Well actually Jessica solves the mystery by piecing together random clues placed throughout the show, which she tells the police who were too willing to arrest the obvious suspect than to look at evidence (wow they actually have gotten something realistic).

During season 6 a "replacement detective" style theme was used where Jessica would take a back seat and solving the crime off screen, this move wasn't liked by the fans so was dropped rather swiftly.

Among with Jessica and her almost instant ability to recognise anyone by name apart from the murderer(s) where he close group of friends (I say close, it seems like everyone was her friend in all honesty though). These included the Cabot Cove Doctor, Seth Hazlitt (the longest supporting role, played by William Windom)and Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley).

The shows muderers were often easy to guess at the time due to them being one of the "Guest stars" which include such well known names as:
Rene Auberjonois
Adrienne Barbeau
Robert Beltran
Linda Kelsey
Gerald McRaney
Kate Mulgrew
Megan Mullally

And the far more obscure >_>:
Sonny Bono
James Caviezel
George Clooney
Courteney Cox
Marcia Cross
Joaquin Phoenix
Summer Phoenix
Lynn Redgrave
Tom Selleck
Billy Zane

And the Legend that is:
Leslie Nielsen

Since the show was canned their has been 4 TV movies and Angela has spoken about doing a fifth if her son can come up with a good enough storyline.

The awards that the show won were somewhat suprisingly low (2 emmy's in it's run 1 for costume and 1 for music composition), despite Lansbury setting a record for having the most nominations for outstanding lead actress in a drama series which she was nominated for 12 times (and lost all 12, which is another record). Though she did win 5 golden globes for the same award.

The DVD's of 1-7 are available in america and 1-6 are available in region 2 DVD playing areas and region 4 areas.

The show it's self has some wonderfully crafted storylines with an unbelieveable cheek to think the audicios plot is believeable, which makes each episode endearing to fans. Angela playing a loveable granny sleuth is such a turn on (no, not that was you dirty sods, I meant turn on to the TV...sicko's). However like most similar shows the plots are too unbelieveable and Angela doesn't have the presence or humour of a Dick Van Dyke (similar show-Diagnosis Murder) or the tenacity and believeability of Jack Klugman (from Quincy M.E). Which is perhaps where the show falls down a little bit, Angela does the granny too well rather than a good sleuth.

The show does often have some flashes of brilliance, but the it also seems over the top and with Jessica seemingly a walking enclyclopedia of people the show does lead to slight grimace as someone says "I'd like you to meet Jessica, we go way back" or something so similar. The ability for the police to be so poor at their jobs and the fact no ones bumped off Jessica also seem quite suprising.

At it's best it's an above average crime mystery, at it's worst it's a below par but very enjoyable day time sleuthing show. Though not the best of it's kind and so don't expect some sort of amazingly well worked plot.

If you like it make sure to try and catch the following:
Quincy M.E
Diagnosis murder
The father dowling mysteries
Columbo
Agatha Christie's Poirot
A touch of Frost
Kojak

Overal a well filmed show with it's glaringly obvious faults.

Fact 1:
Richard Levinson and William Link also created Maddix and Columbo.
Fact 2:
Iamasadlittleboy has spent 2 nights in the cells, and therefore think the police are dodgy sods.
Fact 3:
Tom Bosley played Father Frank Dowling on the TV mystery series, Father Dowling Mysteries, which has many similarities to Murder, She wrote.

Summary: Aging granny does what the police fail to