Murder Everywhere she goes (Murder, She Wrote)

Member Name: bilbob20

Product:	Murder, She Wrote
Date:	09/01/08 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great intriguiging plots

Disadvantages: A bit repetitive

When it began its run in 1984, nobody imagined that Murder, She Wrote (or Murder, To Watch as I recently heard it referred to) would run for an amazing 12 years, nor that it would boast a couple of fairly watch-able television movies. Back in the 80's, it was considered low-grade entertainment, although in this day and age of reality television and game shows it would probably be considered modern art. It was direct competition in the schedules with another long running series (the excellent Friends) that would finally see Jessica Fletcher's pen put down for good.

Jessica Fletcher is the elderly widow who resides in Midwestern town Cabot Cove. When her first, and only, novel is accidently published after her nephew Grady flaunts it around to his publisher girlfriend, she is bemused to find herself caught up in the bustle and rudeness of big city life. However it isn't long before the novelist turns amateur sleuth when murder strikes a party she is attending for her publisher. When the police force turn out to be completely incompetent, its left to Jessica to solve the mystery.

The rules are simple;
If you are mean, wicked, or ambitious, you are almost certain to be bumped off in the first ten minutes.
If you are a relative of dear Aunt (pronounced Ont in most occasions) Jess, or a bit slow in the uptake, you're almost certain to find yourself spending copious amounts of time behind bars, despite being innocent.
If you appear to be wealthy, or appear to be an arts commissionaire of some sort, you're nearly likely to be the killer.

The police are always a bit daft, and a bit bereft of idea's. The accused are nearly always wimpering simpering messes. And Jessica is nearly always wrong first time. But when she gets it wrong, she always gets it right the next time.

Murder, She Wrote is a repetitive, and somewhat predictable, premise. Elderly woman turns up to visit friends or relatives (of which there are many), murder happens, she saves the day by solving the mystery based on a little sentence uttered by the murderer. The viewers nearly never get it. I certainly didn't. I spent hours and hours watching boxsets and not once did I guess the killer. I'm sure someone with a degree in criminology would find it easy to solve. But with clever little inserts that keep the viewers guessing, Murder, She Wrote manages to weave its simplicity into something more complex and interesting.

The lead character, Jessica, is a charismatic lead. Played brilliantly by Angela Landsbury, who already had her turn at Marple in the movie adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd". She's supported by Tom Bosley for many of the episodes. He even turns up in a few of the episodes that are set away from Cabot Cove. After all, how many murders are going to happen in that small town.

Created by Peter S Fischer, the show ran for 263 episodes. If the premise gets watered down and becomes a bit shifty over 12 years, its simply because of the nature of this kind of story. How many murders can one person be present at, without the penny dropping and her being lumbered into the local constabulary to answer a few questions. But with police this bumbling, we can be thankful that our real life forces are slightly more adept. Fischer and his team manage to create many intriguing plot lines to keep us guessing, and only rarely miss the mark. Murder, She Wrote, despite its many flaws, is hours of endless enjoyment. Snobs will berate it as the lowest common ebb in television. It was never meant to be televisions answer to Shakespeare. But with writing this good, and a likeable (if somewhat irritating) lead, I think I'll stick with a few more of the boxsets yet.

So far there are 6 seasons available, with a 7th on the way. In addition to 20+ episodes per boxset, it also boasts an endless amount of familiar faces from 80s television. Turning up on screen are names such as Morgan Brittany, Dack Rambo, John Beck, Steve Forrest, Ernie Lively, Barbara Babcock, and Jeff Conaway to name but a few.

Fun Trivia:
Its interesting to note that Angela Landsbury was in fact the fourth actress chosen to play the lead.
When ratings went down on the show later on, the producers decided to remove Jessica from many of the story's and have her only introduce the story which would involve other characters.
Murder, She Wrote was nominated for an emmy in nearly every year of its 12 year run, and yet never once won.

Summary: When Jessica turns up for dinner, you know its going to be murder.