I’m off to the Sunshine State for the weekend! Here’s hoping that I don’t find a retired Jessica Fletcher living next door to the Golden Girls causing/investigating murders in Disney.
Or Tom Selleck. Is that Tom Selleck?
Murder, She Saw
One girl, one summer, 264 episodes of "Murder, She Wrote".
About the Blog Contact Submit
May52011
8AM
Tom Bosley AND Erin Moran? Imagine if Marion Jones was Jessica Fletcher…
TVHangover gives a great context to “Murder, She Wrote” in terms of today’s television.
Recent days have found me watching a lot of Murder, She Wrote (?). It’s pretty low impact and runs well in the background as I’m working on other things, and it carries some nostalgia for me since I used to watch it with my mom when I was a little kid. It’s kind of silly and there are a lot of episodes I’ve already seen, but I’ve started to notice something.
This show is terrible!
This show is terrible, and it was on the air for 12 YEARS! That’s 264 episodes, which is more than 250 plots about friends and relatives of Jessica Fletcher being involved in murder investigations, which means more than 250 instances of Jessica talking her way into being involved in police murder investigations on a flimsy reason, which is usually that the detective in question is a fan of her books. Sure, this is a better excuse than the one Miss Marple has, which is that she is just a nosy old woman who doesn’t appear to have a home, but I’m serious how far am I expected to suspend my disbelief?
Everyone wants to talk about how TV is getting worse, but come on guys, an old woman who solves mysteries would never fly in a post Law & Order/post CSI world. Castle is similar but has a little bit of awareness of how ridiculous it sounds and has some (key word being some) character development. So next time you want to lament the lowered quality of the pilots you’re seeing and how we are all slowing having our brains turned to mush by network television’s poor writing and routine plots, remember, no one is getting pitched a show about an old woman who travels around the country visiting her friends and solving crimes anymore.
May32011
1.5 “It’s a Dog’s Life” aka THE ANIMALS ARE THE MURDERERS
Original air date: November 4, 1984
Wikipedia synopsis: Man’s best friend gets a bad reputation when a fox hunter dies in a riding accident and the authorities try to blame the heir to his estate, his beloved pooch.
For some reason, Netflix has this episode play instead of Episode 1.4 “Hooray for Homicide”. Anyone else have that problem?
Anyway, we meet yet another member of the widespread Fletcher clan—this time a British cousin played by Lynn Redgrave. Are the people in this family just unusually mobile? Or was there a Fletcher male that was a transient and had all sorts of secret families around the globe? I need to know.
Let me just say I loved this episode. It was like Jessica Fletcher meets Wishbone. Or Angela Lansbury in “All Creatures Great and Small.” She rode a horse. She investigates why a gray mare and a hound to go on a killing spree.
Seriously, a dog murders a woman by closing an automatic gate on her head. This is the best show ever.
But, y’know, animals aren’t completely conscious or aware of their actions like a human so naturally he was not convicted (but he did get put in jail, obvious natural course of action in line with logic).
The scene where Mrs. Fletcher is in the hands of the potentially murderous son and random hillbilly with a gun reminded me of “Winter’s Bone”. This is high level stuff.
Questions:
- FLETCHER FAMILY TREE. Find it. I will start a Fletcher birther movement.
- What happened to Mrs. Fletcher’s book? It was not mentioned in this episode. Perhaps the episode mix up with 1.4 “Hooray for Homicide” explains it.
April272011
Dateline, Cabot Cove
Residents of Cabot Cove, Maine have had it with Angela Lansbury.
The picturesque town, of course, was the setting for the TV series “Murder, She Wrote.” Since the series’ own death in 1996, Lansbury has become a frequent vacationer and, many say, a nuisance. After spending three weeks last summer in her TV house, now a bed and breakfast, she refused to pay her bills. This is my house, she told the innkeeper. Twice she’s been cited for bicycle DUI, and once for lewd conduct with a lobster.
Dr. Seth Hasletch treated her for a jet ski related accident, another bill that went unpaid. Quote, “She wasnt just rude, she accused me of murder. She accuses everyone she doesn’t like of murder.”
“Angela feels like she made this town what it is,” says beauty parlor owner Loretta Spiegel. “Nonsense, ‘Murder, She Wrote’ made Cabot Cove look like a killing field, someone getting murdered every week. She’s done enough damage.”
-Mo Rocca’s fake story for NPR’s “Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me”
(Source: NPR)
April262011
1.3 “Birds of a Feather” in which Kenicke is a Drag Queen
Original air date: 10/14/1984
Wikipedia Synopsis: Pre-wedding jitters take on a new meaning for the fiancé of Jessica’s niece when he’s accused of a cabaret owner’s murder.
The premise of this episode is Jessica Fletcher takes what should be a relaxing vacation to San Fransisco for her niece’s wedding and-you guessed it-she become entangled in a murder investigation.
Surprisingly, this episode does not take place in Cabot Cove. Perhaps I misjudged the series and it is more along the lines of “traveling murder mystery” than “continual murders in a small town that seem to alarm no one.” I am genuinely interested in seeing how the show’s writers continue to justify the aura of death around Jessica.
Mrs. Fletcher’s task at hand is to ingratiate herself within the gruff police department of San Fransisco (in which all policemen behave like they’re from the Bronx) and subsequently clear her niece’s drag queen fiance’s name for the murder of a nightclub owner. Got all that?
I spent most of this episode fixated on hair than the plot. Why does the Fletcher niece look like Malibu Barbie meets Little House on the Prairie? Why are these wigs on the drag queens so bad? All the men have Kotter-hair syndrome. Alas, the fashion of the 1980s is strong with this episode.
Also, I am three episodes deep and Jessica Fletcher seems to have relatives coming out of the woodwork: first, her nephew Grady in the pilot was responsible for getting her book published, now her niece pops up and gets married in San Fransisco. Who are these kids’ parents? Why aren’t they or Grady at the wedding? Were they killed along with the mysterious Mr. Fletcher? I need a Fletcher family tree pronto.
These questions plague me as I watch each episode, but its out of love.
← Older entries
Page 1 of 2
