Another 24 episodes of Murder, She Wrote make their way onto DVD with the release of the show’s final season, although you might need to be told that, since there’s not much to define them from the first season, aside from the famous typewriter’s replacement with a computer in the opening titles.
Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is still a world famous crime author, who somehow manages to resist the temptation to re-write her experiences into any of the plots for her best-sellers. Even more surprisingly, she still manages to get herself invited to any number of parties and dinners, despite the very high probability that someone in expensive evening wear will get bumped off in a convoluted manner.
Although this reviewer has always had a sneaking affection and preference for Murder, She Wrote over, say, Columbo, we have to admit that the latter is the stronger show (better constructed, with a stronger sense of humour and, crucially, more skilled in its use of guest stars). It has to be acknowledged that, quite often, MSW’s acting – and the dialogue – of the visiting cast is pretty risible, although it could be argued that this is mainly because the series comes from a different era.
This is very much an anthology show, with each episode standing alone on its own merits. Quite often, the strongest (and only) merit is Angela Lansbury herself. Jessica Fletcher is not the most finely written of modern American TV heroes, but Lanbury lends her a careful and thoughtful grace, coupled with a strong feeling of righteousness that somehow never falls on the side of piousness.
However, for a show that was borne out of an aborted attempt to create an American version of Miss Marple, the plots just aren’t nearly clever enough. Sure, they hold the interest, and there’s very often a technical trick that gives the killer the motive, but the stories that Miss Marple found herself embroiled in were always about human fragility, jealousy, and obsession (in fact, technical tricks were more often to be found in the Poirot stories).
Admittedly, there is an attempt at this late stage to more implicitly acknowledge J. B. Fletcher’s career, so she’s seen giving lectures to aspiring authors about forensics and ballistics, travelling to the likes of Ireland, Rome and Mexico. In this fashion, it’s a lot more convincing than somebody dropping dead when Jessica is in town ‘to promote a book’. But, as we’ve mentioned before, there’s not a great deal that identifies this, the 1995-1996 season, from any one that went before. We’ll leave you to deduce if that’s a good thing or not.
Released on DVD on Monday 31st January 2011 by Universal Playback.