October 30th, 2007
Review – Murder, She Wrote – The Complete Second Season
Murder, She Wrote on DVD
The Complete Second Season (1984)
Starring: Angela Lansbury, William Windom
Every Saturday night for the last five months, my daughter and I have been pulling out a DVD from this collection and watching it together. Although there have been many complaints about the Season Two DVDs not working, we did not have any trouble with them, much to our dismay because as I wrote with my review of the first season, this series is utterly dreadful.
First things first… the collection has no bonuses of any kind. No interviews or special features or commentary. It’s just the 22 episodes making up the second season of the show. What you can expect from these episodes are stereotyped characters (the crotchety country doctor, the angry black man, the hard-boiled private detective) and lots of washed-up actors from TV shows of the 70′s (WKRP in Cincinnati, St. Elsewhere, One Day at a Time, The Match Game). Poor, uninspired writing characterizes the show. Every episode follows the same formula… introduction of a bunch of characters, a murder about half way in, the police are confused, and Jessica solves the case with the culprit eagerly confessing, followed by some not funny joke.
Although you can’t expect every episode in a season’s worth of a TV show to be perfectly written gems, some of these episodes are so boring and poorly acted that it is a struggle to get through them. The episode, Murder Digs Deep, which takes place on an archaeological dig and stars Robert Vaughn as some kind of nutty millionaire is particularly unwatchable but there are others just as bad. Jessica Behind Bars with Adrienne Barbeau and If the Frame Fits with John de Lancie are both fine examples of over-the-top acting at its worst. Even Angela Lansbury gets into the over-acting mood with her performance as Jessica’s identical cousin in the episode, Sing a Song of Murder. (Does anyone on the planet really have an identical cousin?)
It amazes me that this show was ever popular and managed to stay on the air for as long as it did. I can only assume that the audience for this show was desperate for anything attractive to their age group and drove up the ratings. Perhaps watching these shows today brings back some nostalgia for the long lost 80′s. If you have watched these shows on the Hallmark or Biography channels and find them enjoyable then go ahead and pick up these DVDs. But then you didn’t need my review to tell you anything about these episodes, did you?
