Angela Lansbury's most famous TV show is by far her most
overrated production
by
Avi Green
April 2, 2025
3 years ago, actress Angela Lansbury passed
away at age 96. She was pretty famous in her time for various
movies and TV shows, including the Manchurian Candidate from
1962, and there were examples from her resume that're quite
important parts of cinematic history.
But if there was one example I could cite from her portfolio that
wasn't worth the effort, it would have to be the 1984-96 TV series Murder,
She Wrote (there were also 4 made-for-TV movie continuations
produced up to 2003), which had some of the most stupefyingly weak
plots and scriptwriting ever to appear on the small screen. Some of
the approach used in the series had even already been used in better
shows like Perry Mason. So it's unfortunate that series
creators Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link
couldn't duplicate the artistic success of prior creations.
The premise was of Jessica Fletcher, a widow and former English
teacher who becomes a successful mystery novelist, living in a
fictional township called Cabot Cove in the state of Maine, way up
in the northeast USA. She travels to plenty of places besides just
her primary residence, and everywhere she goes, death seems to
follow. Many episodes involved at least one murder, and maybe two.
But again, some elements were so lethargically scripted, and hard to
swallow, like Fletcher snooping around in ways that could endanger
her life, if we look at this from a real-life perspective, which
live action shows like these can never seem to escape. One of the
most glaring mistakes I recall was towards the end of an episode,
when, having caught the culprits and a law enforcer was keeping them
at bay with a gun, Fletcher walked between the gun and suspects just
to keep company with a woman standing on the other side. Seriously,
didn't the producers understand just how dangerous that can end up
being?
We could also add how a squatter in an office building was
apparently allowed to remain there, even though that's illegal (and
then it turns out he stole a guy's hat), and that Fletcher just went
into the shaft earlier where he was hiding without even getting
anybody to back her up was head-shaking. And just because the
squatter saved Fletcher's life, that makes it okay to continue
littering up the shaft tunnel in the building?
Those are just some of the most implausible moments in the series,
which alas, wasn't as well plotted as some TV buffs and historians
must want us to think, and even some of the later writers assigned
to the series, like J. Michael Straczynski, don't appeal to me in
retrospect. All he for one did was set the groundswork for how
overrated his scriptwriting happens to be, as seen in his overrated
run on Spider-Man the following decade. It also didn't help that, in
contrast to Perry Mason, quite a few of the murder victims
in MSW were more likable people, and as a result, whenever
MSW posited a cheery tone, or even a sense of humor, it only became
additionally horrendous. It's fine to develop a show with an
optimistic view, but it doesn't belong in a series with such grisly
subject matter. Man, they sure knew how to insult intellects.
So what was so great about Murder, She Wrote anyway? It was
one of the sloppiest shows in terms of plotting and scriptwriting,
and doesn't hold up well after many years. Above all, it's insulting
to the intellect how a TV show is being marketed on the topic of
murder, putting the very word in the title as the creators did. A
similar argument could be made about the TV show "Diagnosis:
Murder" (which was a spinoff of Jake and the Fatman),
which went by an almost similar premise and starred Dick Van Dyke as
a doctor who solves the crimes alluded to in the title (if it sounds
reminiscent of Quincy M.E, it certainly is in some ways).
Well, we could honestly do without a series like that too.
Thankfully, it's been years since such TV shows were on the air, and
most of today's offerings aren't worth it even if they don't follow
the kind of premises employed by MSW. Lansbury may have
thought she was a genius with her "contribution", but she wasn't,
and neither were most of the other producers involved. It's not
something I'm happy to say, because there are films and other TV
programs in Lansbury's portfolio that are worth it. But Murder,
She Wrote was simply not a very good TV show for its time, and
it hasn't improved with age. Indeed, it's only made a very unfunny
joke out of prime time television.
Copyright 2025 Avi Green. All rights reserved.
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