TV Show Review: Murder, She Wrote - Season 9

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Jessica is still solving enjoyable mysteries

Cons: Less screen time for Jessica means we don’t feel connections as much

The Bottom Line:

Ninth year solving crimes

We are losing connections

Still enjoyable

“I Guess I’ll Be a Little More Careful the Next Time I Run into an Innocent Looking Tourist in the Desert."

By now, we know what to expect with a season of Murder, She Wrote.  I mean, we are on season 9 after all.  The big changes of the show have happened already.  In fact, we’re getting some lasts already.  While the show isn’t as good as it once was at this point, it is still fun.

If you aren’t familiar with the show, it starred Angela Lansbury as mystery writer Jessica Fletcher.  Somehow, she manages to find herself involved in mysteries wherever she goes, and she has a knack for solving them.

Last season, she moved to New York City, at least part time.  And eight episodes take place in the city this season.  Another five take place in her home town of Cabot Cove, Maine.  And the rest?  They take place around the world as Jessica travels, either with friends, to promote her books, or just for pleasure.

What kind of cases does she tackle?  She solves the murder of the producer of a movie adaptation of one of her books.  While working on an audio version of her first book, she solves a murder at the recording studio.  Jessica becomes the inspiration for a comic strip character who is accusing people of crimes.  A murder in New Mexico is tied to a long-lost treasure.  Jessica is pulled into the murder of a florist in Beverly Hills.  And she must help clear her former research assistant of murder.  The problem?  The young woman is a habitual liar.

As I’ve been rewatching the series, I’ve been keeping track of how many episodes we actually got in Cabot Cove since it wasn’t every week even though people act like that was the case.  As I said earlier, we got five this season.  In the first, one of Jessica’s former students returns to town researching a book about a scandal from thirty years ago.  In the series’ only Christmas episode, the young man who just became engaged to a prominent family is accused of murder.  The theater in town is hosting a friend of Dr. Seth Hazlitt (William Windom), who is coming out of retirement.  An attempt by the owner of the military parts factory in town to find ways to keep the business running ends in murder.  And finally, a visiting romance author’s assistant is murdered.

Looking at our stats, that brings the total murders that Jessica has solved in Cabot Cove to 39.5 (watch season 1 if you want to understand that half).  Of those, 27 involve residents and 13 involve people visiting the town who find it the perfect setting for a murder.  The total count of murders that Jessica has solved is up to 182.  That means that 21.7% of the cases in the series are set in Cabot Cove.  That’s essentially the same as the stats from last season.  Okay, that might be a higher percentage compared to the normal small town, but it’s a safe place to live, right?

Those Cabot Cove episodes become even more of a highlight this season.  It’s nice to see Jessica interacting with Seth and Sheriff Mort Metzger (Ron Masak) and other characters we’ve gotten to know.  The reason these episodes stand out in everyone’s mind is because of those relationships.

Of course, we do have some other recurring characters.  Sadly, this is the last time we see several of them.  Len Cariou’s last appearance as Michael Hagarty, Keith Michell’s last appearance as Dennis Stanton, and Julie Adams’s last appearance as Eve Simpson all take place in this season.

There are some firsts to off set them, however.  Herb Edelman shows up as Lieutenant Artie Gelber, who would show up again in season 10 and 11 as the NYC detective we’d get to know the best.  Ironically, in his first appearance, he’s about to retire, but he winds up staying so he can buy stuff for his grandkids.  We also meet Chicago PI Charlie Garret as played by Wayne Rogers.  He’d show up again in the rest of the seasons.  Finally, we meet Lieutenant Gabriel Caceras who was played by Gregory Sierra.  Interestingly enough, he references a previous case that Jessica had solved for him, but best I can tell this is the first time we met the character.  But he would show up again twice in season 11.

By this point in the series, Angela Lansbury was getting very worn out by the schedule she had for filming.  As a result, the writers created more scenes she wasn’t in to cut down her filming schedule.  I get it.  And I prefer these episodes to the ones where she just introduced the story of the week.  But still, we are missing something with less Jessica.

Part of what we are missing is the time for her to show her range.  Mind you, I’m not criticizing her performance in the slightest.  She is still fabulous as Jessica.  But in earlier seasons, she got to play around a bit more, going undercover or acting differently to catch a suspect off guard.  There isn’t time for that any more, and I miss it.

I also miss the feeling of connection to the characters we used to have.  A couple of times, I had to wonder about Jessica’s connection to the case at all.  We get no cases involving her extended family in this season.  And even when meeting up with friends, we don’t get the scenes to truly feel their friendship often.  Again, it’s a result of Jessica having less screen time and nothing else. 

I didn’t recognize quite as many guest stars as I often do.  But among the guest stars I did recognize, we have Cesar Romero, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Amy Brenneman, Larry Wilcox, Sean O'Bryan, Robert Beltran, Cynthia Nixon, Margot Kidder, David Lansbury (Angela’s nephew), Lyle Waggoner, Neil Patrick Harris, Lee Meriwether, and William Katt.  As always, it’s fun to see people I recognize pop up.

Last season, I mentioned the J. Michael Straczynski had come on board as has a writer/producer.  He was only here for half of this season before leaving to work on Babylon 5, my favorite TV show of all time.  But fans of both shows will not only recognize a line he’d twist a little and reuse in Babylon 5, but also a blink and you miss him appearance by Ed Wasser.

I do have to talk about the strangest episode of the season, possibly the series.  A skeleton found in Florida ties in to the JFK assassination.  Now, I’ll grant you this show stretches credibility on a regular basis.  But this?  Please.  It’s also seemed an odd topic for this show to try to work in.  But I also realize I’m not of the right generation to find it interesting.  That’s my parent’s generation.  Maybe if I’d been alive for the historical event, I would enjoy it more.

I will give the show credit for this.  The mysteries are always still fair play.  Sometime, they even make the clues a little too obvious.  But it’s fun to play along.  Even though I’ve seen these episodes before, I can’t always remember who the killer is.  And sometimes, I think the clues point to the wrong person only to have Jessica set me straight at the end.  But when I get it right, I am proud of myself.

One last thing.  Last season, Jessica got a computer, and we see her using it to write quite a bit.  Heck, we even see her on an old, clunky laptop at one point.  (Got to laugh at how the technology has aged.)  But the opening credits still only show her using the typewriter.  In fact, the scenes in those credits haven’t really changed in multiple seasons.

While season 9 of Murder, She Wrote isn’t the show we fans fell in love with, it is still an entertaining mystery show, and it’s still fun to watch Jessica in action.  Fans will enjoy catching up with her here.