Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series

Getting to the bottom of a series like Murder, She Wrote is a daunting task. If you watched just one episode a day every day, it would take you nearly nine months to watch through the entire series. You certainly can binge-watch through the entirety and the four made-for-television films that followed, but even that’d almost 9 full days of your life! That’s a lot of Angela Lansbury as crime novelist and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher. But you know, it’d be worth it!

As a child of the ‘80s, Murder, She Wrote was just part of what television was for me during those formative years. I didn’t have cable until I was well into my teens, so we just had the three major networks and a couple of small UHF stations. If we didn’t watch an episode of Murder, She Wrote here or there, we certainly saw the ads for that week’s episode. For how my brain stores information, Dame Angela Lansbury simply is Jessica Fletcher. That’s it. No one else.

I remember being stunned when someone told me she was the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast like she actually did other work beyond that TV show! Of course, I now know and accept that she was a legendary Oscar-nominated, Emmy, and Golden Globe-winning actress with incredible credits as long as my arm not to mention numerous Broadway accolades, but Jessica Fletcher is always on my mind. Watching Gaslight, my brain says, “Oh, Jessica Fletcher as a floozy!” Watching Death on the Nile, “Oh, it’s Jessica Fletcher as an alcoholic romance novelist!” Watching The Manchurian Candidate, “Oh, wow… Jessica Fletcher has some issues.”

All of that is to say that some stars might not be able to escape the character they’re most famous for, and that’s perfectly okay in the case of Murder, She Wrote. Of the numerous murder mystery and detective shows, this series has to be among the most pleasant. Right from the opening credits, there’s a lighthearted air to each episode that puts you at ease but gets you ready for the mystery to come. Of course, murder is a deed most foul, but the show never glorifies it, nor does it bask in the gnarly details. Instead, the series focuses on how Jessica Fletcher spots the little details that make her novels the best sellers they are. One mystery to the next, we get one tantalizing mystery after another populated with an incredible assortment of guest stars. 

And speaking of special guest stars, a highlight case is when Jessica Fletcher and Thomas Magnum join forces. For this box set, Universal thankfully included the Magnum P.I. episode Novel Connection (Season Three Disc Two for those who want to jump right to it), so we get the full story. While they didn’t offer the original broadcast version of the episode that ends on the appropriate cliffhanger, it does serve its purpose of dovetailing into the Murder, She Wrote episode Magnum on Ice. It’s a fun jaunt watching these two conflicting character personalities work together. On one hand, Jessica doesn’t give Magnum enough credit as a shrewd private investigator. On the other hand, Magnum has to eat his own words when the “novelist” catches all the clues he missed.

But that leads us down the path of the incredible number of memorable guest stars featured in this series. Pick an episode, any episode, and you’ll find the likes of George Clooney, Barbara Babcock, John Astin, Jessica Walter (again, that Magnum crossover is great!), Len Cariou, and Claude Akins. Then you get some real treats when you’ve got multiple guest stars with the likes of Cesar Romero and Robert Goulet in the same episode! Or even more entertaining is Cogsworth himself, David Ogden Stiers, popping up in the TV film The Last Free Man along with an early turn from Walton Goggins. Unfortunately, we don’t get the full 16-episode single-season spin-off The Law and Harry McGraw for all of the fun Jerry Orbach brought to this series as that character. 

While I wouldn’t say every episode is a winner, some are certainly better than others; the series as a whole is a great time. My only small complaint is that the easy confessions can be a little deflating. I might also get a little quibbly about the episodes where Fletcher “introduces” an episode she’s not involved in, but those bookend episodes can still be quite fun.

I’ve never watched every single episode, but I’ve seen my share thanks to reruns late at night in my college years (I think it was T.V. Land that ran them?). I’d grab a DVD here and there at the local library, and various streaming services have made it easy to watch the show when the mood strikes. I love classic whodunit Murder Mystery television as much as I love old Western series. They’re my television comfort food. As I said, Murder, She Wrote is probably one of the most pleasant shows of the genre. Pick any episode of any season, and I’m willing to bet you’ll be immediately charmed by Lansbury’s iconic amateur sleuth. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 
Not wanting to parse the series out season by season, Universal Home Entertainment delivers Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series in one glorious 62-disc collection. 60 discs for the series, two discs reserved for the four television films. Each disc is a Region Free BD50 disc. Each season's set of discs is housed in its own clear case with individual trays, so none of the discs are stacked on top of another. An episode list for each disc is printed on the inside of the insert art, so you might have to move a disc to read the titles, but not a big deal. Each disc loads to a static-image main menu letting you choose which episode you want to watch, or a play all function if you’re up for binging it. All of the season cases are held together within a paper box that’s pretty thin, so be careful handling it around. At least it’s standard shelfspace dimensions, so it should nest nicely with the rest of your collection.

In other foreign markets, Murder, She Wrote already had a few seasons available on Blu-ray. I never purchased those since I didn’t feel the need to import them when it wasn’t a complete series, nor was there any sign that the other seasons were coming. To that end, I don’t have those discs for comparison. But after looking through and comparing numerous episodes to the Peacock stream, I’d say these transfers are of the same vintage. And that is something of a sliding scale. I did my best to watch at least two from each season, certainly blew past that in some cases, as well as the four TV films.

At first, jumping into Season One, I was a little worried about what I was seeing. At a guess, these first episodes are sourced from older HD masters as they just don’t look incredibly sharp and feature a number of compression issues. Film grain is intact, they don’t look DNR scrubbed, but some look like they got gut-punched by edge enhancement, and black levels can look a bit wonky and thick. One shot they could look beautiful and amazing, the next shot could be a bit gauzy-looking and unresolved. So for the first two seasons, I’d rate the proceedings as a 3.25-3.5/5. Not terrible by any means, but not altogether amazing. 

But as the seasons progress, the quality of the transfers greatly improves. By the time we’re at Season Three and Four, the show is looking pretty damn great. Roughly speaking, 90% of the time, each episode features a terrific, clear, and clean image with great image detail. Colors for all episodes are generally on the warm, friendly side of things, adding to that cozy, comforting quality. Primaries look great. Depth for most episodes is strong, and generally, black levels and shadows are a non-issue for most of the series. There’s a natural presence of film grain for most of the series, but it’s rarely noisy or intrusive. For seasons Three through Twelve, I’d rank these as strong 4/5 and even a few episodes I watched through as 4.5/5 transfers. They’re very good, and they just get better with each episode. Every episode is presented in its original 1.33:1 broadcast aspect ratio. 

Now for the made-for-TV films, they all look impressive, great details, clean image, no DNR or any outwardly intrusive edge enhancement, and the like. With that, only one of them, the first TV film 1997’s Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest is presented in 1.33:1. The next three A Story to Die For, The Last Free Man, and The Celtic Riddle are in 1.78:1. From my understanding they were all originally broadcast at 1.33:1 - I could be wrong there so if anyone is more familiar please chime in. I never saw these when they first aired, only on DVD, and that was ages ago. While the question of correct aspect ratio might be an issue for some, even if the latter three aren’t correct, they do look very good. I didn’t spot anything out of sorts from the reframing (if there was any), nothing looked too egregiously chopped. 

Overall, I’m very happy with the outcome here. Again, I was a little dubious after watching the pilot and a few more Season One episodes, but once I got into Season Two and beyond, the image quality greatly improved. 

One thing that’s universal through all of the episodes I watched and the TV films, they sound great. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 tracks for the series fit the show perfectly. The music cues, the dialog, and sound effects - all are on point without any problem. Given it’s such a conversation-heavy series, there’s not a lot of call for big action sequences, but when the tension mounts or if there’s a big party scene or a bustling street, the activity picks up nicely, giving an appreciative sense of space and dimension for those moments. Levels for each episode I watched through were right on point, no softness issues, no hiss, no dropouts or anything silly like that. All good clean audio.

It seems the focus on this set is to primarily deliver all of the episodes on disc as the bonus features are relatively sparse. Most of the extras here are your typical retrospective runs and cast/crew interviews. Universal is including that Magnum P.I. as an “extra” so I’ve listed it here, even though I feel it’s more of an essential addition given it’s the first part of the story. 

Season Three Disc Two

• Magnum P.I. - Novel Connection (HD 48:19)

Season Three Disc Five

• The Great ‘80s TV Flashback (SD 29:00)

Season Five Disc One

• Origin of a Series (SD 10:27)

Season Six Disc One

• Recipe for a Hit (SD 10:27)
• America’s Top Sleuths (SD 29:54)

Season Seven Disc One

• The Perils of Success (SD 8:40)

Murder, She Wrote is just great entertainment. In one of the bonus features, it’s described as “the show you turn on with your TV dinner and crawl into bed with.” I like that sentiment. I also like to slide this series into that tier of shows that I very affectionately describe as “Grandmatainment.” We weren’t dedicated watchers at my house; we’d see an episode here and there, but my grandmothers would tune in for every episode. Whenever I catch up with this series, I get that warm/fuzzy hit of nostalgia of hearing those two old birds describing the plot. As a murder mystery series, I get a kick out of it and am impressed that it had such an impressive run. Twelve seasons with four TV films is quite the haul, and through it all, Angela Lansbury is there as Jessica Fletcher to solve the case, or at least “bookend” that particular story. Now we can dive into the entire series anytime we like on 1080p Blu-ray. Overall, the entire series looks great, but the quality is something of a sliding scale and gets better with each season. Audio is excellent across the board, and there are some nice archival extras to look at. As my collection of classic mystery shows and westerns keeps growing, I have to call this release Highly Recommended. It may be a bit pricy to nab the whole series in one go, but for the current price point, you’re paying only around $0.55 an episode! Not too shabby for about 216 hours of entertainment.