Murder, She Wrote: Complete Series 10/1/13 (1 Viewer)

[jimmyjet]

does casting try to keep people with similar general looks from being in the same show or movie ?

i dont recall being confused about this particular episode, but i have experienced being a bit confused when actors have similar general looks, especially when i have little to no past experience with them - which happens a lot with anyone past the 70s.

 

[Rob_Ray]

does casting try to keep people with similar general looks from being in the same show or movie ?

i dont recall being confused about this particular episode, but i have experienced being a bit confused when actors have similar general looks, especially when i have little to no past experience with them - which happens a lot with anyone past the 70s.

A *good* casting director will certainly take note of this. I recall Robert Wise, in a live interview, saying that while casting his films, he would pin 8x10s of his potential cast on the wall to see how they looked together.

 

[jimmyjet]

gila - the murder part of it may have been fine, i dont really watch the show in that way.

for some reason, i just did not like the story all that much. dont know why - just wasnt as much interested as i am for most of the episodes.

i thought maya mclaughlin had a real cute face (dena).

 

[Matt Hough]

LOL! And I thought this is one of the better of the latter era episodes. The mystery really is complex for a change, and yet I did manage to spot the drop of blood on the seatbelt. Usually they will do a close-up or at least linger a bit on a clue like that, but this time they whizzed right by it and it took an eagle eye to catch it. Not the first time a law enforcement officer turned out to be the killer, but it was still very enjoyable for me.

 

[jimmyjet]

hi matt,

most of my enjoyment seems to come from outside of "how well the mystery of the murder was shown". so we end up using different yardsticks.

maybe it was the acting that caused it to appear stale for me ?

i did not dislike it, it just did not hold my interest as much as most of the other episodes have done.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Just watched season 2 episode One Good Bid Deserves a Murder with Lansbury's Picture of Dorian Gray costar Hurd Hatfield and also with Karen Black, who was criminally underused, I wish she could have been used in a more major role on an episode. One of my favorite episodes so far was Jessica Behind Bars an enormous cast of great character actresses. Great to see Audrey Landers in If a Body could meet a Body.And one that at the end my jaw dropped to the floor on was Trial By Error, a really great episode.

 

[jimmyjet]

big easy murder - liked this one - pretty good story

1) i sure had the impression that the murderer pulled out a knife when jack ryan got killed ?

2) priscilla - i recognized her as the congress lady in jag

the only thing a little off about the casting is that she is light enough that i cant tell if she is black, puerto rican, etc. yet her 2 parents are black and fairly dark. not that it makes a difference in the quality of the show, but if they had wanted to be more accurate, they would have made at least one or both of the parents with lighter skin.

it made a lot of sense for emily to be cast with lighter skin, because the story would then have the believability that a white man could have been her father.

 

[Matt Hough]

It was all right, but any time the show has even a subplot concerning voodoo, I just roll my eyes. It's something the show fell back on a number of times.

 

[Matt Hough]

Just watched season 2 episode One Good Bid Deserves a Murder with Lansbury's Picture of Dorian Gray costar Hurd Hatfield and also with Karen Black, who was criminally underused, I wish she could have been used in a more major role on an episode.One of my favorite episodes so far was Jessica Behind Bars an enormous cast of great character actresses.Great to see Audrey Landers in If a Body could meet a Body.And one that at the end my jaw dropped to the floor on was Trial By Error, a really great episode.

Yes, all of those are among the highlights of the early seasons. "Trial by Error" was probably my favorite of the season.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

The season 3 two part opener wasn't the shows finest hour but again with most episodes it is the casting that makes the episodes fun.Currently on the Magnum PI / MSW crossover episode. Jared Martin is always great to see on any show. loved him on the classic episodes of Dallas as Dusty.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, most of the two parters seem like padded stories. In season 12, we're soon coming up to the two part "Nan's Ghost" that really isn't a good enough mystery to support the two episode length.

 

[jimmyjet]

home care - it was okay

didnt quite understand how they explained away the 3 other deaths that lila was involved in ?

i couldnt quite buy that lila would be standing there with the hypodermic needle in her hand ?

i knew she didnt do it though, because they were going out of their way to make her look guitly.

also not convinced that the killer would think he was dying when there was only water in the syringe ?

 

[Matt Hough]

This was not a particular favorite. Here's what I find rather mysterious about this episode. During its twelfth and last season on the air, CBS moved Murder, She Wrote from its familiar Sunday time slot to Thursdays at 8 opposite the high-ranking Friends on NBC. Naturally it got trounced in the ratings causing CBS to cancel the series after this season. But look at what was going on with this episode: a series of elderly people dying. No young audience was going to tune in for stories like this (even though Angela tried to beef up the guest cast with younger faces to garner some youth appeal for the show). This episode in particular just seemed tired and aged within the first ten minutes, and I think the show had just run out of gas.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

I watched the Night of the Headless Horseman, and The Corpse Flew First Class. I liked those two eps more so then Stage Struck. I really liked Corpse Flew, because I love a good confined to one area episode.
Headless Horseman I thought got really disturbing with the fact there was a beheading on the episode. Kind of surprised me I suppose most episodes have a murder but they seem so tame. (not saying this as a bad thing just caught me off guard which is a good thing)

 

[Matt Hough]

"Night of the Headless Horseman" was the first Murder, She Wrote episode that ranked #1 for the week of its broadcast. Just a bit of trivia for those interested.

Yes, I loved "Corpse Flew" as well. A complicated set of puzzles with very satisfactory conclusions.

 

[jimmyjet]

nan's ghost - i liked it

hi matt, i know you said somewhere that you werent crazy about it, but i thought it was pretty good.

about the only thing i can recall that was very unlikely is for jessica's stuff to fall out of her purse, and not notice that a big pocketbook was on the ground.

 

[Matt Hough]

This was another of those poor Bruce Lansbury-written episodes, so naturally there's an adulterous older couple (this time it's the wife who's the unfaithful one) along with a couple of other couples arguing and fussing until they work things out for the happy ending.

You know how much I dislike all of the "ghost" episodes on Murder, She Wrote as if someone wafting through hallways in bedsheets is a normal, everyday occurrence for thinking adults to just accept and not get to the bottom of instantaneously.

There really wasn't enough story to fill two episodes, so it seemed padded and slow moving to me. And the mystery, as in most Bruce Lansbury episodes, wasn't especially good with the minor clues like dirt under the nails and one brief mention of a street in town we don't really know about having to be the tip offs for Jessica (and the audience). And the whole business with the con woman "Zuleika" was so clumsily handled (with her being apprehended off camera mentioned at the end of the second episode).

No, I think this was a lesser couple of installments. The Hallmark Channel seems to rerun these two episodes more than just about any other dual episodes of the series.

 

[jimmyjet]

Shooting in Rome - liked it, happy ending and all

 

[Matt Hough]

The noisy squabbling between the star and the director got on my nerves, so the happy ending you liked made me roll my eyes. The mystery was OK but nothing special.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Even when they are the bad episodes they can still be fun, but I swear I wish someone would do a spoof of Gone Girl for the Oscars show and have Jessica come in and solve up the whole thing in minutes.