Tright here aren’t many reveals as comforting, as compelling, as damnably good-natured as Homicide, She Wrote. There has additionally by no means been, and by no means can be once more, anybody like Jessica Fletcher. Over 12 seasons and 264 episodes of award-winning, critically acclaimed tv, a widowed English instructor turned crime novelist grew to become one of many biggest fictional sleuths of all time.
Let’s begin with the girl on the centre of all of it: Angela Lansbury. It’s possible you’ll know her as Miss Value from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, or because the singing teapot in Magnificence and the Beast. However earlier than Homicide, She Wrote rolled round, Lansbury was not a worldwide family title.
All of that modified when Homicide, She Wrote’s feature-length pilot, The Homicide of Sherlock Holmes, aired in 1984. This candy, succinct episode introduces us to Jessica Fletcher, a part-time instructor who lives alone at 698 Candlewood Lane, within the fictional city of Cabot Cove, Maine.
Her nephew Grady, who works in publishing, telephones to let her know that he secretly gave her crime novel manuscript to his boss, who beloved it. Quickly, Jessica has a significant publishing deal and is whisked off to New York on a whirlwind press tour. However when a homicide happens at a swanky soiree she has been dragged to, we – and Jessica herself – uncover that she has a thoughts like a metal lure, her instinct compelling her to unravel the case.
Jessica, it seems, has twin superpowers: a genius-level mind for crime fixing, and an innate kindness. Her manners, empathy, and her cussed willingness to see the great in folks, batters down even the staunchest, prickliest opposition in her path. As a plot gadget, it’s sensible; Jessica can allure her means in anyplace.
With out a badge, her presence at crime scenes could be a little bewildering, however by the point the second episode rolls round, we’re handled to a time-jump: she is already a number of years into her writing profession with a slew of bestsellers behind her, which implies JB Fletcher is now one thing of a celeb. Gatekeepers between her and a criminal offense scene are both starstruck, charmed, or scolded (in a grandmotherly means) into letting her take a fast look-see on the tragedy in query. And as soon as she’s in, she’s in. The case is afoot.
Cabot Cove, Jessica’s sunshine-and-doily-drenched Gotham, is a captivating place. BBC Radio 4 as soon as declared it the homicide capital of the world, with its 3,560 residents being subjected to a median of 5.3 murders yearly between 1984 and 1996. That makes this sleepy seaside hamlet about 50 occasions deadlier than Honduras. No marvel Jessica is such a dab hand at homicide mysteries – her residence city is neck-deep in loss of life. Cabot Cove’s graveyard should be overflowing.
Homicide, She Wrote was healthful past measure, however it additionally took some massive swings. In its third season, it staged a wild, formidable crossover with Magnum PI. In Magnum, our titular detective (Tom Selleck) works for, and lives on the property of, the elusive creator Robin Masters. When a few of his home friends are nearly killed, Masters brings in somebody he trusts to help: Jessica Fletcher. Jessica and Magnum initially butt heads, however finally find yourself working collectively – and if it’s fallacious to yearn for 2 characters to fall in love this a lot, then frankly I don’t need to be proper.
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There was even the notorious VR episode, the place Jessica finds herself writing the script for a VR sport, A Homicide at Hastings Rock. The lead developer is Michael Burke (Kevin Sorbo, previously TV’s Hercules and now Hollywood’s rightwing pariah). When the pinnacle of the corporate finally ends up useless in a VR sales space, Michael is blamed, and Jessica – goofy goggles and all – has to unravel the homicide. If it had been anybody else however Jessica Fletcher, we’d have bailed. However with Homicide, She Wrote, it’s arduous to not shrug and take part, irrespective of how weird the trip.
Lansbury sadly died in 2022 on the age of 96, however there’s one thing eternally very important about Jessica Fletcher. There’s additionally one thing deeply edifying about having an older girl play the hero, not to mention a hero whose age and gender rank amongst her biggest property. And although the present completed again within the 90s, maybe Jessica Fletcher remains to be in Cabot Cove, fixing murders and pumping out bestsellers. In spite of everything, if there was anybody who might allure the grim reaper himself into backing off, it’d be her.
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