TV on DVD Buzz

This week’s TV on DVD Season I am going through and doing wrap ups of is the double sided 3 disc Murder, She Wrote Season 1 set. I will be posting about one disc each day until this Saturday. This is the wrap up of Side A of Disc 1.

“The Murder of Sherlock Holmes - Pilot” - Yes, one of the minority of shows that has given there pilot show an actual title and not just called it pilot. The episode starts with a woman coming downstairs to find the doors open and then finds a man with an ax in a closet. Lights come on and it is revealed to be a rehearsal for a play. Jessica Fletcher is introduced as being there as part of the PTA in charge of refreshments. They are hurried out by the director, who is stunned that Jessica already figured out who the murderer was. Jessica Fletcher’s nephew Grady tells her about finding her manuscript for her book and found a publisher that wants to publish her book. It then skips to a scene of it being a bestseller and being booked to be on a television show. Before the two friends from the PTA help her get a makeover. Grady meets Jessica at the train station in New York. The next couple scenes are promoting the book tasks such as television interviews, book signings, and radio interviews. She is overwhelmed by New York City and is about to leave to go back to Cabot Cove, but her publisher convinces her to come stay the weekend at his mansion with some real people. It turns out the party is a costume party of favorite literary characters. At the party Grady finds a Private Investigator going through his room. The next morning a body dressed as Sherlock Holmes is found in the pool having been killed with a gun shot wound to the face. Jessica looks around the property looking for clues and the Chief Detective ends up confiding in her and asking for her help. Jessica notices the shoes the body was wearing was probably the private detective and not the Captain Caleb they originally thought it was. Jessica thinks the killer might have been trying to kill the private investigator or the Captain depending on who they thought the person was. Again Jessica is about to leave to go home, but then she learns that Grady was arrested as a suspect in the murder of the PI. It seems Grady is also accused of being involved in stealing money from the company he works for, which the PI was looking in to and why it seems he had a motive to murder the PI. Jessica’s published bails out Grady. Jessica goes to a harbor to see the Captain. Grady and Jessica go to Grady’s office at night to try to figure out who is really the one stealing money from the company. This leads her to a co-worker named, Ashley, and a man that suddenly has come into money to put on a new musical. They admit to the money fraud, but not murder. The Captain’s body is found on his sailboat, which leads to them realizing he was the original intended victim. Yet again about to leave for Cabot Cove, but Jessica leaves the train and decides to go to New Holvang (where the PI was murdered) instead after getting some sort of clue after reading something in a newspaper. The house is deserted at first, but then the publisher shows up. She realizes that the light in the backyard was enough to have known that they were really killing the PI. She realizes that he purposely killed the PI, who was blackmailing the publisher because he figured out that he was an escape convict, although he was a scapegoat for the crime. He turns himself in and it is hard on Jessica because she had fallen in love with him. Grady takes Jessica to the train station and she finally does actually leave on the train, although it ends with her being intrigued about a case the New York Police want her help with and possibly considering helping as the train pulls away with her still in the entryway to the train car.

“Deadly Lady” - A hurricane is storming and Jessica is finishing a few last paragraphs on her next novel before bed. A local policeman checks in on her and tells her about a yacht being in trouble out in the storm. The next morning a man working for food helps her with jobs around her house and yard. The sheriff calls Jessica and he thinks a murder occurred in relation to the yacht from last night. She talks to the four girls (sisters) on the yacht about their father being washed overboard in the storm. It seems believable at first, but the sheriff is not convinced there is no foul play until the body is found and examined. Jessica learns from one of the daughters that none of them were very found of their father. Jessica realizes the yacht was in the eye of the storm if the women were not lying about the time and location they were when their father went overboard. When she tells the sisters one admits to killing him. Jessica finally sees a photo of the father and recognizes it as the man that was helping fix things around her house in exchange of food. The body is then found washed ashore. One of the daughter’s ex-boyfriend that left her arrives in Cabot Cove to console her. The sheriff talks to the one that admitted to killing her. This is when she admits that she was originally the scapegoat to make it seem like her father was dead while he hid out. They did it to bring out the fortune hunting ex-boyfriend that the father was worried about hurting his daughter because he was not really in love with her. That worked, but then the father ended up actually dead. They find a heel from a shoe that belongs to the daughter of the one with the ex-boyfriend. Jessica agrees with the sheriff arresting her, but as a plot to help solve the crime. When the boyfriend shows up he basically just makes sure he cannot be considered an accessory to the murder. She realizes one of the other daughters killed their father and tried to frame her sister, who was the only one she felt her father loved.

“Birds of a Feather” - Jessica goes to San Francisco to do some publicity things for her books and visit a niece that is about to get married. She suspects her fiancee is cheating on her and the two of them go to a nightclub that she found matches from in her fiancee’s possession. It turns out he was a drag queen at the club. The night they go to the club and find this out the host Drake is killed and her fiancee is suspected of the murder. Jessica goes down to the police station to talk to him and gets him a lawyer because she believes he is innocent. The police find that the murder took place in a 15 minute time frame while a comedian using drums was performing. A woman fired from the club the next day thinks it might have been Mrs. Drake, who is having an affair with one of the drag queens. Also, she tells Jessica about the comedian’s manager being mad about not being able to get the comedian out of his contract to go for better contract offers that were coming in. At the club looking into the case Jessica and the comedian are almost crushed when lighting falls on to the stage. Jessica realizes the owner was murdered before the comedian went on stage and was not heard because he muffled it with a pillow and the comedian committed the murder. In the end Jessica’s niece is married.