As I often do, I found myself at Best Buy today. I needed something new to watch. I searched the store for a TV series on DVD (I love those, no commercials). I found the Murder She Wrote TV series DVD collection (usually $249.99) on sale for $49.98. I laughed to myself, remembering what a great show that was, and bought it. I got home popped the first DVD (1 of 45) and enjoyed the entire thing.

Murder She Wrote has a simple premise. Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is a retired English teacher turned famous novelist. Her day to day life is filled with fantastic mysteries that she uses as fodder for her novels. She lives in Cobot, Maine, which, as an oddity, is the town with the highest murder rate in the world. In the show's 12 year run, there are 982 murders in Cobot. It's funny to think about the side effect of putting a murder mystery in a small coastal town.

Not many people know that Murder She wrote is one of the longest running mystery television shows of all time. It beat our Matlock, Perry Mason, and Ellery Queen (Murder She Wrote's spiritual predecessor). The really unique thing that contributed to Murder She Wrote's success was the remarkable cast of characters. Perry Mason had the "tough detective" and the "savvy lawyer". Matlock had the "simple country lawyer", but Murder She Wrote only had a middle aged writer. That's what made it great; A detective is expected to solve crimes, and a lawyer is supposed to know the law, but a writer that can solve a mystery is remarkable.

Murder She Wrote's only flaw is during the 6th season. Angela Lansbury is strangely lacking from most of the episodes, replaced by a motley crew of "friends". I'm not sure where the show was trying to go in the 6th season, but it just wasn't as good as the rest. There's a reformed jewel thief, an ex-spy, and a gritty private eye. The show just deviated too far from its winning formula. I think that sans the 6th season, the Murder She Wrote TV series DVD collection was a good buy at $50, but after watching it, I would have paid $250.