Kate Loves a Mystery Too

Mysteries abound in this great world of ours and the ones on television can be a fun diversion that's not always as mindless as other genres.  In this post I'm going to blab on about a few more of my favourite TV mystery shows, for organization's sake I'm going to stick with older "classic" shows, which I'm going to arbitrarily define as pre-90's just to make room for part three of this series.



As I mentioned in part 1 Murder, She Wrote was my first real exposure to the mystery genre and as I approached adolescence the show lost its appeal, I just now realized that it was also about when the show ended its original run so maybe I wasn't the only one tired of it at that time.  Fast forward a dozen years or so and I found myself re-enamoured of all the old shows of my youth.  To that end I began a slow, inconsistent trek through the adventures of that English-teacher-turned-mystery-novelist, Jessica Fletcher. I'm currently about halfway through the series, at the beginning of season 6 (of 12) and I'm still amazed that there's anyone left in Cabot Cove to be murderer/be accused of murder.  The sleepy little New England hamlet hides an underbelly of seediness and scandal that could have been a sugar-coated, rose-tinted version of Twin Peaks. Despite being a series that thrived on adultery, theft, greed, and death there is something quintessentially wholesome about Murder, She Wrote that makes watching an episode feel like eating fresh-baked cookies or chatting with an old friend. Mrs. Fletcher's relatives always seem so happy to see her despite the carnage she inevitably leaves in her wake. I've lost count as to the number of times her nephew Grady has been accused of murder just by around. I know I don't live in New York or anything but I've gone my whole life without being accused of murder even once. The often ridiculous situations and contrived plots are played totally straight by Angela Lansbury and company which is perhaps one of my favourite parts of the show. I love the absurd and ridiculous just as much as I do the mystery and trying to deduce the culprit's identity before it becomes too obvious. I find I've been going through Murder, She Wrote in bursts, I'll watch a handful of episodes then take a break for a while. Currently I'm on more of an X-Files kick to get in the mood for the new series and also I'm still immersing myself in the deliciously ludicrous world of Japanese tokusatsu show (which will be appearing on this blog at some point too, hey I'm diverse in my interests).

Columbo was a show I only saw intermittently in my youth but Peter Falk's bumbling, easily-underestimated-yet-calculating-and-brilliant portrayal of Lieutenant Columbo was always entertaining. During my first year working up in an isolated Northern community I mainlined Columbo through the complete DVD set my wife bought me for Christmas. From the first one-off TV movie from 1968 where Falk looks incredibly young (though he was already 40) to the final hurrah in 2003 where the rumpled detective looks uncharacteristically bronzed, Columbo was always clever and entertaining.  One of the fun twists in Columbo was that the episodes opened with the murder, negating the "whodunit" aspect of most mystery shows. I'm sure this made the series more difficult to write but they usually seemed to fill the longer running time without it feeling like things were dragging out. I love Falk's unassuming mannerisms and the idiosyncrasies with which he imbued Columbo that disarmed the culprits and made the final coup de grace all the more satisfying. I always got a little thrill hearing him say "Just one more thing." For such a low-key, seemingly easy-going character Columbo's adventures were still filled with excitement, though of the intellectual variety rather than explosions and junk. Columbo had a long run of 10 official seasons plus a bunch of specials spanning two networks and over 30 years.

Next up a show with a whole different aesthetic than the previous two, sports cars, tropical islands, bikini babes, and dobermans. Yeah we're talking Magnum, P.I. Tom Selleck's most famous role and the one that prevented him from being Indiana Jones.  The smooth talking private investigator who lived on the largesse of "Robin Masters" famous novelist much to the chagrin of stiff-upper-lip British major domo Higgins (played by a Texan, though you'd never know it). Thomas Magnum is a fun-loving, free-wheeling, episode narrating machine. His buddies go through hell for him, kicking and screaming along the way but never really staying angry. This show rarely passed the Bechdel test but the combo of TC the helicopter pilot and Rick, the manager of the King Kamehameha Club doing his best Bogart-in-Casablanca impression, gives this show a pass in my books. Magnum could be silly, he could get roughed up, and make mistakes but the audience was kept rooting for him. Magnum, P.I. is also notable because it was the first time a sympathetic attitude was taken toward Vietnam veterans. The show didn't glorify the war, in fact any plots that related to the war showed just how horrible it was for those sent to fight it as it was for the innocents caught between the superpowers. I enjoyed the interactions between Magnum and his war buddies turned sidekicks, and the uptight Higgins was always good for a laugh. One other character I should mention, especially since I kind of picked on the lack of female characters, is Assistant District Attorney Carol Baldwin who is a good friend and confidant of Magnum but never just one of his ladies. She is tough-as-nails and has been known to con Magnum into doing her dirty work even as he tries to scam inside info out of her. Carol is a great character who added to the show but is often overlooked by fans. Magnum, P.I. is really my friend the Proff's favourite and when she initially tried to get me to watch it I was only lukewarm about it, but now I've realized the error of my ways and after watching the whole series I appreciate it all the more.  One subplot I didn't care for as much was the "is Higgins actually Robin Masters?" thing that was introduced in later seasons. It made for a few good gags between Magnum and Higgins but it wasn't my favourite.

Well I think that's enough mystery for today. I might be able to milk a few more posts out of this topic than I initially envisioned, but I'll probably take an intermission from the mystery theme to write about one my other passions.

Until then I remain,
Inverse Square, Master of the UNKNOWN!(?)

(read part 1 here)