Television series

Murder, She Wrote

Name: Murder, She Wrote
Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery
Released: 1984
Cast: Angela Lansbury, Keith Michell

A tweedy, murder-strewn comfort blanket. Jessica Fletcher, mystery novelist and amateur sleuth, stumbles into a body roughly once a week across small-town Maine and beyond, and always works out who did it before the closing credits. It's gentle, formulaic, and utterly reliable — twelve seasons of Angela Lansbury being quietly brilliant while nobody ever gets too scared.

TVMaze rating

7.6

If you liked this

Columbo1968

The inverted mystery done to perfection — you see the murder first, then watch a rumpled genius dismantle the killer's alibi with maddening patience. Falk is a joy every single episode.

But No whodunit tension at all; if you need to not know the killer, this format will frustrate you.

Agatha Christie Poirot1989

David Suchet's definitive Poirot, handsome period production, and puzzle plotting so tidy it practically clicks into place. The gold standard for classic drawing-room mystery on television.

But Some later episodes lean darker and more melancholy than Christie purists or MSW fans might expect.

Midsomer Murders1998

An absurdly high body count dressed up in idyllic English countryside — if you love MSW's small-town-secrets formula, this multiplies it by ten and adds a sly sense of humour.

But Long-running and repetitive by design; the plots can feel interchangeable after a while.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Perry Mason1957

This is the show that essentially invented the 'confident amateur outsmarts everyone including the police' template Jessica Fletcher inherited decades later — same DNA, three decades earlier, in a courtroom instead of a living room.

The courtroom ancestor of every cosy TV mystery — Mason doesn't investigate so much as demolish witnesses on the stand until the real killer confesses. Crisp black-and-white, endlessly satisfying formula.

But Legal procedure replaces amateur sleuthing entirely; no small-town charm, just courtroom theatrics.

Death in Paradise2011

Sunny Caribbean setting, locked-room puzzles every episode, and a fish-out-of-water detective who solves things through sheer stubborn logic. Warm, breezy, never mean-spirited.

But The tropical postcard vibe can feel a little disconnected from the murders happening in it.

Father Brown2013

A soft-spoken priest solving village murders with moral clarity and gentle wit — same cosy engine as Jessica, different collar. Feels like a warm Sunday afternoon.

But Very episodic and low-stakes; if you want serialised tension, this won't provide it.

Monk2002

A brilliant, deeply OCD detective who can't stop noticing the one detail everyone else missed. Funnier and quirkier than MSW, but the same satisfaction of watching a mind work.

But The comedy is broader and the tone more sitcom-ish than Jessica's straightforward mysteries.

Castle2009

A mystery novelist teams up with a real detective to solve crimes — practically a modern, romantic-comedy remix of Jessica's whole premise, with snappier dialogue.

But Leans hard into will-they-won't-they romance, which can crowd out the procedural elements.

Diagnosis: Murder1992no page yet

Dick Van Dyke as a doctor who solves murders on the side — pure amateur-sleuth comfort food from the same era and network sensibility as MSW, right down to the guest stars.

But Distinctly cheesier and lower-budget; the mysteries are rarely surprising.

Soupçons2004

It's the sober, unresolved cousin of every armchair-detective instinct MSW indulges — same fascination with piecing together a death, but stripped of fiction's safety net, showing what the genre looks like without a guaranteed answer.

A landmark true-crime documentary series following a real trial with the same forensic curiosity Jessica brings to fiction, except the ambiguity never resolves into a tidy confession scene.

But Real grief, real consequences, and no satisfying certainty by the end — the opposite of cosy closure.