Nerdly » ‘Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series’ Blu-ray Review

25th Jun2025

‘Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series’ Blu-ray Review

by Jason Lockard

Stars: Angela Lansbury, William Windom, Richard Crenna, Ray Baker, Ron Masak, Robert Mailhouse | Written by J. Michael Straczynski, Peter S. Fischer, Derek Marlowe, Mark A. Burley, Richard Levinson, William Link | Directed by Anthony Pullen Shaw, Walter Grauman, Vincent McEveety, Seymour Robbie

Dame Angela Lansbury had an illustrious career that spanned 80 years. The actress, singer and producer won many awards for her roles on stage and screen. Among her numerous wins were five Tony Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, 18 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award and she was nominated for three Academy Awards. These are just some of her well-deserved awards and nominations.

Dame Lansbury starred in such classic films as Gaslight (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). After an amazing career in film, Angela was offered the opportunity to star in two TV series. One a sitcom and the other a detective series, her agent convinced her to do Murder She Wrote, and the rest, as they say, is television history. Murder She Wrote turned 40 last year, and it is long overdue to see an epic, massive Blu-ray set. Well, the time has now come. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment have collected all 12 seasons and the movies on a gigantic 62-disc Blu-ray set for the first time ever!

Set in Cabot Cove, Maine, Jessica Fletcher is a mystery writer and amateur detective, played perfectly by the legendary Angela Lansbury who is quick to outwit both criminals and the police when it comes to solving a murder. In one of the longest-running and most beloved TV Series of all time.

Murder She Wrote ran for 12 seasons, a total of 264 episodes and 4 TV movies. The writing of these episodes are perfect. They have all the mystery of Agatha Christie novels with the amazing performances by Angel Lansbury. The series also saw some amazing guest stars including Tom Bosley, George Clooney, John Astin, Shirley Jones, Courteney Cox, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Rooney, Tom Selleck, John Amos, Wayne Rogers, Dorothy Lamour, Cyd Charrise and many more. This show was so good and it still holds up after 40 years later. No wonder this series won 4 Golden Globes. And Angela Lansbury was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama every single year of the series. That’s a record that probably will never be broken.

A little over a year after the series ended, Jessica Fletcher returned for another adventure in Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest, airing on November 2, 1997. But it still didn’t end there as at the beginning of the century Angela Lansbury would return to that iconic role for three more made for TV movies, Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die (2000), Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man (2001) and Murder, She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle (2003).

In 2013 there was a scheduled reboot of Murder She Wrote, which was to star Octavia Spencer. Producers decided not to go forward with the project. Then, 10 years later in 2023, we found out a film adaptation of the series was in development by Universal Pictures. At the end of 2024, it was announced that Jamie Lee Curtis had signed on to play Jessica Fletcher. For me, there will only ever be one Jessica Fletcher and as great as she is, it is not Jamie Lee Curtis.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment have collected the complete collection in a massive set. All 12 seasons and all for the reunion movie in one collection. They have transferred this collection to Blu-ray in 1080p. The series and the first TV movie are presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio; while the final three films are in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The audio is a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. There are also English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. The episodes and TV movies in this set look and sound spectacular. The remastered TV series really benefits from the high-definition presentation. The colours are bright and vibrant, and skin tones are correct. There are no signs of damage or digital artefacts found on these episodes and movies either.

In addition to the complete 12-season series and 4 TV movies. There are bonus features of The Great 80s Flashback, Featurettes: Origins of the series, Recipe for a Hit, America’s Top Sleuths and The Perils of Success. There is also the Magnum P.I. crossover episode. No,w a quick note on the bonus features. Many have wondered if the Magnum P.I. episode would be the original version or the syndicated version that tied everything up. It is the syndicated version. The one that is found on the Magnum P.I. Complete Series Blu-ray set.

Ultimately, this set is simply amazing. There is so much material here, and with this series on Blu-ray, it is the definition of bingeable! Plus, the box set is very handsome and will look amazing displayed on anyone’s Blu-ray shelf.