A series of encapsulations and accompanying thoughts for these episodes:
Episode 2 - "Deadly Lady"
A hurricane hits Cabot Cove, and a yacht is caught in the maelstrom. At the same time, a strange man claiming to be a drifter appears in Jessica's garden, offering to do repairs and odd jobs in return for a place to stay. Jessica quickly sees through his bogus hobo story, but before she can get any more answers he is found murdered, face down in the ocean.
The story then shifts focus to the people aboard the yacht, three daughters of a missing father - the dead drifter from the first act. Jessica analyzes their motives and alibis, and finally confronts the guilty daughter, who confesses.
Tom Bosley appears in his first of many turns as Sheriff Amos Tupper (more or less incompetent, but usually willing to entertain Jessica's ideas); the wonderful Claude Akins appears in the role of Captain Ethan Cragg, local fisherman and friend to Fletcher. Sadly, he only appears in the first season, as the show begins to shed its provincial Maine trappings.
The false drifter and murder victim is Howard Duff, known for character parts from the late '40s into the '90s, perhaps most notably (?) as his role as Detective Sam Stone - both in the '60s Batman series, and then on Felony Squad. Also notable is Dack Rambo, playing the partner of one of the daughters.
Episode 3 - "Birds of a Feather"
I particularly liked this episode. Jessica goes to San Francisco (looking quite colorful and seedy in the '80s) to visit her niece, who is about to get married. Jessica gets dragged into a murdery mystery that hits close to home with the fiance (revealed to be a cross-dressing nightclub singer!) is accused of murdering his boss - the extremely unlikable nightclub owner.
Jessica's investigation centers on the various acts that perform at the club, including a "bah-dum-PISH" comic who plays the drums during his act, another cross-dresser, and the sinister widow of the owner. Another plot thread is Jessica's uphill battle to convince the San Francisco homicide detective to take her seriously - which is surprisingly funny and compelling. Ultimately he comes to listen to her intuition, and they solve the murder together.
The best thing about this episode, by far, is the fiance/accused murderer who is played by the wonderful Jeff Conaway (Kenickie from Grease; Bobby Wheeler from Taxi). Here, Conaway basically plays Bobby Wheeler from Taxi, and there are a couple in-jokes to that effect - a formal taxi driver meets pretty woman, moves to San Francisco but never loses the acting bug, and finding release as a cross-dressing singer (!!!).
The second best thing is the murder victim, the great Martin Landau. A weird coincidence here is the appearance of the actor Gabe Kaplan - why? Well, Martin Landau appears as a menacing henchman in the film North by Northwest, whose plot turns on Cary Grant being mistaken for a man named "George Kaplan" ... Strange.
The homicide detective is Harry Guardino, who has a great "tough cop" look and sound about him. The niece is the soap opera legend Genie Francis ("Laura" on General Hospital - anyone from the '80s will remember Luke and Laura's wedding).
Episode 4 - "Hooray for Homicide"
Jessica learns over the phone that her first book is being turned into a movie... but unfortunately it's a terrible low-budget horror movie with neon disco sequences (!). Jessica has a row with the producer, who notes that she signed over her creative writes to the screenplay. But soon after, the producer is murdered - and for the first time (but not the last!) Jessica is a suspect.
The other suspects include a dissolute set of actors and people from the producer's private life. Jessica is lucky that the lead detective knows her books and instrinctively likes her, and never seriously considers her as a suspect. Together, they piece together false alibis and clues until they correctly identify the murderer and the motive.
This episode features John Astin ("Gomez Addams" from The Addams Family TV series), Samantha Eggar (many many TV cameos), John Saxon (a cop or father or both in many films including Nightmare on Elm Street) and Virginia Mayo (many films of the big studio era). The detective is Jose Perez, who is great here.
Episode 5 - "It's a Dog's Life"
This is a strange one, but juicy. A millionaire patriarch dies mysteriously during a fox hunt, and leaves behind a video will leaving his entire $15,000,000 fortune to his dog. The rest of his family - a mix of kooks, alcoholics, and greedy jerks of various severity, go bananas and try to have the dog removed as an heir (!). Meanwhile, more murders occur.
Jessica has to unravel the mystery, which involves a misbehaving horse, a misbehaving dog, and a Scooby Doo-level ghost sighting. Ultimately the plot comes down to a great courtroom confrontation during the coroner's investigation, where Jessica unleashes her trademark analysis until the murderer cracks and reveals themself.
Episode 6 - "Lovers and Other Killers"
Another intriguing episode, which features Jessica traveling to Seattle (which looks really nice in 1984) to give a series of lectures on her novels. She hires a rather forward and aggressive male secretary, who is soon accused of murdering his previous employer - another wealthy older woman. Yup, he's into older women, and has set his romantic sights on Jessica, who shuts him down pretty harshly. Watching him hit on her is really uncomfortable. But no sooner does she provide him with an alibi then he's accused of murdering another woman - this time a young one. Will Jessica sort out the various shady men involved, their motives and opportunities, and catch the real killer?? Will she be pushed down some stairs by a shadowy suspect?? Yes, yes she will do all those things.
A small side plot involves Jessica's host and old friend - a university dean who invited her to appear in the first place - and his secretary who is quasi-secretly in love with him. It's notable that this episode has different opening graphics than the rest of Season One, and I don't know why. Also worth noting is that the shot where she is pushed down the stairs is used in the opening sequence in future seasons.
Jessica's university dean friend is Peter Graves (from Mission Impossible, among many other roles). The police detective is Greg Morris (...also from Mission Impossible). The young secretary who creeps on Jessica is Andrew Stevens (who had a running role on Dallas, among other shows). I didn't particularly find this one compelling, but it certainly was seamy.
Episode 7 - "Hit, Run and Homicide"
This is a dumb episode, I'm not going mince words. It's watchable, but only just. The plot revolves around a driverless station wagon (?!) that has appeared in Cabot Cove, chasing people down and terrorizing them. Ultimately, the phantom station wagon commits a murder and it's up to Jessica to figure out what the hell is going on. At one point Jessica gets stuck IN the rogue station wagon, which is supposed to be harrowing and threatening but plays out as campy and humorous.
This felt like one of those obligatory "gadget" episodes that '80s shows tended to have. "Technology is scaaaaaaaaary! SCAAAAAAARYYYYY!!" they warn us. I'm sure it won't be long until I come across an episode where a computer kills somebody.
This episode notable for the appearance of Van Johnson, who plays an eccentric local inventor and friend of Jessica. Another veteran of the '40s and '50s appears as well - June Allyson. Also present is Patti D'Arbanville, who was once a member of the Andy Warhol troupe.
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