Episode 15 - "Powder Keg"
What a nasty, nasty episode! Damn if this isn't the most unpleasant episode I've seen so far - vicious rednecks, cruel rednecks, stupid rednecks, virulent racism, a lynch mob (!), a murder victim who THOROUGHLY deserved it, and women who are thought of as possessions if they are thought of at all.
In this hornet's nest falls Jessica and her friend the professor Ames Caulfield when his car dies just outside of a small town in "Roper County." The local yokels take visible delight in cheating the professor on the repair, and Jessica is stuck in town for the weekend. Soon after, at the world's worst bar ("Kelso's"), there is an exceedingly ugly incident where a real piece of crap threatens a country musician; happily, the slime is murdered later that night. Unhappily, the musician is blamed for the murder and shoved into jail. Soon the local morons form a lynch mob because "justice" ain't gettin' done fast enough for their likin'.
Meanwhile, the hapless black sheriff is barely holding on to law and order, and Jessica somehow visits all these scenes and manages to solve the crime (and it's a good solution, although maybe I say this becaue I actually saw it coming).
It takes a lot of good actors to portray people this horrible. The sister being fought over is Cindy Fisher, who had a number of bit parts before Murder, She Wrote - which appears to be her final screen credit. Jackie Earle Haley does a great turn as one of the more braindead rednecks; he is best known as the immortal Kelly Leak from from Bad News Bears, and also from his recent turn as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot.
The put-upon sheriff is Dorian Harewood, and he has spent the last few years making excellent use of his wonderful voice - he appears in cartoons and video games like Diablo III, Land Before Time, Batman, Biker Mice from Mars, etc etc. Finally, Bill McKinney appears here (somewhat typecast) - he's best known as one of the pitiless inbred monsters from the movie Deliverance.
Episode 16 - "Murder in the Electric Cathedral"
This one sort of picks up the "Southern Gothic" thread left by the previous episode - we have an enclave in Texas or Oklahoma in which a group of greedy, small-minded grotesques are all suspected in a murder. An elderly matriarch (and Jessica's friend) owns some very oil-rich land, but dies mysteriously of cyanide poisoning. Who inherits? The reverend of the "electric cathedral" (television preacher), the woman's grasping stepson and his son, or one of the women orbiting around them? There is a fake will, a secret diabetic, and affairs galore. It's rich stuff, and good thing Jessica is there separate truth from lies.
Richard Herd is here! Best known as a cop, priest, or authority figure in such movies as Sgt. Bilko, Gleaming the Cube, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Summer Rental, Trancers, Private Benjamin, FIST, and more. Steve Forrest appears as the reverend, one of his five appearances on Murder, She Wrote; he is also known from SWAT, Dallas, and The Baron. Finally, Dick Van Patten appears as the inept policeman. He's best known from Eight is Enough, and many many other television roles.
Episode 17 - "One Good Bid Deserves a Murder"
The return of Harry McGraw! Jessica is asked to be a proxy for a celebrity friend at an auction - he wants to buy the diary of a woman who killed herself, to destroy it and spare her reputation. But Jessica's celebrity friend is found murdered - and then auctioneer is also murdered, and Jessica has to figure things out but quick, as she is a suspect!
Enter Harry McGraw, who is investigating and helps Jessica out by pretending to offer for sale a photocopy of the diary, and lure the termites out of the woodwork. A secretive chess set comes into play, which I particularly liked - how often does that happen?
Good acting here: McGraw, of course, is still Jerry Orbach, who is still great. Psychiatrist Sylvia Dunn is played by Karen Black, known from many movies including House of 1000 Corpses, Dogtown, Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean, Nashville, and many others. Irish actor Edward Mulhare is here, previously known from Knight Rider and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. Vic Tayback is also here, whose memorable face has been seen in movies like Bullitt and Papillon, and - of course - the immortal Mel, the owner of the diner on the hit show Alice.
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