Big ass boat
MSW: "My Johnny Lies Over the Ocean," in which Jessica travels with one of her many, many nieces on a cruise ship and you guessed it—solves a murder. This episode also includes one of my favorite things that ever happened on an episode of Murder, She Wrote:
Boxing ring
MSW: "Death Takes a Dive," in which Jessica works together with her old pal, Harry McGraw (Jerry Orbach) and LeVar fucking Burton.
MF: "Deadweight," in which shit goes down in a shady boxing tent and clearly, Constable Hugh Collins must intervene and fight in a boxing match.
MSW: "Death Stalks the Big Top," a two-parter in which there are many suspects, including one of the My Two Dads.
MF: "Blood and Circuses," in which Phryne goes undercover as a circus performer and as in most episodes, almost gets murdered herself.
MSW: "Old Habits Die Hard," in which this nun clearly did not commit suicide—she was murdered!
MF: "Unnatural Habits," in which not only did Phryne climb up that big ass boat, but she also snuck into a convent in a basket of her own dirty laundry to investigate the conditions of the "fallen" girls the nuns use to run their laundry. Spoiler alert—the conditions ain't good!
MSW: "A Fashionable Way to Die," which aired in 1987, so you know the fashion in it is AWESOME.
MF: "Murder à la Mode," in which clearly, both Phryne and Dot have to be in the fashion show at the end of the episode.
MSW: "Hooray for Homicide," in which some hack director takes the book that made Jessica famous, The Corpse Danced at Midnight, and tries to turn it into a cheesy horror flick. Needless to say, Jess is not amused.
MF: "Framed for Murder," in which the director is killed, so of course, Phryne has to step in and be director—she also gets to sleep with a hot extra because Phryne gonna Phryne.
MSW: "Harbinger of Death," in which yet another of Jessica's nephews is accused of murder. The planetarium proves truly useful in solving the case.
MF: "Death Do Us Part," filled with mysterious deaths, a flirtatious Ottoman prince, a wedding, a Phryne/Jack kiss—and obviously, a planetarium, duh.
MSW: "The Murder of Sherlock Holmes," which was the pilot episode! This episode also introduces us to Jessica's favorite nephew, Grady, who is the one that sends Jess' book (the aforementioned The Corpse Danced at Midnight) to a publisher, who in turn falls for Jessica and invites her to his country house for a costume party, where someone in a Sherlock Holmes costume is found dead in the pool. Let's start this series off with a bang!
MF: "Murder in the Dark," in which there is also a costume party. Wtf—maybe you should never throw a costume party if you have a pool . . . However, the pool murder in this one occurs before the party. This episode is truly, truly creepy with the guy who killed Miss Fisher's kid sister pulling some serious serial killer shit. Epic!
MSW: "Menace, Anyone?" starring a young Walter White and a young Sarah Connor. Someone blows up—but sadly not on the tennis court.
MF: "Game, Set, & Murder," in which some fucker puts a deathly poisonous spider in a tennis player's shoe. Who the fuck is that evil?? We also learn that the only thing Phryne is scared of is spiders. She even has to trap one in her bedroom with her diaphragm. Glorious!
MSW: "Sing a Song of Murder," in which Angela Lansbury plays a double role—writer Jessica Fletcher and her cousin, actress Emma Macgill (Macgill is Jessica's maiden name). You get to see Emma performing in a play, singing "Good-bye Little Yellow Bird," a song Angela Lansbury sang in the film, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Which, incidentally, is the film where Angela and its star, Hurd Hatfield became lifelong friends and he ended up appearing in three different Murder, She Wrote episodes! Also, Angela's own mother, Moyna appeared in the film as the Duchess—and Moyna's last name is Macgill, just like Jessica and Emma. Mind blown.
MF: "Ruddy Gore," in which we meet the delectable Lin Chung for the first time. There are ghosts and opium and of course, a Gilbert and Sullivan production.
MSW: "Lovers and Other Killers," set in motherfucking Seattle!! Represent! Also filmed there, including my favorite neighborhood, Pioneer Square. The university in question is never explicitly called University of Washington, but I'm just going to say that it is.
MF: "The Blood of Juana the Mad," in which Jack is ignoring Phryne because she's just too damn sexy, but they are brought together to solve a murder at a university—on a motorcycle.
MSW: "A Very Good Year for Murder," in which Jessica wears this jaunty wine cowgirl look. And of course, because it concerns Italians, this episode also concerns the mafia!
MF: "Death on the Vine," in which Phryne smashes grapes with her feet—and possibly her bare ass because she kissed one of the vintners while they were in the vat and I'm guessing they totally got down in there too.
I highly recommend you binge watch both series immediately. Yes, Murder, She Wrote has 12 seasons and some additional TV movies, but what the hell else are you doing during quarantine? I personally own both entire series on DVD because I'm old-school like that, but I do believe Murder, She Wrote is available through multiple streaming services (I could be wrong) and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is available through Acorn TV and multiple others.
