For twelve seasons, the award-winning television drama series Murder, She Wrote entertained millions of viewers each week. The series starred the iconic Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, a mystery writer and amateur sleuth. Angela Lansbury was no stranger to being in mystery films as she had major roles in a pair of Agatha Christie novels adapted for film. She was Salome Otterbourne in Death on the Nile in 1978 and played Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d from 1980. After Murder She Wrote was not renewed for a thirteenth season, four made for television films were made once again starring Lansbury as the amateur sleuth! As many already know, those films are South by Southwest from 1997, A Story to Die For first shown in year 2000, The Last Free Man (2001), and finally The Celtic Riddle, which first aired in 2003.

Murder, She Wrote has had a variety DVD releases over the years and a complete set was also made available on DVD, but recently it was announced that the complete series plus the four films would be receiving a magnanimous Blu-ray release! Fans can now watch the beloved series in high definition!

To summarize via a quote directly from the Universal press release:” Angela Lansbury stars as Jessica Fletcher in one of the longest-running and most beloved TV series of all-time, Murder, She Wrote. Set in Cabot Cove, Maine, Jessica is a mystery writer and amateur detective who is quick to outwit both criminals and the police when it comes to solving a murder. Winner of 4 Golden Globes and nominated for 12 consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Actress in a Drama, the series showcases unforgettable guest stars including Tom Bosely, George Clooney, Shirley Jones, Courteney Cox, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Rooney, Tom Selleck, John Amos, Dorothy Lamour, Cyd Charrise and many more. In Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series, help Jessica get to the bottom of every crime she encounters in this completely remastered collection featuring all 264 episodes, 4 TV movies, and bonus features.”

There are sixty-two discs in this massive set, with the entire series running across sixty Blu-ray discs, while the remaining two discs are reserved for the four television films. Each disc is a Region Free BD50 disc. Each season’s set of discs have their own clear cases with individual trays, so none of the discs are stacked on top of another. This set is housed in a large paper box that is somewhat thin and arguably could have been better.

As far as they look in HD, overall, they are an improvement over the DVD counterparts, especially as the seasons progressed. All the episodes are in their original aspect ratio, which is 1:33:1. The first couple of seasons, however, are not the sharpest of the set. I noticed some issues with compression here and there. Some of the black levels look superb, but suddenly in another shot they look muddy. Starting with seasons 3 and 4, and beyond that, the image quality is a nice clean image with rich colors, deeper textures and strong details to interior and exterior shots. Shadow details and black levels look astounding. With each season the quality of the image continues to look better, and better and highly impress! Grain is present for the entire series and no DNR appears to have been applied to any of the seasons.

Regarding the four made for television films, each of them looks mighty impressive, with great details again to interiors and exteriors, boasting a nice clean image, with bold, rich colors.  And again, no DNR appears to have been applied anywhere. The first film is in the 1:33:1 aspect ratio, while the other three movies are 1:78:1 widescreen.

 For the audio, English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtracks for the entire series and the four films all sound great. The dialogue is easy to follow, the musical scores, action noises and other sound effects all came in nice and clear and nothing being overly aggressive or powerful. No issues were detected such as hissing, popping and crackling. English subtitles are available.

This series has some supplemental materials, which I have listed what they are and where they are located for those who are eager to dive right into those right away!

Season Three Disc Two:

Magnum P.I. – Novel Connection, which is in HD

Season Three Disc Five:

The Great ‘80s TV Flashback, this is in SD and runs about thirty minutes.

Season Five Disc One:

Origin of a Series. This is in SD and runs about ten minutes.

Season Six Disc One:

Recipe for a Hit, SD and runs close to eleven minutes.

America’s Top Sleuths, in SD and is around thirty minutes

Season Seven Disc One:

The Perils of Success, which runs for approximately nine minutes and is in SD.

Murder, She Wrote is mammoth set that is just wonderful with superior picture quality, especially the latter seasons, to go with the sharp audio and bonus materials. Any fans of this series should pick this set up in a heartbeat, it will be well worth your and money. This will be the holy grail for Murder She Wrote for years to come! Without question, this set is highly recommended!

Murder, She Wrote: The Complete Series

Director – Anthony Pullen Shaw(main director) + several others

Cast- Angela Lansbury

Country of Origin-USA

Distributor – Universal Home Entertainment

Number of Discs –62

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date- 6/29/2025