I love watching murder mysteries. And the shows I like the most aired in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. So it might not be a surprise that two of my favorite shows are Murder She Wrote and Midsomer Murders.
In this post I’m comparing Murder She Wrote versus Midsomer Murders. And if you’re not familiar with one or both of these shows, you’re in for a treat when you start watching.
Midsomer Murders still produces new shows, but I stopped watching when they replaced Tom Barnaby several years ago. Both shows are available on DVD and reruns are still popular.
Murder She Wrote
Murder She Wrote ran from 1984 to 1996 and had 265 episodes. You can also watch four Murder She Wrote movies that were released in the years following the television show.
Set in fictional Cabot Cove, Maine, the star of the show, Jessica Fletcher solved murders in the town and on her travels around the world. Angela Lansbury played Jessica Fletcher in what I consider her best acting role.
Murder She Wrote was designed to give you an hour break from the real world and take you back to a simpler time. While the show was set in the current times when it aired, the shows set in Cabot Cove remind me of small towns when I grew up.
The hour long show didn’t show a lot of violence and often included many humorous storylines. I still enjoy watching episodes and watch the series on DVD every couple of years.
Jessica Fletcher
The lead character, Jessica Fletcher, writes mystery novels and solves murders. It seems like everywhere Jessica ends up there’s a murder. My wife and I joke that she commits all of the murders and pins them on someone else.
Jessica has many friends including Doctor Seth Hazlitt, Sheriff Amos Tupper played by Tom Bosley, and Sheriff Mort Metzger.
Lansbury does an excellent job coming across as your aunt in the show. She visits many relatives during the series, and like Jessica, they always seem to be around murders.
Midsomer Murders
The year after Murder She Wrote ended its run, Midsomer Murders aired its first episode in 1997. A British crime drama, Midsomer Murders can be a little bit darker than Murder She Wrote. But it’s still a murder mystery show that offers a lot of entertainment and small bits of humor.
While they’re still making new Midsomer Murders episodes, I only watched a couple after they replaced the Tom Barnaby character. I don’t care for the new lead, so this information only covers the shows until 2011.
Set in the fictional Midsomer villages in England, the show takes you back to a simpler time with beautiful scenery and many old-fashioned values. If you miss the good old days, Midsomer Murders might be just what you need.
Midsomer Murder episodes run close to 90 minutes, so each is like a mini movie.
Tom Barnaby
Tom Barnaby, played by John Nettles, was the lead character from 1997 to 2011. He was a Detective Chief Inspector and worked with three different actors filling the Detective Sergeant roles during his time on the show.
Barnaby was smart but didn’t have any otherworldly characteristics like many fictional detectives. He solved most crimes using hard work and persistence. The character also doesn’t have many flaws like most television heroes.
He has a wife and a grown daughter who he has good relationships with and he doesn’t have a drinking or substance abuse problem. He makes mistakes like normal people, but in the end, he always gets the murderer.
I think that’s one of the things that draws me to Midsomer Murders so much. While the murder rate in the small area is unrealistic, everything else about the show seems real. Of course, the murder rate in Cabot Cove in Murder She Wrote would also come in as the highest in the real world by far.
Conclusion
You can’t go wrong watching Midsomer Murders or Murder She Wrote. Both shows provide a fun way to spend a little time forgetting about the world today.
I love both shows, but I like Murder She Wrote a little better than Midsomer Murders. But the main reason why I prefer Murder She Wrote is because I don’t have to pay attention 100% of the time to keep track of what’s going on.
Jessica Fletcher wraps everything up at the end of each episode and I never feel lost. But sometimes I miss something watching Midsomer Murders and feel lost the entire show.