There are many ways to measure Murder, She Wrote. Here, I’ll be collecting and presenting MSW data as we journey through the series. To begin with, here’s a look at the number of murders per episode, through Season 1 Episode 7:
My working theory is that all motives for murder can be boiled down to three categories: Fear, Greed, and Revenge. This includes, to my mind, even the “noble” motives of self-defense and love, as essentially fear. In S1 E6: “Lovers and Other Killers” we first encounter jealousy as a motive for murder. I’ve decided that jealousy belongs under Greed. Have thoughts? Let me know!
This one’s a little more abstract. The chart below tracks the point in the episode when the murder is discovered. The later the murder occurs in the episode, the more opportunity we have to get to know the victim. For instance, S1 E2: “Deadly Lady” gives us a multi-dimensional, possibly even sympathetic victim, Steven Earl, who is not killed off until halfway through the episode. By contrast, S1 E3: “Birds of a Feather” and S1 E4: “Hooray for Homicide” give us two-dimensional villains killed off pretty nearly as soon as they motivate all the possible suspects.
Here’s the same analysis for episodes with two murders. I’m referring to these as “double murder” even though both murders aren’t necessarily committed by the same person.
MSW starts out pretty vanilla in terms of weaponry, mostly guns plus a blunt object; but starting with S1 E5: “It’s a Dogs Life” things get much more interesting. We’ll see a number of sabotaged conveyances wielded as murder weapons on our MSW journey, mostly automobiles, but I’m definitely not ruling out more horses. As for more Rube Goldberg-esque murders, I don’t know. “It’s a Dog’s Life” may stand alone in that category. Stay tuned.
I’ll add more analyses as we go. Love graphs and MSW? Leave suggestions, please!
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Murder, She Wrote, She Wrote 