Something Borrowed, Someone Blue

Jessica's nephew Grady Fletcher and his fiancée Donna Mayberry have decided to get married in the home of Donna's parents. With Jessica on the guest list, can murder be far behind? Not likely: This time the victim is Mr. And Mrs. Mayberry's fanatically fastidious housekeeper, who is "done in" with her own meat thermometer!

The brain box Grady is getting married to an equally brain boxed character, and it's fun all the way with Grady's future mother-in-law (Gale Storm) taking the lead in that regard. She's so disorganised. Plus you got a Pervy uncle. It's quite a funny episode, but it wouldn't be Murder, she wrote if there wasn't a body - a deadly body that is.

This is one of those episodes where the comedy is big and broad, and you get the feeling that all the actors were having a good time. Most MSW episodes feature at least some characters who are larger than life, and/or quirky or eccentric; this episode is notable, because nearly all of the characters are like that, aside from our calm center of it all, Jessica herself.

There are plenty of good reviews of this episode on IMDB already. I''ll just add that I agree, this episode is a complete success as a comic, frantic, wedding day story. One thing I do want to address are the characters of Grady and his girlfriend. Several reviewers have a particular distaste for Grady--his character just rubs them the wrong way. If he were brilliant and shrewd, then he wouldn't need all that help from Jessica, would he? The stories need him to get into big trouble, so Jessica can get him out of it!

Many other characters in the series serve as comic foils for Jessica: especially many of the police detectives she encounters. If those detectives were geniuses, then again, they wouldn't need Jessica and there would be no show!

Bottom line: Grady is a nice guy, I like him, I enjoy all the episodes with him and his lovely real-life wife, and I don't see the drawbacks that some reviewers perceive.

Have always been quite fond of 'Murder She Wrote'. It is a fun and relaxing watch that makes you think as you try to unwind in the evening. If one wants more complex, twisty mysteries with lots of tension and suspense 'Murder She Wrote' may not be for you, but if you want something light-hearted and entertaining but still provide good mysteries 'Murder She Wrote' fits the bill just fine.

"Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" is a pretty good episode, but nowhere near one of my favourites from Season 5 or of 'Murder She Wrote' in general. There are also worse episodes in the show. Where "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" is most let down is the characters and acting of Grady and Donna. Have made no secret of considering these two my least favourite 'Murder She Wrote' recurring characters, "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" does nothing to change my mind.

Grady is still bland and annoying and Michael Horton is an energy-sucking presence in the role. Donna is even worse, she is even duller as a character and makes Grady tolerable in comparison, we just don't see the lovely character that one is constantly reminded of in all her appearances and that Debbie Zipp plays her with no charm, warmth, humour and subtlety whatsoever further disadvantages the character. It also feels ironic that for characters who are getting married and also that Horton and Zipp were/are husband and wife in real life one doesn't see or feel any chemistry between them.

However, "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" works everywhere else. Angela Lansbury is terrific, and the rest of the supporting cast really help elevate the episode to a higher level with strong turns from particularly Eugene Roche, Patricia Barry, Betsy Palmer, Bill Macy and Gale Storm. Conchata Ferell is also a standout as the domineering loudmouth housekeeper.

Production values as ever are slick and stylish with a gorgeous wedding setting. The music has energy and has presence but also not making the mistake of over-scoring, while it is hard to forget or resist the theme tune.

The writing is thought-provoking, light-hearted and amiable and the mystery is very intriguing with a surprising ending.

All in all, with the exception of Grady and Donna this is a good episode. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Jessica's nephew Grady is finally getting married, and to a woman we met on a previous episode, Donna, who Jessica proclaimed on that episode to be a perfect match for Grady. We join the day before the wedding, with Jessica and other guests coming to Donna's parents' estate in Fishkill (a real New York town not too far north of the big metropolis). Donna's mother is worried about everything and is relying on her maid to handle most of the duties for the big garden wedding to take place the next day.

We meet several relatives and one disagreeable maid who bosses everyone around and refers to the place as "her house." Of course, before the wedding takes place we see a body that has been stabbed. I will state that the victim was a surprise to me because it didn't fit the usual victim in series of this type. For that matter, the murderer was also a surprise, partly because there were no real clues for us to see until we got to the "reveal."

Murder, She Wrote is one series that didn't stick to one standard way of presenting things. Sometimes we got all the clues Jessica used to solve the case and truly could on those episodes "know" who did it, not just guess. Sometimes we never got any telltale clues and could only guess the murderer. Most episodes were about 92% serious and 8% humorous. This one was more like 75% funny and 25% serious.

One reviewer here before me totally dislikes the Grady character and downgrades any show he is on. Another says Grady was good in this episode, even though they don't normally like him. I won't say he was a huge favorite of mine, but I do not see where he makes any of his episodes worse at all.

Another reviewer dislikes this episode because of the "silly slapstick." There was no "exaggerated physical activity exceeding the boundaries of normal physical comedy"-the definition of slapstick, so I don't know what their complaint is. Perhaps they just mean they don't want an episode to focus so much on comedy.

Just as a good situation comedy CAN have a really good, poignant dramatic episode, so can a dramatic series have a really good comedy episode-hey, the great dramatic 1960s WWII-based series Combat used to have one episode a season that was largely humorous.

I fully agree with the reviewer who thought there was so much entertainment going on that "the death seems almost unimportant." Any episode that makes me laugh as much as this one gets a 10 from me.

This episode was one of the most hilarious I have seen in the whole series, almost a black comedy. The domineering housekeeper Harriet who serves the Mayberry family gets killed with a roast thermometer firmly in her back soon after the first guests arrive on the day of the wedding of Mrs Fletcher nephew Grady to the rich Donna Mayberry. The juxtaposition of the dialogue of some of the guests with what is actually happening makes for some irony and laughs especially when everyone is searching for the missing Harriet. At the same time Grady and Donna are bickering over Donna's father (Franklin) hold on their lives while Harriet's body is being moved from one place to another and Maisie (Donna's mother) is trying to keep her head high in this mayhem It falls to Mrs Fletcher to solve this whodunit so that the wedding can continue. In my opinion this episode could have been blown to a full feature film/farce while fleshing out more the characters, it is that good.