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.
To me "The Szechuan Dragon" is one of the stinkers from 'Murder She Wrote'. While "Good-Bye Charlie", also from Season 6, underwhelmed drastically and was one of the lesser 'Murder She Wrote' episodes and there are previous episodes that are very average, "The Szechuan Dragon" is the first episode to be considered by me as a stinker and one of the nadirs of the show. And no, it is not because Jessica is absent other than by phone call, some of the bookends had her absent and weren't bad at all. That's actually the least of the episode's problems.
Despite it being a big mess, "The Szechuan Dragon" is not without good things. The production values are slick and stylish and Cabot Cove is always a pleasure. The theme tune is still irresistible. William Windom (charmingly curmudgeon as ever) and Ron Masak do their best with the material they're given, as do some of the supporting cast including David Warner, ever the professional, in his first of two appearances (the other being in "A Death in Hong Kong").
Other than those things, there is not much else, if anything, to recommend "The Szechuan Dragon". The biggest problems are Grady and Donna, the two worst recurring characters of the show. Having one of them in an episode is bad enough, having both manages to be worse. Credit is due, Grady can be tolerable in small doses when he actually contributes to the story and has a situation that doesn't make him bland or annoying (though this has only been about two or three times). Donna however was a misfire from the start and it never improved.
Both are intolerable here, Michael Horton is a bland, annoying dead-weight, like Grady himself, and Debbie Zipp is charisma-free with no humour, pathos or subtlety of any kind and if one thought Grady was annoying it's multiplied with Donna. For a married couple, their chemistry is also non-existent and one does not care for their situation.
It's not just Grady and Donna that don't work. The cast do their best, but are let down by some of the most exaggerated dialogue of the whole show and very poorly developed stock characters that seem to have come out of somewhere else entirely, they just don't gel with the story and feel very thrown in. Speaking of the story, it's very dull and often doesn't go anywhere. The mystery itself, with a McGuffin that manages to be very half-baked in how it's integrated, is not worth investing in, being neither interesting or easy to follow.
Really didn't buy in any way the way the case is solved and how the guilty is caught, the reveal is not a surprise and the motive couldn't have been more stale or more of a cheat. The whole potentially intriguing set up with the Szechuan Dragon (which the episode doesn't do enough with) might have just very well not happened. While the theme tune is great, this is a rare case of early seasons-mid-show where an episode felt over-scored.
Overall, one of 'Murder She Wrote's' nadirs. 3/10 Bethany Cox
To me "The Szechuan Dragon" is one of the stinkers from 'Murder She Wrote'. While "Good-Bye Charlie", also from Season 6, underwhelmed drastically and was one of the lesser 'Murder She Wrote' episodes and there are previous episodes that are very average, "The Szechuan Dragon" is the first episode to be considered by me as a stinker and one of the nadirs of the show. And no, it is not because Jessica is absent other than by phone call, some of the bookends had her absent and weren't bad at all. That's actually the least of the episode's problems.
Despite it being a big mess, "The Szechuan Dragon" is not without good things. The production values are slick and stylish and Cabot Cove is always a pleasure. The theme tune is still irresistible. William Windom (charmingly curmudgeon as ever) and Ron Masak do their best with the material they're given, as do some of the supporting cast including David Warner, ever the professional, in his first of two appearances (the other being in "A Death in Hong Kong").
Other than those things, there is not much else, if anything, to recommend "The Szechuan Dragon". The biggest problems are Grady and Donna, the two worst recurring characters of the show. Having one of them in an episode is bad enough, having both manages to be worse. Credit is due, Grady can be tolerable in small doses when he actually contributes to the story and has a situation that doesn't make him bland or annoying (though this has only been about two or three times). Donna however was a misfire from the start and it never improved.
Both are intolerable here, Michael Horton is a bland, annoying dead-weight, like Grady himself, and Debbie Zipp is charisma-free with no humour, pathos or subtlety of any kind and if one thought Grady was annoying it's multiplied with Donna. For a married couple, their chemistry is also non-existent and one does not care for their situation.
It's not just Grady and Donna that don't work. The cast do their best, but are let down by some of the most exaggerated dialogue of the whole show and very poorly developed stock characters that seem to have come out of somewhere else entirely, they just don't gel with the story and feel very thrown in. Speaking of the story, it's very dull and often doesn't go anywhere. The mystery itself, with a McGuffin that manages to be very half-baked in how it's integrated, is not worth investing in, being neither interesting or easy to follow.
Really didn't buy in any way the way the case is solved and how the guilty is caught, the reveal is not a surprise and the motive couldn't have been more stale or more of a cheat. The whole potentially intriguing set up with the Szechuan Dragon (which the episode doesn't do enough with) might have just very well not happened. While the theme tune is great, this is a rare case of early seasons-mid-show where an episode felt over-scored.
Overall, one of 'Murder She Wrote's' nadirs. 3/10 Bethany Cox