McMillan & Wife (TV Series) Till Death Do Us Part (1972) User Reviews

Better than average

[heedarmy · 8/10 · 3 March 2014]

This episode was conceived as a bit of a 'bottle show' but turned out to be one of the best-remembered episodes of the entire McMillan and Wife series.

It does have flaws - the regular cutaways to Sergeant Enright's romantic weekend, although intended to create suspense (will he turn up in time to save the Commissioner and Sally?) are just annoying. And for a Police Commissioner, McMillan is remarkably foolish about security at times - such as not keeping the front door locked! Nevertheless, it's a fun episode with a slightly darker hue than normal, generating a fair measure of suspense as the 'Asylum Killer' unfolds a sinister and apparently foolproof plot to make the Commissioner and Sally his latest victims - right down to supplying the Death March as musical accompaniment.

Trapped

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 7 April 2016]

The first season of McMillan&Wife ended on a most weird note. No major guest stars in this story, in fact most of the story is spent inside the McMillan home as someone is trying to kill both Rock Hudson and Susan St.James.

In fact it's a serial killer who has already notched five victims and all in manners which allowed the perpetrator to sit and watch his prey die very slowly. The perpetrator does like those jollies, one sick individual. And the failure to apprehend is getting the media down on San Francisco's police commissioner.

I won't go any further other than to say the perpetrator's object is to isolate Hudson and St.James in their home so no one will think anything of their absence. In the end though the perpetrator's own imagination is what Hudson turns on him.

An interesting story with most of it spent on the stars trapped in their home and the gamut of emotions they run through.

It pulled through in the last act.

[ksdilauri · 7/10 · 13 March 2021]

This episode had me a little annoyed at Mac's initial cluelessness that he and Sally were being targeted. (Hello? All the sharp objects are suddenly gone? Then go for a walk on a dark, lonely street? Then back in the clearly burgled house?) Enright, out on the road drinking and driving with a sleepy supermodel, is likewise implausible. But the plot picks up speed in the last half hour and redeems itself, helped by the charisma of St James, Hudson, and Schuck.

Well, this'll certainly tell you. It says, 'Grow tall, ant hill, tea bag... say apple tournament'.

[Sylviastel · 7/10 · 24 July 2008]

I haven't been a fan of MacMillan & Wife. I prefer Columbo anyday but the local station airs a weekly episode of Mac and wife, Sally. Of course, movie star Rock Hudson takes the role as San Francisco Police Commissioner who is married to young Sally played by Susan Saint James, a model turned actress. In this episode, they are believable about a serial killer known as the asylum murderer who enjoys watching his victims die. In this episode, the murderer has a masterful plan in which his victims die while their home is being fumigated. The killer has already sent his mother-in-law away as well as the Police Commissioner's trustful assistant who would know something is up. This episode is memorable if not because the actors make it memorable.

There Must Be An Easier Way To Commit A Double-Murder

[profh-1 · 7/10 · 5 March 2024]

A serial killer known on the news as 'The Asylum Killer', who likes to make his victims die slowly, has baffled the police, and a particularly-obnoxious news-caster is really getting on The Commissioner's nerves. So no sooner does Mac insists an arrest will be 'imminent', then the killer sends a letter claiming his next crime will have two victims simultaneously.

Sally, returning from a restaurant that Mac did not arrange to have dinner at, slowly discovers that all sharp objects in the house have been stolen. Meanwhile, someone has managed to get Mildred, Sally's mother, and Sergeant Enright out of town at the same time. What can it all mean? The part I found infuriating was that Mac DOESN'T call his own police force in to at least scan the house for fingerprints, or, get himself and Sally out of there.

There's a subplot involving a seeming prowler tampering with their trash cans. The resolution to this also made me want to smack someone. If a harried husband only has 4 trash cans, but needs 5, WHY can't he just go BUY another one? (This is the kind of thing one might just barely accept on an episode of GET SMART-- not M&W.)

I'm be honest. I gave this a higher rating than it probably deserved, only because, of the entire 1st season, this was the only story I really vividly remembered from when I saw it first-run. While most episodes of M&W are complex, confusing puzzles, this was more a simple SLOW-BURN of building suspense, right up to the finale.

Seriously, though-- both Sally & Enright should have known better than to take at face value messages allegedly from Mac that were "not his style".

Far fetched Plot

[sd72667 · 1/10 · 16 June 2018]

This episode was the worst of the first season. Enright dates a supermodel. No really he dates a supermodel in this episode. Without giving spoilers, the episode contains the McMillan's sitting around & talking for almost the whole time. It was as if NBC ran out of money for the show budget, so the writers come up with a plot where the McMillan's sit in their condo for the 90 minute episode. The serial killer angle would've been great if the writers were a little more creative.

Truly excellent example if how terrible 70's TV was

[mweratcliffe · 2/10 · 10 September 2023]

The commissioner of the San Francisco Police force doesn't live in a home secure enough to offer him a secure garage to park his cars. He has to park on the street exposing himself and his family to all sorts of possible physical threats to life and limb. Cars parked on the public street are exposed to tampering which could also result on life threatening injury the next time they are driven by him or his family. On top of which he drives an open roadster which is left fully exposed to passers by and the elements.

He's the Commissioner of Police and the only other cop he can call is Enright? Really - its a two man sheriff's operation in 1970's San Fransisco!?

Then there is the serial killer running around SF on his 7&8th victims, the police are upset by their inability to catch him and the news media hounding them to the point the Commissioner announces the killer will be caught before he is able to kill again and what happens? The commissioner decides that very night to take his wife to Acapulco - or so his only backup and very dumb Sargent Enright believes. And so Enright decides good policing in this high stakes game of life and death and high stakes politics is to arrange to leave town on a holiday himself with a very unlikely candidate as his date. Unbelievably dumb and an insult to viewers.

You cannot get much worse plotting than this and its disturbing to see it so highly rated.