Murder, She Wrote

  Does anyone still remember that? It was on TV every single day of the week when I came home from primary school back in ... well, primary school.
  They JUST don't make them like they used to. The detective/suspense tv series you see nowadays are just ... average. Ok, some are probably good. Like ... Monk is really funny at times (I only saw the one with Snoop Dog, so I'm biased), but apart from that - what is there?
  Murder she wrote, with Angela Lansbury was really great, it even made me want to have a type-writer and believe me, even when I was young, those things were already pretty hard to find. (But I did get one - of course, a Barbie one, which I think I accidentally broke by accident. Accidentally, honestly! Then I got one, a portable one, from my grandpa's, when we were cleaning his house after he passed away.)
  I really liked the older TV series. They had the suspense, they had actors and a bit of music. Like Columbo . Or Mission: Impossible . (Oh, yes!) Or .. for example - Alf. Third rock from the sun revived some of the MOrk and Mindy /Alf atmosphere, but otherwise I can't really say we had had any successful AND simple series in the latter years.
  How come we are not sated nowadays? What happened to the good ole drama in sitcoms? Sure, you've got Dharma and Greg and we had Ally McBeal ... but it seems to me that the old ways have gone for good.
  Then again, the OLD is the new new! Look at the That's the 70s show - huge success, new tricks (split screen, flashbacks ... ok, we had that already).

Well, I could go on for hours, but I'll just say three more things:
  a) I just finished watching a movie, a thriller so to say, with Kevin Kline and Kevin Spacey, something about neighbors and murders and insurance company paying 1.5 million dollars (apparently at the time (1992) a fortune) - got it: Consulting Adults. And as it says one one of the pages available on the net, the 'plot was good, but a bad delivery'. Well, it made me think of how in the old times ... and here we are.
  b) I saw a movie once .. a black and white one. I watched it WITHOUT the sound, for the hour was late. The scene was set, close cadre filmed, on a flat piece of land, with a tree behind the main (?) and the main actress. And it shocked me, how they captured my attention, since I seldom get that feeling of 'caring' what the actors are doing, watching TV/going to the movies nowadays.
  c) I can conclude that good drama and plots will always attract audiences, the suspense will always capture their attention. So it's just a matter of a wining combination of actors and the former.
  d) I always thought of myself like the guy in that sitcom - the one who grew up watching TV ... and then had flashes all the time - the trick that Ally McBeal borrowed (Simpsons did it!).
  GIVE US OUR DRAMA BACK!