I love watching all sorts of television shows.  Well, except for short comedy shows. Otherwise, I like science fiction. I like drama, action, teeny bopper shows. Right now, many of the television shows I catch on a regular basis are actually meant for teenagers and young adults. I am young at heart for sure. With that said, there were two television shows that are completely unlike me that I would like to sit and watch on a Sunday afternoon when I was completely bored: The Golden Girls and Murder She Wrote. I was, for a while, embarrassed to admit to such viewing habits.  Not that there is anything wrong with watching these shows or any other for that matter. Everybody has different tastes and they like what they like. It was just that those two shows didn’t quite go with the image that many had of me especially considering that my favorite show is Buffy the Vampire Slayer followed by the rebooted Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars. However, one day at a business meeting this hip young guy admitted to loving these two shows. And I squealed. What can I say? I am silly that way. I laugh, giggle and hum throughout the day and for the most part people feel good about that. Anyway, back to my television show preferences.

I loved Murder She Wrote. I wanted to live in Cabot Cove. It was so picturesque and idyllic seeming. She could easily bike to what was ostensibly the downtown area and not get run over by massive hordes of honking cars. It was a town that seemed to have jobs and yet be near a calm body of water. Everybody was more or less on friendly terms. Well, that is until they murdered you. But we will get back to that in a second. There appeared to be good restaurants and fresh produce readily available. The houses were large and not on top of one another. It was the sort of town that would easily make Forbes best 100 small towns in which to live. That is all except for that pesky high murder rate. What was up with that?

The television show ran from 1984-1996. I think I caught the later years of the show’s run.  Now despite the seeming idyllic nature of Cabot Cove, there was apparently an underground of evil. I mean, according to several websites, there might have been up to eight murders per episode.  That means there were potentially over 800 murders in the very small town of Cabot Cove.  And the majority of the time, it was not the outsider hitchhiking through town or the tourist who committed the murder.  More often than not it was a neighbor or business partner that committed the murder.  And considering that everyone knew that Jessica Fletcher (the mystery writer and budding detective) lived there it appears that most people couldn’t help but commit these murders. If you knew someone like Ms. Fletcher lived there wouldn’t you think twice about committing a murder? Maybe it is something in the water that drive people to be so murderous.   I honestly can’t understand how anyone trusts anyone there.  According to Wikipedia, if Cabot Cove existed in real life, it would top the FBI’s national crime statistics with its homicide rate exceeding that of the real-life murder capitals of the world.

Talk about not judging a book by its cover.  Despite its high murder rate, I still like Cabot Cove. I wouldn’t mind living in such a town for maybe half of the year. And while there,  would definitely keep an eye on all possible shenanigans. It would certainly be interesting.