It’s 2011 and we’re in Rome. The government is on the verge of collapse, the Vatican is at crisis point and the city’s squares are quite literally on fire. In the middle world, Cinaglia (Filippo Nigro) has tried to pick up where Samurai left off and, together with Badali (Emmanuele Aita), he is still managing the city’s criminal affairs, with the help of Adelaide (Paola Sotgiu) and Angelica (Carlotta Antonelli), who still head up the Anacletis, and Nadia (Federica Sabatini), who helps them to manage Ostia’s town squares.
Season 5 finds Murder, She Wrote's intrepid Jessica Fletcher in fine sleuthing form, and venturing farther afield from Cabot Cove--a good thing, since at the rate the murders have been happening, that town would be nearly cleaned out. Some of the best episodes take place in more exotic locales like New York (dead man on the street, wearing just one shoe), Montana (a publishing convention gone horribly wrong) and West Virginia (two whistle-blowers at a coal company found gruesomely murdered). Angela Lansbury sparkles with determination and bonhomie, hitting her stride and then some. Jessica's own life backstory is even filled out tantalizingly, especially in the episode "The Last Flight of the Dixie Damsel," in which an investigation is launched into a mysterious cargo plane that is linked, she learns to her horror, to her late husband. The series' other delight is watching for cameos by stars of a certain age, and this season doesn't disappoint, with appearances by Roddy McDowall, Shelley Fabares, and Dinah Shore--but also some up-and-comers like Megan Mullally (proof positive that the Will & Grace whine was a put-on) and future satirist Bill Maher.
