hey everyone pushing up roses here and
welcome to another shocking edition of
that time on murder she wrote where we
talk about all things murder she wrote
in case that wasn't evident by the title
today we'll be taking a look at an
episode from season 8 called lines of
excellence and yes i did choose it
because it heavily features early 90s
computers and computer hacking like the
planet this is particularly exciting
because jessica fletcher author and
super sleuth extraordinaire will be
upgrading her electric typewriter to a
computer the nerd in me is screaming
right now oh
an l key that's certainly one way to
take the l you may notice that in these
later episodes jess is no longer in
cabot cove and that is because she
becomes more successful as an author and
decides to expand and rent an apartment
in new york to write and teach and
that's where this episode takes place
new york city oh dave groh lead singer
of the ueiders we begin in jessica's
class where she is teaching a course on
writing murder mystery now how is a
killer likely to act
as opposed to someone who is innocent
this class is either going to result in
good writers or a bunch of psychopaths
put yourselves into the mind of a
murderer is this some kind of trap a
young man named michael seems to be
excelling in the class but is abruptly
called away by the principal even though
he is jess's best student he is being
taken out of her class because he didn't
have the right credentials to take such
an advanced course well then how did he
get in by altering his records in the
university's mainframe computer
jessica doesn't like this answer and
decides to look into michael's
background meanwhile we got that sexy
sex
it actually feels like we're suddenly in
an episode of law and order jessica
being the sweet understanding person she
is confronts michael in an attempt to
understand his motives i want to be a
writer
no uh scratch that i am a writer uh
i just am bad he says he just wants to
learn from jess so he altered his
transcripts to get in then was caught
when he tried to put him back the way
they were ain't that a kick in the head
as the fellow once said jessica believes
he is a very bright student she read
some of his short stories was very
impressed and encourages him to keep
writing jess also wants to keep him on
the right path and asks for help
upgrading from her typewriter to a new
computer since he seems to be savvy with
them oh no word art michael works for a
firm that develops software for
computers his job is to buy computers at
a low cost and sell them to this company
so he uses that connection to help his
esteemed teacher jess is brought to a
computer class by two software engineers
their company offers a course for people
who want to learn to use computers for
personal purposes uh sir you can't take
the keyboard with you oh ken williams
she is introduced to derek st james who
is in charge of installing the personal
computers in their students home as part
of the cost of the class jess is on
board well good first class is tomorrow
at three o'clock oh wow can we see that
dub again well good first class is
tomorrow at three o'clock it almost
matches i was confused for a moment i
thought some disembodied voice was
speaking derek begins spewing a lot of
jargon at jess about computers do you
have any offhand preferences
well i i was thinking of something in a
nice beige we only have tan later that
day her computer and phone line is all
set up so she can send and receive
information whenever she'd like oh it's
remarkable oh if only she knew what's to
come
meanwhile we view a small scene of one
of the engineers getting into a fight
with
some guy we don't know how he's involved
yet but he is mad i can't figure out the
encarta trivia game just stands up for
michael asking the principal to give him
a second chance he responds by telling
her that he has a police record then
tells her to stop caring about the
students so much there's no shortage of
love in the world
only of worthy vessels to put it in ew
michael seems to be making a deal for
hot computer parts with some unsavory
types he tells one of them not to call
him mikey that he goes by michael now
clearly a changed man pretty soon you're
gonna forget you're just another guy
from the block just like jenny tough
guys with computers is my new favorite
aesthetic yo you play dad new king's
quest yet it's real hard the hooligan
tells michael he is behind on his
payments and michael responds by staring
mike.exe has stopped working during
computer class derek teaches jess that
if she writes a script in her hometown
of cabot cove she can transfer it via
the phone lines to her new office in new
york you know this is beginning to sound
very attractive
suddenly jess gets a fatal disk error
it's gone
dad that's not what that means at all
it's not done jim seems that jessica's
hard drive has crashed meaning it should
be spelled d-i-s-k and not d-i-s-c
d-i-s-c is often used to describe media
like cds and blu-ray a little computer
trivia from me to you you're welcome
jess strikes up a conversation with
another student who also doesn't really
understand computers maybe i'm too old
to learn oh you're never too old to
learn you're just too dumb adrian okay
this computer workroom sign is so off
center it is driving me nuts michael
runs into one of the software engineers
linda who is upset that her partner
allen stole her game and put it on
shelves without her knowledge surrender
or die earth scum
i bet it's a puzzle game michael gives
jessica a ride home and she finds out
his so-called police record entails him
stealing comics when he was 14. wow this
car is bouncing all over the place i'm
surprised the report wasn't for reckless
driving once you make a few mistakes
nobody wants you to go straight get your
act together
this is up their expectations murder she
wrote dropping some truth bombs over
here dang michael's mother is apparently
dying to meet chess so she agrees to
have dinner at his family's place the
next night that is the biggest bowl of
peas i have ever seen in my entire life
why would you ever need that many peas
here's what michael's mom has to say
about her son they hit him he gets up
and goes for them they knock him down he
gets up they knock him down wow that's
literally the plot of rocky iv the
episode suddenly gets extremely silly
with a nosy neighbor stopping by with
her entourage hoping to get jess to
autograph a ton of books [ __ ] my life
michael excuses himself to take a quick
break you know i spent my whole life in
this neighborhood was born here i was
raised here that is what that means
michael is deflated because he has grand
dreams of being a writer but feels that
nobody believes in him so
this guy is dead
alan the software engineer has been
murdered and now computer class has to
be cancelled
two detectives are assigned to the case
and they are weird i almost feel like
these characters are meant to be
developed for their own series they're
always bantering with each other and
making humorous quips about the case
it's bizarre honestly changes the entire
tone of the episode the lady with no
class is lieutenant cynthia devereaux
excuse me that title goes to another
devaro i'm the biggest [ __ ] everyone
begins to discuss potential suspects and
their motives jessica of course brings a
lot more to the discussion than anyone
else being the wonderfully observant
woman she is you always miss these
things i know i should attend more staff
meetings did he just admit he's a [ __ ]
detective they usually aren't that
straightforward meanwhile michael gets a
visit from the man he owes money to this
is a violent episode of friends now we
cut to jesus that is a green salad it's
nuclear it looks like the relish from a
chicago hot dog detectives chance and
devereaux go to linda's new office to
interrogate her since she is a suspect
and everyone knew how angry she was when
allen stole her game chance mentions
that some unpleasant threats were made
redundant all threats are unpleasant
unless you threaten me with a good time
am i right why don't we just cut the dog
and pony show okay oh i like that part
of the circus linda says she had nothing
to do with allen's murder but can't
provide an alibi adrian
michael calls jess from a payphone and
says he believes he knows who killed
alan henry waverly over the phone he
gives just directions on where she can
go to meet up with him to talk further
she boots up her computer and types it
up derek st james invites the detectives
to the computer classroom where he
implicates michael by telling them the
computers he was supplying were stolen
which is a weird thing to admit because
if you can't prove you didn't know that
you're an accessory just meets michael
at the address she was given are you all
right yeah it's just
stye suddenly the fuzz shows up and they
arrest michael who is upset that they
located him he thinks jess told them
about the location because she was the
only one he mentioned this to she is
baffled he is jailed for selling hot
goods but it's likely he will also be
charged for murder just vows to figure
out the truth oh hey remember those
phones with the little notepads on them
did anyone ever use those jessica gets a
call from her son susan who just gave
birth just as surprised that nobody
called to let her know and susan said
someone did call her but the phone line
was busy hmm
now what could have been using the phone
line the computer is a phone just ask
the operator if she could get a list of
numbers her phone may have called jess
and the detectives questioned henry
waverly a former student from computer
class just ask him if he knows anything
about a phone number her computer dialed
and he has a similar experience with his
computer and appears to be ashamed of
whatever it was he was keeping on it
we're not interested in messing up your
family just your career he explains that
he was having an affair and was being
blackmailed he had talked to alan but he
knew nothing about it but someone saw
his salacious messages and now another
sack
love solo
jess sets up a sting to prove her theory
one of her other students is called into
the course by derek st james who says he
found a construction memo on his
computer that admits to using faulty
material this proves derek is the
blackmailer and just comes in to explain
that when he set up the computers he
would use a program that transmits
everyone's files back over to him so if
anyone had any dirty laundry he could
use it that's how he found out about
henry waverly's affair and the location
just met michael at hack the planet
derek is offended so he cheeses it only
to get stopped by these weird
caricatures of detectives they call him
out on his less than polished methods
land sloppy very very sloppy guess he's
dealing with sloppy drives which makes
me think i wonder what a floppy joe
would be jessica meets up with michael
and his parents and continues to
encourage his writing by letting him
audit her class his parents invite over
a few people to celebrate michael
getting released from jail and it
quickly becomes my big fat italian party
thank god there's liquor
okay final thoughts this was a
surprisingly fun episode of murder she
wrote i chose it because i have a soft
spot for computers especially from the
early 90s and i was excited at the
prospect of hacking because i thought
there might be some egregious errors i
could riff on however it was
surprisingly accurate the mystery was
easy to follow and even solve and there
are a lot of clues given to the audience
early on such as derek telling jessica
to keep her computer on all the time day
or night to conserve energy and his
knowledge of computer setup there's some
great wisdom and dialogue between
jessica and michael and i think this
episode could have been a little deeper
with more serious moments so it's a
shame those scenes are squashed by silly
characters i do not get these two
detectives and i'm not sure why they're
here they seem to have some kind of
dynamic where they're constantly mocking
each other but also supportive of each
other when they do well on the case well
when they think they're doing well at
least jess solved this one all on her
own yet again and i think these two were
there to serve as the comic relief
though most of the time they just said
stereotypical cop things mrs fletcher
please we haven't eaten all day i love
the character of michael and his family
i wish he could have been in more
episodes because the actor did a solid
job in his role though these criminals
are maybe the least threatening people
i've ever seen in my life so the acting
is about 50 50 here some good
performances some weird but 100 worth
watching if you have an episode of
murder she wrote you are dying to see me
cover please leave a comment and as
always happy sloothing
hey everyone thanks for watching my
video on murder she wrote lines of
excellence i hope you had fun learning
about computer hacking if you want to
see more from me i have a whole
channel's worth of crap but first i want
to thank my patrons for supporting all
of my jessica fletcher-like endeavors if
you want to support me in the show
consider becoming a patron and if not
comments and shares are also very
important to my self-esteem if you'd
like to watch more of my content here
are a few suggestions for your viewing
pleasure on the right i have a fun
little retrospective on the disastrous
ferris bueller television show and on
the left i have a critical but humorous
review of one of the many hellraiser
sequels thanks again for watching and as
always i'll see you in the next one