I started rewatching the show "Murder, She Wrote" out of nostalgia, but am really impressed with what an interesting show it is! Above all, Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher is a genuinely GOOD person who is also a fun, vibrant, lively character.

Goodness is so often assumed to be "boring", so we have shows/books that make characters seriously flawed, morally ambiguous, etc. allegedly to make them interesting. But that's a limited and sad picture of goodness as sugary-sweet fluffiness. Real goodness has substance.

Jessica Fletcher is smart, stands up to bullies, is kind and thoughtful, has good relationships with neighbors and family, has genuine friendships (not chasing romance), cares about her writing but doesn't get puffed up about it. What a great fictional role model!

Who wouldn't want to know "Aunt Jess"? (apart from the extraordinarily high murder rate around her, of course). And the show has a delightful sense of humor, not taking itself too seriously (yet without undercutting the good characters.)

And the show was very well regarded & popular, not that long ago. It strikes me that maybe we have such dark, violent, sexualized media because we've forgotten that goodness is actually GOOD. Enjoyable. Satisfying. Pleasing.

We've bought into the idea that goodness is necessarily dull. But it's bad writing & limited imagination that makes it so.

Christian writers too often try to present goodness but forgotten that goodness doesn't mean "never struggles" or "there's no evil in the story." Maybe that's part of the success of Murder She Wrote: Jess's goodness contrasted w/the fact that evil exists & must be resisted.