Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man

This TV movie is trying to be better than most '90s media about the legacy of slavery and the way it's passed on, not just by open hatred, but by the willful ignorance of opinion leaders and cultural figures. Unfortunately, it can't fully escape the don't-offend-anyone nature of network TV, and even worse, its careful exploration of the cultural mechanics that support inhumanity comes out... pretty boring, actually. I respect what they were doing, but thankfully, it's been done better since.

Another feature length adventure for Jessica Fletcher has odd tonal problems, and bites off more than it chew, as it sets a long ago distant relative into the amateur sleuthing fray; the usual jolly and contrived sleuthing doesn't mesh well with a tale involving racial violence (even an almost-lynching!) and like many a "special episode" of 80s-90s TV, its superficial (if well-meaning) dissection of race and race relations comes off as heavy-handed and condescending.

The biggest problem I had with this was that it didn't feel like the show and it doesn't work in the context of the show either. That aside, this wasn't all that interesting even with all the star talent on display.