Murder, She Wrote: Death Casts a Spell

September 16, 2014 2:27 PM - Season 1, Episode 11

Jessica travels to Lake Tahoe thinking her editor has asked her to come, but it's actually a more junior editor who has a pitch a for Jess. While there, Jessica is invited along with several skeptical journalists a performance by Cagliostro, a renowned hypnotist. Jessica, running late for the performance, hears glass break inside room where she finds Calgliostro dead and the journalists in a hypnotic trance. When they emerge from their trances, no one remembers a thing.
posted by filthy light thief (3 comments total)

Omg I loved this episode for the sheer cheeziness of Cagliostro. I just watched an episode in sixth/seventh series about a ventriloquist act, and part of the charm of re watching MSW is the dated references, like the script and actors and presumably viewers at the time are seriously considering this cheesy hypnotist to be a thrilling sexy performer, that that was where the bar was set at the time.
posted by viggorlijah at 12:44 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, yes, this episode oozed in cheese! But Jess on a motorcycle was totally awesome...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 7:21 PM on September 17, 2014

the script and actors and presumably viewers at the time are seriously considering this cheesy hypnotist to be a thrilling sexy performer, that that was where the bar was set at the time.

Exactly, that was at the front of my thoughts. I suppose Cagliostro's real skill was convincing an audience he was talented.

My second thought was that Robert Loggia was still trying to play his Scarface character in this MSW episode.
posted by Monochrome at 8:37 PM on September 19, 2014