(no subject)

[whatevermortal]

I've started watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries with my Mum recently. She's been complaining about not having any hobbies and, until the sister and I organise her Mother's Day gift (we want to do an art/cooking/dance class of some kind as a group), I thought it'd be nice to find a new show to keep up with together.

It's been a while since I watched an Australian series, coz we haven't had access to free-to-air telly for...oof a couple years now, but I'm being reminded of a lot of the issues that I have with it. Miss Fisher's has such a cool concept; it's historical crime, set in 1920s Melbourne, which I love. I'm writing a script for an Australian historical crime series, this is a thing I am interested in. But the execution is lacking. The acting is mostly pretty mediocre, the storylines are too ambitious and end up ridiculously busy, and they often don't provide enough cues for you to follow Phryne's mental leaps as she makes them (which is the one thing I like about BBC Sherlock--they use on-screen text to physically show you Sherlock's inferences about what he's seeing). I do enjoy how subtle they tend to be about the clues that they through in, so you can follow along if you're really paying attention but miss them if you aren't. I don't really enjoy watching crime "mysteries" where I've figured out how the murderer is before the detective has.

I love Phryne and Dot's early friendship in the first episode and god do i ship it where's the fic :( and I was so curious about how Dot's issues with technology would affect her work for (and relationship with) Phryne. So I was disappointed to realise that both got brushed aside for a romantic subplot between Dot and Constable Collins. Phryne and Dot don't talk unless it's case-related or for Phryne to tease Dot about Collins! I was really looking forward to seeing that friendship develop and I couldn't care less about Dot's relationship with Collins. It's so formulaic for Australian TV:

Shy Awkward Guy meets Shy Nervous Girl. They both like each other and stutter at each other preciously. But, oh no! SAG is too shy and awkward to ask out SNG! They continue to stutter preciously at each other while everyone exchanges looks about how precious and awkward they are. Eventually SNG works up the confidence to take charge and asks SAG out instead.

It was cute the first time, but I've seen this plotline a thousand times and it's just predictable and dull as hell to me now.

I'm starting to get kinda uncomfortable with how invisible Indigenous Australians are in this show as well. I'm really hoping they'll come up in a later episode or hey maybe more than one that'd be nice because this show's depictions of race in Australia have so far been...not great. Actually, the episode I'm thinking of was the first time I realised how cluttered the episodes are. They tried to fit all of this in a one hour episode:

a) A singer & musician who came to Australia, where their interracial marriage would be allowed. The singer was married already, she's technically committing bigamy but the guy she married back in America was bad and she loves this guy, really. She's also being blackmailed by the victim. The musician, however, thought she was having an affair with the victim.

b) Two dudes being blackmailed with weirdly perfect photographs of them in bed together (I'm sorry but it was the 20s, I have a lot of trouble believing that situation would produce photos that clear!) which, fyi, I called straight away. I think they were trying to cut it so it looked like the dude wearing glasses was looking at Phryne, not her dance partner? Totally checking out the boyf tho.

c) One of above dude's mother was being blackmailed....for her older son not actually dying in the war like she said. Which, honestly, how the fuck did the victim find this out? How did he know that the younger son didn't know? Why would you rather pay regular blackmail cheques than just tell your fucking kid his brother isn't dead? So many questions.

These were all the motives for murdering the victim and I just. There's WAY too much going on for a one hour slot! Especially considering the sensitivity of the issues involved (sodomy as criminal offence! racism! interracial marriage! bigamy!). They were clearly trying to give justice to the characters involved (glasses-dude got the short straw though, sitting in jail for half the ep while his boyfriend's on the run. rude.) but you can't develop that many stories with the depth and complexity necessary to do them well in that amount of time.

I did, otoh, really appreciate that the gay character (well, the one we're meant to care about, who didn't get shafted) had a storyline outside of his sexuality, which is pretty rare for lgbt characters in crime shows. His relationship with his brother was important and got a fair bit of screen time.

Anyway, idk, I think I've spent this whole post talking about everything I hate about this show when I actually really like it! It's entertaining! Phryne is very hot! Period costumes! Old Australian architecture!

If only they'd give me more Phryne/Dot interaction and less Dot/Collins, I would be content.

Comments

[the_rck]

Part of what's going on in these episodes is that, in almost every one, they're condensing down a full novel (I suspect that the books would have more of what you dislike as opposed to making things better. I enjoy them, but part of that is because I can read them and very rarely find things I can read these days that don't set off my anxiety). The many of the things that come across as poorly supported or inexplicable have more to them in the books.

The plot with Phryne's missing sister and the guy in prison who probably killed her doesn't exist in the books. Also, in the books, Jack Robinson is quite a bit older (old enough to have adult children) and happily married.

As far as I can recall, the books don't ever address anything at all about Indigenous Australians. There is some stuff about Chinese immigrants but it all kind of segues into how wonderful and open minded Phryne is.

(Here from the FFA friending meme.)

[whatevermortal]

Oh, man, I totally saw that they were based on books and somehow didn't connect that that explains why the eps are so full--of course there's too much if they're trying for fit an entire novel into a single episode! tbh I really enjoy the ideas themselves and it's just the show's execution that ends up feeling a bit sloppy to me, so I probably would love the books! (Do they benefit from being read in order, or do you have a fave that you think it'd be best to start with? I've forbidden myself from buying books for at least another week, but uh it never hurts to be prepared...)

And, ok, especially with you saying that Phryne's missing sister & Jack's unhappy marriage aren't in them. The actors have great chemistry, but the idea of Phryne/Jack being endgame just rubs me the wrong way. I'm so sick of adultery plotlines so unless they split him up from his wife properly before resolving all of Phryne and Jack's UST, I'm gonna hate it haha.

I think the lack of Indigenous Australians won't bother me (as much) in the books, because--from Wikipedia--they begin being published in the late 1980s and Kerry Greenwood is in her sixties. I think I generally get a bit pickier about this sort of stuff with modern media coz, yknow, a lot of older media are products of their time. Obviously I can't speak for the books, but I do like that the show is reflecting Phryne's progressive/open-minded ideology and that they generally do a pretty good job of showing those characters having personalities and lives outside of whatever makes them a minority (case in point, Phryne's gay friend in 1x03). Even if, yeah, I think it does tend to do the same thing where it all seems like the point is to show off how lovely and progressive Phryne is.

(Hi! Nice to meet you! :) )

[the_rck]

I didn't read them in order (I read them as they became available at our library), and I was still able to follow along. There are new characters introduced in some of the books, though-- Phryne takes a lover, I think his name is Lin Chung, who turns up in several books (she still has other lovers, too, but I don't think any of them turn up repeatedly). Lin Chung may be an issue for you because he does eventually marry, an arranged marriage, while still keeping things going with Phryne. His wife knows and approves (she and Phryne get along well) if that helps. Mr Butler has a wife in the books who does all the cooking. Phryne adopts two girls, Ruth and Jane, in one book, and they turn up in some later books. In one of the very late books, she acquires a boy named Tinker who is some sort of mix of unofficially adopted son, servant, and trainee detective. Phryne pays for him to go to school, and it's his life's ambition to be a policeman. Oh, and Phryne's younger sister comes from England in one book, and she and her lover turn up a couple of times in later books.

Cocaine Blues is the first book. I think I read it second. It shows Phryne arriving Australia, meeting Cec and Bert and meeting Dot. I think Mr And Mrs Butler start working for her in the next book, but it might be at the very end of the first book. If I recall correctly, the first book I read in the series was A Question of Death which is a short story collection. I wanted to try the author in small pieces.

Phryne does rate very high on the Mary Sue scale. I don't mind it, but other people do. I was a little bit put off when, in Murder and Mendelssohn, the most recent book, a former lover turned up who was almost exclusively homosexual with Phryne as the only exception. (The back story for that kind of, sort of works. Maybe.) At the end of that book, there's an author's note that offended some people-- Kerry Greenwood disapproves strongly of Elementary because Watson ought not be a woman.

As to the show, from what I recall, Phryne and Jack don't do much but flirt until he's safely divorced, and by the end of season two, they're still very much in the will-they-won't-they. There is one kiss that might happen before the divorce, but it's of the type where they're about to be caught watching someone and need to look like they're focused on something else entirely.

The romance between Dot and Hugh is definitely present in the books. It's a little less obvious because Greenwood wants to string it along indefinitely so as not to disrupt her successful formula by letting Dot leave.

If you like the Phryne Fisher books, Greenwood also has a series set in modern Australia, the Corinna Chapman books. Corinna is a baker in (I think) Melbourne, and that takes center stage in most of the books. The mysteries are often kind of off to one side and don't necessarily make much sense. I enjoyed the baking enough that I liked the series. There is a bit in one of the books where Greenwood expresses some hostility toward LJ. I didn't notice it particularly, but a couple of people I know remarked on it. (One of them was hate reading all of Greenwood's books, so she was looking for problems.)

[whatevermortal]

Argh, I typed up a whole reply and DW ate it!

From your description, I definitely wouldn't have an issue with Lin Chuang and Phryne's relationship. As long as everything is above board and negotiated openly, I don't really consider it adultery. And, knowing me, I'll end up shipping them as an OT3 anyway haha.

I'll try to get hold of a copy of Cocaine Blues from the library and see what I think. Phryne being a bit Mary Sue-ish may bother me, but if she's as likable as I'm finding her in the series, it shouldn't be a problem. And, uh, yeah, I would be offended by that too, tbh. I love Elementary and Lucy Liu's Watson! I'm not sure I see her as being incredibly accurate to the original, but she's such an interesting interpretation of him that I don't mind. And I don't see how a female Watson is worse than the string of incompetent Watsons of past retellings. Either way, an author's note at the end of your latest novel is a weird, terrible place to be airing potentially controversial opinions! (I'd say she should get a blog, but if she hates LJ maybe she hates blogging too.) I think I'll try to avoid Kerry Greenwood's personal opinions on things though; I don't think it will do anything but put me off a series that I could quite like.

Hmm, I suppose that's alright then haha. I still would've preferred their relationship to be platonic, but if it's not straying into adultery territory, I'm definitely more ok with it.

I'm glad the Dot/Hugh relationship has less focus in the novels. I don't think I would've had such a strong negative response to it if they weren't pushing it so aggressively in the show and neglecting the rest of Dot's character in service of carrying on her romantic storyline. The pilot episode made her seem like a really lovely character and I was looking forward to both her developing friendship with Phryne and her slowly getting over her technophobia. Instead they just seemed to abandon both entirely for ~romance~.

Ooh, yeah, maybe. I'm a bit terrible about keeping up with series lately, but if I do like the Fisher novels, I might give that one a try too. :)

[biting_moopie]

Just wanted to say, I end up shipping everyone as an OT3. Love triangles are boring!

[whatevermortal]

lmao yeah, they're so ubiquitous. They're usually so LAZY too, just thrown in for ~drama~. More OT3s instead! I'm still holding out for canon Duke/Audrey/Nathan in Haven, even though I know I shouldn't keep my hopes up lest they be dashed. I would take an ambiguous ending like Leverage, but ugh Nathan/Audrey just doesn't work for me without Duke thrown in too :(

Speaking of, have you ever seen Sex of Angels? I think you might like it. It's this gooorgeous Spanish film with a canon triad romance. I love it to bits ♥

[biting_moopie]

I haven't, but thank you for the rec!

I haven't seen Haven, but the ending in Leverage was pretty awesome. Sadly, it's probably as explicit as we're going to get :(

Yes, exactly. It's all about cheap drama. I wouldn't mind them if they weren't so overused. Even if one is well written, it would just make me roll my eyes.

[whatevermortal]

Ooh, I totally have some gifs from this cute little dance scene at the end: http://whatevermortal.dreamwidth.org/6615.html
I just, gosh, I love it so much. They really put an equal amount of thought into each relationship within the triad and develop them all so you totally understand all of the feelings/motivations involved. And it doesn't hurt that Bruno, Carla and Rai are all absolutely beautiful humans. ;)

Yeah, I heard that everyone behind Leverage was really cool and approving of the OT3 haha, but I still wish they'd gotten to be more explicit about that actually being endgame! Haven is pretty great, I'm not quite caught up at the moment, but there are so many shipping moment. It is kinda set up as a love triangle with Nathan/Audrey and Duke/Audrey, but there are just so many moment between Duke and Nathan as well. Like, I honestly think it's easiest to headcanon that they're ex-boyfriends than try to parse why Nathan's always so mad at Duke for existing while simultaneously being painfully desperate for him not to die lmao.

It is! And either it makes the person at the centre of the triangle look really fickle for not being able to make a decision one way or the other, or it sets up one side as ~true love~ and then the other person's this awkward irrelevant third wheel. Which then means the person in the centre is stringing along this random extra person for no good reason. :/

[biting_moopie]

I'm very curious about the series you're writing. Is there anything you can share at this stage? It's totally fine if not - I don't like to talk about what I'm writing until it's done.

Thank you for this post. I did hear about the show and was wondering about the portrayal of Indigenous Australians. I know what you mean about being over that trope (shy guy and nervous girl)! It can be done well, but it's way too overdone at this point.

[whatevermortal]

Nah I love talking about my ideas so you're all good! So it's a historical crime series set in Fremantle (a coastal town in Western Australia, if you weren't aware) during the late 1880s. Fremantle was a bit of a hellhole by that point--it was settled without convicts during the 1820s-30s and then they realised that, yknow, they couldn't actually get anything built fast enough to make Swan River Colony sustainable, so they brought over convicts for labour. There are a bunch of comically awful things that happened in Fremantle's history (the convicts arrived five years before their prison was built and they literally had to build their own prison), but omg I won't word vomit them at you.

I'm in the very early stages at the moment, but this is it, essentially:

My main characters are Jane/James, Nancy and Colin. Jane and Nancy meet in England and run away to Australia where Jane takes on the identity James Ward. Jane is possibly non-binary/genderqueer, or at least very uncomfortable with performing femininity, so even before their escape to Aus she used to sneak out at night in men's clothing--which is how she met Nancy (who was a sex worker in Whitechapel). Kinda awesome--I thought of Jane before coming across a book all about Australia's history of cross-dressing. A whole heap of people really did move to Australia and live as another gender when they arrived!

Anyway, so Jane/James becomes a police officer and meets Colin, who's a detective. There's an absolute tonne of tension between the regular force & the detectives around this time in Fremantle (in the 1870s, they almost caused a war with America. Seriously.) but Jane doesn't know about it and befriends him. They end up sneakily working together on the big case that comes up. What that crime will be, I'm not totally sure? Probably a murder or a serial killer, something like that?

I'm still researching the local Indigenous group. I've learned bits and pieces about them over the years because I'm from WA, but definitely not enough to include them in an accurate way. I know that settlers introduced illness to the Indigenous people in Fremantle in particular and, sadly, they were wiped out by the mid-1890s. My mum recently got introduced to an Elder whose daughter (or maybe niece, idk) works at a university nearby & is a bit of an expert on the local history. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get in touch with her at some point.

At the moment I'm planning on writing the scripts for an 8-10 episode mini-series. I'm still very much in the early planning stages of it, but I'd be happy to share more later down the track when I actually have some stuff written! It'd probs be super helpful to have second opinions! :D

[biting_moopie]

I would watch and read the heck out of this and I would promote it everywhere for you. This sounds amazing. If you need encouragement, you are always welcome to email me because this is truly inspired and creative, and it's also a very important story you're telling. Thank you for sharing this with me, I'm so excited for you!

[whatevermortal]

Aww thank you! You're so sweet. <3 <3 I'm hoping to really get it off the ground next year in terms of starting scripts. I've got soooo much research to do before I feel really confident tackling things properly haha. I'm hoping to take a class next semester about the history of WA, which would be hella useful for piecing everything together and finding new sources--especially if I bug the professor for more info! ;)