whatever, mortal.

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 )