We at the Pink Palace of Bitchery adore Miss Fisher’s Mysteries, an Australian series about a woman named Phryne Fisher who solves mysteries (always involving murder) with the help of her companion, Dot, and Inspector Jack Robinson.
We wrote a post about how much we loved the show back when a flu-stricken SB Sarah discovered Seasons One and Two and promptly converted us all to Miss Fisher worship. We loved the feminist themes, Phryne’s acceptance of herself and others, the total lack of slut-shaming, the Roaring 20’s setting, and we cannot overstate how much we love the clothes. We also adored the insane amounts of chemistry between Phyrne and Jack. We are not too proud to say that we spent much of Season Two yelling, “OMG KISS ALREADY” at our TV screens. Also, did we mention that we love the clothes? Cause we do.
Season Three appeared on Netflix on September 15th and I felt strongly that it was my duty to you, The Bitches, to binge watch the eight episodes in two days. It was a sacrifice but that’s the kind of dedication you can expect from me.
Here’s my review of the season, sans spoilers: but beware, because THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS.
The first few episodes are not the greatest. They are…OK. The clothes remain thrilling, of course, but everyone seems to be the worst version of themselves. Jack is jealous – in fact, he’s so jealous that at one point I became convinced that he and Phryne had started dating off-screen and the viewers hadn’t been informed. Dot is more confident, and I love seeing her be a badass who fights for what she wants, but she’s also manipulative and dishonest. Watching Phryne lie her way through any situation is kind of thrilling, but it feels wrong for Dot – I want her to become more confident and assertive while retaining her basic sense of honesty. Her fiancée, Constable Hugh, who we refer to here as Constable Puppy, is even bossier than ever.
Every episode in Season Three has some great moments, but the show isn’t as consistently wicked and funny and it doesn’t have as much of a compelling overall theme as the other two seasons. It’s not awful; it just doesn’t fit the brilliance of the other seasons.
And for heaven’s sake, what happened to Jane? Can’t she even get a single line explain her absence? “Oh, how we miss dear Jane, but she’s having so much fun being a pirate.” Anything?
Luckily, once we get to Episode 5, “Death and Hysteria,” things kick into gear. I must mention that the hats in this episode are especially lovely, and Dot wears hers in future episodes, which is a nice touch because of course Dot wouldn’t have an infinite supply of hats. The episode has that great balance of humor (Phryne and Doctor Mac explaining a certain device to Jack and Constable Puppy is priceless) and sadness and compassion, as well as some truly unexpected twists and moments. If you had told me in Season One that I would worship at the Altar of Aunt Prudence I never would have believed it but how I do love her.
From this point on, the episodes are great, although I have to confess that Episode 7, “Game, Set, and Murder” has spiders in it and I spent the first two minutes covering my eyes and screaming before I gave up. I did see some of it with my finger on the fast forward button and what I saw was great, but I missed a ton because every time someone would look at something intently I became convinced that a spider might jump out and eat their faces so I’d fast forward for a bit on principle.
In the second half of the season, characters behave more realistically. Hugh’s obnoxious behavior has a cause that makes sense for his character, and he and Dot acheive more balance. The mysteries, however, remain exceedingly odd. I spent all of the first two seasons saying to myself, “I’m not a lawyer, but I’m almost sure this is not admissible evidence.” During Season Three, I just threw my hands up in the air and said, “Sure, fine, whatever.” This is not a gritty documentary on crime and punishment.
As promised, the above is spoiler-free, but I am DYING to discuss the whole season.
Who’s with me? If you haven’t seen all of Season Three, and you don’t want to know who killed who and whether Hugh ever came back from his fishing trip and if there was finally any kissing or not, then stay out of the comments! SPOILERY COMMENTS BELOW!
Let us dissect Episode Eight in minute detail. It’s a Miss Fisher Spoilery Comments party!
I also loved the vibrator episode. But I did feel like the season as a whole was a disappointment, and even the kiss (!!!) in the last episode felt anticlimactic. I would have preferred a whole season with Phyrne and Jack navigating a romantic relationship–there didn’t seem to be any good reason they didn’t hook up in the first episode, so the delay to the season finale felt phony.
NOT ENOUGH JANE OR MAC. But I always feel that way.
I live in Melbourne so I watched the show as it aired in Melbourne and there was an ongoing costume exhibition as Season Three aired on the set they used for Aunt Prudence’s house, Ripponlea Mansion.
Anyway, I LOVE how you mentioned that you were convinced Phryne and Jack had started dating off-screen! A lot of my other friends were convinced of that too haha!
That last episode of this season brought a tear to my eye, as did Death and Hysteria with Aunt Pru. When Dot told Phryne “You made me brave” I lost my shit and started bawling. And then of course we got our “Come after me, Jack Robinson!”
I have to admit my frustration with Dot & Hugh’s wedding. Neither of them has family in the area that wouldn’t drop everything to watch their relative get married? After Hugh’s mom was an off-season plot point and Dot’s mom and sister were points in last season? Really? Even if you didn’t want to cast them because you wanted them for future seasons, you couldn’t have found a few extras and filmed the back of their heads?
I was frustrated that they put the romance off to continue the sexual tension because, come on, they’ve been doing that since the beginning of season 2.
One thing to this season’s strength – there weren’t any “Phryne goes undercover / saves the show” storylines… aside from the Mermaid trick.
I loved that moment between Cec and Aunt Prudence – it really showed how Phryne’s whole rag-tag gang had become part of the family. And I really love what the show has done with Aunt P. I probably would’ve believed in future-Aunt-P love if I had been told in season 1 because – Miriam Margolyes. She’s wonderful.
I agree with Kath – not enough Mac. But of course, there’s never enough Mac. Except on the “Miss Fisher’s Texts From Last Night” Tumblr I found recently, the person who runs that Tumblr understands how much Mac we need.
I think there was too much Baron Richmond, though. An episode of him would’ve been enough, I’m not sure we needed him to stick around for more.
I enjoy this show, though am still slowly moving through season one as the husband and I watch it together and we only load up an episode on Netflix when we’re in the right mood for it. I recently gushed over this show with another friend, calling it my “Flapper P0rn” not for the sexxy times, which are fun, sure – but for all the amazing clothes and accessories!
Fun note, I actually first learned about Miss Fisher here on SBHQ when someone mentioned the show in the comments section on a review of Jenn Bennett’s Roaring 20’s paranormal book, Bitter Spirits (s book I adored, btw).
Yeah, I could of done without the Baron “seasonal arc” and I defiantly agree that Season isn’t nearly as strong as the first two, especially Jane kinda gets brother Chucked( disappearing without explanation ). I did love Aunt Prudence’s development though and she became one of my favorite chracters.
I signed up for a Tunnelbear account and watched Season 3 as it aired on the Australian Broadcasting website. I got so wound up about early S3 Hugh that I took to Facebook to ask my friends who else was watching it in real time because I HAD FEELINGS about his manbaby tantrums. I was wondering when the guano was going to hit the rotating blades about their religious differences and how it was going to play out with their relationship and I actually think they mostly got it right, but only because of Hugo Johnstone-Burt’s portrayal of Hugh. The writing wasn’t that strong for him, but he sold it. And then there was his absence for
San Andreasfishing, which… I get why they had to do that (scheduling’s a bitch), but it was awkward.As to the lack of family at Dot’s wedding, they did try to handwave their absence with Dot mentioning how neither of their families was supportive of the marriage, but the fact of the matter is this show is made on, “A bobby pin and a band-aid,” to quote Hugo Johnstone-Burt. Their budget is insanely small (and a lot of it goes into clothes and sets). And hey – we got to see Cec and Bert as bridesmaids, so that was worth everything to me.
I assumed that the absence of family at the wedding is because both families were opposed to the wedding and wouldn’t come. Also I agree that the attempt to make an arc about Phrynne’s dad was not successful – he wasn’t that compelling of a character and I never cared about what happened to him, unlike the season one arc about her sister which was terrifically emotionally involving.
That kiss tho 🙂 🙂 🙂
I binge-read this detective series on Scribd and absolutely loved it. In the books Phryne isn’t romantically involved with the police detective (who is older and married) but has a fantastically sexy Chinese lover. The background on the horrors of World War I and the role that Aussies played in it was very intriguing. And the cocktails she was being served make me want to go out and buy a shaker and create my own.
I very much recommend the series and can’t wait to watch the TV series.
@Joy – I’m a fan of both, so I think there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy the TV series too, but I think it’s best to know from the start that the TV show is basically a completely different animal. It’s more on the “cozy” side of cozy mystery, and obviously as you’ve noticed Phryne is aged up a bit and Jack becomes the main romantic focus.
To me where the series falls down is on the consistency of Phryne’s background story. They seemed to have want to keep what was in the book (that she grew up very poor), but it didn’t quite work together with their original bits that include Aunt P and other rich close relatives. So we get the poor, dirt-smudged street urchin who played alongside her very rich cousins.
Lin Chung is in the TV show as well, but the marriage to Camellia ends the relationship on the show, instead of turning it into the free-love triad that it became in the books. (The “free-love triad”, for curious non-book-readers, looks like this: Phryne loves Lin Chung and sleeps with whomever she wants, Lin Chung sleeps with the two women he loves, and Camellia sleeps with her husband and loves gardening.)
I am waiting for a sick and/or rainy day to curl up and binge watch all of these… I’m not surprised that Season 3 isn’t as good, since I felt that the quality started slipping in Season 2, especially with respect to the actual mysteries. That said, I’m obsessed with the Christmas in July episode that ended the second season, so there you go. Spoilers don’t bother me, and I’m excited to see that there will be some progress on the Jack/Phryne relationship by the end of the season. I agree that the way Season 2 ended made me feel like they should be together by the beginning of Season 3, but I’m not surprised to hear they drag out the UST too long. It’s a very hard temptation for most show runners to resist.
Aha! DVD set comes out Oct 27 and my library has it on order. Boo! I’m number 13 in the queue–so it looks like it will be a Thanksgiving Day treat for me.
I’ve discovered I’m happiest by thinking of TV Phryne as an alternate-universe version of book Phryne. That way I don’t strain the brain trying to reconcile the major differences between the two. Except for the clothes–the clothes are fabulous for both!
“Hugh’s obnoxious behavior has a cause that makes sense for his character, and he and Dot acheive [sic] more balance.”
I can’t agree with this. I found Hugh infuriating, controlling, and stupid this whole season. I was glad when he left to go “fishing,” and when the red herring constable replacement arrived, I wanted Dot to end things with Hugh and ride off into the sunset on New Guy.
@Jill Smith said, “I HAD FEELINGS about his manbaby tantrums.” It’s funny she should use that word, because it’s exactly what my husband said. He shouted at the TV, “Shut up, Hugh, she’s a way better detective than you, and you’re a giant manbaby!”
I was Not Happy™ when Hugh returned and they got married after all. I didn’t feel like their issues were resolved in a way that was going to work out for them in the long term. Frankly, I don’t think Hugh is mature enough to get married, and I don’t approve of marriages made with the intent to make one or both parties grow up.
Dot deserves better.
Excellent review, and I love this series. BTW, though, it’s “Fisher” not “Fischer”. 🙂
@Dread Pirate Rachel – Oh, that’s interesting. I don’t think everything was resolved with Hugh and Dottie, but I loathed New Guy (I called him “Constable Ninny Martin”). The way he lied to Dot while simultaneously pulling a Single White Female on Hugh’s life? Squick.
I binge watched all 3 seasons on Netflix in about 4 days. I love it. No, S3 isn’t as good as the first two, but I still adored every minute. There are definitely a lot of implausible situations/things (I laughed when I realized that Phryne’s football adventures in 1910 at the age of 10 would make her 29 or 30 in this series. Um…nope) but I just kinda gloss over them — I’m having too much fun with this show.
Also, Detective Inspector Jack Robinson — yum.
It looks fab, but I’m hesitating watching any of the series, since I LOVE the books and the series seems nothing like them. (And much more vanilla then the books too.) Excepting for some of their names, and basic roles.
I wonder if the decline in quality of the mysteries is related to the fact that they’re no longer working off any of the books. Many of the earlier episodes pull plots from the books, but always with important alterations in who did what or whose motivation was what. In my opinion, the alterations actually made the mysteries better, but perhaps when forced to construct plots from scratch, the writers aren’t doing as well.
I definitely agree that the characters are their worst selves in the first episodes, and I spent the whole season assuming that Jack and Phryne were dating. I want to go back and rewatch with the understanding that they aren’t, and see if that makes me like the season better. I’d give this season an A-, if the first two weren’t so good. In comparison, it’s more of a B.
Also, the Hysteria episode was perfect.
I am watching Season 3 on my local PBS. I am really annoyed that Jane has disappeared. Seems to me the least they could do was say she had gone away to boarding school.
As for Jack (love Captain Bonerpants) and Phryne… it feels off to me this season. Yeah, Jack is jealous because Phryne is still sleeping with men she meets but since he already knew that about her and has yet to commit to her, why should she change her life? OTOH, if Phryne does love Jack and if she knows that when she sleeps with someone else it hurts Jack, why doesn’t she choose to abstain in order to see what will happen with Jack. Becasue I am certain she knows him well enough to know he would only accept a monogamous relationship.
I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! Season 3 was a bit of a let down & only 8 episodes.
Is season 3 the final season?
Looks interesting – guess the DVD request goes on my Christmas List. Thanks for the recommendation.
I adore the book series and I’ve watched a couple episodes of this on netflix and my entire review of it is: THAT GORGEOUS SHINY HAIR! THOSE PRETTY PRETTY CLOTHES! THE HATS!!!!!!!
Yeah, I had a squealing swoon over how lovely it is to look at and my husband rightly called it ‘wardrobe porn’
My feelings about S3 can be summed up in “I don’t want a S4.”
I get the distinct feeling the writers are out of plot. It felt as if the mysteries for each episode were written first, and then character development was shoehorned around that. “First episode: We need to introduce a seasonal arc and split Phryne and Jack so The Kiss happens at the end of the last episode.”, and so on.
And it particularly pissed me off when Phryne’s apologizing to Jack after being caught half-naked with an old flame, while he can consider the Italian woman with no moral quandaries.
There were high points: I love Aunt P after “Death And Hysteria”, the realistic discussion and consequences of Dot and Hugh’s different religions, the spotlight on women’s sports (lack of) funding and Dot’s confidence and competence. And the small little things that say “family of choice”. Phryne walking Dot down the aisle, Bert interacting with Aunt P, Bert and Cec being bridesmaids, and so on.
The clothes remain wonderful, but S1 and the first half of S2 left the bar too high, it seems.
I really prefer series where the will-they won’t-they leads DON’T hook up (these series are not easy to find), and I was hoping they wouldn’t go there while knowing that they would. The clothes are still wonderful, but S2 was the high point of the series for me.
Nothing has been said yet about a fourth season but they’re working on a movie that would be shot in Europe! The producers believe Phryne could be become the female Indiana Jones the world needs. Plus the actress lives in the UK now and would prefer shooting close to home.
I’m a huge fan of the books and watched the first couple of episodes of the show but unfortunately I was not as able as others here to deal with the alternate-universe TV Phryne, especially the cliché of “amateur female detective with police love interest” as opposed to Phyrne’s much more interesting and liberated romantic life in the books, plus I had trouble with the plot changes, expecting things to happen that were twisted in the TV version.
However, the art direction and costuming are definitely terrific, and Essie Davis is great in the lead role.
P.S. For the record, Phryne’s last name is spelled without a “c” (“Fisher”)
@Janice:
Totally my bad. It didn’t even grab my eye when I proofread this, and then once you pointed it out I was like, “DOH!” Sorry about that and thank you for giving the heads up. Going to adjust my glasses prescription now.
I love the books this series is based on but simply cannot get on the bandwagon for the TV show. I’ve tried on multiple occasions but, no, it just doesn’t work for me.
I think Essie Davis is phenomenal and honestly, who else could wear those hats and look as good? I don’t even care that she’s older, she’s great.
But I take issue with the other changes as they didn’t improve the storylines to me. Why is Mrs. Butler dead? Why did they kill off Phryne’s sister? Why would they take a great character, one who’s modern and strong and then whitewash her? I mean, they must of liked her if they insisted on adapting the books to tv. Then they change one of the main plot lines because otherwise she’d be committing adultery with a MOC, but not really because of cultural acceptance/history. And it is whitewashing when they end the relationship between Lin Chung and Phryne because of his marriage to Camellia. In the books all three were quite happy with Phryne being his concubine, especially Phryne.
Ok, so she still sleeps around, but that’s what makes her so great. Granted, she’s a bit of a Mary Sue in that she has so many different skills but who cares! She’s a woman with self agency, independent and sexually liberated. My god, I want to be her when I grow up.
However, part of Phryne’s charm is that she’s free and independent and hooking her up with the now divorced Jack Robinson reads false- he’s not as liberated as she is. And if she pursues a relationship with him it will fundamentally alter her.
kitkat9000, “bit of a Mary Sue?” translation, please.
“However, part of Phryne’s charm is that she’s free and independent and hooking her up with the now divorced Jack Robinson reads false- he’s not as liberated as she is. And if she pursues a relationship with him it will fundamentally alter her.”
Yeah, I’m not liking this relationship this year. Now that he has become all possessive, I can’t imagine why Phryne is attracted to him.
As for the white-washing, I wonder if the reason for that is the ability to sell to American TV? While we have a lot of sex in our TV shows, adulterers are inevitably portrayed as the bad guy. So to show her as the “other woman,” regardless of whether or not the wife consents, might be considered Too Much for American viewers who are probably not familiar with the books.
A Mary Sue is usually an unrealistically written character who has few, if any, flaws and everyone likes them or wants to be them. In other words, they’re too perfect. Much like Phryne, who can fly planes, race cars, is a crack shot, can sub for a circus acrobat, swims like a fish, etc. And everything she does, she does exceptionally well. I like her but she’s not someone who would exist in real life.
Yeah, you’re probably right regarding the American public but it irks me because Lin, and by extension his wife, play ongoing roles in the stories.
Phryne throwing her diaphragm over the spider. That is all.
(I have SEVERE arachnophobia and watched the whole thing through my fingers, but I was glad to have caught that bit)
“Just call it an internal device.”