Other than a very tenuous and highly improbable familial connection with Kerry Greenwood's fictional detective, this show bears absolutely no relationship to the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries. The producers are clearly hoping to capitalize on their earlier success, apparently without realizing that a huge part of that success was Essie Davis' elegant and spot-on portrayal of The Hon. Phryne Fisher, flapper socialite and self-styled "lady detective," plying her trade in Kerry Greenwood's well researched 1930's Melbourne.
Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries is set some 30 years later, in early 1963, as established by a reference to Valentina Tereshkova, who has not yet been chosen as the pilot of Vostok 6, but is among the final five candidates. It's a good thing we have such a specific reference, because the sets, costuming and vocabulary are bouncing around between the mid-50's and the early 70's. Without falling into a boring lecture on women's fashions, suffice it to say that anyone who actually lived through the early 1960's will find the anachronisms and lack of authenticity comical - and not in a good way. If your "hook" - the only thing that makes you stand out from all the other TV mysteries - is a specific historical setting, you had better get it right.
On its own merits, this show might have been okay - not great, but not a complete waste of time, either. But it doesn't stand on its own - it is being offered a successor to a much better show, hence the greater disappointment when it fails to measure up. The cast is lack-luster, the writing is formulaic, the stereotypes are as thick as pea soup, and all of this is further hampered by the aforementioned unsuccessful attempts to wedge it into a decade with which the writers and designers clearly have only a passing acquaintance.
I am still trying to figure out why the writers chose to name the police detective James Steed - an obvious reference to John Steed of The Avengers - when any comparison between this show and that masterpiece from the 1960's could only hurt them. But perhaps we will eventually learn that James Steed is really the heretofore unknown illegitimate child John Steed left behind after a wild Australian holiday...
Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries is set some 30 years later, in early 1963, as established by a reference to Valentina Tereshkova, who has not yet been chosen as the pilot of Vostok 6, but is among the final five candidates. It's a good thing we have such a specific reference, because the sets, costuming and vocabulary are bouncing around between the mid-50's and the early 70's. Without falling into a boring lecture on women's fashions, suffice it to say that anyone who actually lived through the early 1960's will find the anachronisms and lack of authenticity comical - and not in a good way. If your "hook" - the only thing that makes you stand out from all the other TV mysteries - is a specific historical setting, you had better get it right.
On its own merits, this show might have been okay - not great, but not a complete waste of time, either. But it doesn't stand on its own - it is being offered a successor to a much better show, hence the greater disappointment when it fails to measure up. The cast is lack-luster, the writing is formulaic, the stereotypes are as thick as pea soup, and all of this is further hampered by the aforementioned unsuccessful attempts to wedge it into a decade with which the writers and designers clearly have only a passing acquaintance.
I am still trying to figure out why the writers chose to name the police detective James Steed - an obvious reference to John Steed of The Avengers - when any comparison between this show and that masterpiece from the 1960's could only hurt them. But perhaps we will eventually learn that James Steed is really the heretofore unknown illegitimate child John Steed left behind after a wild Australian holiday...