Back to streaming: Finishing up Phryne Fisher's 1st season--this series just gets better & better!

Normally TM would just add an addendum onto his earlier post for a TV series he'd seen and enjoyed. But this time, concerning the Australian MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES, the series -- which, when he first posted, he'd seen but four episodes and found them both old-fashioned and fun -- his opinion now, after viewing all thirteen programs, is  that this show and its worth grows with each new hour-long mystery. This is ace television in every way: wonderfully old-fashioned yet gloriously new-fangled, too.

Miss Phryne (pronounced fry-knee) Fisher and her splendid crew make us feel like we used to with our favorite TV shows back in the day because all these characters feel like a kind of "chosen family" -- folk we can't wait to spend time with again and again. Which is all the more odd, since almost every episode begins with a murder (these grow ever more bizarre and awful, yet they're usually -- or nearly -- blood-free).

The crimes serve to introduce us to yet another set of characters and a new environment (along with the old cast members we know and grow to love), whether it be magazine publishing of the day (the time is the 1920, the place Melbourne), a high-end house party, Jewish politics and culture (incipient Zionisn don'cha know!), gay and lesbian issues (below), a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta (above), the art world, and the lives of female factory workers, to list merely half of the subjects and themes you'll see when you begin viewing.

The series is a throwback to kinder, gentler times, yes, but it is brought to life with all the skill that cable television today can offer. The cast is exem-plary, the writing sharp & smart, & the direction (often from women whom we're sure to hear more from in the years to come) quite on target for this kind of show. What seems especially fine to me is how the characters take that moment with a glance, a touch, a direct look that manages to say a great deal without dialog. This can sometimes come off as arch -- but not here. Instead it adds an old-fashioned grace note to the goings-on.

Viewing Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is quite like taking vacation from our current times into something rich, just a little strange, and altogether magical -- mostly because you simply would not imagine that anyone could create anything this delectably enticing in our so often ugly and ironic day and age. (Miss Fisher and her crew could not be more different from that of the dark and piercing Spiral, that unusual French TV series that I also love.)

You can stream the first season of the show now (and please, Netflix, get the resulting season, too!): thirteen hours of Australian television heaven. Or you can purchase the four DVD or Blu-ray set that is distributed here in the USA via Acorn. More, please!

Streaming tip: Aussie MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES offers Melbourne in the roaring 20s

Do you remember, if you're old enough, the early American television mystery series Mr. and Mrs. North? If not, maybe younger folk will recall Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote. These may come to mind when watching the nostalgic and much more elaborately designed and costumed Australian television series, MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES. Taking place in Melbourne during those roaring 20s (probably a tad less roaring than in New York City or Paris), the series stars the lovely and witty Essie Davis (shown at left and below) as Phyrne (pronounced Fry-knee) Fisher, a woman of the world who has returned to her native Australia to... well, we'll see.

Now streamable via Netflix, this (I've now seen four of the first dozen episodes from season one) wonderfully engaging show features hour-long individual mystery stories linked by the titular Miss Fisher, who solves each one rather in the mode that both Pam North (played with utter delight and cockeyed optimism by the lovely Barbara Britton) and Jessica Fletcher (Ms Lansbury's character) managed to do. The major difference is how much has changed in terms of what can now be discussed and shown on prime-time TV in the 60 years since the Norths investigated and the 30 years since Murder, She Wrote came on the scene. Pam and Jerry North would be shocked at the kind of stuff in which Miss Fisher gets herself involved.

Themes run the gamut from matricide and the Fagin-like "adoption" of orphans to labor unrest and how homosexuality was treated in Australia back in the 20s. Missing sisters figure prominently in some of the episodes, as do religion and the Roman Catholic Church. Yet none of this is bashed home. No: Phryne and her television writers (around 12 of them) and directors (maybe 15 over several seasons) handle it all with aplomb and fun, rather than a heavy hand. Still, it is television, after all. But better, entertainment-wise, than much else we've seen. (I prefer this series over the much-touted Downton Abbey, where there are enough coincidentally overheard conversations to choke the proverbial horse.)

The cinematography here (in hi-def on Netflix) is gorgeous and quite atmospheric, and the costumes are especially fun. (Watch for Phryne's Latvian anarchist outfit in episode four, season one.) Phryne herself is quite a characters: a genuinely good woman, rich as Croesus, but with all the instincts of an honest-to-god progressive, and the captivating Miss Davis brings her to fine life.

The series is great fun, not least because it seems that it actually adds to its regular cast as it moves along, bringing with it all sorts of charming characters: the young maid who was fired by the villain in episode one is then hired by Phryne, and appears thereafter; the orphan (Ruby Rees Wemyss, below) from episode two finds a permanent home with our heroine; and so on.

There is also the very welcome opportunity to see fine actresses we have loved over the years -- Wendy Hughes (in the photo above) and Miriam Margolyes, to name just two -- in roles here. And the interplay between Phryne and the rest of the cast -- her superior butler, charming maid, the shy constable who is so very attracted to that maid, and the rather sexy police inspector (Nathan Page, below) with whom Phryne shares cases and seems somewhat attracted to -- proves consistent and delightful fun.

So, yes, I am hooked and will finish this 13-episode series (Netflix at this point only offers the first season) with great relish. I suggest you at least give it a sampling (try to watch 2 to 3 episodes before you toss in the towel, as they seem to grow better as they go on).