Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e13 – Murder Under the Mistletoe

Murder Under the Mistletoe is the “Miss Fisher’s” Christmas (in July) special I obviously needed but didn’t know I needed. The episode opens with Essie Davis taking the girls—Ashleigh Cummings, Miriam Margolyes, Tammy Macintosh—to a ski lodge; Southern Hemisphere, snowy summers. But when they get there, of course there’s a murder—people are finally giving Davis crap for finding murder wherever she goes—and then they get snowed in. So everyone’s trapped up there with a killer.

Lots of great suspects—Simon Burke, Greg Saunders, George Shevtsov, Alicia Gardiner, Sylvie de Crespigny. There’s also teenager Emily Milledge, who proves you can be Goth in the 1920s. There’s a big backstory—there was a mine collapse in 1919 and it killed a bunch of the workers; widow de Crespigny married mine co-manager Burke; who does he co-manage the mine with—Margolyes. There’s a lot of good Margolyes stuff this episode. Anyway… Milledge is de Crespigny’s daughter.

There are secrets and flashbacks and Ruby Rees coming home from school early and having to hang out with the boys (Richard Bligh, Travis McMahon, and Anthony J. Sharpe, which is adorable). Plus Macintosh gets a bunch to do and not just doctor stuff.

Great direction from Tony Tilse, really fun script from Elizabeth Coleman.

Nathan Page and Hugo Johnstone-Burt brave the snow storm to get to the lodge and assist in the investigation, but the episode focuses on the multiple suspects and the entire cast being in grave danger. There are numerous murders throughout, including one with a complicated Rube Goldberg setup to get the job done.

Really good villain.

Great postscript with the titular mistletoe figuring in.

It’s a perfect Christmas special.

Also—there’s a John Noble cameo; he plays Margoyles’s since deceased husband in the flashback scenes. It’s very cute to see Margoyles opposite a husband.

Oh, and Cummings—she’s doing the full investigating again. “Miss Fisher’s” season two—with this episode as its victory lap—did a lot of character development on Cummings. Did a little on everyone else, but a lot on her and rarely spotlighted it, just let it happen. Very nicely done indeed.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e12 – Unnatural Habits

The episode opens with Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Ashleigh Cummings on their day off, Johnstone-Burt in his civvies somehow clashing with Cummings in her regular clothes; they’re fishing and dreaming of their honeymoon.

Rude awakening when they discover a dead body in the water. Even ruder awakening when it turns out to be the latest in a series of dead girls who worked at a Catholic convent’s laundry. Somehow the convent’s abusive treatment of the girls, which horrifies touring Essie Davis and Nathan Page—the show takes a deep stab at Catholic hypocrisy (well, some of them)—but then it manages to get even worse as we slowly find out what’s happening to the girls and who’s doing it to them.

But running up against the Church means Page’s ex-father-in-law and boss Neil Melville gets involved, especially since he’s just gotten a promotion; Melville bans Davis from investigating and reassigns Page.

Also back this episode are Page’s ex-wife, Dee Smart, who’s openly hostile to Davis at this point, and her cousin fiancé Daniel Frederiksen. Miriam Margolyes is around too—turns out her cook was one of the missing girls—and has some great scenes with current girl-in-crisis Alice Cavanagh. Very nice work from Margolyes this episode. Shayne Francis and Sally-Anne Upton are excellent as the meanest laundry bosses.

There’s eventually a big action sequence where Davis and her sidekicks arm up—turns out butler Richard Bligh has been assembling an arsenal for just such an occasional—and try to save the day while Melville has the cops dillydallying in fear of upsetting the Church.

All the outstanding story threads from the season get resolved here and the episode ends on quite the tease. Writer Ysabelle Dean does a good job fitting in a bunch of content but it some of it is still very rushed. The investigation leads Davis all over the place, from the laundry to high society to the docks and so on. Nice direction from Tony Tilse, who’s really able to ratchet up the tension in that big action finale.

One of the two main villains—motivated by pure greed—doesn’t get the best performance, while the other one gets a phenomenal one. Though maybe the suspicious behavior is less obvious when the solution is confirmed instead of suspected….

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e11 – Dead Air

It’s a pure delight episode of “Miss Fisher’s,” outside the murders and murderer, obviously, with Essie Davis and company going to hang out at a radio station in the pre-Golden Age of Radio. The format has caught on—especially with Ashleigh Cummings, who is the one who gets Davis involved in the investigation because the victim was an old school chum—but the format isn’t stable. But because the newspapers are waging a war on the radio stations, including sabotage, arson, and maybe murder.

The show never gets into the conflict enough but if it’s based in reality… there’s definitely the potential for a good book or TV show or something. Sounds very interesting.

The newspaper-related intrigue in the episode involves newsstand vendor Travis Cotton and whatever racket he’s got going with obnoxious, suspicious, and quite funny in a terrible sort of way radio presenter, Rhys Muldoon. Muldoon’s one of the two prime suspects, along with mysteriously ill presenter Pip Edwards, who’s apparently been stealing victim Amy Arnott’s work. Marco Chiappi is Edwards’s husband and seems to be the guy who runs the radio station. At least he’s the one who panics the most when a show gets delayed because another body drops.

Besides the setting, which gives everyone something a little different to do—like Hugo Johnstone-Burt running the investigation on his own, with Nathan Page on special assignment but helping Davis out when he can. Page even tells Davis to keep an eye on Johnstone-Burt, who might not be up to the task of solving the crime on his own.

There’s also some trouble in paradise for Johnstone-Burt and Cummings’s (so far unannounced) engagement, as Johnstone-Burt makes it clear Cummings will become a homemaker upon the announcement. Not even the actual wedding, which Cummings doesn’t like and Davis doesn’t like and Page doesn’t even seem to like.

There’s a lovely postscript to it all, playing up the fun Davis and Page get to have throughout, and the showdown with the murderer is awesome.

Really good supporting performances all around this time; Edwards takes a while to get going but then she’s probably the best of the very good bunch.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e10 – Death on the Vine

The show’s hit a nice stride lately; this episode’s rather good, with little in common with the previous two other than Ashleigh Cummings’s detective skills continuing to develop. Otherwise, the setting is all different—Essie Davis has drug Cummings out to a vineyard (after telling her they were going to a farm but didn’t want to tell her about the wine) to meet a new client. Only the client’s dead when they get there and everyone in town is giving them the cold shoulder and worse.

Even more concerning is the local law enforcement (David Field) seems to be covering up evidence and whenever Davis tries to call him on it, he threatens her. Though the whole town is threatening them, complete with snakes hidden in their room and guns getting stolen.

It’s very tensely executed, Davis and Cummings far from home and their regular supporting cast. Davis calls and gets Nathan Page to head out—it’s a rural town—before they’re able to get the investigation going properly.

Almost complicating the investigation is the victim’s brother, James Saunders, being unhelpful to the point he’s suspicious. Everyone in the town—save maybe kindly doctor Geoff Morrell and his daughter, Ramona Von Pusch—is hostile. Hotelier Geneviève Picot is terrifying.

So lots of rural empty night tension and scares—excellent direction from Catherine Millar. Even when Page arrives, it doesn’t seem like Field is going to let the big city copper make any difference. Very interesting to see Page’s authority ignored.

Meanwhile, Hugo Johnstone-Burt has decided it’s time to propose to Cummings and is trying his best to make it romantic—with Page’s help—only Cummings sees it as Johnstone-Burt doing a slapdash job of investigating. It’s real cute, real funny. This episode’s the second time I’ve noticed Chris Corbett’s credit as writer; he’s doing a rather good job.

The acting—from Field, Picot, Morrell, Von Pusch, Saunders, Davis, Page—is particularly excellent.

Also there may be another Phryne Fellow but it’s unclear how far things went when Davis was stomping grapes….

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e09 – Framed for Murder

I’m not just interested this episode because it’s all about the silent movie industry; it’s right at the transition to sound, which means we’re in the late twenties and Black Tuesday is approaching. I’m terrified what it’s going to mean for “Miss Fisher.” Especially when you consider this episode is all about one of Essie Davis’s investments, childhood friend Hamish Michael’s Australian movie studio.

Michael’s trying to keep the local film industry going even though the Americans are trying to takeover. Craig Hall’s the potential investor from the United States; he’s the most problematic thing in the episode because his American accent is bad so it’s hard to take him seriously.

The leading man on Michael’s historical epic ends up murdered and so Davis is investigating as investor, not as private detective. Means she gets to do things like take over directing when she wants to take over directing. It’s awesome. Also a smooth way to get her and Nathan Page working together for the first time in a few episodes without tension.

Well, without professional tension. There’s still personal tension, thank goodness, and the first Phryne Fellow in ages.

The movie studio setting gets everyone involved, from Ashleigh Cummings’s movie trivia helping solve the case (she also proves herself a more diligent investigator than beau Hugo Johnstone-Burt, which is concerning but not surprising) to Travis McMahon and Anthony J. Sharpe having to fill in as actors.

Chris Corbett’s script is geared to be amusing, but the guest stars help a lot. Constantly suspicious Michael is adorable, as is script girl Jane Harber, who’s got a photographic memory. Richard Sutherland’s funny as the asshole director and James Beck turns out quite good as the American actor slumming in Australia.

Stephanie King’s fine as the leading lady but doesn’t have a lot to do.

More than enough excellent support to make up for Hall.

And the action-packed resolution is dynamite; great direction from Peter Andrikidis.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e08 – The Blood of Juana the Mad

Depending on the setting, there are certain predictable reactions from Miss Fisher (Essie Davis) as well as from “Miss Fisher,” the show; for instance, this episode takes place at a medical university—where Dr. Mac (Tammy Macintosh) teaches—and involves the rich male students (and the male teachers) harassing an exceptional female student, Andrea Demetriades. So it’s going to be a bit of a downer because 1920s, privilege, institutionalized sexism and so on.

Except not so much here, because Demetriades’s character is able to surmount the obstacles. Yes, she and Davis have to convince Nathan Page Demetriades isn’t seeing conspiracies in the shadows—or, rather, is seeing conspiracies in the shadows—but Page’s only slow to get onboard because he’s still working out his feelings about working with Davis.

Davis, for her part, is more than happy to drag and push Page towards the obvious conclusion—he’s never going to have a better partner.

We also get to see the sexism Macintosh has to endure professionally, whether it’s discreet and from a supportive colleague (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) or weaponized from a prick colleague (Nicholas Hope). Not to mention the blue blood students get to harass female student and teacher alike without fear of repercussion. William Ewing’s great as one such odious little shit.

The murder involves not just the dead body, but also missing manuscripts and skulls—which gives Davis a great Hamlet reference at one point—and secret agents, which turns into a subplot for Page to work through mostly on his own.

The resolution is a little rushed—the murderer’s motive doesn’t get the four minutes it needs in the first act to resonate later, but it’s understandable because it’d make not just the murderer reprehensible, it’d make most of the rest of the supporting cast complicit in some very bad thoughts.

But thanks to Demetriades, who’s excellent as well as an excellent Phryne protege (Ashleigh Cummings doesn’t get anywhere near as much to do as usual but she’s great with Demetriades, who ends up staying at Davis’s house for a bit), and the intentionally paced Page and Davis subplot, it’s delightful. Eventually.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e07 – Blood at the Wheel

Even if the subplot of this episode weren’t Nathan Page deciding he can’t remain friendly (friendly plus) with Essie Davis given her dangerous lifestyle and isn’t going to ask her to knock it off because Page’s non-sexism is one of the most winning parts of his personality… it’d still be a very depressing episode.

The episode opens with a woman (Annie Stanford) speeding in her motor car and crashing due to sabotage (my wife pointed out it’s like watching Cruella de Vil drive) and we then find out she’s a race car driver for the Adventurers’ Club Davis funds (for like-minded women). Stanford and mechanic Rachael Blake were going to race in a local tournament, run by proudly sexist pig David Roberts, who’s not just going to try to keep women out of racing, he’s running for office on the platform of not letting women drive at all.

So while there’s that gem at the top of the organization, there are also the other male racers—Rohan Browne, the victim’s brother, seems okay but gets more and more suspicious as things progress—and there’s creep ex-lover of the victim Shaun Goss, who starts and stays suspicious. Great scene with Davis facing off with Goss during her investigation.

Tammy Macintosh shows up to help Davis with the investigation and, for that moment, it feels like the Dr. Watson Davis never needs (but may if Page is really breaking their working relationship—and is willing to take the hit to his professional fulfillment). There’s also some fantastic stuff for Ashleigh Cummings, who doesn’t just assume a more direct role in private investigating, she also has to get over her fear of driving.

However, beau Hugo Johnstone-Burt doesn’t want her to get over that fear and is positively threatened by all these women—Davis, Blake, but particularly Blake’s teenage daughter, Nikita Leigh-Pritchard)—knowing more about cars than him. Unfortunate but great characterization.

The resolution is complicated and tragic, the investigation to get there is quite good… it’s a very heavy episode with all the patriarchy and weaponized misogyny in play. And the Page subplot, which simmers throughout, positively scalds in the epilogue. Great performances from Davis and, in particular, Page on it.

It’s one heck of a soft cliffhanger.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e06 – Marked for Murder

Confession: I had no idea what they were talking about with footy. I assumed Australians played football—as in association football—but it looks like a big American football. My wife thought they were talking about rugby. But apparently there’s Aussie rules? Or footy?

The episode’s about two footy clubs and their hooligans and a dead player. We see the player hanging in the cold open, specifically his very hairy butt. Turns out he had just changed teams, which meant he had more haters than the usual player would. But even some supporters of his team—like Nathan Page—think the victim was an opportunist. Though it turns out said victim, Benjamin Rigby, switched teams because Page’s ex-wife’s cousin and lover (Daniel Frederiksen) bribed him to make the change.

It’s a fine episode with lots for all the characters—Hugo Johnstone-Burt goes from being an unthinking footy supporter to having to consider that support, Travis McMahon comes to realize Page can’t be all bad if he supports the right team, Ashleigh Cummings shows she actually listens to Johnstone-Burt’s nonsense. We get some more of Page’s ex-father-in-law boss (Neil Melville) being a snake (he likes the wrong team after all). And we finally get to see Page’s ex-wife hang out with Miss Fisher. There’s a lot of fun in the episode, but there’s never any more tension than when ex-wife Dee Smart and Essie Davis are alone. It’s nearly nerve-racking.

Though there might be more tension in the scene where Page very subtlety asks Davis to stay and watch a match with him. It’s basically their first official date. Particularly cute because Davis has a character detail about why she gave up footy supporting in her youth.

Excellent supporting performances from the team captains, Damien Garvey and Robert Morgan. It’s a complicated resolution to the mystery but well-handled and acted. Though it does feel a little like they tried to do an episode for the boys.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e05 – Murder à la Mode

It’s kind of a Dot (Ashleigh Cummings) episode. At least more of a Dot episode than the show’s ever had before. Not only does she get a real subplot with beau Hugo Johnstone-Burt, who’s very taken with the outfits he sees around a fancy dressmaker’s (at least the ones modeled on half-French model Freya Stafford), but she also gets a personal style arc. And she gets to be dotted on in the dressmaker’s salon; not just champagne but an evening gown of her own.

The mystery involves the investor of the saloon turning up dead and pretty much everyone there being a suspect. Cummings and Essie Davis are there shopping, which makes it convenient when Davis has to get investigating. Nathan Page and Johnstone-Burt show up quick and the initial investigation is Page and Davis together. Lots of flirting on the crime scene this episode. Quite delightful.

So the victim, Heather Lythe, has a philandering, much younger husband, Mark Leonard Winter, who’s a suspect and appears to be carrying on with Sibylla Budd, who designs for the salon but sister Heather Mitchell has the final word on everything. Then there’s seamstress Tessa Lind who might also be carrying on with Winter or doing something else entirely. Lots of fashion, lots of intrigue.

There’s also a bit of fun for Travis McMahon and Anthony J. Sharpe, who find themselves tasked with intercepting Lind’s something else entirely in an amusing sequence.

Davis has a lot of fun shopping for the clothes and selling Cummings on the idea of caring about clothes, which writer Kristen Dunphy is able to turn into a rather nice C plot. There’s so much mystery, so many avenues Davis and Page end up investigating before they get to the right one. Everyone’s trying to pull something over on everyone else as it turns out. Or they’re confused about what someone else is pulling over on them.

The final resolution is one of the better reveals the show’s had in a while, particularly because it gives Davis a worthy adversary. You actually worry about her in the suspense sequences instead of being sure she’ll be able to prevail. There’s an X factor to the villain here and it takes a while for all the be revealed. Along the way, lots of danger.

It’s a particularly interesting investigation episode, with Cummings getting something more a big plus.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e04 – Deadweight

One upbeat (enough) “Miss Fisher’s” was apparently all they could take because this one is a very, very sad one. It’s all about a boxing troupe and the damage done on the community because of it. The community in question is the young poor men who spend their time in street gangs. Constable Hugo Johnstone-Burt is trying to teach the boys to box to get them out off the street. And does it without much encouragement. It ends up being a pretty good episode for Johnstone-Burt, who’s always around, always likable and often funny, but rarely charged with much on his own.

Not supportive comrades include boss Nathan Page and girlfriend Ashleigh Cummings; Essie Davis is a boxing fan and presumably not just because it involves sweaty fit men. She has a great flirtation throughout the episode with potential Phryne Fellow Chris Asimos, a Greek boxer who knows just how to treat a lady… or so Davis thinks. Funny not dangerous (which is weird, actually; everyone’s a suspect except Asimos).

Johnstone-Burt’s prize student, Mark Coles Smith, comes under investigation when one of the other gang is killed and it seems to also tie into the case of a dead police officer. Coles Smith is boxing at the exhibition to make money for mom Rachael Maza, who Davis tries to befriend and help but Maza’s got her secrets. The other gang is led by shitty little racist Scott Smart, who just hires bigger guys to fight Coles Smith.

Brett Swain and Glenda Linscott run the boxing exhibition; they’re both excellent. Maza’s excellent. Coles Smith is pretty good and you’d never guess he’s twenty-six playing seventeen or whatever. Some great material for butler Richard Bligh this episode and a nice little cameo from Tammy Macintosh.

Page gets very little to do—at least until the (momentarily) joyous epilogue—other than tell Johnstone-Burt the boxing is a bad idea and Davis he doesn’t want to investigate any cops. So it’s nice when he’s got the epilogue scene; especially since Davis has had Asimos distracting her most episode. “Miss Fisher’s” needs its Phryne and Jack, after all.