Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e03 – Dead Man’s Chest

Last season, “Miss Fisher’s” went out of its way not to have detective Essie Davis happen into mysteries solely because she’s a rich White lady in the 1920s. Though… I mean, it sort of did. But this episode makes no attempt to contrive a reason to get Davis involved in the Julia Blake’s mystery. Davis and her household—aunt Miriam Margolyes, companion Ashleigh Cummings, ward Ruby Rees—are going to the beach on holiday. When they get there, Blake’s household—where they’re staying—is in abject disarray. The servants have disappeared, leaving kitchen boy or whatever Reef Ireland to manage the whole house.

So, of course Davis brings in Richard Bligh to whip things up into shape because Stately Fisher Manor isn’t a place, it’s a state of mind. But even though the mystery conclusion—involving stolen coins—and its villain aren’t the best, it’s a great episode. It’s a bunch of fun watching Davis butt heads with yokel copper Tony Rickards—great moment after Davis brings in Nathan Page (and Hugo Johnstone-Burt, which makes for a cute scene or two for he and Cummings) and Blake asks Davis to bring her handsome friend around (meaning Page) and Davis is momentarily confused. It’s extremely charming.

The whole episode, as it concerns Page and Davis, is extremely charming. They investigate the case together, sneaking around, never particularly concerned because they’re old hats at the mystery thing by now and just enjoying themselves. It’s like a working holiday. Very cute.

Davis gets a good showdown with the villain too, though there are a confusing amount of suspects.

Excellent, unexpected arc for Margolyes, which figures in to some of the mystery resolve, and Rees is adorable making eyes at Ireland. Also adorable is when Cummings has to tell Davis to chaperone her. Dan Wyllie plays Blake’s son, who’s a potential Phryne Fellow for a while… even though he’s still Perry Heslop.

Oh, and Travis McMahon gets a fantastic bit as a drunk. Bootlegging figures into it all too. And temperance movements. It’s a whole bunch of plot, but Ken Cameron’s direction moves through it rather well.

Delightful episode… maybe, given the resolution and the stakes, the most delightful “Miss Fisher’s” to date.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e02 – Death Comes Knocking

If this episode of “Miss Fisher’s” doesn’t have the highest body, it definitely feels like it has the highest. People get killed off throughout the runtime—and before it, actually, in flashback. The episode opens with a séance, which is automatically awesome just thinking about Essie Davis going off about séances. It’s almost a surprise she’s participating, but it turns out she’s hosting the medium (Julie Forsyth) at Aunt Prudence’s request. Everyone, including me, is surprised to discover Aunt Prudence (Miriam Margolyes) is into the spiritualist stuff.

Margolyes wants the psychic to help Teague Rook get over his World War I PTSD; Rook is Margoyles’s died in the war godson Billy Smedley’s best friend, who also carried dying Smedley off the field at the Somme. Rook is now married to Kate Atkinson, who’s Smedley’s widow, and even has his valet, John McTernan. Margoyles wants Rook to get an official commendation before he dies; the mustard gas just took a while to finally get him. Except Rook doesn’t think he deserves it. He thinks he shot Smedley, not saved him. But he can’t remember.

Hence psychic Forsyth.

Compared to the war veteran stuff—because even though it doesn’t come up every episode, the main and supporting cast of “Miss Fisher’s” are all veterans. Davis, Nathan Page, Travis McMahon, so almost half the regular cast. And this time there are the guest starring veterans: Rook, Jonny Pasvolsky as Forsyth’s manager, Nicholas Brien as a former stretcher-bearer. The Great War looms over these characters, haunting them all in different ways. It’s very nicely done by writer Ysabelle Dean and director Ken Cameron this episode. Davis’s performance in particular is fantastic.

Because once the first body drops, Davis and Page find themselves having to solve the battlefield mystery and figuring out how it relates to the present day murder and then the second one.

Along the way, Davis has time for her first Phryne Fellow of the season, Pasvolsky, who proves quite soulful once Davis convinces him of the “sanctity of the boudoir.” Good performances this episode from McMahon—who still doesn’t like conscientious objectors, which gets in the way of his investigating on Davis’s behalf—and then Rook. Rook does rather well.

There’s also a good combination of scares and laughs for Ashleigh Cummings, who finds the whole séance business disturbingly un-Catholic, as well as some wonderful scenes with Page and Davis. The show’s very intentionally toying with their chemistry at this point, rather delightfully.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s02e01 – Murder Most Scandalous

Season Two starts off with a bunch of flashy character reveals, with finally meeting Nathan Page’s ex-wife (Dee Smart) not even being the main one. Very prim, very proper, very Catholic Ashleigh Cummings’s sister, Anna Bamford, is a sex worker and works in a brothel where one of the girls has just turned up dead. So Bamford hires Essie Davis to investigate, with Davis not realizing the victim was found dead in a locked room with anti-sin copper Neil Melville, who survived.

Turns out Melville is Smart’s father.

And Page’s ex-father-in-law.

“Miss Fisher” does an amazing job with the pro-sex worker stuff, giving Cummings a great couple scenes throughout as she processes the information. It makes up for Davis’s episode long Hispanophile arc, which has her going from learning the tango at the beginning of the episode to impersonating a Spanish exotic dancer when she goes undercover at Bamford’s brothel.

The accent is a lot.

Though Davis has been supremely unproblematic so far in the show, so giving her an “mkay” character detail like this one is long overdue given she’s still an infinitely wealthy White woman in the 1920s.

The mystery is better than the resolve, which is nowhere near as interesting as a locked room mystery, a hypocrite bureaucrat suspect, and a madam’s blackmail stash.

Davis’s gets a cool Catwoman sequence where she has to climb up to get to the stash room, then has a fight scene with madam Belinda McClory. Oh, and there’s also Davis doing a fan dance, unintentionally to most of the supporting cast, shocking Cummings and sensationalizing Hugo Johnstone-Burt.

What also stands out about the resolution is it seems more like there’s season subplot building with is-he-or-isn’t-he suspicious Melville and then a creepy young, buff priest, Lyall Brooks, not to mention Page getting attacked on the street by thugs left unidentified.

Maybe the most impressive thing about the episode is how well it defers Davis and Page’s chemistry, post-divorce—Smart’s already engaged again, which solves the moral dilemma—and there are some great Phyrne and Jack chemistry moments throughout. But where it’s all going is a left for another day… and episode.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e13 – King Memses’ Curse

I’m a fan of this season finale—and season resolver—and would be even if it didn’t (unintentionally?) follow a bunch of the same narrative beats as Halloween H20. No spoilers. But… it’s H20.

After the pre-title murder—a gruesome but not gory one—the action picks up the next morning after last episode. Phryne (Essie Davis) is freaking out trying to keep ward Ruby Rees safe—enlisting the taxi drivers as bodyguards again, giving them a third chance after they botched the first two—and heads off to investigate a seemingly planted clue.

At the corresponding address (an antique shop), she and Ashleigh Cummings discover the pre-title body (with some gore this time) and get the coppers involved. Except Nathan Page just wants Davis at home staying safe, so when Davis finds another clue—a photography of the suspect and victim—she has to follow-up.

Davis’s investigation takes her to egyptologist Matt Day (Brice from Muriel’s!) while Page and Hugo Johnstone-Burt interview Cassandra Magrath, who was a kid when she escaped the villain. None of the others were so lucky. The details Magrath gives about her abduction and Day’s details about mummification run parallel, particularly when it comes to a paralyzing serum.

A paralyzing serum the villain has unleashed on Stately Fisher Manor so they can come in and grab Rees, needing her to fill the last open spot for whatever evil they’ve got planned.

It’s then a race against time for Davis, Cummings, and Page, with Davis charging ahead without concern for her personal safety. Her behavior pushes Page to the limit and he has her locked up, taking it upon himself to move forward with the case.

The resolution is incredibly dramatic, incredibly tense. Davis is outstanding, ditto Page. And obviously Daina Reid directed it; she’s so good with the tension. So good.

The postscript brings back all the favorite recurring characters—Miriam Margolyes, Tammy Macintosh—and provides a very nice bookend to the pilot, showcasing Davis’s character development over the season, as well as her presence’s effect.

Nicole Nabout’s really good as a nun who figures in and, as usual, it’s fun to get to see Davis face off with the Catholic Church. But not Nabout, rather priest Dennis Coard. The Deb Cox and Elizabeth Coleman script manages to maintain some humor despite dire circumstances. Oh, and Magrath’s excellent.

It’s one heck of a finish.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e12 – Murder in the Dark

It’s truly amazing what they’re able to get away with this episode in terms of red herrings, shoehorned subplots, shock tactics, exploitative tension, and so on. Director Daina Reid and writer Ysabelle Dean put everyone through the ringer—with a couple really obvious questions left open at the end—and grinds them flat.

The main plot itself is a bait and switch, starting with a murder at Miriam Margolyes’s estate. She’s lead Essie Davis’s aunt; Davis and sidekick Ashleigh Cummings are packing to go to a party at Margolyes’s—a costumed engagement party for Margoyles’s son, Felix Williamson—when Davis gets a call from her. Their planned lunch is off, but come anyway, there’s been a murder.

Davis calls the cops, who arrive just after she gets there and we’ve met Williamson, who isn’t exactly suspicious but isn’t exactly not. Then we meet his fiancée, Kate Jenkinson, who’s performatively risqué enough to shock Hugo Johnstone-Burt but not Nathan Page (who’s preoccupied with his divorce proceedings, information he only shares reluctantly and never, I don’t think, with Davis)—before getting to victim’s father, Ken Radley. Radley goes from being grieving parent to number one suspect rather quickly, with the episode taking a break to introduce John Lloyd Fillingham as Margolyes’s other son, who’s developmentally disabled.

Except we’ve already met Fillingham… he discovered the body and Margolyes covered it up.

Throw in a subplot about Davis bringing her household over to save the engagement party, complete with hash fudge, Margoyles flipping out over the communist cab drivers, and Ruby Rees discovering—by fault of the same name—Fillingham’s still traumatized over Davis’s sister’s disappearance years before.

Now, the episode’s so effective, it’s able to get over them seemingly contradicting the information we got about the sister’s disappearance last episode. Fillingham wasn’t just there as a kid, he also says the man who took the sister is back and he killed the victim.

Distracted Page chalks it up to Fillingham’s impairment while Davis starts freaking out thinking Nicholas Bell is after her family… while Cummings and Johnstone-Burt actually do the work and save the day.

If only they were a few moments sooner….

It’s a phenomenally paced episode. The last ten minutes increase the tension second-to-second. You just want the episode to end, even on a dreadful resolution or enraging cliffhanger, but to just stop and give you a break. It’s great.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e11 – Blood & Circuses

It’s a very intense episode, with Phyrne (Essie Davis) in constant danger—whether she knows it or not, usually yes but not the extent of it—in addition to being in a very traumatic headspace. We finally find out what happens to her little sister (or at least as much as Davis knows) when Davis takes a case at a visiting circus. The half-woman/half-man (performance artist Moira Finucane in a bit part) is killed and her body revealed on stage during magician (and lover) Greg Stone’s act. The coppers are no use, so circus strong man Aaron Jeffery goes to old friend Davis, who doesn’t want to take the case because of the history.

Only when she takes Jeffrey to see Nathan Page, Page has got clearly crappy copper Joel Tobeck working it and has no time for the case.

Even though the episode itself is really good, Page’s place in it is very weird. See, he sends Hugo Johnstone-Burt to work with Tobeck (ostensibly to keep an eye on Tobeck’s progress with the case), but Johnstone-Burt just ends up taking on all of Tobeck’s bad habits, which pisses Page off. Only… not enough? It feels like Page needs a subplot to keep him occupied this episode—and eventually gets a little bit of one, once old acquaintance (and Page’s first ever arrest when he was a rookie) Gillian Jones ends up in the station needing a place to sober up. Page has to throw her in with the not very suspicious murder suspect, magician’s assistant Victoria Thaine. Tobeck and Johnstone-Burt collar Thaine with literally no investigation, which Page knows.

So, not a good episode for Page.

But Davis and Jeffrey at the circus? Great. Suspects include nasty snake lady Maude Davey, Stone, circus owner John Wood, and basically everyone else. The episode’s got a very romanticized vision of the circus, with Jeffrey constantly spouting emotionally rousing speeches about how its a place for everyone who can’t fit in to fit in and realize their inherent value. Sadly, the only other person who apparently felt so strongly about the circus as inclusive was Finucane, who was murdered by one of her colleagues.

It does give Jeffrey a nice tone though.

The case itself involves a lot of information being kept from everyone involved—problematically in one major instance—but is emotionally rending by the finale.

Davis does a fantastic job throughout the episode, haunted by the past (which shows up in flashback), but still pushing forward.

So her arc and the tension from the main case more than make up for Page’s distraction. Again, got to wonder if it’s the source novel or—oh, Shelley Birse’s previous episode was a disappointing one (for “Fisher” anyway). So, yeah, I’d guess adaptation issues.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e10 – Death by Miss Adventure

It’s hard to know where this episode goes “wrong.” It’s not a bad episode, but it’s not a great one either. It’s nowhere near as good as the last, whatever, five. And it’s co-written by Liz Doran, who adapted one of those previous excellent ones. So maybe it’s the source novel not just being that good? Or co-writer Chris Corbett fizzled?

Because it kind of should be an Essie Davis and best friend Tammy Macintosh episode, but isn’t. Even though the main plot involves shitbag industrialist Andrew Blackman threatening to out Macintosh for not being nice enough to him and expecting him to take his injections for his heart problem. He’s got proof she’s been flirting with the girls who work in his factory or something. The episode needs to treat Macintosh as a reluctantly viable suspect for about eight minutes and it goes through a lot of hoops to get there, plus some logic contortions, which ring hollow when it comes to Davis and Macintosh.

The best parts of the episode involve Ashleigh Cummings working undercover in the factory trying to figure out exactly what Blackman and sister Alison Whyte are doing. There are secret ledgers, extra shifts, and fatal factory floor accidents.

In addition to blowing the chance on the Davis and Macintosh stuff, the episode also wastes Miriam Margolyes, which seems sinful.

Davis’s principal subplot is nemesis Nicholas Bell writing to her from prison and offering to tell her what happened to her sister (who Bell’s convicted of killing but without the body found) in return for his freedom.

It feels like treading water on the plot line, frenetically so, with a bunch of the supporting cast involved with it just to scale it up. Nathan Page even gets involved with it at the end, as sort of an emphasizing device.

When the whole time it should’ve been spent with Davis and Macintosh.

The Cummings stuff makes up for it, especially Davis’s concern for her as well as beau Hugo Johnstone-Burt not being able to keep his cool once he discovers what she’s up to.

Just ought to be better.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e09 – Queen of the Flowers

It’s a very intense episode. Miss Fisher (Essie Davis) is mentoring a group of underprivileged girls for a pageant and they’re the mystery, so they’re the ones in danger. It’s the first time “Miss Fisher’s” has really done the child or youth in grave danger thing and it’s a lot. Both because the story behind the threat is… not unpredictable but nonetheless upsetting and because Davis’s ward, Ruby Rees, is one of the girls but isn’t directly connected with the main plot, yet she too ends up in danger. It’s like the show saved up all this kind of tension and unleashed it here.

The episode opens with a dead girl in the water at the beach, undiscovered. Turns out it’s one of Davis’s proteges—in addition to Rees, she’s got klepto Eva Lazzaro, pyromaniac rich girl Taylor Ferguson, and then victim Zoë Amanda Wilson. And Davis gets to be intimately involved in the investigation right away—Nathan Page is quick to point out she’s going to be a lot more effective interviewing “wayward teenage girls” than he will be alone.

The investigation leads to Ferguson’s weird living situation with reclusive wealthy, drunkard grandfather Terry Norris—Davis took Ferguson on as a favor to him—where they find out Wilson was a former maid, something Ferguson forgot to mention. So she’s immediately suspicious, but then there’s also Ben Schumann. Schumann’s the nephew of mayor Andrew S. Gilbert and, despite (or because of) his flippant attitude, has got some secrets. Davis has an amazing scene where she dresses Schumann down for the subterfuge. Seeing Davis—and Phryne—around the impressionable youths is outstanding. There’s a whole role model thing going on, as Davis assumes that role, throwing aside the traditional gender role she’s supposed to be teaching the girls, who are already going through things those propriety lessons aren’t going to help.

Hence, a judo lesson at one point, which surprises constable Hugo Johnstone-Burt but not detective Page.

Rees’s story is entirely different, with her newfound celebrity—they make the society page in the newspaper—drawing mom Danielle Cormack out of the woodwork. Turns out Davis was never able to adopt Rees because they couldn’t confirm Cormack’s fate. With her back, it’s unclear what’s going to become of Rees; Davis has one idea, Cormack another, and neither are quick to consult Rees.

Really good stuff with Cormack and Rees. Really hard, really good. The episode does a phenomenal job not leading with the exposition on how things are done in 1920s Australia, instead letting the characters lead and filling in with exposition later, if needed. Like when Ashleigh Cummings getting caught up on the goings-on. It’s expository, yes, but it also is character development for Cummings, who’s unprepared for Rees’s possible departure.

Screenwriters Jo Martino and Deb Cox do a particularly excellent job with that arc for Cummings, since Rees hasn’t really been around a lot in the show. The script goes a long way in establishing Rees and Cummings’s friendship, which was offscreen.

As usual, excellent episode. And breaks all those rules I thought the show had.

Also… no Phryne Fellow. Would’ve been inappropriate. But it’s the first episode without one.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e08 – Away with the Fairies

Once again I stand corrected as to what “Miss Fisher’s” needs to do to have a successful episode. This one has a case very tied to Essie Davis’s past—victim Heather Bolton was one of Davis’s teachers, prime suspect Deborah Kennedy is a mentor—has lots of guest stars (Phryne Fellow Philippe Sung is back, bringing arraigned marriage fiancée Haiha Le with him), gives Ashleigh Cummings a big subplot, and even has time to directly follow-up on the last episode, where Nathan Page… took unexpected actions to protect Davis.

And they’re still working out the repercussions, with Davis trying to throw Page off guard and Page refusing to play with Davis’s intimations. They’re so good together this episode. So good.

Also really good is Davis’s developing “relationship” with Sung, who’s discovered his grandmother, Amanda Ma (who previously threatened Davis), doesn’t like his appropriate Chinese wife-to-be Le any better, forcing Sung to reexamine his future.

Meanwhile, Cummings and Davis discover there’s a lot more to Le than Sung or Ma realize.

The mystery is about women’s magazine editor Bolton ending up dead and everyone in the office— plus all the various men about town who hate a women’s magazine-suspects. Kennedy would’ve gotten control of the magazine, Anna McGahan would’ve gotten ahead as a reporter, Roz Hammond and soul male employee Peter Stefanou have no obvious motives, but Hammond’s keeping secrets from her husband, handyman Jim Russell, and Stefanou’s a Lothario so who knows.

Cummings isn’t just gal palling with Le, she’s also coming into her own helping the magazine get out its next issue—Davis’s investigation almost takes a back seat to her concern for her friend, Kennedy, and just keeping a women’s magazine (made by women) coming out. Thanks to that character development subplot, Cummings also gets a very cute scene with Hugo Johnstone-Burt.

While the mystery solution itself isn’t great (and is a little familiar thinking about it in hindsight), but the episode’s outstanding. And the mystery setting does allow Davis to get all the suspects together for the end reveal, which is a lot of fun. If the show’s done it before, I don’t think they made such a big deal out of it. Here, it’s the full suspects gathered trope.

It’s so much fun.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (2012) s01e07 – Murder in Montparnasse

So this episode takes everything I said—based on the last two—was needed to make a great “Miss Fisher’s.” Turns out I’m completely wrong, because Murder in Montparnasse doesn’t just break (most) of my rules, it breaks my bigger, obvious rules for melodramatic plotting. It ties together two seemingly disparate subplots and does it as a plot twist. The episode keeps necessary information from the viewer; it’s not so much a trick, but definitely… in the cheaper aisle as far as narrative devices go.

This episode opens with one of communist cabbie and Fisher Crew member Travis McMahon’s friend getting intentionally run over. Cop Nathan Page doesn’t take it particularly seriously, leading McMahon to “hiring” Essie Davis to look into it. The investigation involves a bookie, Hector Chambers, who welshed on a bet to McMahon and his friend; he’s got an alibi—involving his car being stolen—and Page can’t quite believe he’d set up a hit using his own car.

Once there are shootouts in the streets, however… it gets Page’s attention, leading to a sting operation where he has to make a big sacrifice to protect everyone involved. Mostly Davis. Great stuff.

But the investigation isn’t even the biggest plot of the episode; it’s more about Davis’s old friend from post-WWI Paris, Linda Cropper, coming to visit. Cropper was married to a painter, who’d used Davis as a model—and tragically died—and so there’s a lot of history between the two.

When someone breaks in and steals one of the paintings (Stately Fisher Manor needs better locks, really does), Davis has to deal with the present day intrigue as the episode throws in flashbacks revealing more of the history. And revelations about ex-lover Peter O'Brien.

There’s a lot of humor—in the first half of the episode more—like when Davis teases constable Hugo Johnstone-Burt about his die-cast toy cars. And then Davis’s sidekick, Ashleigh Cummings, and butler, Richard Bligh, have a nice subplot about Cummings dealing with her disapproving Catholic priest (beau Johnstone-Burt is a Protestant, after all).

So the episode does history, it does Davis having a major tie to the mystery, it does lots of cast and it all works out beautifully. It’s a character development episode for Davis, with some big moves for Page too.

Just great.