Oh, Netflix. Sometimes one finds little gems like The Hairdresser among films like Sharknado and other mockbusters produced by none other than the beloved Asylum Pictures (seriously, Snakes on a Train? Pirates on Treasure Island? Mega Python vs. Gatoroid?).
At nights (or days, or whenever), I’d run something in the background, some series that I’ve watched over and over again like Family Guy or American Dad! and do homework or clean my apartment.
Then I found Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. The series is based on Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher Murder Mystery novels and it’s set in Melbourne, Australia, in the twenties. In the freaking twenties. The Roaring Twenties. The Great Gatsby Twenties. Which means one word: WARDROBE.
Sure, the story concepts are great and all (in the third episode, the show features a homosexual couple but this story line is somewhat undeveloped, as it is torn under two other story lines), and it lacks the gritty, grimy, amazingness of The No. 1 Ladies’s Detective Agency (Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose. Enough said). And it’s basically about a woman (Phryne Fisher) who uses her intelligence and charm and beauty (triple threat) to solve crimes. I mean, seriously, Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote has been solving harder cases without showing skin.
So, what are the appeals of this series? Strong women (this comes from someone who’s pledged lifelong allegiance to Xena and Gabrielle and Wonder Woman and Poison Ivy and Ellen Ripley). And of course: guy candy (unfortunately, all the lead male cast look the same). Miss Fisher is a Tango-dancing, airplane-flying, hot-rod-driving cougar who has guys half her age either shagging her or lusting over her.
Dale March. Hmm. Pecs.
Kristof Piechocki. Small bum, but still.
I told you about the twenties, right? So of course the costumes in this series make me drool (I even wasted thirty minutes trying to find a red pea coat that wouldn’t bust my bank account and then I calmed down and figured I didn’t need another coat).
At first I thought, “Oh sure. It’s easy to make cheap reproductions of flapper dresses and fascinators. But have you heard of assuit?”
And then Phryne walked in in episode three, with a frigging ivory assuit shawl draped around her neck.
I mean, still, it’s not as magnificent as my ivory assuit shawl but whatever. RESPECT.
Season one of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is streaming on Netflix, and for you who live in Australia, head over to ABC.
In other news, Bear Grylls bares all (NSFW).
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