Lori Parker

This show lacks the joie de vie of the original. The character of Peregrine Fisher has no depth at all when compared to Phryne. Phryne had a backstory that provided a harsh experience from which she developed her personal philosophy of living life to the fullest, enjoying all the physical joys the human body offers without guilt or shame, and accepting everyone for exactly who and what they are without a need or desire to change them. She was a nurse in the Great War. She suffered an abusive and controlling lover early in life, grew up in poverty, and even lost her sister to a murdering psychopath when they both still just little girls. Peregrine's background is just a short list of instantaneous failures. She "lucks into" an inheritance from an aunt she never knew and decides to become a private detective simply ". . . because how hard can it be, really?" Setting the new show in the early 60s is a poor choice too. Gone are the rich polished woods in the room, the flowing gowns on lovely ladies, and the early 20th century motor cars still navigating around late 19th century horse-drawn carriages.Instead, we are left with bouffant hairstyles, plastic furniture in hollow rooms with no window dressing, and a main character who might as well be played by Marlo Thomas' Anne Marie from the TV series of that era, That Girl. Perhaps if the writers/creators of Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries had set it in the late 40s (just after WWII) and provided Peregrine with a solid background of experience that would logically set her on the path to a hard-won sense of self-awareness and maturity . . . Ah, but they didn't. So, this show is a complete let down for me. Sorry. -PEACE-