Ruddy Gore - TV vs Book

While Ruddy Gore is the 7th book about Phryne Fisher, it is the 6th episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Like in most cases this far, the plot has been reduced and changed somewhat for the TV adaptation. To be honest, I really do find part of it to benefit the pacing of the story. The theatre felt quite overcrowded in the book and, like I said in my book entry about Ruddy Gore, I did have some problems taking an interest in all the cast and crew. They are all quite egocentric and in love with each other.

I found the best part with the book to be Phryne's date with Lin Chung and the issues it provoked with interracial relationships at the time. This issue was treated by the TV show in the episode of The Green Mill Murder and I was pleasantly surprised to see Phryne contemplating it as much as she did. Same goes for her finding it sad that she is going to lose one of her lover, Dr Mark Fielding,who returns from Flying too High, to the nurse-trained actress Mollie Webb.

Phryne with Bernard Tarrant and Lin Chung

I do love that Phryne is adventurous and reckless and sort of does whatever she wants and does not care about what people think. However, I do find those moments when she gets emotional. Especially in regards to her relations to other people. It keeps her grounded. Makes her human. Even though she only has loose liasons with men, she does care about them. This caring for her lovers is taken out of the TV show almost entirely except for in the case of Lin Chung. (Again on the subject of recurring characters and plots that is evident in the book, but not on the show.) Besides Lin (and Jack Robinson of course), we do not get to see any of her "gentlemen callers" ever again. The case does rattle Phryne in a slightly different way though. When a sand bag falls, Jack saves her and it falls on Gwilym Evans (the actor Dot Williams has a celebrity crush on) instead, killing him. This incident happens in the book too, but in a slightly different way and for different reasons.

'Don't make the mistake of thinking their emotions are all put on. They're real people underneath, just exxaggerated. They talk to me', she observed, 'because I care for them. They call me Mum. The're quivering little things under all that glamour. They're always afraid that no one really loves them, that they're going to fail. But they're addicted to applause.'

~Miss Pomeroy, Ruddy Gore

The ghost of Dorothea Curtis

Even though I do prefer the simplification of the plot in the TV episode in this case, I do find it sad that they have left out one of the central themes of the book: wanting/needing to be seen. I really think this is a basic human instinct. Not that everyone does need to stand on a stage to fulfill it, but I think everyone feels a need to be acknowledged and taken seriously from time to time. The setting of the plot in a theatre and also to a certain extent the apperance of "a ghost" work well to enhance this theme.

'I bet none of you have ever handled stage machinery.'
The murmurs increased.
'Of course not, we're actors, not technicals', said Cameron Armour. 'If I'd wanted to be a tradesman, I wouldn't have done ll that voice training.' Phryne began to understand Mr Brawn's rage and scorn.

~Ruddy Gore

Phryne and Dot

It is not that the show does not deal with this subject. In fact it does so to a larger extent than the books seem to be doing actually. Phryne's employed taxi driver Bert Johnson tells his partner Cecil Yates that he is hopless when it comes to collecting strays in Cocaine Blues which is a trait also true of their employer. Both in the books and in the TV show, Phryne has an ability to really see people who needs it. She cares for them and encourages them to reach their full potential. She does not ever pamper them, which can be seen by the way she treats the female star of the theatre production Leila Esperance in the book.

Finnish author Tove Jansson is considered one of the giants in the children's litterature of the Nordic countries and her works about the Moomins are known worldwide. I have not talked about her before on this blog, because I have long felt a need to reread her books before I do so. However, one of her short stories, Det osynliga barnet (The invisible child) is very much worth mentioning here.

In the short story the character Tooticki brings the girl Ninni to the Moomin family. Ninni has been taken care of by a horrible older lady who did not like her. Because of this, she has lost all her confidence and turned completely invisible and the only way to know she is there is by the sound of the little bell, the lady had put around the girl's neck. Ninni is placed under the care and love of Moominmamma and little by little she becomes visible again.

I feel like there are certain similarities in Moominmamma's treatment of Ninni and how Phryne handles Dot in the TV show. When she first meets the younger woman in Cocaine Blues, Dot is mainly invisible. She works as a maid at the Andrews's house, but you cannot say that she draws much attention to herself. As she comes to work for Phryne however, Dot starts to develope as a person. She finds her confidence and role in life without giving herself away at the same time. And Phryne is there, nudging, caring and encouraging. You can see her become surprised by Dot's strict religious reasonings of the modern world in Cocaine Blues, but she never judge her.

"When I came to work for you, Miss, I was afraid of everything. And you taught me so many things, and you made me brave, and you made me happy."

~ Dot Williams, Death do us part

Dot is quite different in the books. She is much more timid and not as active in Phryne's cases as she is on the TV show. With Phryne's mentoring, TV-Dot starts learning the detective skills and from time to time ends up solving the crimes to a certain extent. In a way I think Dot is the main character who develope most throughout the show. I prefer the more active TV-Dot over the passive book one. The friendship between the two women in the books is just wonderful and they certainly love and respect each other (even so much that Phryne continue to wear the St Christopher medal that Dot gives her before she goes away to the circus in Blood and Circuses). However, I do miss Dot doing her own sleuthing and Phryne teaching her the ways of the detective. She does participate from time to time (like helping Phryne go through all the dressing rooms at the theatre in Ruddy Gore) but it is just not the same and the character does not go through the same evolution in the books as in the TV series.


The image of the cover of Det osynliga barnet, did I borrow from here.

Blood and Circuses - TV vs Book

"Justice, not money, determines the cases worthy of my attention."

~Phryne Fisher, Blood and Circuses (TV)

As I said in my entry about the book, there are a lot of different thoughtprovoking issues in Blood and Circuses and I probably get back to it in the future. It was however one issue that was more prominent than others to me and it was how both versions of the case at the circus sort of got to Phryne Fisher herself, but in different ways.

Phryne, Dot and Jane sneek a taste.

I had really decided I was going to leave Phryne as a character pretty much alone until I had read through all the books, but after reading this book (and to some extent also after a person I like said Phryne was only a shallow James Bond character), I figured I needed to address her character pretty much immediatelly, but first I will do a recap of the plot of the TV episode and how it deviates from the book one.

Just like the book, the TV episode starts with Mr Christopher (here called Miss and is considered a woman) and the episode starts with her being found strangled, stabbed and with a python around her neck in the magician’s vanishing cabinet (overkill as Phryne calls it) during the circus Farrell’s show and not in his bed at the boarding house where he lives in the book. Not pleased with Senior Sergeant Grossmith who has been assigned to the case, Phryne’s old friend Samson (Sam) seeks Phryne out to try getting her to help. For once, Phryne is rather reluctant to go back to Farrell’s since it was there that her little sister Jane disappeared while Phryne was too caught up in the magician perform a vanishing act in the same cabinet (at least I think it is) that Miss Christopher is found dead in. 

Jack and Elsie share a moment.

The TV episode is not one of my favourites. It is quite messy and it is not made clear exactly who made what and why. However Elsie Tizzard is probably my absolute favourite among the minor characters. I love her special relationship with Jack, but also how she bonds with Amelia Parkes in the cell. The latter is just one of all the amazing depictions of female friendships that we can see throughout both TV and book series.

Another aspect I really enjoy as an archaeologist is how they have used how memories (even unwelcome ones) are triggered by materialities. Phryne is extremely reluctant to go (back) to Farrell's circus to investigate and it is not until Jack (for once) gives her a definite no that she agrees to Samson's request and takes on the case. When she gets to the circus, the memories become even more prominent and we get much longer flashbacks with Jane and Phryne at the circus. Correct me if I am wrong, but I also think this is the first time we really get to see Janey Fisher's blue ribbons.

We have seen Phryne vulnerable before, but the memories of Jane are humbling in a new way. They seem to give her new insights into what happened to her sister and the episode itself sort of works much more as a build-up to the two that follows it.

'Tonight you shall share my luxury', she said, pulling off the dress and the scarf and shedding battered undergarments, 'because tomorrow I shall share your poverty.'

~ Kerry Greenwood, Blood and circuses (book) 

Phryne and Samson

In the book, Phryne goes through an even more humbling journey. She is forced to leave her luxurious lifetotally behind as she goes undercover as Fern Williams, the trick rider at the circus. Like Peter Smith, the anarchist, does in the Death at Victoria Dock book, Mr Burton questions what she does at the circus and Phryne gives him a similar answer that she is tired of being said not to understand or being able to manage a more simple life because of her otherwise privileged lifestyle. Because the Janey Fisher/Murdoch Foyle plot was made up for the TV show, the circus does not provoke as many bad memories for Phryne as in the TV show, but it does turn out to be a very hostile environment.

Little Phryne and her sister Jane in one of the flashbacks.

Like the TV episode, the book works a lot with materialities, but instead of connecting them to memores, it connects them to Phryne's self-esteem and confidence in a way that had me thinking of the song Wig in a Box from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The musical is about trangendered Hedwig who goes through sex reassignment therapy, but the surgery goes terribly wrong and she is left with an "angry inch" and in a state of not belonging to either of the binary sex/gender construction that is still considered norm in today's Western society. As you might understand, this can in many ways be related to the transgender theme of both book and TV episode (In the TV episode, we even get to know that Miss Christopher pays a surgeon to have her "additional appendage" removed.), but in many ways it can also be related to Phryne as a character.

Kerry Greenwood made a cameo at the circus in this episode.

As I have said before, I do not like the comparisson of Phryne to James Bond. I actually find it a bit degrading of her character. Phryne is so much more than just a female version of the action male archetype. Yes, she is wild, adventurous and reckless, active in every scene she is in (traditionally male traits), but she is also empathetic, compassionate and kind (traditionally female traits). She does not show many emotions (male trait), but she is sensitive to other people's needs (female trait). (I admit the latter does not always apply to Jack, but in that case it has much more to do with him not behaving like a traditional male way.) She is cunning and clever (male traits), but also flirty and seductive (female traits). She also uses violence and reacts to it in a very different way than Bond (or for that matter Indiana Jones who she is also compared to). Even though she often brings her golden pistol with pearl handle and has a dagger in her garther, she does not use them other than when it is totally necessary to save herself or others. I agree that her wild, reckless and sexual side is far more conspicuous, but I think we more should ask ourself why that is instead of only calling her a female James Bond/Indiana Jones.

Her overall apparence is also totally female with her beautiful, often very feminine clothes, hats and red lipstick. This is also where the relation to Hedwig and the song Wig in a box becomes most apparent. Like Hedwig, Phryne has a dark past which has been made clear at this point in the TV series, but not in the books, so I will leave it until it is brought up. Both of them also hits rock bottom, but they decide to turn their life over and they both sort of find exuberance in fashion. This is also how the book points to the material aspect of Phryne's identity and how important it is to her.

She was feeling of balance. Deprived of her usual props and stays and allies, and having to speak with the accent of her childhoo, she was losing confidence. No one seemed to like her, and she was used to being liked, or at least noticed. She closed her eyes.

~ Kerry Greenwood, Blood and Circuses (book)

Jane asks Samson for stories about Phryne.

In a way the circus makes her time-travel back to her childhood in poverty in Collingwood, leaving her feeling self-concious and lonely. When the clown Matthias/Jo Jo does her make up for her performance in the circus show, she does no longer recognise her face, seeing only a stranger in the mirror.

But again it is a material object that destroys her identity all together. When she is discovered by Jones and his men and they are about to rape and kill her, they take away both her clothes and the belonings she has hidden underneath and inside them. Among those is the St Christopher medal Dot gave her right before she was leaving her home.

She made no sound until he broke the thong which held the holy medal and pocketed it. Phryne gave a pitiful cry. Her last link with her own self was gone.
~ Kerry Greenwood, Blood and Circuses (book)

The medal triggers a basic instinct inside of Phryne, making her fight the men. Because she is no simple "damsel in distress", she manages to avoid rape, but she does not win her freedom. Instead Jones and his men locks her in an animal case calling her a "wild beast".

This is actually not the first time in the book where humans have been compared to other animals.This is actually a theme also woven into the plot. Trapped in the animal cage and naked, Phryne's identity travels even further back in time (The mentioning of her friendship to the archaeologist being extremely fitting in all of this). Her fear of the lions was established already as Dulcie showed her around the circus and is already then said to enhance a primitive version of herself. She, however, remains quite active, trying to get herself out. In the end though, she realises she might need help from a friend or two. Humans are, after all living in hoards by nature...

Treasures of Ancient Egypt

"We cannot find our future if we forget our past."

~ Alaa Awad, modern Egyptian artist

I have been watching this three part documentary called Treasures of Ancient Egypt where art lover Alastair Sooke discover ancient Egypt through 30 art pieces and what he finds is very intriguing.

At a first glance, ancient Egyptian art seems schematic and static and everything is supposed to be the same over thousands and thousands of years. Sooke, however, finds that there are a lot of things that interupts the static and schematic pictures, making them full of life. Some art pieces also goes more or less against the schematic style. I loved the so called ostraka Sooke finds in the worker's village Deir-el-Medina. They are much more free-styled and a lot of them are also parodies on the official style.

As someone who has studied colonialism/imperialism/cultural meating for awhile I do not really see it as strange that the invaders in Egypt after the New Kingdom tried portraying themselves as Egyptian, but also incorporating their own style, creating a hybrid. This is something I have tackled before, here and here but it might be time for a recap. To me, we are thinking too biologically about the concept of culture, one of the many things we have not been able to shake from modern imperialism of the last two centuries. It is extremely seldom that invaders go in and force their own culture on the colonized groups. This is an idea sprung from imperialism during the last two centuries and only one form out of many types of colonialism. Everyone of them were about power, but not everyone of them has been as devestating as imperialism during the last 200 years. Sooke says that maybe the Greek dynasty, the Ptolemies were not so powerful so they could introduce Greek culture into Egypt. I, however, would rather say that they were smart. They seem to have a much better understanding of cultures and how they interact than we do today. By using history and the old expressions of power in Egypt, they legitimized their right to rule over the Egyptians. They sought to build on the sense of eternity and stability presented in ancient Egyptian art, but like all cultures do as they adopt new traits, they interpreted it through their own cultural logic. This is why we actually can see some Greek influences in Egyptian art from this time. It really is like Egyptian artist Alaa Awad said to Sooke and which I qouted in the beginning. We all must look to the history to find our future.


Picture was borrowed here.

The Green Mill Murder - TV vs Book

Phryne

The Green Mill Murder is one of my favourite episodes of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and also turned out to be one of my favourite out of the Phryne Fisher books I have read so far. There are some differences in the plot between the two versions that I intend to talk about here. 
The TV adaptation is loaded with different social topics like interracial marriages and homosexuality. The murder also takes a more central role in the plot there than in the book. The same method is used for the killing of Leonard Stevens (Bernard Stevens in the book. - Seriously, what is up with all the changing of names between the media?!), but things might not have turned out as it was intended in the book. The fact that it also was pretty risky considering how many people could have got in the way is also acknowledged there.

Jack: "I don't know who has the more fanciful imagination. Rodgers for coming up with it or you for working it out."
Phryne: "Jack! Me, obviously!" 

Nerine

The character Nerine is much more awsome in the TV episode where she is already married to Ben Rodgers while in the book, she waits for her lost husband to die before commiting herself to him. 

Hugh Collins och Dot William's relationship however, is pretty well established in the book while in the TV episode, Hugh tries to master up the courage to ask her to the Firemen and policemen's ball. 

"As far as I'm concerned, everybody should be allowed to marry whomever they choose. Though personally, I'm not the marrying kind."

~Phryne Fisher

Jack Robinson has a rather more laid back role in the book than on TV and he gets a chance to both worry for Phryne and yell at her. At the end of the TV episode we also get our first more clear indication of what is called phrack by the fans when he looks at the mug shots Hugh takes of her. In the book he is introduced as: "Detective Inspector John 'Call me Jack, Miss Fisher, everyone does' Robinson", but I have to say that I do prefer how he is introduced in the TV episode. The camera is intended to be him and we hear him excuse himself as he walks through the crowd at the jazzclub The Green Mill up to Phryne and the dead body of Leonard Stevens. 

Jack excuses himself through the crowd at the Green Mill

While the TV show focuses on social issues, the book seems much more interested in the First world war (called The War to end War) and the effects it still had, ten years after it was finished on the people involved. (They bring up that homosexuality is a crime, but does not dwell as much into it as the TV episode does.) The character of Victor Freeman gets back from the war shell-shocked (Today we call it Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD). The TV series does tackle this subject as well. It is a recurrent theme in many episodes and we meet a lot of characters who suffer from it (There are even small hints that Jack might be one of them.) and Victor Freeman does move out into the wilderness because of it. It just does not deal with it so much in this particular episode. The book is far more thorough and Bert and Cec tell Phryne and Dot over dinner about their experiences during the war in both Gallipoli and Pozières. (There is a very good podcast about the former campaign by the Missed in history website.)

Because everyone else does,
I'm not commenting much on
the clothes. However I just
love this outfit!

Besides Phryne, the most interesting characters in the books are the three remaining members of the Freeman family. In the entry about the book, I did proclaim my love for Victor Freeman. He is a far more complex character in the book than on TV, but even though I find his mother horrible and appalling, I find her interesting. 

On TV they are all old friends of Phryne. Victor is an aviator and used to take Phryne up in his airplane. He also told his brother Charles, he was going to teach him how to fly, but then he left for the war and Charles is now trying to sell his plane off to Phryne. Contrary to his brother, book Charles is far more unpleasant. He is one of those people I talked about in my book entry that does not care for the things he has no understandings of or interest in. This has devastating results for himself.

Book Mrs Freeman is an extremely terrible person who abuses both of her sons. It is even hinted by Bobby Sullivan that she takes Charles to bed with her and Charles says that his mother has taken away his ability to love any other person. Neither her nor her husband (who is dead before the beginning of the book) seem to understand the seriousness of Victor's condition and Mrs Freeman also seems to turn both sons against each other. TV's Adele Freeman (I do not remember and have not been able to find any first name for her in the book.) is far nicer. A mild-tempered woman who seems loving, caring and understanding of both of her sons. Just like in the book, however, she does keep the fact that Victor is alive a secret from Charles.

I find certain similarities between Mrs Freeman and the character of Lydia Andrews in Cocaine Blues. They are both women who never have had the chance to live independently and provide for themselves. Mrs Freeman's husband also rather donated all the money to charity than putting his wife in charge of it. Both Lydia and Mrs Freeman feel they can do business better than their husbands and in the end they feel entitled to "go bad" because of it. This also makes them stand in stark contrast to book Eunice Henderson from Murder on the Ballarat train and not least Phryne herself.


The photo of Phryne in her flapper costume was borrowed here.

Fröken Frimans krig

Fröken Frimans krig (The War of Miss Friman) is a Swedish TV series written by Pernilla Oljelund and it has been sort of a christmas tradition. It tells the story of Dagmar Friman at the beginning of the 20th century. Together with her friends Kinna, Alma, Emmy and her sister-in-law Lottie she starts up the female cooperation Svenska hem (Swedish homes) selling groceries. They want to teach women about food and in the long run propagate for their right to vote.The third season has just been broadcasted and dwells a into the problem of prostitution and that prostituted women got to take all the blame for the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases.

Vad är det som är så skrämmande med tanken på att en kvinna kan ha ett värde och rättigheter precis som en man? (What is so scary about the thought of a woman having value and rights just like a man?)

~ Lottie

The plot is a fictional version of the real suffragette movement in Sweden and Svenska hem was a real all-female cooperation founded in 1905 and connected to this. Dagmar is a fictive version of one of its founder Anna Whitlock and among the stock owners was famous Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. A lot of wholesalers during this period cheated, selling bad meat, milk and such to a better price which led to diseases being spread among the people in town.

This year, there was also a documentary made about the real Swedish suffragette women. Signe Bergman, Karolina Widerström, Ann Margret Holmgren, Frigga Carlberg and of course Anna Whitlock and broadcasted in connection to the show. All these women deserve blog entries in their own right, because they have such interesting stories and were all so very important. Therefore I cannot not recommend anyone understanding Swedish not to see it (The same goes for the TV series too.). However, how the production team have treated the scholars is appaling! They have not been mentioned at all and the production team does not really seem to understand the big problem with this. There is a Swedish proverb saying äras den som äras bör (honour the one who should be honoured) that seems fitting due to the situation.

Swedish land-owning women did actually have the right to vote between 1718 and 1772, but then we had to wait longer than any of our Nordic neighbours. The decision was made in the parliament on the 24th of May 1919. The first election where they could vote was therefore the one in 1921. So we might have been the last Nordic country to give women the right to vote, but we were the first one to get a professorial chair in Women's history and the first one to get it was fittingly enough Gunhild Kyle, the mother of the actress Sissela Kyle who plays Dagmar Friman.




Pictures were borrowed from here.

Julkalender 1995 - Jul i Kapernaum

Jul i Kapernaum (Christmas in Kapernaum) was SVT:s julkalender 1995 and twice as long as the rest of them. The second half of it is devoted to puppet sketches. We get to visit Magister Munter at the school (who teaches the children that the English sentence I buy pink sheets is funny to a Swede), see short films at the cinema at Bio Rio and hear about when Fru Dito time travelled in her shower. (I might get back to those in later entries to this blog, but for this one, I want to focus on the main plot.)

Legend has it that a star came to rest on the place where the town Kapernaum later was built. Many thousands of years later, the evil king Sirius in his hunt for treasure, found it and trapped it underground. He killed everone, but a young man managed to flee and tell everyone. Sirius was locked up and the man left Kapernaum, only to return when it was time to release the star.
  

När tiden är inne,                         When time has come,
för lugn i sinne.                             For peace in mind
När staden skälver                        When the town is shaking
och jorden gnäller.                        And the ground whines
För julefrid,                                   For christmas peace,
öppna porten i tid.                         Open the gate in time.
Den som ingen sakna,                   The one no one misses,
hämta stjärna som vakna           Collects the wakening star

~ Jul i Kapernaum

1000 years later, the 10 years old orphan girl Amanda lives in an abandoned circus wagon in the middle of Tittutgränd in Kapernaum. She is sometimes lonely, but often plays around with the mayor Klopstock and Krampus. Besides them, Krampus has an aunt named Innocentia and there is also a lady who owns the café called Rosa. In Kapernaum also lives Assar Skoog who owns a pawnshop.

Skoog in many aspects resembles Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dicken's book A Christmas Carol. His brother died and Assar drove away his wife and newborn baby. Assar is extremely greedy and loves to make people pawn their most valuable things. He also mutters "Humbug!" from time to time.

Viktor, is the heir of the young man who fled king Sirius and he suddenly shows up in Kapernaum, scaring the life out of Skoog (like the three ghosts of christmas do to Scrooge). Amanda finds the gate to the underground and Viktor sets after her. They free the star and ride off for new adventures at the end. The battle against king Sirius and his troll guard is a little forced and lame, but the actors (even the children) are all good and the characters loveable.

Jul i Kapernaum belongs in the fantasy genre, but it is also a musical of sort. I have always been pretty sad that they never released the music on a cd because there were some pretty good ones in this. It felt even stranger when SVT chose to release the soundtrack of Mysteriet på Greveholm the following year even though it only contained instrumental music. (Snälla SVT, kan ni inte åtminstone lägga upp sångerna på Spotify nu?!) I remember having to rewind the VHS over and over because I wanted to listen to the music.To this day, I still remember Amanda's song (and no, it is not mainly due to her and I sharing first name!)

This calendar is sadly forgotten, but the Swedes voted for it to be part of the julkalender classics that SVT puts on their Öppet Arkiv site every christmas. Rewatching this now, made me think that it is actually even more relevant today. The awakening star creates havoc with the climate, making the town hot and everyone wonder what has happened to the weather. It is also worth mentioning Klopstock's line from the last episode: "Igår var Kapernaum nära sin undergång. Minnet av det som skett den här julen får aldrig blekna. Om historien hålls vid liv finns det möjlighet att inte upprepa misstagen (Yesterday, Kapernaum was close to its destruction. The memory of what has occured this christmas must never fade. If history is kept alive, there is a possibility to not recreate the misstakes.)" Definitely something to think about...


Picture was borrowed from here.

A continuation of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries?

There has finally been some news about the future of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which has made the fanbase more or less totally crazy. I have to say though, that as much as I want more about Phryne Fisher, Jack Robinson and everyone else, I still cannot help feeling a little cautious towards it.

Now, before you turn against me completely, please hear me out on this! A lot of franchises have suffered in recent years more or less due to overuse just because they became so popular that their creators would not let them finish.

I have seldom seen this issue being addressed, but Swedish comedian and author Jonas Gardell did so in the Swedish newspaper Expressen in March this year in the wake of the Swedish rock band Kent announcing they were going to retire. (Both links are in Swedish.)

"Lena Philipsson sjunger att kärleken är evig! Men hon sjunger det bara i tre minuter!" ("Lena Philipsson sings that love is eternal! But she sings it only for three minutes!")

~ Jonas Gardell, Modigt av Kent att sätta punkt

Gardell talks about the trend in pop-culture of today that nothing gets to have an ending. Even the more serious dramas do not get to end, with lesser quality as time goes by. Gardell himself wrote a series of three books called Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar (Never dry tears without gloves) about a group of homosexual men in Sweden during the 1980's when the first outbreak of HIV happened. It is such a wonderfully, sad plot that really touches your heart. (I have long intended to make a post about those books and the three part TV series that goes with it, but it is emotionally exhausting.) Both books and TV-series have had a lot of international success and the US industry thought about doing an American remake of it. However, they changed their minds because they did not know how to make more. Everyone dies!

I think Jonas Gardell has a point in letting something end even though there is a demand for more from the public. I love Phryne Fisher and all the others and I love Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, but I do not want it to turn bad just because of the demand for more. Fiona Eagger says in the article about the future of the show: "The fan base is so passionate. If you've got a successful franchise, why not (make more than one movie)?" which actually served as a warning bell to me. If they should continue the Miss Fisher universe, I think it would be best if they focused mostly on the matter of having a story to tell. And I might be an archaeologist, but I do not want a "female Indiana Jones". I want Phryne! I am for them making films, but they need to do it for the right reasons. Back in May I wrote a post on my Tumblr blog about how amazing it could be if Phryne would go to Sweden. The Nordic countries are often sadly overlooked, not least historically (For example the Tudors pale in comparisson to the contemporary Scandinavian royal dynasties!). We have a lot to offer and Phryne would probably fit in very well. I imagine she would like the Folkhemmet ideal (the open-minded and including part, not the racist and elitist one!), befriend Swedish forensic scientist Harry Söderman. Sweden was actually the country which invented scientific racism as a discipline back in 1922, we also passed a law of compulsory sterilization in 1934 because some people were not considered fit to procreate. I think this would be able to serve as a backdrop for a Phryne plot line. After all, there is a Swedish Murder Mysteries series about these issues. However, I would not want a story because it is a popular franchise. I want it only as long as it is good!

And about the whole prequel: I have a hard time seeing how they can make it canon based on the facts we have been given about Phryne's background in both books and TV shows. To me, Phryne is the way she is because of the war and René Dubois. An 18 year old Phryne would not have had time to reflect on the war which would probably make her rather much of a mess. René would also be lurking around the corner and I just do not see how they could make it work with a teenage Phryne being the same as her fantastic, hedonistic wonderful adult self.

I am sorry that I am so pessimistic towards a continuation of the Phryne Fisher franchise, but I have seen it happen to the Swedish Beck and Wallander franchises and I see it happens to the Harry Potter one at this very moment. Series that were once good, but then became overused and empty, turning fans against them instead.