My wife and I were huge friends of the TV series but watching this was just painful.
The whole point of the original series was the wonderful cast, the relationships they had with each other, Melbourne, the amazing attention to detail and accuracy that Kerry Greenwood insisted on in portraying the times.
All of that is just out the window with this nonsense.
The original cast might have credits but except for Phryne and Jack, all are only involved for one token season for about 15 seconds so they can have their names in the credits.
Melbourne has nothing to do with the story of course as you can guess from the title.
Accuracy? What a joke.
At one point, there is reference to a monument or obelisk, if you like, that "points to the brightest start in the sky". Ah ... the stars in the sky aren't fixed (except Polaris) and move through the night as the earth rotates so that wouldn't work very well would it? Do writers not thing viewers have brains to notice this sort of thing?
In an earlier scene in London, Jack and Phryne have their passports confiscated by the police and told they can't leave London until the case is solved. Yet off they head to the mid-east, presumably without passports, a day or two later because the case is still unsolved and the passports would not have been returned because Phryne didn't show up for her meeting with the senior police. Again, do writers think about this sort of slip because viewers certainly notice it when it is this bad.
And I won't even get into that bit at the end about the telegram in the desert as it was over the top silly.
Scenes were stolen from other movies including, obviously, Indiana Jones and also the quicksand right out of Lawrence of Arabia.
If you have fond memories of the Miss Fisher series, then do yourself a favour and skip this as it will spoil all of those wonderful memories.
