Frankie Drake Mysteries

I was looking forward to the premiere of this series, having recently started watching the similarly lightweight but still enjoyable Murdoch Mysteries, but I have to admit to switching channels before episode one was half-way through. Regrettably, despite a solid period set and convincing performances by members of the supporting cast (Chantel Riley, for one), I found "Frankie" herself (the main character), a little too hard to believe. She appeared to act and be coiffed, tinted and dressed as a modern woman who somehow finds herself in the 1920s, rather than an ahead-of-her-time 1920s sleuth. Matching the appearance and performance of Lauren Lee Smith's character more closely to the rest of the cast would certainly help this become a solid ensemble series.

Stylish Private Detective series, carried very amiably by a charming cast, in a light, Castle type 'not too serious' way, set in the 1920's with fun music, and excellent attractive settings, and with excellent costumes too - overall very much enjoyed, I hope it extends to further (and longer) series, which given the longevity of it's 'set earlier' stablemate, Murdoch, it really should. And good to see the main protagonists all Female....

I tuned in with real hopes for this series, having been a great fan of Miss Fisher and Murdoch Mysteries, but two episodes in I'm wondering whether to continue recording and watching it. It's the heroine... Just irritating and not convincing as an actress, sorry. Maybe if there was someone with more charisma and oomph playing the main lead we might be in for a treat, but at the moment I'm hard pressed to carry on. Reading other reviews it doesn't seem that it does improve, but I'll persevere for a bit and live in hope. I understand that the interracial friendships, which presumably would've been incredibly difficult in the era are good for the show, and I can suspend disbelief for these as I do on Murdoch, which at least does show some discrimination and problems for women, but the main character really does lack any get up and go, and some of the other actors also seem a bit wooden.

If you are looking for something lighthearted that you don't have to think to hard to follow then this is spot on. The music and clothes and scenery are fun. However the acting of the main character, Frankie, is lacking most of the time. Her detective partner, Trudy, is a bit better and improves a bit through the series. Loved the secondary characters of Mary and Flo...they improve the acting level immensely and have a great repartee with the rest of the cast...I think a show with just the two of them would be a lovely bit of fun. A few things that bothered me was the lack of historical accuracy...both in the modern language used by many of the characters and the costumes worn by Frankie. The other characters costumes while perhaps not totally accurate for the period at least aren't glaringly modern like those that Frankie wears most of the time. There was also a glaring pushiness with "girl power" and interracial relationships which while I'm all for these in a modern setting, they are inaccurate for the 1920s. I think it would be better to teach people the way things really were and learn from them, rather than rewrite history to reflect where we are today (or at least where we would like things to be). Mary and Flo's work situations reflect these historical struggles better than the other two characters. Again, if you are looking for a bit of fun this fits the bill if you are able to suspend your disbelief a bit.

Frankie Drake in an important respect, is the antithesis of its obvious point of comparison, The Murdoch Mysteries. One to a reasonable degree, reflects the attitudes of the era. The other, Frankie Drake, transports modern people with modern attitudes, back in time, to the 1920's.

If I did not know better, I would have assumed it was a fancy dress party for hip, culturally and ethically "aware", upper crust, Toronto gentry. Suffice to say the whole thing is horribly unconvincing.

Taking this modernist stance makes it hard if not impossible to craft characters with any depth. The resulting caricatures are, unsurprisingly, shallow and uninteresting.

By contrast, the sets are excellent, the stories have, in some instances, a sound premise but the overall tone is so off, this series simply left me cold. 5/10.