Frankie Drake Mysteries

Let's start from the beginning this is a fairly good attempt at a female led series. In time with a few changes this could be as good as Murdoch Mysteries are. Sitting in the same sort of tv. Between serious drama and comedy. The production is excellent, sets and custumes take the viewer back to the 1920's. Not a slick as Miss Fishers Mysteries but a good start.

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.

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.

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.

To the reviewer - American version of Miss Fisher's Murder Mystery! - Oh please Canada is Canadian as Canada is. Some of the writing is quite fun, realistic no. A black well dressed women follows people and investigates. Not going to happen in the 1920 Toronto, CA. With the frivolity of the scripts comes no deep mysteries and a brush of 'old girls network'. I quite like the series regardless of writer's soft touches to reality.

Would be grande if Frankie could actually drive a motorcycle. This show is an artistic version of mysteries having brightly coloured, great fashionable clothing, fun characters and a bit of a chase in storytelling. I think longevity comes with added story layers, and more depth in the characters. For now, I enjoy an all women cast!!