Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Season 1

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

When I read Cocaine Blues, I fell hard for Phryne (FRY-KNEE) Fisher, Dot, the Butlers, Inspector Robinson (call me Jack) Bert and Cec and the rest of the characters in Kerry Greenwood’s delightful series and have since read every Phryne I could get my hands on.Imagine my joy when, through the miracle of Roku and an Acorn Premium membership, Miss Fisher’s Mysteries showed up as a January-February offering and I realized that this was indeed MY Phryne! I’ve now, at great sacrifice of housekeeping and household nutrition, watched every episode in Season One. I can, without reservation, hereby pronounce Miss Fisher’s Mysteries a triumph!The Australian Broadcasting Corporation spared no expense in recreating the Melbourne of the late 1920s nor the luxurious accoutrements of Phryne’s world from Hispano-Suiza, to steam train, to Phryne’s spectacular wardrobe. Essie Davis is perfect; fully portraying the many facets of Phryne, champion of the underdog, sensuous vamp, keen detective and tango dancer extraordinaire. The TV writing is exceptional and the stories are faithful as they can be to the books, given the limitations of 54 minutes and contemporary sensibilities probably unforgiving of Phryne’s and Lin Chung’s “arrangement” after his marriage and the decidedly decadent protagonists of the Murder in the Dark book have been cleaned up a lot. The musical score is splendid, mixing original work with jazz standards.- Jody

I have long been a fan of Kerry Greenwood’s fictional detective Phryne Fisher so I greeted the news that her most famous creation was going to be the subject of a television series with equal amounts of anticipation and trepidation. Those feelings were heightened when I also learned that Essie Davis was going to star in the series. The reason: While Ms. Davis is still one of the world’s most beautiful women, she is a tad bit older than the vivacious Phryne, a woman who carries a gold-plated revolver, can tango with the best of them and is prone to late nights in unusual circumstances.
I needn’t have worried. Essie Davis is marvelous as the detective who was inadvertently named – by her drunken father – after a famous Greek courtesan. She brings just the right amount of smoldering looks, sassy retorts and intelligence to the role of the no-holds-barred private detective who went from poverty stricken child to wealthy woman when several rich relatives were killed in the “War To End All Wars.” Dashing through life in the Twenties, Phryne is an unusual heroine: She not only uses her keen brain to solve crimes, she also dallies with assorted “unsuitable” men and takes the time to right a few wrongs along the way. It’s this combination of beauty, brains and her unswerving desire to “do the right thing” even if that means bending the rules (or occasionally breaking an unjust law) that makes her adventures so much fun to read. The producers have taken some liberties with Ms. Greenwood’s formidable Miss Fisher and her supporting cast of characters but I don’t believe that detracts overmuch from this delightful series. Like Phryne herself, the series is stylish and sassy and watching Essie Davis do justice to one of the great private detectives in crime fiction is a great way to spend a few hours.- Mike Billington author of Murder in the Rainy Season

In Australia, in the 1920s, the Honorable Phryne Fisher is a brilliant, fearless, female private detective who is a woman’s libber far ahead of her time. To Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, she’s a pain in the butt but he can’t do without her because she has an uncanny ability to put seemingly unrelated occurrences together and catch the bad guys – and you just know he’s in love with her. I had read a couple of the books and was thrilled to see the stories on TV and even more thrilled to find they were available on DVD. The screenwriter(s) have brought Miss Fisher and the rest of the cast to life and the episodes are a joy to watch, with the perfect mix of mystery and humor. I have already pre-ordered the next set and am anxiously awaiting their arrival not only beause the stories are absolutely delightful but because I want to find out for sure if the secret that has haunted her most of her life really has been resolved as it seems to have been in the last episode in this set.- Judith A. Carlson

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Ashleigh Cummins, Richard Bligh
Directors: Tony Tilse, Daina Reid, David Caesar
Format: Multiple Formats, Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 3
Rated: NR-Not Rated
Studio: Acorn Media
DVD Release Date: March 26, 2013
Run Time: 706 minutes
ASIN: B00A27O5AW