Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (TV Series) Away with the Fairies (2012) User Reviews

Murder of a magazine columnist

[Paularoc · 8/10 · 5 June 2013]

Miss Lavender, a writer at 'Women's Choice' magazine, is found dead under mysterious circumstances. The owner and manager of the magazine, Mrs. Charlesworth is convinced someone is out to destroy the magazine and asks Phryne to investigate. Phryne is a former pupil of Mrs. Charlesworth and quickly agrees to help. When Phryne asks her why she left teaching to undertake such a risky endeavor as publishing a women's magazine, Mrs. Charlesworth, a quiet but determined social reformer, tells her that she would she would print a 100 recipes just so she could slip in one article about women's health or education. Miss Lavender was the author of the magazine's most popular fictional series 'The Blue Fairies' so her death is a blow to the magazine. Phryne has Dot work at the magazine as the temporary advice columnist 'Agony Aunt,' an assignment that Dot proves to be quite adept at. Pretty quickly after the investigation starts, a staff member who was attempting a bit of blackmail is also murdered. The side story of Lin Chung reappearing in Phryne's life with the sad story of how his grandmother will not allow him to marry Camelia, a woman who came from China to marry Lin as prearranged by the grandmother. This side story is only mildly interesting but it does show to good effect Phryne's basic kindness and tolerance. A mild nitpick I have with this episode is that a too obvious clue is given too early in the episode. There's also a series continuity issue since Phryne has apparently forgotten that she speaks Chinese. But these small quibbles are more than offset by the episode as a whole with it's well done and interesting background setting of the magazine office. Special acting kudos go to Deborah Kennedy as Mrs. Charlesworth who does a wonderful job with the role. As often in the series, Dot gets some of the best lines. At the end of the show, Mrs. Charlesworth offers Dot the permanent job as the 'Agony Aunt.' Phryne tells Dot that it's quite all right for her to take the job if she wants to try something different. To which Dot replies "You're different enough for me Miss." A thoroughly enjoyable episode.

Kept me guessing

[bensonmum2 · 7/10 · 15 April 2017]

Phryne investigates the mysterious death of the editor of a women's magazine, Women's Choice. The editor also secretly acted as they magazine's advice communist. Could the woman's death have something to do with bad advice she dispensed? Or was there another motive behind the murder?

Not the best, but overall, Away with the Fairies is another strong episode. I suppose that what I liked best was the multiple suspects Phryne had to deal with and their stories that didn't always coincide with each other. The "who done it" kept me guessing (incorrectly) right up to the very end. I don't care for mystery stories that throw in a vital clue at the last minute where the reader or viewer would have had no way of knowing the information. It's a cheat. And Away with the Fairies is guilty of it and that keeps me from rating it higher. The end result, however, is very satisfying with Phyrne accusing the killer and various suspects arguing with each other. It's quite a scene.

I'm hoping that Away with the Fairies will be the end of Mr Lin Chung for quite a while. I never cared for his and Phryne's relationship and I hope he's gone for good. There's just something about the guy that rubs me the wrong way.

why change the story?

[idnobaran · 1/10 · 13 April 2012]

This series is just getting worse and worse. Why change the story about Camelia - the original in the book was much more interesting and believable, showing a warm and compassionate story sideline. But, it seems the TV writers needed something to provide a quick 'thrill' and rewrote Camelia's story to something nastier. Shame. Essie Davis is also much too old to be Phyrne - the scene with Lin just does not work when it is between an obviously much older woman and a much younger man - not at all the way it is in the books. And so I could continue - Jack Robinson, and the 'sexual tension', the mismatched casting of an actor to play the Chinese 'Lin Chung', etc. I had hoped that the series might have improved by now but this has not been the case. I could understand the need to cut down the material to create a 60 minute TV story, but why subvert the original story lines altogether? This is a crime series set in 1920s Melbourne, but it is NOT the Phyrne Fisher crime stories.

Shows way too short to cover the stories. Makes them look bad.

[ulht1 · 1/10 · 24 February 2013]

I have not yet seen the series - nor any of the episodes, but I am very thankful for the notification of what has been done to the books - and more specifically the only book I had obtained and read (so far). It is not possible to make a functional 60 minute story of Away with the Fairies so I have no problem accepting that it was done poorly. I hope some day that movies of the books will be produced that do it justice - and do the other volumes justice also, but I am not going to be ordering this series from Amazon as I had at first intended. This is pathetic and extremely unfair to the author (or, if the author knew what would be the result, extremely unfair and will likely turn off potential future readers of the books.