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3 hours ago
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It’s difficult to believe that Miles Franklin’s wonderfully lively and rebellious novel My Brilliant Career is 125 years old: its prose crackles with life and energy, and the words leap off the page. Notwithstanding some inevitably dated turns of phrase (though I, for one, feel it’s time to return “what the deuce!” to daily conversations), the book feels like it could have been written yesterday. The story is centred around Sybylla Melvyn, a bullheaded author determined to write her own story – literally and otherwise – in a deeply patriarchal world that would prefer her to settle down, shut up and take a man’s hand in marriage.
Whereas Gillian Armstrong’s 1979 film adaptation is a class act, elegant and stately, Netflix’s new six-part series is, perhaps predictably, steamier and more juiced up, with at times Mills & Boon-ish vibes. There’s more erotica, a wilder tone and a more pronounced love triangle for Sybylla, played by Philippa Northeast. Unfortunately, it’s also a tad syrupy and wishy-washy, particularly towards the end (this review encompasses every episode) – the show even deploys one of those cloying photo album-like montages of key moments: the visual equivalent of Green Day’s Good Riddance.
But this new take – created and co-written by Liz Doran, and co-directed by Alyssa McClelland and Anne Renton – still has plenty of pluck and sass, an appealingly messy kind of gusto, and a very entertaining high-voltage performance from Northeast.
Sybylla leaves her modest, rural family life in Possum Gully to join her wealthy aunt (Anna Chancellor) at the more salubrious estate of Caddagat. The family hopes she’ll find a husband there, though the protagonist – who wants nothing more than to be an author – views her relocation through a different lens, rationalising that she must “fully experience the world before I can write about it”.
Sybylla soon encounters a potential suitor, Harry Beecham (Christopher Chung), who, in this version, is Chinese Australian and totally ripped; the first episode features him shirtless, Sybylla admiring the view from behind a tree. The Beechams are “colonial royalty” and Harry’s aunt Augusta (Kate Mulvany) a “raving suffragist”, who immediately likes the cut of Sybylla’s jib and becomes something of a mentor. She implores her to ditch poetry – “a fast track to a wedding ring” – and instead write “stories that sell”. Before too long another potential suitor emerges in Caddagat’s foreman, Frank (Jake Dunn).
My Brilliant Career continues the now familiar technique, popularised in shows such as Dickinson and Bridgerton, of anachronistically throwing contemporary music into the mix. I have mixed thoughts about this technique, which can reduce our sense of time and place, though the point is certainly made that historical fidelity and period authenticity aren’t high on the show’s agenda.
The past can only ever be viewed through the lens of the present. But here modern sensibilities can be felt everywhere, including the series’ diverse casting and added focus on stories of historically underrepresented people. There’s now a subplot involving a gay couple, Caddagat’s “golden boy” Julius (Alexander England) and Alex (Everard Grey), who are keeping their romance secret. And another involving young First Nations horse trainer Nell (Sherry-Lee Watson, so great in the under-watched Thou Shalt Not Steal), whose dream is to be Caddagat’s foreman but whose storyline feels tacked on and tangential.
The supporting cast are all pretty good, though nobody brings much gravitas so fun lines (such as “I think no man should have to defend anything he says after midnight”) don’t tend to land with much force. Though that’s not the case with Northeast: she’s a delight, channelling the essence of the source material while bringing something different to the party. There’s a youthful energy and impishness to her performance that captures the spirit of the series at its most compelling.
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My Brilliant Career is on Netflix worldwide from 13 August
