It\u2019s difficult to believe that Miles Franklin\u2019s 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\u2019s time to return \u201cwhat the deuce!\u201d 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 \u2013 literally and otherwise \u2013 in a deeply patriarchal world that would prefer her to settle down, shut up and take a man\u2019s hand in marriage.<\/p>\n
Whereas Gillian Armstrong\u2019s 1979 film adaptation<\/a> is a class act, elegant and stately, Netflix\u2019s new six-part series is, perhaps predictably, steamier and more juiced up, with at times Mills & Boon-ish vibes. There\u2019s more erotica, a wilder tone and a more pronounced love triangle for Sybylla, played by Philippa Northeast. Unfortunately, it\u2019s also a tad syrupy and wishy-washy, particularly towards the end (this review encompasses every episode) \u2013 the show even deploys one of those cloying photo album-like montages of key moments: the visual equivalent of Green Day\u2019s Good Riddance.<\/p>\n But this new take \u2013 created and co-written by Liz Doran, and co-directed by Alyssa McClelland and Anne Renton \u2013 still has plenty of pluck and sass, an appealingly messy kind of gusto, and a very entertaining high-voltage performance from Northeast.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n 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\u2019ll find a husband there, though the protagonist \u2013 who wants nothing more than to be an author \u2013 views her relocation through a different lens, rationalising that she must \u201cfully experience the world before I can write about it\u201d.<\/p>\n 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 \u201ccolonial royalty\u201d and Harry\u2019s aunt Augusta (Kate Mulvany) a \u201craving suffragist\u201d, who immediately likes the cut of Sybylla\u2019s jib and becomes something of a mentor. She implores her to ditch poetry \u2013 \u201ca fast track to a wedding ring\u201d \u2013 and instead write \u201cstories that sell\u201d. Before too long another potential suitor emerges in Caddagat\u2019s foreman, Frank (Jake Dunn).<\/p>\n Harry Beecham (Christopher Chung) is \u2018totally ripped\u2019 in this version of Miles Franklin\u2019s lively and rebellious novel. Photograph: Ian Routledge\/Netflix<\/p>\n My Brilliant Career continues the now familiar technique, popularised in shows such as Dickinson<\/a> and Bridgerton<\/a>, 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\u2019t high on the show\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n The past can only ever be viewed through the lens of the present. But here modern sensibilities can be felt everywhere, including the series\u2019 diverse casting and added focus on stories of historically underrepresented people. There\u2019s now a subplot involving a gay couple, Caddagat\u2019s \u201cgolden boy\u201d 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<\/a>), whose dream is to be Caddagat\u2019s foreman but whose storyline feels tacked on and tangential.<\/p>\n Genevieve O\u2019Reilly as Helen Bossier and Northeast as Sybylla in My Brilliant Career. Photograph: Ian Routledge\/Netflix<\/p>\n The supporting cast are all pretty good, though nobody brings much gravitas so fun lines (such as \u201cI think no man should have to defend anything he says after midnight\u201d) don\u2019t tend to land with much force. Though that\u2019s not the case with Northeast: she\u2019s a delight, channelling the essence of the source material while bringing something different to the party. There\u2019s a youthful energy and impishness to her performance that captures the spirit of the series at its most compelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s difficult to believe that Miles Franklin\u2019s wonderfully lively and rebellious novel My Brilliant Career is 125 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-852884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}