alchemicink

Season 5 of Miss Scarlet and the Duke began airing on Sunday, and unlike previous seasons, I'm gonna try (keyword: TRY) to do actual posts about each episode (there are only six this season) instead of rambling in my weekly summary.

So what's different about season 5?

Well, I should note that "and the Duke" is no longer a part of the series title, since the actor, Stuart Martin, decided he had better things to do. So now we're getting just the story of Eliza Scarlet (portrayed by Kate Phillips).

Which is fine with me because this show has always been more about her journey than William's anyway.

So, thoughts on the season 5 premiere (spoilers below):

I enjoyed the episode, though it certainly wasn't the strongest season opener they've ever had. The story is all framed in flashbacks as Eliza tells William's replacement, Alexander Blake, about how she's solved the case at hand. The case isn't anything really interesting, which is... sometimes par for the course with this show.

But, as usual, what I'm more interested in are the little character moments we get to see throughout.

Eliza is understandably devastated when learning that William is staying permanently in New York (and only wants her to join him as his wife, and not continue her work). We knew from last season how much they love each other, but it's also pretty clear by now that they each love their work more than their potential romantic relationship. And now that that relationship is done, Eliza wants to make sure the sacrifice was worth it. She tells Patrick at the end of the episode that she doesn't want to just "get by" but to excel at her work. I thought that sentiment was pretty striking, and I'm interested to see how that carries through the rest of the season.

She also briefly mentioned loneliness in that conversation, but I really appreciated that the show made an effort to show that she still has people who care about and support her. Ivy comforts her when she cries, Clarence volunteers to keep her company on his day off (which, by the way, was my favorite scene of the episode! Clarence has cast aside Fitzroy as my favorite character), and Patrick offers whiskey and cards and a listening ear. This is so different from how things were for her in season one. She's got some great friends now other than just William.

The other main focus of the episode was introducing the new character, Alexander Blake (portrayed by Tom Durant-Pritchard). It's hard to not think of him as just William's suspiciously-similar replacement. He's just as annoyingly stubborn and reluctant to work with Eliza.

Though I must admit it's refreshing that his qualm with her seems to not be that she's a woman. It's that he doesn't like private detectives in general. (Hey, Inspector Blake, maybe stop generalizing them all based on a few bad experiences!!)

I'm assuming that he'll be Eliza's new love interest, which I'm kinda disappointed about. Because I hate the idea of just replacing William with another guy who's pretty similar. (Personally, I think if she dates anyone on the show, it should be Patrick! They have such a fun relationship that has grown a lot over the past few seasons. I just don't care about the new guy as much as I care about Patrick)

Anyway, speaking of Patrick, I hope he gets out of prison soon so he can be more active in the plot. He always adds plenty of fun to any story.

I'm curious to see what the rest of the season has in store for us. I watch this show with my mom, who said she didn't really enjoy how episode one ended (because Inspector Blake actually solved the case before Eliza), but I pointed out to her that there needs to be some conflict and this is another obstacle for Eliza to overcome. So we'll see how it goes!

My last thought on the episode: Eliza has some nice hats, but she needs to go back to wearing her prettier colorful dresses!