According to a November 2, 2014 article in the New York Times, the viewership for new episodes under PBS’ Masterpiece umbrella has “more than doubled since 2010.” With stats like that, I want to say that this ain’t yo Mama’s PBS. Interestingly, though, it sort of still is. Though Masterpiece’s Netflix-marathon-inducing, internet-busting crown jewels of Downton Abbey and Sherlock bring in increasing numbers of the oh-so-targeted 18-49 demographic, another New York Times piece reports the average viewership of Masterpiece hovers around age 64. While PBS may embrace dramas and mysteries with younger, hunkier stars, the network hasn’t strayed too far from the main theme of its programming — stuffy British people bringing the sass, keeping calm, and carrying the f**k on.
What’s truly amazing about Masterpiece’s rise to success (after 44 years of airing on PBS) is that the network does not hide the fact that it is public television aimed at new AARP members who like Ken Burns documentaries and/or tacky old people sitcoms. Through sponsorships from Viking River Cruises and introductions by Laura Linney, PBS presents its targeted viewership on a silver platter. Still, we young’ns are drawn in by the engaging scripts and beautifully filmed programs, as well as promises of gossiping with our librarians the next day about how Lady Isobel just really needs vent her many feelings in a diary or something, because no one cares about her sh*t. Add in all the Mom Jeans that grace college aged, non-post-childbirth butts recently, and I have to wonder: Are we on the crest of a parent-based trend setting revolution? Just in case, here is your primer for three Masterpiece mysteries you should know before anyone outside the 40+ crowd (members of which, by definition, are already fans) catches on.
Inspector Lewis
For Fans of: Intergenerational banter, scenic views of Oxford, street smarts vs. book smarts
When: The ninth season will begin filming this Spring.
Fun Fact: Laurence Fox, who plays Inspector Hathway, is married to actress Billie Piper, and they are adorable.
This series centers around 60-something Inspector Robbie Lewis called out of retirement to partner with the Sergeant James Hathaway, a recent Cambridge seminary dropout Lewis refers to as “a walking Wikipedia.” The show is a sequel to Inspector Morse (1989-2000) which featured the partnership between Lewis, whose working class toughness helps him solve crimes using intuition, and the spacey, cerebral Inspector Morse. Like Endeavour, the show does a great job of revealing the corruption unseen in a fancy pants educational idyll like Oxford without being too unrealistically grisly about it.
Endeavor
For fans of: Mad Men, heroes that kind of look like murderers, introspection
When: UK network ITV has ordered a third season, but no dates have been announced.
Fun Fact: The character is based on a series of detective novels by Colin Dexter, published from 1975-1999.
As a prequel to Inspector Morse set in late-1960s Oxford, the show follows young intellectual Morse’s journey to be taken seriously among the street smart men like Lewis.While most TV detectives show off with fast-paced speeches, declaring the relative stupidity of everyone else in the room (you know who you are, Dr. House, Doctor Who, Sherlock), Morse is the opposite of these swaggering geniuses, and probably celebrates solving cases by writing in his diary and listening to opera. Actor Shaun Evans plays Morse with a kind yet lofty absent mindedness that makes his successes simultaneously heartfelt, fascinating, and eerie.
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
For fans of: Miss Marple, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, Australians
When: A third season filmed last fall, but there’s no word yet on airdates.
Fun Fact: Before taking on Miss Fisher, actress Essie Davis also had roles in the second and third Matrix movies.
Also based on a series of novels, Miss Fisher gives a window into life in 1920s Melbourne for one Phryne (bafflingly pronounced ‘Fry-nee’) Fisher, an aristocratic, independent lady who pencils in time to solve murders between trips to burlesque clubs and speakeasies. Like the flirty character of Miss Fisher herself, the version of the Roaring Twenties presented in the show is cartoonish, saturated, and appropriately donned with lots of flappy fringes. Though the murders are alternately tragic or quite complex, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is aware of its caricatured leanings, and invites audiences to go on a time travel vacation too charming not to accept.
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