Aside from Sherlock, I never quite connected with PBS’ current Sunday night line-up of British mini-series. While they’re all relatively good, for me Downton Abbey has too much soap opera plotting, Call the Midwife has too many women screaming in agony, and Mr. Selfridge has too much Jeremy Piven.
From left: Julie Graham as Jean, Anna Maxwell Martin as Susan, Sophie Rundle as Lucy and Rachael Stirling as Millie.
But with The Bletchley Circle, a trilogy about 4 former WWII codebreakers hunting down a mass murderer & rapist, I’ve finally found another show to love. It’s beautiful to look at (the costume & set designers deliberately muted the color palette to create a somber, sepia-toned landscape), and well-acted. What’s most interesting for me, though, is the tension of watching women who saved lives during the war trying to fit back into the narrow roles available to them after the war ended. Available on Netflix Streaming.