First of all, I apologize for the cobwebs gathering on this blog. Life and a bad cold (which I am still fighting, but one can only spend so much time sleeping before your brain starts to hurt) got in the way of blogging.
I watched the second episode of The Bletchley Circle with mixed emotions. Don’t get me wrong, I still love this show and will be extremely sorry to see it end. (CONFESSION: I have the Blu-Ray on backorder.) I did, however, start seeing a few things I had feared would happen given the series’ short run.
I was extremely fascinated by the methods they used to figure out killer’s modus operandi and the location of the next victim and hoped to see more time spent on that in the second episode. The opening minutes, however, showed them already narrowing the field to seven suspects and then to three in short order. How I wish we had been allowed to see more of how they pieced together their conclusions.
The other thing I wish could see more of the individual characters’ development. It’s not surprising given the series’ short run, but I do wish we could see each character go beyond the broad brushstrokes: extremely smart Susan, worldly Millie, sweet Lucy, and capable Jean. It’s a testament to how well-written and well-acted The Bletchley Circle is that I find myself so invested after only two episodes. To see the series end after three weeks is like finding out those great women you just met at the coffee shop are moving away at the end of the week.
Since no blog entry would be complete without some fun trivia, did you know that Rachael Stirling, who plays Millie, is Diana Rigg’s daughter? Dame Rigg, of course, has had a long and illustrious career, but I will always, always love her for her portrayal of Arlena Stuart Marshall in the 1982 film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun.
I suspect, however, that what I love most about The Bletchley Circle is that it is a story of women making their own space within the narrow space society has given them. My favorite image from that show is when they use bright red lipstick to trace the killer’s movements across the map. Red lipstick, a symbol of femininity, bleeding into the map, into the world. It mirrors what has happened in the two episodes we’ve seen so far: in the first episode, they spend most of their time indoors. In the second, they seem more part of the world. This show brings me back to a much-loved time in my life when I studied a similar group of women working to find their own voice and make their own spaceā¦but that will be for my final Bletchley Circle post. š
Before I end this post, I wanted to mention that I am currently re-reading Carolyn Hart’s The Christie Caper in preparation for her 50th release, Dead, White, and Blue. The Christie Caper is my favorite Hart book so I’ve read it numerous times. It actually (re)introduced me to mysteries and introduced me to cozy mysteries. I had been a huge Christie fan, but had fallen off the mystery wagon for a little while. I was trying to figure out where to start up again, when I spotted The Christie Caper on display. I picked it up, saw that it was a mystery set during a celebration of Christie’s 100th birthday, and well, you know the rest. Stay tuned for my thoughts on Dead, White, and Blue!
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