How to fix "Miss Scarlet and the Duke," PBS' Victorian detective series that's lost its way

If there is one thing fans of period dramas like "Miss Scarlet and The Duke" know a lot about, it's a slow burn. But even those accustomed to drawn-out romances — the fans who enjoy the longing looks and all the things that go unsaid as the tension steadily builds — have reached their limit with regards to the complicated relationship that has been brewing between Eliza and William since the start of the series. 

 

The headstrong duo have essentially been stuck in a holding pattern since the Season 2 premiere, when it was casually revealed they regularly dine together. It wasn't much, but it felt like Eliza and William might soon acknowledge what's been painfully clear to everyone around them: that beneath the veneer of friendship and the latter's frequent frustration with the former are two people in love who'd be desperately lost without each other. Two full seasons and some complex feelings on marriage and Eliza's career later and they're essentially in the same place they were then, if not worse off. 

 

The decision this season to have William embark on a relationship with Eliza's childhood nemesis – Arabella Acaster (Sophie Robertson) – turned mostly friendly acquaintance (a decision he had to know would hurt her) was an unnecessary roadblock that only exacerbated fans' growing frustrations. After all, it's not as if William hadn't realized his feelings for Eliza. If anything, Eliza is the person holding them back. So, theirs isn't so much a slow-burn romance as an example of writers blatantly going out of their way to keep characters apart believing it makes for good TV. It doesn't. The inaction has to end.

There's likely a reasonable explanation for Martin's absence from two of the season's six episodes, but one of the downsides of a short episode order like this one is that two episodes equates to one-third of the season. Screen time matters more on a show like "Miss Scarlet and The Duke" than it does on shows with eight or even 13 episodes. But it matters even more when one is portraying one of the two characters in the show's title. Without William around to quietly brood and/or assist Eliza (or she him) in both "Hotel St. Marc" and "Bloodline," the writers were forced to look elsewhere to fill out their narrative, and the results were middling at best. 

 

The former episode took Eliza to France where — away from her friends like William and Moses (Ansu Kabia) — she engaged in a battle of wits with fellow private detective Patrick Nash (Felix Scott) in a hotel-set mystery involving an infamous con artist (or two). The latter hour then offered up a backstory for Phelps (Tim Chipping), a detestable police detective who did little to earn a backstory, let alone one slightly sympathetic. 

 

While it's always good practice to let secondary characters shine in the name of world-building or even to give leads some time off, these episodes arguably suffered too much without William to act as a balancing presence in the narrative. And when the series' foundation is built and relies upon the natural chemistry of the actors and budding on-screen romance between Eliza and William, removing half the central equation will always have it coming up short.

The mysteries at the heart of "Miss Scarlet and The Duke" have, unfortunately, never been its main draw, so experimenting with form and style is welcome whether it ultimately pans out or not.

 

Although "Hotel St. Marc" inevitably fell flat, the show's attempt to try something new — a new setting, a cast of mostly new characters, a single remote location — is still commendable. As the show embarks on its fourth season, it would be cool to see the writers attempt to create more intricate and clever mysteries, potentially even stretching them out over a few episodes. It's a tall order — we can't all be Rian Johnson — but change is always good.

Eliza's career as a private detective and her desire to be taken as seriously as any man in her position would be is one of the show's main throughlines. But it's also become a crutch for the writers, an excuse for hitting the brakes on Eliza's burgeoning relationship with William.

 

While it might be more appropriate for the time period, from a 2023 perspective — which is from where we all must view this story — it's become tiresome. It's also laughable that Eliza must choose between personal happiness and professional success in the wake of the introduction of Arabella, a woman (albeit a widow) running a successful business while also engaging in a courtship with William. This relationship no doubt was meant to show that the latter would also support Eliza's career ambitions (though we'd seen plenty of evidence of this before Arabella entered the picture).

 

The Season 3 cliffhanger of Nash offering Eliza the opportunity to become his company's chief investigator in London while he sets up the Paris office hints at some major changes in Season 4, and while it seems somewhat unlikely that Eliza is going to give up her own practice at this point, something has to change.

The decision to release Season 3 mere months after the conclusion of the show's sophomore outing initially had excitement levels high, especially after the way Eliza and William left things at the end of Season 2. But by the end of these six episodes, both characters are largely in the same place.

 

Sure, Eliza's career has potentially taken a step forward thanks to Nash's offer, and William has been dumped for acting like a teenager with all his talk about how frustrating Eliza is, but this doesn't necessarily make for good storytelling. In fact, at times it barely qualifies as storytelling since so little movement has been so made. So this ties back into the first point, which is that the show must stop dilly-dallying and tell its story. No more roadblocks. No more contrived reasons for why something cannot happen. Otherwise, the show might find itself facing not just a lack of movement but also a lack of fans.