He and his detectives are overworked and overstressed, assigned an ever-increasing area to patrol and trying to juggle a seemingly unending new caseload, all under the watchful eye of a commissioner who basically hates his guts. (Are that many other firms out there hiring detectives?) It's so desperate that Eliza's paying actors to pretend to be her staff in the hopes that she can get a local police newspaper to write a puff piece on her that might drum up some new business.Īs for William, life at Scotland Yard is busier than ever. The men who worked there have all quit en masse and most of Nash's former clients have decamped, all refusing to work with or for a woman. Yes, Eliza has taken over Nash's business, but she's as alone and broke as she's ever been. Because despite all the changes last season's finale promised, not many of them have materialized (at least not yet). While most of us watching at home were well aware of the Duke's feelings, this news seemed to come as something of a shock to the man himself, in a way that suggested perhaps the new season might finally try to address the messy emotional tangle of what its two leads mean to one another.īut, sadly, the Season 4 premiere seems more interested in re-establishing the series' status quo than exploring how Miss Scarlet might shake things up or push its boundaries toward something new. Hanging up her small business shingle to take over the London office of his investigative empire, Eliza's finally going to get access to the kind of staff, funding, and other resources she longed for, but never quite managed to achieve on her own.Įlsewhere, William got dumped by his girlfriend Arabella, complete with a speech about how she wasn't all that interested in competing for the affection of a man who was so clearly in love with someone else. Eliza, a female private investigator determined to make her own way in the world and continue the legacy of her dead father's detective agency had decided to go work for Patrick Nash.

Part of the reason this all feels so disappointing is that the end of Miss Scarlet Season 3 promised some significant changes. But while some things have changed at the periphery of this story, its center remains very much the same, for both good and ill. Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin have the kind of chemistry that makes virtually anything fun to watch and the writing remains as crackling and entertaining as it has ever been. Yes, there's something comforting and familiar about watching these two workaholic dummies who can't seem to communicate their way out of a paper bag doing the same will they / won't they dance they always do.

Sure some of the circumstances have changed - both William and Eliza are more successful professionally than they've ever been, at least on paper - but the larger beats are well-trod ones. But it's a far cry from what many of us (read: me) came into this hour expecting.īecause, at its heart, much of 'Elysium' feels like something we've seen before. It's hardly the worst episode of Miss Scarlet to date. There's a lot of table setting: reminding us where we last left particular characters, introducing new faces, and updating us on what's changed - and what hasn't - since last we saw all these people. It's not the most compelling story the show's ever told, but it boasts an interesting new setting that we'll almost certainly revisit at some point in the weeks to come. The larger mystery of 'Elysium' is a serviceable one. And as the show appears to revert to its proverbial mean once again, isn't it fair to ask how long this cycle can reasonably be expected to continue? But as a follow-up to the big events of the third season finale, it's difficult to see it as anything other than a letdown. The Season 4 premiere, an hour that sees William and Eliza team up to investigate a burglary in an elite brothel that caters to the powerful and influential, is a solid enough episode. As the popular mystery series Miss Scarlet & The Duke enters its fourth season, it's time to ask some difficult questions.

Legacies season 4 episode 1 synopsis