Netflix's steamy new romantic series takes things Down Under and looks frankly gorgeous
My Brilliant Career seems charming
Over the last decade or so, Netflix has repeatedly succeeded in predicting what people want from the biggest streaming service on the planet, and one of its biggest successes has been knowing that romance is hugely popular. People want steamy love stories, and they want them regularly.
It's already got more than one giant franchise out of this tactic, with Bridgerton standing out as the jewel in its crown, and now we're getting another new one – My Brilliant Career. The story of a precocious young woman in Australia starts in 1900 and looks like a classic take on what it was like to be of marriageable age at a challenging time for women.
Philippa Northeast stars as Sybylla, that gifted young woman, who sees herself as an untameable writer, but has to contend with the expectations of her family, who see marriage as her only way to economic security. The problem for Sybylla is that they're not entirely wrong – her chances of becoming a writer are slim, despite her undeniable talent.
She decides to humour them and meet some young men, all the while intending to see as much of the world as she can to fuel her writing. Little does she know, though, that she'll meet more than one man who does indeed ignite something in her, which is the one twist she wasn't expecting.
One of those men is a familiar face – Christopher Chung from Slow Horses, in a role that's the polar opposite of his more famous one. Rather than a repulsive IT support worker, he's a hunky romantic lead, with Jake Dunn playing his main rival. It looks like a classic love triangle as Sybylla is faced with a choice between the two.
Her other option, of course, is to ignore them both and stick to her craft, so it'll be fascinating to learn how it all unfolds – as someone who obviously hasn't read the beloved Australian novel this is all based on. The show hits Netflix on 13 August and looks like it'll bring some stunning costumes with it: get this one in your diary.
