Frankie Drake Mysteries Review: The Old Switcheroo/Last Dance (Season 2 Episodes 1 and 2)

Frankie Drake Mysteries kicks off its second season with a pair of episodes that offer a more mature and team-based feel on Season 2 Episode 1, “The Old Switcheroo,” and Season 2 Episode 2, “Last Dance.”

Frankie herself is sporting a markedly different hairstyle, but that’s not only thing that’s different about Frankie Drake Mysteries Season 2. (Though, for the record, I can’t decide whether I like her new look or not.)

Both stories are decidedly more balanced, and focused on the team of the Drake Detective Agency as a group. All four main women have significant things to do — including, and finally, Flo — and several key supporting characters from Season 1 return, including Wendy Quon and Frankie’s mother, Nora.

The series as a whole now has a distinctly more ensemble feel, and though Lauren Lee Smith still sparkles as Frankie, it seems as though the show is less a vehicle for her particular character and more a story of a group of women attempting to thrive in a man’s world.

Even the opening credits have shifted to feature a foursome instead of just rebel Frankie alone on her motorcyle. And honestly, it feels like an improvement — and a better representation of the show as a whole. 

To put it another way: It’s definitely not an accident that the premiere of Season 2 features both Mary and Flo declaring that they are both capable of doing and deserve to have the jobs of the men who currently work above them.

The women of Frankie Drake Mysteries are all in and of themselves exceptional in their own ways, and each is given the opportunity to shine in her own way as the new season begins.

Yet, it also feels as though there’s been something of a tonal shift with the arrival of the series’ second season as well.

The show as a whole now feels somehow more serious, though that may be due to the fact that it seems as though it’s literally darker, in terms of its lighting. There’s something about Season 2 that feels less…sparkly, despite the fact that the show’s general topics are as lighthearted as ever.

This is a shift that may take more than two episodes to figure out, so we’ll have to see.

One of the best things about the Season 2 premiere is that Flo and Mary are paired together again, and given a case of their own. These characters work wonderfully together, and the general weirdness of each manages to complement the other perfectly.

It’s almost a bit too convenient that the murder they’re investigating ties so neatly into the potentially stolen artifact case that Frankie’s working, but the twist of the case is entertaining enough to make up for it.

Furthermore, it’s also nice to see Frankie get something like a real nemesis. Sure, Marian ends up being guilty of accessory to murder and gets carted off to prison, but it’s so much fun watching her spar with Frankie over the course of the episode.

Frankie Drake can be presented as such a flawless person sometimes, that it’s actually nice to see her take a moment to be as petty and catty as anyone else before saving the day.

Her irritation that someone else is taking credit for her various flirtations and adventures with Howard Carter — including discovering the tomb of King Tutankhamun! — is pretty entertaining. As is her open and overt dislike of Marian.

It looks as though perhaps Detective Grayson (played by Dark Matter’s Anthony Lemke) could fill that role? I’d rather watch them as adversaries than love interests, though I fear that’s likely where we’re headed at some point?

Am I the only person who doesn’t need a romance for Frankie at all?

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• I can’t get over the difference just having more Flo in an episode makes. She’s so smart, and so much fun, and just so different than so many women on shows like this.
• I thought with the departure of Hemingway (woohoo!) that maybe the show would get a bit away from trying to have Frankie flirt with any random man who happens to pop up on an episode from week to week, but oh well.
• I mean, I guess Bingham is kind of cute though? But since he’s an archaeologist or whatever I suspect that means we won’t be seeing him much.
• Things I want to see more of, though: Mary at the police station. She’s amazing at her job, and whip smart, and I love getting to see the men who look down on her “morality officer” status having to acknowledge that, even if it’s just for a moment.

What did you think of this episode of Frankie Drake Mysteries? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Saturdays at 7/6c on Ovation.

 Follow us on Twitter! 

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

The Good Place: D’Arcy Carden and Ted Danson Discuss Their Most Emotional Scenes [Video]