Frankie Drake Mysteries Review: Dressed to Kill/Extra Innings (Season 2 Episodes 5 and 6)

After spending a third of its second season on characters other than its primary leading lady,Frankie Drake Mysteries turns its focus back to its titular lead in Season 2 Episode 5, “Dressed to Kill,” and Season 2 Episode 6, “Extra Innings”.

Well, for the most part.

Frankie Drake Mysteries Season 2 does feel particularly dedicated to ramping up its cred as an ensemble series. And, as I’ve said here before, that’s not a bad thing by any stretch.

Trudy, Mary and Flo are all trailblazers in their own ways and the show is all the better when it acknowledges that. And Season 2 has done a wonderful job in particular at bringing morality officer Mary more fully into the stories in realistic ways.

But, let’s be real, a lot of us originally tuned in for the sassy, fearless Frankie, and this pair of episodes give her a real chance to shine. She not only faces off against a female mobster, she also gets the chance to hang out with Coco Chanel herself.

(And model a Chanel original. Because of course she does.)

In an episode that feels very much like a throwback to Season 1, Frankie ends up working a case involving a famous historical figure. During a visit to Toronto, someone tries to shoot Coco, and the police are slow to figure out who did it.

Enter the Drake Detective Agency.

Frankie and Coco hit it off almost immediately, a fact that should probably surprise no one

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, Miss Drake, it’s that I can always trust a woman in pants,” Coco says dramatically during their first meeting.

The case itself is hardly the most interesting part of the story, as Frankie digs through the facts of Coco’s life, which often look quite different from the story she’s told the press.

Her investigation keeps running into a local gossip columnist known only as Lipstick, who runs multiple scandalous stories focused on Coco – her tyrannical attitude, her draconian labor practices and more.

That this Lipstick turns out to be Nora Drake also probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it does bring up an interesting gap in the world of Frankie Drake Mysteries that I wish the show would work on shading in a bit more clearly.

Now, don’t get me wrong, any episode in which Nora appears is automatically made 100% better by her presence, and the idea of a female detective with an ex-con mother is narrative gold.

These are all great things. But.

We learned back in the series premiere that Frankie — for most of her life, apparently — believed her mother to be dead. And Season 1 Episode 1, “Mother of Pearl,” clearly conveyed her shock at finding that not to be true, even if it never really explained the specifics of how, precisely, Nora managed to craft a false identity for decades yet still recognize her thirtysomething daughter on sight.\

Frankie Drake Mysteries has always been very straightforward about the fact that Nora isn’t particularly maternal. It’s honestly part of her charm, and a piece of the reason that her relationship with her daughter is so interesting.

But, ever since that first episode — despite the fact that Nora has popped up at least half a dozen times on the show since — Frankie Drake Mysteries hasn’t really addressed the, frankly, bizarre status of their relationship since.

Sure, they seem to get along fine. Sometimes, they even come across as something like friends. But they’ve never really talked about what it did to Frankie to both lose her mother, and to find her again.

Yes, Frankie Drake Mysteries is frothy fluff, and perhaps not exactly the sort of show that is necessarily equipped to tell that particular story in any sort of in-depth or nuanced way.

But…shouldn’t they mention it sometimes?

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Historical person alert! Besides the obvious appearance of Coco Chanel this week, it turns out that mobster Bessie Starkman was also a person who really existed and was one of the most prominent 1920s-era crime figures in Toronto.
• Everytime Mary is ignored and/or talked down to by the men at the police precinct, my teeth clench. Here’s hoping at least one of them has to recognize her skills by the end of the season.
• Awkward Chanel model Frankie slapping people’s hands away for trying to touch the dress is perfect.
• Really not enough Flo this week, for the record.

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

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

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