Frankie Drake Mysteries Review: Showstoppers (Season 4 Episode 9)
Frankie Drake Mysteries Season 4 Episode 9, “Showstoppers,” feels almost painfully timely, what with the sudden threat of a public health crisis that requires the wearing of face masks, but the episode ends up being one of the season’s best.
From the way it uses Mary being forced to do her actual job to explore what she really wants out of life to the genuinely compelling mystery disease that might mark the return of a global pandemic this episode is solid from start to finish, deftly weaving multiple plots into the same overarching story.
Plus, Rita Hart, leader of the modern dance troupe that comes to Toronto and may have brought a deadly, rapidly spread disease with them, feels like a woman that would get along with Frankie and friends. (I’m sad those two never really got to share a scene!)
Frankie Drake Mysteries often doesn’t take Mary’s job terribly seriously or, if it does, the show uses it to further underline how desperate she is to follow in her police captain father’s footsteps, so much so that she’s willing to measure skirt lengths and hand out tickets for being indecently dressed just so she can call herself part of the force.
“Showstoppers” is one of the few installments that I can think of that actually makes it part of the plot. Mary’s initially sent to the theater that’s premiering Rita Hart’s new ballet because someone’s complained that the production — with its shirtless male dancers and scantily clad ballerinas — is immoral. And, technically, it is. Mary has to post a sign and everything.
But it’s also more emotionally satisfying than her recent forays into murder investigations. “Showstoppers” reveals Mary’s own history with (and love of) dance, and how she turned away from it because she felt she owed it to her father to become a police officer. Or, at least, as much as she’s allowed to be.
Rebecca Liddiard’s Mary has always been my favorite of the show’s main quartet, a quiet, seemingly mousy girl with a huge heart and surprisingly hidden depths. While I can recognize how cheesy it is that Mary’s a good enough dancer to join in with a professional company, the whole thing was so fun to watch — and so cathartic for her character — that I can’t complain.
I’ve often thought that Frankie Drake Mysteries has been really ham-fisted in the way it uses Frankie’s time in the army during World War I. (See also: Anytime the show needs to explain why she has a motorcycle, that weird Season 3 episode that was sort of about her being a spy.)
But “Showstoppers” really works her history into the story of the episode in a natural and meaningful way.
Her experience treating soldiers during the Spanish Flu outbreak has given her a unique perspective that none of the other folks have, and it makes her very palpable fear of experiencing it again understandable. Frankie, as a character, isn’t often allowed to show anything that resembles weakness, so getting to see her legitimately afraid and unsure of what to do next is strangely refreshing.
She’s human, after all!
Flo quietly solving a medical crisis with demonstrable science is everything, and precisely the sort of thing I tune into this show for. The identity of the poisoner was fairly obvious, IMO, but that certainly didn’t take away anything from the larger overall story — especially because of how timely that aspect of things felt too.
(I wish I could say that we’ve improved as a people in all the years that have passed since this show is set but in many ways, it’s clear that we haven’t.)
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- I love love love how supportive of and excited for each other these women are. Flo, Trudy, and Frankie cheering their friend on warmed my heart.
- Personally, modern dance is very much not for me, but I loved how excited Mary was to both watch and participate in it.
- I feel like this episode specifically makes Alessandro react like such a jerk about the threat of the Spanish Flu simply so we’ll all stop thinking he’s such a clearly superior option, romantically speaking, to neighbor Sebastian, but given that his ingrained fear of another outbreak is just as legitimate as Frankie’s, it really doesn’t work.
- As much as I liked that Frankie Drake Mysteries respects its audience’s intelligence enough to not do a massive exposition dump about what the Spanish Flu epidemic was, I would have actually liked some more context on how Toronto, specifically was impacted by the initial outbreak. (Although since technically this is a Canadian show, maybe they assumed their audience would be familiar? Or more familiar than we are? I don’t know I just love the real historical elements this show often weaves into its stories.)
- I wish I hadn’t spent way too much time during this episode wondering how people would have reacted to this situation today — and how violently some would have probably tried to leave that quarantined theater.
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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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.
2 comments
i enjoyed this episode; seeing mary explore other venues; maybe she
can be a dancer on the side, when she’s not working as a poice officer. (morality as a matter of fact).
5/12/23 I loved this episode watched today, actress Rebecca Liddiard showed surprising talent as a modern dancer, does she have any dance experience in her past? As a former dance this aroused my interest.
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