Critic Reviews

Doran's adaptation of My Brilliant Career masterfully carves out its own niche within the period drama by both embracing the original novel's best aspects and incorporating thoughtful updates into the text, ultimately resulting in a remake that manages to feel both timeless and refreshingly modern.

Northeast’s performance, which emanates joy and a guileless sensuality, deserves to be as much of a launchpad to stardom. The six-part miniseries, which was released last month, is no less a discovery—the hidden gem of the summer, if not the year.

Far better than the overly rote and tired “Bridgerton.” The key difference is it features an earthier, more developed female presence at its core — the fiery and unsinkable 17-year-old Syblla Melvyn (Philippa Northeast in an incomparable performance that gives us a writer heroine to cheer on).

As a love story, it wrong-foots; as a coming-of-ager, it delights; as a portrait of creative frustration, it works. As a whole, it’s perilously close to brilliant.

There are many people to credit for this buoyant “Brilliant Career,” including its developer and co-writer Liz Doran. But it is Philippa Northeast as Sybylla who is the shiny thing from which we cannot avert our eyes. Viewers will experience an almost chemical reaction in watching the performance.

This series is a charming coming-of-age tale.

It’s self-aware and doesn’t sell out the empowerment message of Franklin’s novel. And it says something about Northeast’s terrific performance as uncouth Sybylla — along with the likeable Aussieness all round — that anyone, regardless of their age, will enjoy it. She’s a ripper.

My Brilliant Career is a fun series that’s made very watchable by Philippa’s Northeast’s lead performance. At times, it tries to get a bit too stylish, but those moments are outweighed by the story and performances.

Whimsical and sharp, “My Brilliant Career” remains just as poignant and plucky as it was when Franklin first shared her words with the world 125 years ago.

The new series, created by Australian writer/producer Liz Doran, has a peppier, less ambiguous feel — less tone poem than modernized fable, filtered through the ongoing yen for Jane Austen love triangles and marriage plots (Netflix is actually launching a new “Pride and Prejudice” series later this fall). It’s a lot of fun.