Sybylla Melvyn has never been particularly good at doing what she’s told, which makes her a pretty good heroine to bring back to television.
Now streaming globally on Netflix, My Brilliant Career gives Philippa Northeast the lead in a new adaptation of Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel, a book I’ll admit had never crossed my path before Netflix announced this series.
And perhaps that makes me a pretty good test case for the adaptation, because you don’t need to arrive with a deep knowledge of Franklin’s work to get what makes Sybylla such an engaging character.
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Philippa Northeast stars as Sybylla in Netflix’s My Brilliant Career, now streaming globally (image – Netflix / Ian Routledge)
She wants to become a writer rather than be married off, and Northeast, who viewers may know from Home and Away, The Newsreader and Territory, gives her plenty of personality as she pushes back against the expectations being placed on her.
This is a very different sort of Australian original for Netflix, too, trading the contemporary settings of much of its local drama slate for a lavish period production set in 1900 Australia.
The series looks the part, with the South Australian landscapes, costumes and production design doing plenty of the heavy lifting, while the decision to film across Adelaide, the Barossa and the state’s South-East gives the story a distinctly Australian sense of place.
It is also very deliberately a modern take on the period drama.
Contemporary music and a cheekier tone give My Brilliant Career some obvious Bridgerton DNA, although this isn’t simply an Australian version of that show, with Sybylla’s ambitions as a writer and her fight for independence remaining just as important as the romance.
For the most part, that approach works, making a story from 1901 feel considerably more accessible without completely losing the period setting.
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Christopher Chung and Philippa Northeast star in My Brilliant Career, now streaming on Netflix (image – Netflix / Ian Routledge)
Christopher Chung plays Harry Beecham, whose role has been reimagined as a Chinese-Australian man, and his chemistry with Northeast gives the romance plenty to work with, even if some of its more predictable beats lack Sybylla’s bite.
That doesn’t mean every modern touch lands perfectly.
The soundtrack will probably be a matter of taste, while the romance occasionally pushes the series into more familiar period drama territory and some of the later emotional beats can feel a little too neat and sentimental.
Those moments take away some of the bite that makes Sybylla so interesting, although they never completely derail the story.
What does hold it together is Northeast, who gives Sybylla enough energy and stubbornness to make her ambitions believable rather than simply turning her into a modern heroine dropped into an old story.
Joining Northeast and Chung are Kate Mulvany, Anna Chancellor and Genevieve O’Reilly, with the supporting cast helping flesh out the world around Sybylla and giving the period drama plenty of personality beyond its central romance.
And for someone coming to My Brilliant Career without having read the novel or seen Gillian Armstrong’s acclaimed 1979 film, this new series looks to be an accessible introduction to Sybylla and the world she inhabits.
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That earlier film starred Judy Davis as Sybylla and the late Sam Neill as Harry Beecham, while this version takes the story in a more contemporary direction without losing sight of its central character.
It doesn’t always get the balance between period authenticity and modern television quite right, but there is plenty of life in this very Australian story, with Philippa Northeast giving Sybylla the kind of spark that makes her easy to get behind.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
My Brilliant Career is six episodes and is now streaming globally on Netflix.
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