'Miss Scarlet' Season 5 Stakes Out a New Normal in "The Enchanted Mirror"

Surprise, Miss Scarlet Season 5 is almost over. (Yes, really!) This may come as a shock to some, given that it feels as though we've barely had any time at all to adjust to this revamped incarnation of the series or to get to know the new leading man at its center. (No shade to Cathy Belton, but let's be honest, it's weird that Ivy's had the most significant arc of the season thus far.) To its credit, Season 5's penultimate episode finally gives us some of the much-needed character moments earlier installments had been sorely lacking, and they're ultimately what makes the hour worth watching.

But the snooze-worthy mystery at the heart of "The Enchanted Mirror" is anything but magical, another complete dud of a case that raises some questions about what the point of these investigations is. If they're not good mysteries -- and we can probably all agree that the "cases" are and have long been the show's weakest element — then what larger purpose are they serving? One of the things that set Miss Scarlet apart was that it wasn't just a show about a female detective. (And I'm not even talking about the love story that used to be in the title here.) Yes, the series's premise inherently revolves around Eliza trying to prove herself in a man's profession. One of the big reasons that Miss Scarlet felt so fresh was that it wasn't about watching Eliza try to be a detective like a man.

Instead, the show told its stories through a deliberately female lens in ways beyond simply including female characters as clients or culprits. Instead, stories are frequently grounded in specific and unique female experiences, often revolve around nontraditional characters (like Eliza herself), and nearly always include the voices of women and other marginalized characters rarely centered in procedurals like this.