Netflix’s My Brilliant Career review: How did a radical feminist classic get flattened into a love triangle?
Goodness, if Netflix delivers one more confusing love triangle under the guise of feminist awakening, I may actually combust. Why is every period adaptation now required to resolve itself into some variation of Never Have I Turned Pretty With The Walter Boys , XO ? When did 'a woman chooses herself' become Hollywood shorthand for 'a woman chooses between two men, agonisingly, for six episodes'?…
Netflix's adaptation of My Brilliant Career, based on Miles Franklin's 1901 feminist classic, has been criticized for devolving into a love triangle. The novel, semi-autobiographical, follows Sybylla Melvyn, a fierce and headstrong young woman who refuses to marry to pursue her dream of becoming a great writer. When adapted for Netflix, Sybylla's story becomes entangled in a romantic triangle, with her rejecting the suitor Harry Beecham after promising him everything.
However, the show's writer, Liz Doran, has acknowledged consciously avoiding repeating the 1979 film's mistake of focusing solely on Sybylla's love story. The frustration lies in the show inflating the love triangle into the emotional center, while downplaying the political and social context that gave Sybylla's refusal its true meaning.
Sybylla's choice to resist the societal pressure to marry and instead pursue her ambition as a writer is radical and deserves recognition, rather than being overshadowed by romance.
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