Five period dramas to watch if you loved ‘My Brilliant Career’
It’s both funny and faintly infuriating how quickly people start planning a woman’s life for her. Especially back in the day. The moment she came of age, the expectation was simple enough: find a suitable match and hope for a secure and respectable future, you know, no unnecessary fuss. Netflix‘s My Brilliant Career is full of that sort of interference, which is precisely why Sybylla Melvyn is such a pleasure to spend time with.
This lady wants to write, and please do not mistake it for some charming little hobby until she gets wed. No ma’am. The best part is, Netflix is taking us to early-20th-century Australia, where My Brilliant Career follows Sybylla as her ambition starts rubbing up against the future everyone else seems happy to choose for her.
Romance lovers aren’t to be disappointed because there’s plenty of that too. Because apparently wanting your own life wasn’t complicated enough already.
And if that tug-of-war kept you watching, these five period dramas should be right up your street. They all understand and show women outright rejecting the idea of their lives being mapped out for them. Cheers!
Five period dramas to watch if you loved My Brilliant Career:
Little House on the Prairie (2026-)
Freedom sounds pretty lovely, doesn’t it, until you realise how much actual hard work comes with it. That’s the thing Netflix’s newest addition, Little House on the Prairie, revolves around. It’s the story of the Ingalls family, who head west thinking to start fresh and with the hopes of a better life. Really, what could possibly go wrong? Oh, plenty. First and foremost, money is tight, and here, adults call the shots. But our focus is on Laura, who builds castles in the air and watches them poof the second real life blows. How sad is that!
But do you see the connection with My Brilliant Career? Laura is younger than Sybylla, obviously, but is in the same need for a life that actually feels like yours. Same problem. Because why should everyone else decide it? This newer adaptation gives more space to Osage perspectives too, which makes you look at that whole “empty frontier” idea from a new angle. But empty for who exactly? Laura keeps questioning what she sees instead of just going along with it, and fair enough, really.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023)
This beloved Netflix show starts with a young girl being sent to another country to marry a man she has never met, and on top of that, everyone expects her to be grateful? That is roughly the story of Charlotte in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Her marriage to King George starts off as an arrangement and then transforms into something much more real. But how can things be so smooth for our ladyship? She sure becomes the queen and earns that status, but that takes away quite a lot of her freedom.
You see, Charlotte and Sybylla are both dealing with people who assume that marriage should settle the question of what a woman wants. Charlotte loves George, but love does not make duty less suffocating, does it? India Amarteifio has done a praiseworthy job delivering that tension beautifully for us. While we are on the subject of period dramas, Bridgerton is an obvious choice to stream after this.
Alias Grace (2017)
Sybylla spends My Brilliant Career being told who she ought to become. That is annoying enough as it is, but Grace Marks has it worse because apparently, everyone has already decided who she is. Murderess or victim, innocent girl or schemer: Take your pick. Poor girl is already the villain. She speaks, people listen, and somehow they still reckon they know her better. How rude is that!
Alias Grace comes from Margaret Atwood’s novel and the real 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, which Grace was convicted of alongside James McDermott. Years later, a psychiatrist turns up hoping to discover the truth. Right, because that will be simple. Pfft, good luck with that. And this is where they get you. Sarah Gadon makes Grace almost impossible to read. One minute, you believe her. The next minute, you are questioning both her and yourself.
The Empress (2022-)
What would you do if someone else’s planned marriage became yours at the last moment? Sorry, come again? Elisabeth of Bavaria basically finds out when Emperor Franz Joseph chooses her instead of her sister Helene. Romantic? Sort of. But isn’t it a bit awkward, though? And from there, the show turns into much more than a fairy-tale match, because being wed into the royal family means every action of yours has a political weight. Reminds you of Queen Charlotte.
Now Sybylla would get the problem straight away. Elisabeth has the title and the emperor, so naturally, everyone thinks she should be thrilled. Well, obviously. What more could she possibly want? A life that actually feels like hers, maybe. Well, so did Sybylla. That’s what brings these two women together. So now you have got romance with history, which, well, is lovely.
Cable Girls (2017–2020)
Sybylla wants a career because she wants a life that shouldn’t depend on somebody else’s plans, and Cable Girls works more or less with the same concept. Lidia, Carlota, Marga and Ángeles start working at Madrid’s telephone company, and suddenly they have wages. Along comes independence and choices. Choices? For women? In the 1920s? Along comes the judgment. All of a sudden, everybody around them starts having opinions.
And then it gets worse. Work pulls them into all sorts of emotions. Be it romance or betrayal. They think a modern job might buy them freedom. Yeah, good luck with that. Every time one of them takes a step forward, somebody seems ready to throw a spanner in the works. It’s heartbreaking to watch. And that is where My Brilliant Career fits like a piece of a puzzle. Society loves ambitious women until those ambitions actually change something. Might sound a bit heavy, but it’s true. Here is a fun fact for you: Cable Girls was Netflix’s first original Spanish series. Women doing things first in a show about women doing things first? That’s what we are here for.