mouser26:

So if anyone is looking for a great little show with an older female lead seriously check out Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.

It’s a good old fashioned detective story set in 1920′s Australia staring Miss Phryne* Fisher as our clever worldly female detective.

See the thing I find fantastic about the TV show compared to the books they are based on is that in the books Phryne is 28, in the show she is played by Essie Davis who was 42 when the show first started.

And Don’t let the glamor shot above fool you

They make very little effort to ‘conceal’ things like her crows feet or laugh lines, beyond what  makeup a high class lady might have worn,

And the stories are so much better for this increase in age!

Phryne is a woman of the world considered a spinster for never having been married. She drives the fastest car money can buy, knows how to fly a plane, changes from trousers to dresses at the slightest whim, while wielding her trusty gold plated revolver. She throws herself completely into life  from liquor to men and believes people should be allowed to love whoever they choose regardless of color, caste, religion, or even gender 

Probably helps her best friend Dr. Mac (Tammy MacIntosh.42) is a lesbian

Now in the 1920′s I find it much more believable for this to be true for a woman in her 40′s than her near 30′s. 

Great show either way.
*pronounced Fry-nee cause I know you were wondering