Endeavour (2013) – 1×03

I love how the Nora-Estella dynamic played out. They, and the rest of the Brooms, were never truly sympathetic characters, both because they were part of the suspects of the week on a mystery show but also because of their aloof elitist behavior. Neither of them is “nice”, not to the police, not their family. You see characters like Nora occasionally, tough old women who’ve had to fight for every scrap that the men around them were handed and descending into sharp-tongued bitterness because of it, but I don’t think ever seen them build an alliance with their daughters? They either stand alone and hated at the top, or are closest to the responsible older son or wimpy youngest boy.

Here, Nora favors Estella, quietly and subtly and it’s so nice to see similar mother and daughter characters actually get along and team up instead of the mother being hardest on her and the father being the sympathetic one. I liked Brave and all, but most tough daughters end up being daddy’s girls. If the mother-daughter relationship is stronger, then it tends to have them both somewhat under the thumb of the father.