Television
A locally written drama for Aussie TV recrosses the Ditch to entertain us with mothers who struggle for perfection.
In the very first shot of Bad Mothers (TVNZ 1, Wednesday, 8.30pm), there is a dead body. What unfolds thereafter is very much about the struggles of the living.
The new drama is the second creation for the Australian TV market by Filthy Productions, the Aucklandbased company founded by Rachel Lang and Gavin Strawhan ( Filthy Rich, Dirty Laundry). It’s set in the fictional fancy Melbourne suburb of Bedford, but its real backdrop is the universality of mum politics. Did the writers have something personal to draw on there?
“Who doesn’t?” chirps Lang. “My kids are quite big now, but that period of my life is quite vivid and I look back on it fondly and with amusement. I think mothering is an impossible job – the job description is way too hard, so basically everyone’s a bad mother. And it only seems to get worse. Everyone worries a lot more than they used to, I think.”
To be fair, Lang and Strawhan’s lead character, Sarah, has plenty to worry about. Not only has her best friend been murdered, but also her husband (with whom, for reasons that become clear, she’s already not best pleased) is charged with the killing. And things seemed to be going so well …
Perfect lives are
usually “not as perfect as they look”, says Lang. “And, actually, trying to be perfect takes a lot of work. That’s certainly the case for Sarah.”
As her world shatters, Sarah finds support with a group of mums who are decidedly imperfect and would settle for getting by.
Lang laughs heartily at the suggestion that it must have been nice to write some decent sorts after some of the bloody awful people she’s created in recent years.
“I don’t really see it like that! Because even the people that you might think of as awful, I think are interesting and great. I tend to see them from the inside. But, yes, it was fun writing about things that I do know quite well.”
Bad Mothers has been a step up for Filthy. For the first time, as well as creating the story and characters, Lang and Strawhan co-produced with an Australian company, Jungle Entertainment, working directly with the “editorially hands-on” Nine Network.
That meant living in Melbourne for three months, working too hard for any sightseeing. With the news that Filthy Rich is to be remade for the US market, Filthy’s sights may be increasingly offshore. It’s a good thing the kids don’t need picking up from school any more.