Television
The brilliant transtasman drama set on Auckland’s west coast is back.
Aussie drama? Pah. That’s Neil “sound of Te Awamutu” Finn crooning as George Turner wades out of the Bondi surf, thanks very much. And he barely gets to “you’d better be home soon” before George is back over the Ditch.
A quick recap. James
Griffin creation 800 Words (TVNZ 1, Sunday, 8.30pm, and Wednesday, 8.30pm) is a sort of Aussie-Kiwi hybrid that rated brilliantly in both countries in its first season.
Packed to the Rafters’ Erik Thomson stars as George, an affable, sought-after Aussie columnist whose 800 words a week somehow cover the bills.
After his wife dies, he moves their two teenagers, Arlo and Shay, to Weld, a tiny New Zealand beach town. Despite having a great many lovely and willing alternatives, by the end of season one, he had wound up with his wife’s best friend, Jan (Bridie Carter).
Running from ghosts worked for George but it left Shay bereft: at the end of season one she fled back to her doting grandparents in Bondi. Hence George’s fleeting visit as this new season opens.
Anyway, it’s good to be back on black sand. Awkward, though – that whole shagging the dead wife’s best friend thing is not working out as well as they both hoped.
“Waves are like
relationships,” muses Woody, mid-surf, to his melancholy mate. “Are you catching the wave, or are you going to let it go?”
On another show, that would land with an awful clang. Here, we’re in such good hands that whatever gets through, we know it’s on purpose.
“Waves do what waves do,” observes Constable
Tom earlier, in a neat bit of foreshadowing. And that’s the lesson for George: relax and let it happen. Or not.
In his determination to prise Shay (Melina Vidler) from her grandparents’ posh pad, he enlists Arlo (Benson Jack Anthony) as his sidekick. It’s fairly dubious parenting – leaning on one kid to emotionally manipulate the other – and in any case, chance has a habit of trumping elaborate plans.
Arlo, meanwhile, is a 15-year-old forced to grow up mighty fast. Wherever he turns, the poor kid finds himself having to play the parenting role: geeing-up his older sister, talking down his panicky dad, looking after a girl at school who’s getting a hard time from her father. When all about him lose their heads, it’s Arlo who calmly negotiates a truce.
By rights it’s him who should have a column – and a lot more screen time this season.