Kaikōura-set drama is a touch too fractured and heavy-handed
Kaikōura and the aftermath of the destructive earthquake that hit the seaside Canterbury town in late 2016 is the setting for a new sixpart Kiwi drama focused on the fracturing bond between two best mates.
Written by former NZ Woman’s Weekly editor-turned-novelist and screenwriter Sarah-Kate Lynch (The Sounds, 800 Words, The Bad Seed), Friends Like Her (which begins screening on Three and ThreeNow tomorrow) revolves around the disparate lives of Nicole (Morgana O’Reilly) and Tessa (Alien: Covenant, Spiderhead’s Tess Haubrich).
Inseparable since meeting each other in South East Asia, the pair married brothers Liam (The Brokenwood Mysteries’ Jarod Rawiri) and Rob (Testify’s Vinnie Bennett), with the couples establishing respective businesses as moteliers and offering charter helicopter services.
But while Nicole and Liam have three children, two jobs each and struggle to make ends meet, Tessa and Rob are seemingly footloose and fancy-free, more than happy to splash the cash whenever inspiration – or desire – strikes.
It’s a disparity only exacerbated by the 7.8 shake. Damage to the Seaview Motel puts it out of action, temporarily at the very least, while the roading slips that cut the town off result in the chopper becoming a vital – and lucrative – lifeline to the outside world.
A year on and Nicole is feeling more than a little broken, her mood not helped by Tessa sending Rob off on 180km jaunts to buy her shoes with a four-figure price tag. Thanks to such largesse, the helicopter company’s finances that Nicole oversees are a mess and she’s growing increasingly tired of having to defend Tessa’s feckless and frustrating behaviour to the other members of the book club.
It’s so irritating that she almost regrets agreeing to carrying a baby for her.
Despite providing a terrific showcase for the versatile and always impressive O’Reilly (Mean Mums, Inside), Friends Like Her feels just a little too fractured and ploddingly predictable to fully compel.
While planting the seeds for the psychological drama to come, Lynch and director Josh Frizzell (Fresh Eggs, Under the Vines) seemingly over-egg the pudding (reflected in the overt symbolism and “urgent strings”-heavy score), offering flashbacks to the seemingly traumatic event that brought them together, while piling on the incidents that severely test their relationship.
It doesn’t help that Tessa and the supporting characters feel under-written and one-dimensional in comparison to Nicole, while the year-long gap in the narrative after the evocative, earthquake opening minutes doesn’t feel quite fully fleshed-out, or coherent. Maybe that’s explored later in the series, but it initially irks.
Friends Like Her debuts on Three at 8.40pm on Monday, April 15. Episodes will also be available to stream on ThreeNow.