Pick of the week
Moving out of West Auckland and into the CBD, Outrageous Fortune creators Rachel Lang and James Griffin have put their brains together again for crime drama The Blue Rose.
The pair wrote lead roles specifically for Outrageous stars Antonia Prebble and Siobhan Marshall, who play, respectively, lawfirm temp Jane and courier dispatcher Linda.
The series begins with a sweeping shot of an ominous-looking downtown Auckland, cloaked in latenight shadows and paired with some suitably dark music. A frantic man rushes up to two women, alerting them of a body in the water.
The next morning, we assume, Jane waltzes into the Mosely & Loveridge law firm to begin her first day as a temp, unaware of the bombshell that has just shocked the company: That the body in the water was in fact Rose, the woman Jane is replacing. Linda is Rose’s best friend and she pairs up with Jane to gain classified information from the law firm so they can crack the mystery of Rose’s death.
‘‘ The Blue Rose is about a secret society of lowly office workers who band together to . . . set wrongs to rights and get justice in an unjust world,’’ Lang says. ‘‘We used to often joke about the international conspiracy of receptionists. So the idea of little people being powerful [came] first. The setting of law firm Mosely & Loveridge came later, but the show is set in two worlds: The rich and powerful – and the rest of us.’’
There are some similarities between The Blue Rose and Outrageous Fortune, in that Prebble once more plays a serious character and Marshall is again forthright, but there are enough differences for us to forget the characters these actors spent six seasons portraying, and instead we can relate to them as Jane and Linda.
The production quality is very slick and the acting is all top-notch. Newcomer James Trevena-Brown is excellent as compassionate junior lawyer Charlie, and holds his own alongside a talented cast filled with former Shortland Streeters: Anna Jullienne, Theresa Healey, Elizabeth McRae, Matt Minto, Tim Foley, Stelios Yiakmis, the list goes on.
There’s also the talented Jennifer Ludlam ( Apron Strings) whose character Sonia seems to be a bit shifty.
The characters are all very wellwritten, detailed and deep, and, regardless of whether they seem to be heroes or villains, the roles are so intricate that you care about their pasts and where they are headed.
There are deep secrets kept behind the office walls at Mosely & Loveridge that seem to be connected to Rose’s history at the firm and Jane seems to be risking a lot by getting wrapped up in the mystery. Already in this first episode there are a multitude of potential plot strands just bubbling away beneath the surface.
Much more than chewing gum for the eyes, this is a whodunnit with many conceivable suspects, and expect more than a few twists and turns along the way. With the glut of new shows all beginning this week, this is one series worth investing your time in.