Morning muffin... how r u 2day?

It's been a long time that I've wanted to watch Love My Way. Premiering on Foxtel November 2004, it was highly regarded by the critics at the time. I seriously considered getting Foxtel on those recommendations alone, but like so many grand expensive schemes of mine, it fell by the wayside. A second series began airing early this year and to coincide, the first series was released on DVD. Finally a (reasonably) free way to catch up with the episodes.



I have two (quite) strong reactions to this show.

Reaction Number One: It is possibly the best Australian television I have ever. Or at least in a bloody long while. I am having trouble recalling another show of the same ilk (god I hate that word) that was as well made as this. Maybe it's because I don't watch a lot of telly these days. And when I do, it ain't soapies. Let's just leave the last really good Aussie telly with Phoenix and Janus. The difference is that those shows were very gritty, almost docudrama in their presentation, whereas there is no doubt that LMW, at its core, is very much a high quality soap. But whereas Neighbors would treat the dropping of an e tablet with bold silent stares and flick of hair and a crescendo of music, it is handled here almost like a throw-away, like someone was ordering a drink.

The show is extremely well produced. It is glossy, has high production values, a talented and attractive cast and contains an exceptionally high standard of writing and directing. There is hardly a false note. The show is identifiably Australian (without overdoing like so many shows do for the overseas markets) with lovely understated humour and the characters are all richly drawn. The first episode sets up all of the character relationships well, but it is the second episode where the true intentions of the characters start to become slowly revealed like a huge jumbled mess all over the living room floor. Some of these people are stained and tainted while others are greedy, manipulative, attention seekers. They are living their lives, having babies, making a living (or not), but have managed to position themselves so that the proverbial house of cards shadows them from all around like a giant grim reaper.

Australia's produces fine actors and technicians - the problem with most productions lies more often than not with poor quality script, something that this show manages to avoid. The lead actors are all exceptionally well cast: Karvan (Frankie) is always good value, Asher Keddie as Julia, the stepmother of Karvan's child is a wonderful find, Daniel Wyllie as Charlie, Frankie's ex brings warmth, humour and a typical Aussie male blokiness to his character, and Brendan Cowell as Tom, Charlie's brother, is quite brilliant as the unstable cook in the Ian Thorpe undie wundies. All of the supporting cast (such as Max Cullen and Lynette Curran) are also uniformly excellent.


"Oh get fucked! Thank you very much!"

Reaction Number Two: unfortunately, with the good comes the bad. Reaction number two was so strong during several episodes and I had to blink at what I was watching and contemplated how this could be? Surely this could not be a coincidence? Watching the opening titles, first episode, I noticed how much it reminded me of the brilliant Six Feet Under. Huh, funny that. Then the shot of the hands clasped together in the same opening titles. Huh? Six Feet Under had the same iconographic image in their same opening titles (the only difference being in those titles the hands pull apart). Ok... Then two main characters almost have sex in a toilet cubicle in the first episode. Ok. The two leads in the first episode of Six Feet Under have sex in a closet at the airport. Riggghhhttt.... One of the stories in the second episode involves an accident and funeral. Every episode (basically) of 6FU involves an accident and a subsequent funeral. The family dinner at the end of the second episode were things get out of hand could have been taken from almost any episode OF 6FU (especially those arguments involving Nate and Brenda or Brenda and Billy). Charlie often escapes to the solitude of surfing, while Nate often escaped to the solitude of jogging. Finally, (and luckily more explainable) because this show is on pay television, they can get away with more explicitness in both the language and the situations (6FU on HBO in the US is in the same situation). Some of these references were so strong that I was temporarily pulled from the flow of the stories and I am convinced that they were not coincidences. It is possibly that producers Claudia Karvan and John Edwards have used HBO (and especially 6FU) as some sort of template, as LMW is the first major television series here to premiere on pay television - which makes it a bit of a shame that these similarities are so striking. I hope the series recovers from this and develops its own strong identity. Who knows? Maybe we'll get Australian versions of Oz, The Sopranos and Deadwood in the not too distant future.

The DVD's are disappointingly slim containing only the episodes in widescreen and no extras. Each episode is aproximately 45 minutes long.