This past week I have been watching ‘The Damnation of Harvey Australia
The premise is an interesting one in that we follow the young Harvey McHugh, as he goes from Government Department to Government Department, with the hope of becoming a permanent employee. Not to give too much away, the Minister both helps and hinders his efforts in more ways than one. As the series progresses it becomes somewhat of a dance with these two characters, as they manoeuvre around each other. One wanting power, one wanting a job; both with ambition whether it be ruthless as in the Minister’s case or desperation in Harvey
The series is about relationships, breaking up and getting going. All throughout this series that is what happens, sometimes to devastating effect but it all comes right in the end – sort of :)
Kudos goes to Aaron Blabey as ‘Harvey McHugh’, a wonderfully touching performance. I’m not surprised he won an award for this. What surprises me is that Philip Quast didn’t. Philip played the role of ‘the Minister’ to perfection. There are a lot of twists and turns in the role which needs an actor of Philip’s calibre to pull it off. To thoroughly believe that this man could kill you as soon as look at you one minute, and then be all swarve and collected in the space of a second, takes some doing. And to do this and still get people to like (however begrudgingly), and sympathise with him is a great achievement.
If you get a chance to see - I wholly recommend this series.
Bed of Roses
As you may or may not know I used to love Australian dramas when they were shown on TV here in the UK UK
Those of you who that have seen the show before would have followed Louisa Atherton; her daughter Holly and mother Minna, and their friends through series 1. And series 2 is more of the same. Louisa is now back in Rainbow’s End to stay and this series follows her in her bid to be newspaper editor of the local rag – the ‘Rainbow Echo’.
All the characters in this show are wonderful but I do have a little bit of a problem with ‘The Golden Nugget’ in episode 1. Why oh why is Gavin so blinkered when it comes to the ‘Golden Nugget’? He has the business wherewithal to run a hardware business, and later own a newspaper so why is he so stupid when it comes to the idea of this stupid thing? I know it was more than likely a plot device to get the show moving and something for Louisa to be ruffled by. But it was all a bit clunky.
As from the second episode this series really starts to take off. The writing is more sound and we have a lovely new character called Tim Price (Philip Quast) as the manager of the newspaper, and Gavin’s business partner. Love interest I hear you cry, and you are right to a certain extent. Tim Price is a well-rounded character so his affections for Louisa seem genuine as does his tussles with the other man trying to gain her affections – Nick (played by Jay Laga’aia). But he is also interested in what Louisa can do for the ‘paper and gives her and the rest of the team a helping hand where he can.
I don’t want to give too much away for those who haven’t seen it but just to stay stick with it. If you haven’t really watched Australian drama or comedy for that matter, it can be a little hard to fathom sometimes. I always say watch it at least twice and you’ll ‘get it’ more on a second viewing. If for nothing else it is worth the money just to see Philip Quast wake up to a cow!! And I mean in the literal sense. He does wake up to a cow. Now you’re interested aren’t you?!
The drama and comedy moments in this series are more on the gentle side. This is a series about a middle-aged woman (if you can call 50 middle-aged these days), her family, her friends and their relationships. Oh and the ‘Golden Nugget’ gag does pay off in the end! You’ll just have to watch to find out how.
