WINNERS AND LOSERS WEEK THREE REVIEW

No real time for a full review tonight – so just a hail of hastily assembled spoiler-related bullets on the fourth episode of Winners and Losers:

·    Upbeat, funky pop song? Check? Women getting dressed in fancy clothes? Check? We’re off to the races!! This could be promising, despite the by-the-numbers intro. The races is a place where ritual humiliation could humanize these characters a bit more.

·      Damien Bodie’s character still might as well have a neon sign saying ‘Homosexual Character’ around his neck, for all the subtlety in the dialogue. Nothing much happening there development wise.

·      One of the things I like about ‘Packed to the Rafters’ doesn’t look too much like Home and Away – it elevates it a little bit. The scene early in the episode with Jenny and her brother (who is a bit funny) could have been inserted into a Home and Away episode without anyone really noticing.

·      Yes – Michala Banas is back. About time, this show desperately needs a villain. Or just, you know, conflict. Unfortunately, that conflict is that Jenny is being sued for making a mean speech at a high school reunion. Good luck with that one.

·      Zoe Tuckwell-Smith is very charming isn’t she? I am warming to the performances now, including Melissa Bergland, though the women are so much better-defined than the men I’m still finding it hard to enjoy any scene with a bloke in it. Sophie is still an incredibly unlikeable character. Can’t work out what the handsome doctor sees in her. He’s a doctor yes?

·      The scene in the toilet was ridiculously sitcom-y. Humour is generally better when it comes out of believable situations. Then when Bec took the inevitable underwear-less tumble on the catwalk (telegraphed much?), that was soon followed with serious drama with her father’s gambling issues. How tonally all over the place.

·      It’s been a while since I’ve watched Packed to the Rafters, but I don’t recall every episode wrapping up quite this neatly for the majority of characters. Feel free to correct me in the comments.

·      Overall? Enjoying the lead performances, hating the writing, production and the storylines. The one saving grace was the last scene, with Michala Banas’ Tiffany crying in her living room. It gave her a bit of depth and I may have not paid enough attention, but I didn’t really know exactly WHY she was crying. Guilt or desperation? Both? It was a shades-of-grey moment, and there have been zero like it so far. I’ll stick with it for those that would like to read ep-by-ep thoughts and because I’m interested in the ratings and general popularity, but I’m struggling.

TV REVIEW - LAID EPISODE THREE

As always, after the jump lie spoilers galore... Click only if you've watched the third episode of Laid.

This was probably the weakest episode of Laid so far – but that’s still a lot better than most Australian television. This is a show not afraid to take chances – not in the way Rake did, with its insane case of the week format, but to make black-humoured jokes about sex and death and be completely unapologetic for it. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t, but it is always worth doing.

I’m still loving Alison Bell as Roo and her little romance with Abe Forsythe’s Charlie is a charming part of the show. I still love the way the show roots a high-concept, outlandish premise in a very unglamorous realistic environment. I still have no idea where the show is going and I like that too.

But I thought the show set itself up for a fall with the Marcus Graham/indoor cricket scene. Indoor cricket is just such an obvious death trap that within a show and a premise like this, it seemed inevitable that Graham was going to get clocked with a ball – and that all seemed like an extended preview to what the episode was really about, which is Roo deciding she’s going to try and take the curse on. I also didn’t laugh at any stage during this episode – it didn’t seem as witty or as insightful as the others – and the story spun its wheels a little.

All in all though, still a show I’m enjoying very much. I’m guaranteed to stick with it right to the end.