WINNERS AND LOSERS EPISODE TWO REVIEW

Spoiler-related thoughts on episode two of Winners and Losers after the jump...

I said in my review of the first episode of Winners and Losers that I had massive qualms over the late-episode plot development where the four friends become lottery winners. The reason for this is that it is incredibly difficult for us to become invested with people who are so rich we will soon have nothing in common with them. Every show I’ve ever seen feature a lottery winner has fallen away soon afterwards (Roseanne comes to mind) because the money that person won came to define them.

What W&L needed to do in its second and third episode was make sure that the problems the characters were having were universal and not solved or created by the money they had come into. Sadly, what we got instead was every single main character using their lottery win to improve their lives – Frances uses her money to advance her business career, Sophie buys an apartment, Bec’s fiancé uses money to set a date, buy a ring and does it all on a boat and Jenny buys herself a car and quits her job. None of this involved actual character development – it was just the use of money to paper over each character’s flaws and also handily erased any conflict the first three episodes had set up. It was a little bit galling towards the end – maybe I’m just bitter but I have flaws and problems I can’t fix through a Lotto win. It's a happy show, for the most part, but Parks and Recreation is one of the happiest shows I've ever seen, but it has more wit, charm and character development in five minutes than I've seen so far here - and the characters on that show aren't rich. If the characters here are going to be wealthy without actually earning it, they have to earn their emotional wealth instead. They don’t even go close here.

The lottery win also had me cringing at the beginning of the episode where Jenny whines constantly about how unfair it is she isn’t getting any money. Maybe I just fall in the category of if you don’t invest, you don’t get the rewards, but it seemed incredibly selfish that she would even think about asking for some. Her persistence proceeded to make me dislike all the characters bar Bec as they tussled over a problem only 0.00001% of us will ever have to deal with, especially on that scale.

Enough of my ranting about the plot – the performances are coming through from the four main girls with Virginia Gay still being the standout and Melanie Vallejo still being the weakest link – mainly thanks to having the weakest character. On the flipside, the periphery characters are getting worse. The one I have the biggest issue with is Frances’ gay best friend Jonathan. Damien Bodie’s line readings aren’t great but worse is the character plays into every single stereotype you would expect. Why does the show’s primary gay character have to play into every single stereotype we would expect? I’m sure every gay man on the planet isn’t like this. It’s like every straight young male character on the show has an aversion to shirts, drinks beer and looks like he stepped out of a GQ cata-…oh.

You may have guessed by now that I’m losing interest in Winners and Losers, so if you’re out there, I would love to hear from people that are enjoying it. What am I missing? Is there more to this show than Rafters meets Sex and the City (meets last season Roseanne). Help?

I actually wanted Michala Banas back.

LAID - EPISODE TWO

If you've seen episode two of Laid, check out a few specific thoughts I have after the jump. Spoilers ahead!

It’s a nice little show, Laid. I’m didn’t laugh as much as last week, but I was still thoroughly entertained the whole way through and curious to see what will happen from this point on.

The plotting in the first two episodes has been fantastic – killing off five of Roo’s ex-boyfriends in various ways while also moving pieces into place for her inevitable choice over whether to risk sleeping with Abe Forsythe’s character and also using the pattern to force her into revealing her dalliance with EJ’s boyfriend.

Speaking of that dalliance, I saw it coming a mile off as soon as the pair ended up on the car hood drinking but it was still a nicely played scene between the both of them. I really love how none of the actors involved have any ego whatsoever – it’s all pasty skin and flabby bodies as far as the eye can see – and that feels real. That adds to the bizarre nature of Roo’s predicament when her surroundings are all so normal.

Graeme Blundell played Roo’s Dad in the opening scenes and while I liked his presence it did feel a little shoehorned in – he didn’t appear in the rest of the episode and his scenes didn’t have any real relevance to the rest of the episode. Shaun Micallef fared better in the now relatively derivative ‘inappropriate gynaecologist’ role – never overplaying a role it would have been so easy to overplay. Plus, he’s Shaun Micallef.

Andrew, Roo’s terminally ill ex was played by Septimus Caton who as well as his famous family connections is the voice of ‘My Kitchen Rules’. Which will now add an unintentional level of gravitas to My Kitchen Rules for me. Certainly puts all those undercooked mushroom dramas in perspective. (Not so crazy

As far as the central mystery goes I really have no clue where the story is taking us. I've always been terrible at guessing these kind of things but so far I'm assuming it is a curse of some sort - some kind of ex-boyfriend serial killer seems too implausible given the terminal illness. Everything else could be explained away (though with much, much effort) but terminal illness is a bridge too far for human interference. (Unless any 'killer' discovered Andrew was terminally ill and took that as a stroke of luck. That would be stretching it beyond breaking point, though.) 

So if it is something supernatural - a curse, a spell, something larger - would that spoil the show and provide an easy way out? Possibly, especially if it was badly executed. It's a very, very high bar the writers have set themselves and I'm still skeptical they're going to clear it.

But I'm still enjoying the ride, still laughing, still love Alison Bell and still curious to see where everything goes. Very good show.