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I was told several months ago to watch the
first series from a
friend who spoke ridiculously high of it. I've heard that kind of
praise before and never really got motivated to check it out. There
were occasional repeats on Foxtel, but I always get confused with the
various times and didn't want to watch it from half way through. Anyhew
- I finally found a spare weekend to borrow the first series on DVD and
I haven't been able to stop talking about it ever since.
For the
uninitiated (and there are many of you as Love My Way was an exclusive
Foxtel production on one of the cable networks lowest rating Channels
'W') the show follows the of life Frankie (the amazingly attractive
Claudia Karvan) a 31-year-old, tempestuous ball of mad life; a gifted
painter and a tormented mother who is forced to deal with the sudden
death of her eight year old daughter. The second series picks up off
several months after the end of the first series in which we find
Frankie returning from a sabbatical overseas - while her former
house mate and boyfriend is now living with a new girlfriend (Tom, a
fallen star chef, who ha taken on his fathers Taxi business). Just down
the road lives Charlie the emotionally stunted father to Frank's
deceased child - and separated husband of Julia, a woman with firm
dreams about her life that are about to come true and scare her.
Love
My Way is an exploration of big characters dealing with
the deepest
human emotions. Love, hate, truth, lies, jealousy and anger. It deals
with the randomness of life and the ruts that we all have to deal
with.
While
the first series was surprisingly raw, real and original with some of
the most
emotional moments and performances I've seen from a group of Australian
actors (that's right, Young
Einstein has nothing on this), the second series hones in
on the characters inner turmoil.
Most
series would suffer trying to follow up something like the first
series. It was just so left of centre, so dramatic - it would seem
almost impossible to follow it up without having the show take a Soap
style turn (in which there's an explosion or aliens invade - just about
anything to up the anti). But thankfully the producers continue with
their beautifully written look at life. Just as we lived with those
characters struggles to deal with grief in the first series, the second
series looks at the even more traumatic journey of fighting your way
back from the depths of despair.
The series scooped the pool of
Australian awards (including 5 AFI Awards,
a silver Logie for Most Outstanding Drama Series and a coveted
AWGIE award for Best Script in a Television
Series) and boasts a stellar Australian cast including Brendan
Cowell, Dan Wylie, Max Cullen and Asher Keddie.
And
the cast really are amazing. Daniel Wylie's portrayal of Charlie is
superb, it's such an amazing performance from the first episode. Never
have I seen an actor have to project so much rage so convincingly.
Series 2 seems to give greater focus to Julie (Asher Keddie) who get
her chance to play more than just 'the bitch' as she did in the
previous series - and she is absolutely amazing. In fact, there isn't
one performance that could be considered flawed. Every actor is given
an equal chance to show their wares (new comers to Series 2, Ben
Mendelson and former Play
School host John Hamblin are utterly brilliant and
believable as a flawed father and son).
The key to Love My Ways
success is that it just all feels so real. So many drama's tend to fall
into the trap of having to up-the-anti so much that the plots become
ridiculous, or that the show simply just becomes a parody of itself (a
perfect example of this was Secret
Life Of Us) but Love
My Way happily never strays into such teritiories.
Over the two series (and it is recommended that you watch it through
from the start) you become part of these characters world, they are
accessible and most importantly - they are human.
Believe the hype - this is a gem.
DVD
Extras
Sadly
there isn't a special feature in sight on either of the two series box
sets. Perhaps a cast commentary here or there wouldn't have hurt, but
perhaps that helps keep the Love My Way world
real - that we only know of these characters as real humans, and not
simply actors playing a part.
Conclusion:
Movie 100% Extras: N/A
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