Packed to the Rafters

This is one of the best series I have ever seen. Love the characters, acting is impeccable, and each episode is wonderful.

'Packed to the Rafters' is a relatively light, well written family drama that won a slew of awards during its time on air, and rated highly in Australia across its six season run.

The show begins the day before the 25th wedding anniversary of its two main characters, Dave and Julie Rafter, who married and had children very young and have been living in their small suburban home throughout their married life. Their last remaining child at home has decided he is going to move out and Dave and Julie are looking forward to being empty nesters. However a series of events lead to different family members one by one returning to the Rafter home. With all bedrooms full and only one bathroom, the house becomes packed to the rafters!

One of Australia's finest drama series, each episode of Packed to the Rafters is carefully crafted, narrated by a different character and often has an extended metaphor or motif throughout. Packed to the Rafters deals with difficult and very real issues facing members of society, all while balancing comedy and being heartwarming at the same time. The natural chemistry between the cast enhances the believability that in difficult times, this family comes together and is there for each other no matter what.

While all seasons were a joy to watch, I particularly enjoyed Season 1 as the pasts of each character was revealed through their narration and flashbacks, so we get some back story as to why they are the way they are.

I only started to watch this because a friend told me it was a comedy, and I thought since I love British Comedy shows, an Aussie one might be ok. Well yes there is a lot of funny back and forth with everyone but this is more like a cross between a soap opera and something like Eight is Enough (if you can remember that show). After the first episode I was ready to call it, "Time of Death"? But I have this rule that if I start a new series show to watch, I always give it the first 3 full episodes before giving up. I figure that if it looked decent, I really needed to be sure if it sucked or not. Well I can tell you that I am on Season 3 now and always want to start the next episode right after the previous one. It started out being boring, and ended up catching and holding my interest. It is a great show and I promise if you give it a chance, and you like comedy and family drama, you're gonna love it.

Some people rate this show poorly but I think it's great. It revolves around a middle age couple who's mature kids all move back home through different circumstances and the relationship between all of them. It is pretty light but when there are so many dark serious shows and movies around it's nice to see a really nice show based on good old family values. The characters are all well played and after telling my girlfriend this looks like a load of rubbish for 2 weeks I watched an episode and am totally hooked. This is in it's second season and I hope it goes for a few more. Can't wait for the 2nd season to come out in NZ.

I stumbled upon Packed to the Rafters quite by accident while searching through Amazon Prime for something a bit lighter than the murder mysteries and police/detective dramas I was currently watching. I must say, this show fid not disappoint! It's amusing without being a "comedy" show and has a lot of real life drama without being maudlin.

I think the first seasons which focused more on the kids (Rachel, Ben and Nathan) were better than the later ones that were more about the peripheral characters but I continued to watch until the end and the writers tied-up most of the storylines while still leaving room for a follow-up later. (I haven't watched that one yet).

I do wonder if houses in Australia only come with one bathroom, which seems completely unbelievable in this day & age! Even Carbo's much larger house next door with loads of bedrooms seemed to only have a single bathroom! The writers relied too much on that for their "comic relief and plot reveals" so it was a bit annoying but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this series and will look for the cast members in other series made before & after this one.