Frayed

Frayed has become one of my favourite weekly Australian comical-style series. There is something about this well written drama yet satire of early Eighties life in Australia that gets you hook. The family, their friends, the era, the political and social climate, the fashion and icons of the era. You can start watching from any episode. All you need to know about the "riches to rags" story is that Sammy Cooper brings her two children to live with her mother and brother in the beachside mansion of the northern Sydney suburb of Newscastle, while waiting for the settlement of a will when her husband suddenly dies from a heart attack during fitness training. Except that Newcastle isn't a suburb, the mansion is just a small old beach home, the suspicious brother suspects Sammy being up to no good, and she is forced to become a secretary for local bribe-influenced member of parliament. Did I mention that meanwhile back in UK, she getting her estate screwed over, getting taken advantage of because her husband died after a brick mobile was shoved up the backside by a prostitute.

London to Newcastle in the 80's! They nailed it well .. seriously there were a lot more 'over the top' characters around back then anyway, including 'larrikin' females. The show is irreverent, brash and hilarious with some depth and empathy in there too. Kudos to the cast, writer and director for a very funny and entertaining season, hope there's more to come.

I am a person who cringes at Kath and Kim and I really didn't really like The Castle. But I think Frayed is great. It is crass but it has laugh out loud moments. And I have just found out that the script writer is the main actor just before watching episode three. Which is a great achievement. And I really care about Kerry Armstrong's character. I think it is excellent Australian television.

I did not expect much when I started watching this, thinking it was another run of the mill comedy. But, the more I watched the more I fell in love with this absolute gem. It became one of my favourite TV shows. It has just the right blend of comedy and drama, moves at a good pace, just enough story lines and characters that it is not too much too follow. I really hope this pearl gets a second season, because it has so much more to offer. Brilliantly written by Sarah Kendall, who does a great job of portraying every facet of her character. To be honest, the story line descriptions do not do this series justice. It is so much more than "a wealthy woman loses her fortunes and moves back to Australia". We are addicted to it and are binge watching it but with only 6 episodes, one runs out of episodes very quickly. Looking forward to the next installment.

Gutted there were only 6 episodes of this, to be fair to some of the people who have given it low ratings based on the 1st show, it does get better the deeper you get into it, once the characters have landed in Australia you see different sides to them and I liked that the storylines focus on not just the 3 original members of the family but also the extended family and friends based in Australia. Everyone has their own story to tell and is experiencing some kind of traumatic life event in some way. The humour isn't laugh out loud jokes and simplistic misunderstandings or wordplay but based around a sense of awkwardness and a sense of real life situations and interactions between the characters, which makes them even more engaging. The ending leaves a mass of loose ends so I really hope a second season is commissioned soon!