A Place to Call Home

I started to watch this amazing television programme with a friend, through her recommendation, while I was in Australia on holiday (I am from the UK). Unfortunately, the series was half way through the story. But the more I watched it, the more I liked it. The cast were terrific and while the series, unlike so much of the local television, looked like an A-grade period drama. Nostalgia is a potent sentiment, one that transcends even the most stubborn cringers. As the season come to an end, I found myself happily reporting that, despite my assumptions, A Place to Call Home actually explores with real sophistication the stuff that resonates powerfully in our national consciousness – a longing for the past, and a longing for home – and that makes for great television. Luckily I have been able to get the DVD not long after it was released. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see the second series next year. But, hopefully I will be able to purchase the DVD once it gets released.

At first I was a bit of a snob. I thought it was a little too soap-operay. but soon enough I was hooked.

The characters, the settings, the clothes, the cars, all were so wonderful! The dramatic story lines sometimes were lame (but I didn't care) because sometimes they were riveting. The acting suited the plot at the time, sometimes a bit hard to accept the drama, but still.....if you liked Downton Abbey, you'll like this smaller, country version of a family saga

This is a great series to dive into and look forward to watching. I found it such a wonderful, pleasant relief from the violence in current day American series. There's violence but it's not graphic. Liked this a lot....it's so enjoyable.

What a great saga and what superb acting! Thank you so much for giving us 6 seasons of this wonderful series. The story remained strong throughout the 6 seasons.Thank you for giving us such quality entertainment and thank you for knowing when to stop!

We found this Aussie series, about a wealthy "grazier" (sheep rancher) and his crisis-prone family back in the 50s, to be just about impossible to resist. It's hard to say too much without spoilers since practically everyone starts out with a secret sorrow, a clandestine romance, a wartime trauma they don't care to talk about, a stigmatized sex pref, an unacknowledged illegitimate child or somebody's else's child they're raising as their own, which can only be revealed in the fullness of time.... Suffice it to say that the first two seasons focus mainly on the efforts of the Bligh family matriarch to prevent any of her brood from marrying beneath them or forming some other unsuitable attachment, despite the abundance of tempting distractions (a hunky Italian farmboy, a gorgeous blond nurse with a murky past) and the deficiencies of the eligible candidates (snobbish, vindictive playboy, deceased wife's treacherous sister).

We're total suckers for the shameless cliffhangers and out-of-left-field plot twists. The first-rate cast plays it straight for the most part; there are a few stock Aussie characters--including a salt-of-the-earth farmer who declaims "bush ballads" about bandicoots and billabongs--but nothing too clichéd or kitschy. (The source novel reflects some odd midcentury attitudes about bi- and homosexuality that might deserve a trigger warning.)

Oldsters and TCM fans may be reminded of Douglas Sirk and vintage primetime soaps like "Peyton Place"; we get a brief glimpse of one of the younger Blighs reading "Giant" at one point, which seems exactly right, and the actress who plays the nurse with a murky past is a dead ringer for Dorothy Malone in "Written on the Wind."

The show survived a cancellation scare at the end of season 2--which seems to have spooked the writers' room, since they turned out a couple of dud episodes right after that--but since then it's all been good....

PS--I was wondering if these fictitious Blighs were meant to be related to the real-life Captain Bligh, of "Mutiny on the Bounty" fame, who was briefly governor of NSW; that would make them one of the first non-convict settler families in Australia and would explain why Mrs Bligh, initially at least, is so terribly snobbish.

A soap, but a soap of the very highest quality. Noni Hazlehurst's performance alone is reason enough to watch.