By DANIELLE GALVIN
The Time of Our Lives
Premiered Sunday 16 June on ABC1 8.30pm
FROM the creators of acclaimed Australian drama series ’The Secret Life of Us’ comes the latest instalment in the lives of a suburban family.
There’s divorce, failed marriages, stage mums and jilted brides in what has to be one of the finer options available on televisions across the country.
ABC1’s newest premiered on Sunday up against Channel 9’s House Husbands – and oddly enough the two have similarities.
What’s good about The Time of Our Lives is that it has a darker, more sinister undertone than what you would find on the commercial networks.
There’s certainly drama with the blended families, inappropriate love trysts and affairs to keep you interested but there’s also a sense that each of the characters, although likeable, are flawed and selfish. It’s that unusual take that could take fans back to the Secret Life of Us, Love My Way days – something this reviewer is only too happy to do.
There are enough familiar faces to draw the audience in including Claudia Karvan (who delivers a stellar performance as always), Stephen Curry, Justine Clarke, Shane Jacobson and William McInnes.
But there’s such a sense of unity in the cast that it is quite easy to become hooked on the lives of this ’average’ family – and of course the first episode shows the lives of the characters slowly imploding, enough to make you wonder what may happen next.
Claudia Karvan’s character Caroline is mum to Carmody – her young son who she believes is gifted. She finds out much to her dismay that this is not the case and slowly starts to suspect her husband of cheating.
But she’s not the only character to watch. There’s also Chai Li – played by Michelle Vergara Moore – whose fiancé runs off on the day of her wedding.
On paper it sounds like the American soapie of a similar name (Days of our Lives) but it has much more depth than that.
– DANIELLE GALVIN
