Review – Spirited

Spirited – W – 7:30pm Wednesday – AUS

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve had to suffer through some shoddy attempts at Australian drama. Offspring reminded us that Aussie drama can be irritating and all over the place, while Cops L.A.C reminded us that Aussie drama can be uninspired, unoriginal and un-fun. Thankfully Spirited has come along to remind us that Aussie drama can sometimes be funny, unique and even good.

Spirited is one of a handful of new Aussie dramas debuting on FOXTEL this year and like most of their projects this one has attracted some big names to their modestly budgeted proceedings. Claudia Karvan plays repressed dentist Suzy Darling, who breaks it off with her douchebag of a husband Steve (played by Rodger Corser from Underbelly and Rush). Suzy takes the kids and moves into an apartment building next door to her dental surgery. One day out of the blue Henry Mallet (played by the hilarious Matt King, best known as Super Hans from Peep Show) pops up in her apartment, as much to his surprise as hers.

You see, Henry may just very well be a ghost, and the when he hears the suggestion he has the same reaction as us: “that’s fucking ridiculous.” If Henry is a ghost then what’s he doing in Suzy’s apartment and what is the connection between Suzy’s necklace and Henry’s reappearance on this earth? Also, why can’t Henry ever leave the apartment building and also, while we’re busy asking questions, do dentists really tell their kids to brush every tooth for ten seconds, because that seems kind of a laborious process?

What’s interesting about Spirited is that it takes a premise that feels like it would lend itself to a fluffy I Dream Of Jeanie wacky, off-kilter, broad comedy but doesn’t take that path at all. Instead the show really holds back on the wacky misunderstandings and treats everything far more low key than you would expect. Where shows like Offspring and Packed To The Rafters try to balance their soap opera drama with really broad strokes of predictable comedy, Spirited wring laughs out of marrying the seriousness of divorce with the absurdity of a ghost appearing in your new apartment without ever overplaying their hand.

A truckload of credit has to go to Karvan and King in the leads. Karvan is an actress whom I find obnoxious in interviews but who really has a gift for disappearing inside of her characters. You genuinely buy her as a tight-lipped poorly treated housewife and dentist who really starts to get a taste for freedom when she meets Henry. King on the other hand is laugh-out-loud hilarious but doesn’t play for the laughs; he manages to find the humanity in his character and earn the laughs from there. He may be a ghost, but there’s a hint of sadness and regret behind his wry one-liners. The only actor who doesn’t seem to fully get how to handle himself is Corser who plays Steve as too much of a dumb-ass arrogant prick to really make him believable; we get that Suzy had to want to leave this guy but he leans too hard on the ‘douchebag’ button.

Spirited isn’t perfect. The low budget is fairly apparent as the cast don’t seem to travel to too many locations other than Suzy’s apartment, her drab dentist’s office or her old house, but those closed quarters are made up for by the character-heavy script and clever dialogue. It’s also hard to know where the show is taking us, not that that’s a bad thing by any means, but it’s unclear how Spirited can keep the ‘ghost haunts divorced mum’ storyline fresh and interesting as the season runs through. What is obvious though is that Spirited is made by people who want to make original, funny and different television, and for the most part they succeed.

Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Alright