By Gabrielle Jackson
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| House Husbands |
I was so looking forward to House Husbands. I thought it might be the sounding of the death
knell for the Aussie male that is expected to call women cows and slags and
demand chiko rolls after dud roots.
I mean, times have changed. Nobody eats chiko rolls anymore.
And if Puberty Blues,a drama about two school girls who try to make it into the cool gang by sitting a little bit further up the back of the bus, can be as good as it is, I had
high hopes for a drama about blokes looking after the tin lids.
But my hopes were destroyed pretty quickly. The opening
episode of House Husbands was depressingly
bad. It had a clumsy plot, implausible scenarios, and laborious character
development. If the writers think four blokes dropping their kids off at school
is about as believable as five-year-olds hijacking a bus then I’m afraid this
drama is just as sad as our prime minister being compared to a barren old cow. No
matter what you think of Julia Gillard, one should at least muster up some wit
if one wants to make a political joke. But wit is largely lacking in this drama
too. Unless you think the idea of having a gay dad is so hilarious that you
also think it’s funny he pretends to bake pies which he actually buys from an
anonymous woman.
Oh my, can’t you just hear the ripples of laughter
reverberating through the red brick houses of suburban Australia. That’s not to
say it wasn’t funny. I mean, had I read the script and not seen it, I would
have thought it was supposed to be a comedy farce.
Incompetent older dad
makes joke to competent kid about driving herself to school.
Kid encourages other
five-year-olds being dropped off by dads to steal the school bus. One sits on
the accelerator while another steers.
Disgraced football
hero chases down bus in super hero fashion and saves the day. But only after
the school principal breaks her arm.
Gay dad is supposed to
drop principal- who was treated in hospital by one of thieving kid’s mums -
home but loses her while picking up secret pies.
They’re all related or
work together or something equally as silly and over complicated.
If it had been played like a farce it might have had some
hope of being funny.
I suppose I could have looked at the casts in each drama to
decide which one I’d like the best. In Puberty
Blues we have Claudia Karvan, Dan Wyllie and Susie Porter, whose stable
includes some of the greatest Australian films and television dramas ever made,
including Love My Way (all of them), Chopper (Wyllie), The Heartbreak Kid (Karvan) and Little Fish (Porter).
In House Husbands
we have Gary Sweet whose brought us such winners as Rescue Special Ops. I know that’s not fair. I didn’t want it to be
a competition – I wanted to like both new Australian television shows. And there
are some great actors in House Husbands. I
mean Rhys Muldoon has been in a lot of fine shows on the ABC. And let’s face
it, there’s not that much work for Aussie actors so they may have to take
anything they can get. Even scripts with holes as big as the ozone layer. I mean, if the writers wanted, I could introduce them to some of my male
friends who actually do look after their kids without doing an
excruciating impersonation of Mr Bean. Then again, maybe
it’s really for kids and I’ve just got the wrong end of the remote.
I could write more, but then I’d just continue to bore you.
I’ve already bored myself so much that I’ve fallen asleep and dribbled out a
half digested mint slice on my keyboard while writing this.
It’s an hour you won’t get back. Think about that before
watching the next episode.
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