Offspring

It feels like a long time since we’ve seen the Proudman family.

But it’s pretty wonderful to have them back on the screen. As a TV family they are imperfect and very familiar, like parts of ourselves or people that we know.

When last we left Nina (Asher Keddie) she and Patrick (Matthew Le Nevez) had sorted their on again / off again relationship, celebrating the news that Nina was pregnant. It was a moment of relief for us all, having been teased by these two lovebirds who could never quite get it together.

Billie (Kat Stewart) had almost grown apart from Mick (Eddie Perfect) because of his close relationship with musician Rosanna (Claire Bowditch). There was the senior triangle with Philip (Garry McDonald), Geraldine (Linda Cropper) and Darcy (John Waters). Jimmy (Richard Davies) and Zara (Jane Harber) became new parents and Dr. Martin Clegg (Lachy Hulme) had, bizarrely, hitched up with Cherie (Deborah Mailman).

If that isn’t enough tangled family lines to set up an entire series I don’t know what is.

This is the beauty of Offspring. We are heavily invested in the messy North Fitzroy world that writer Debra Oswald has created, laughing at their awkward social skills, getting gooey at the romance and watching between our fingers as they implode time and again. Those trademark fantasy scenes and Eddie Perfect’s songs are the icing on the cake.

Nina and Patrick are now going to couples counselling to try and sort their lives before the arrival of the baby. Their counsellor Lawrence (Ido Drent) looks all of about 22 (are they setting him up as someone’s romantic interest perhaps?). Nina tries to improve her life with a gazillion post-it notes-to-self everywhere she turns.

Billie and Mick, having been parted by the latter’s latest musical tour, plan a huge sex-a-thon upon his return. In a show like this, can it possibly go to plan?

And Darcy feels on the outer as Philip and Geraldine spend more and more time together.

The first episode also introduces a new doctor on the scene, Eloise Ward (Caren Pistorius), who works side by side with Nina. But there’s more there than meets the eye…

There’s a family homecoming for Zara and Jimmy’s baby with hilarious, and dramatic, results. In case you had forgotten, Offspring has the ability to turn a smile upside down in an instant, with a versatile, dexterous cast to back it up. Kat Stewart gets the opening episode’s best scene.

As with most season premieres this first episode sets up the new directions that will unfold in subsequent weeks. Things are only just warming up. Buoyed by a vote of confidence from the network (a fifth season was approved last year), a Gold Logie for Asher Keddie, and an audience never afraid to run with its whims, Offspring has become one of TEN’s most beloved properties.

Glad to have it back.

Offspring returns 8:30pm Wednesday May 22 on TEN.