Laid
When her boyfriends and one-night-stands all begin to drop dead, 'Roo McVeigh' becomes worried, in this girl's own misadventure on ABC1.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Programming, Reviews
There’s a bit of a trend going on lately, as local girls make good. Claudia Karvan in Spirited. Asher Keddie in Offspring. Robyn Butler in The Librarians. And the underdogs in Winners and Losers are coming soon.
This week ABC premieres a new comic drama / dramedy / comedy (it depends what school you went to), Laid, written by Marieke Hardy (First Tuesday Book Club, Packed to the Rafters, Last Man Standing).
This is a girl’s own misadventure, and like the vehicles for Karvan and Keddie, it features an imperfect, contemporary female as its lead. In the case of Laid‘s Roo McVeigh (Alison Bell) she is the most hapless of the lot.
Roo (pictured, left) works for a Market Research Group running test focus groups for such enthralling products as Soy Milk. Her group sessions are about as gregarious as her uneventful life gets. Even her colleague reckons her romantic life is a pointless exercise. Her hairdo isn’t even trying.
Roo shares an inner city flat with her best friend EJ (Celia Pacquola) who is breaking up from her needy boyfriend (Toby Truslove). But Roo learns that a former fling has died on holiday. Death by kava. While it doesn’t devastate her, it does make her take stock of things.
While checking his kinky Facebook page -in the office no less- Roo stumbles across a cute IT guy, Charlie (Abe Forsythe). Both are awkward in their mutual attraction.
But life takes an unexpected turn when she learns another former conquest has also expired. There’s a bit of a trend happening. Can a woman be a modern day jinx?
This is a character comedy with understated performances under director Trent O’Donnell (Review with Myles Barlow). It has self-irony, pop culture references and a fair whack of under-achievement.
It also doesn’t shy away from being upfront about adult themes.
But warning: don’t expect laugh out loud gags, at times it revels in black comedy. On this front I suspect it could be a show that tickles some funny bones while others are left awaiting sitcom-style punchlines that never come.
What gives this spirit is the performance of Bell as a lovable loser, nerdy and apologetic. So often in television this is a male’s domain.
In subsequent episodes there are supporting roles from Shaun Micallef, Graeme Blundell and Tracy Mann.
‘Quirky’ is a genre that Australian stories seems to revel in. Laid is just about as quirky as they come.
Laid airs 9:30pm Wednesdays on ABC1.
21 Responses
Laid started out alright but hampered by the show’s premise. eventually black turned into ridiculous and show nosedived.
if you want something a bit different from typical australian tv try out a another indy australian show. rough but pretty cool.
vimeo.com/21600686
This was a great show.
Clever, realistic writing.
Check it out.
This show is wooden , is it the writing or the acting or both , don’t know, it just don’t work. Was hoping for something really good. Why not put the movie show on earlier , please ?
Yawn. Another comedy from the “who needs laughs, let’s call it quirky” school. Just 30 minutes of blandness hoping for a tag.
Well I absolutely loved this, hooted all the way through and watched it again twice, with friends. We all thought it was fantastic.
Thanks Marieke, at least you’re pleasing someone…
thought it was ok but like a somewhat poor copy of Offspring…
Have read some reviews and it looks like a real hoot – love the premise and am looking forward to a bit of a change from the blonde bimbo stereotypes. Refreshing!
How can people critise a program they have never seen.Typical right wing liberal deadheads.
This looks dire. The concept seems pulled together on the smell of an oily rag, and desperately unfunny, unwitty and downright dreadful. Will give it a miss.
This show should get the Aunt Grundies on the ABC message boards PO’d- “unfunny”, “waste of tax payer’s money”, “who approved this”.
@ Dan GEM is not the main channel and does not run first run Australian drama or comedy. I’m talking about 50% of the mainstream audience they are trying to attrat, which is totally ignored by Michael Healy. And I am sick of it.
This looks like a good show. I will be watching….
Do you think Wil Farell gets a check for them lifting a line from Anchorman?
@Ronnie – Doesn’t Nine have a whole channel dedicated to women with GEM?
Why does the set in that picture remind me of Neighbours?
@ Gary what to you have against Alison Bell? She was good in IRock, good to see someone new i think.
Sounds good, can’t wait!
hope it’s good, just set it to record so i dont miss it!
Why cast Alison Bell as the lead in this series? There’s so many other talented and hilarious actresses in that age group with more profile and experience!
Sounds delicious. Thanks to David – without this, I would totally miss out!
Someone better tell the Nine Network programming department – half the potential audience are women and they are being totally ignored by Nine. The success of shows like these are should put that network on notice.