“Poor Allie!” the heart of Tangle

Justine Clarke is the centre of Tangle‘s universe.

For three seasons now her character has endured the loss of her husband (Ben Mendolsohn), a wild child sister (Kat Stewart), two complicated teens (Lincoln Younes, Eva Lazzaro), a fling with a friend (Matt Day) and a brother-in-law who is secretly in love with her (Kick Gurry).

Somewhere in the middle of it all is a mother, widow and possible lover, trying to adjust to independence and yearning for normality.

Whenever Clarke hears feedback from the audience, it’s frequently the same thing.

“They often say ‘Poor Allie! Poor Allie!’” she says. “But I say that too because she tries so hard to live in a normal, ordered world yet she has all this chaos. Either she’s attracted to it, or it’s attracted to her, but she’s again stuck in a household of teenagers who are still dealing with the loss of their father and moving house.

“She’s also still living with Nat (Kat Stewart) and as much as they love each other and get along there’s still a financial need that brings them together.

“But they are so poles apart in their morals and lifestyles that sometimes you can’t understand how she would have chosen to live this way. But I think it’s great because we all have somebody like that in our family that you cannot relate to at all. Sometimes it’s your closest sibling.”

The Showtime drama has praise from the critics as well as its audience. The Kovacs are often diametrically opposed to the relative harmony of the Rafters clan.

“Joe (Kick Gurry) is there too, Vince’s (Ben Mendelsohn) brother. She tries really hard to have things work in a mundane, proper way, but they just don’t.

“He’s there out of necessity because he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. But he’s filling a gap, and I think Allie’s pretty happy to be there and help out with the kids.

“She can see there is a possibility there.”

Then there is Gabriel, a successful surgeon who has rarely acted on his attraction to Allie.

“He has a history of not being able to commit and they’ve never been really easy with one another. They’ve never worked out a way to be at ease.”

Now in its third season, Tangle sees the Kovacs living in their third suburban house -and she doesn’t even work in real estate. How realistic are such changes?

“This series she has realised she was living far beyond her means. She now has to work out a way of supporting her family. That’s the big thing this series, working out what she’s going to do with her life,” Clarke explains.

“For any woman who finds herself as a single mother and has never worked before, re-entering the workforce is scary.

“The way the writing seems to evolve across each series is that things just seem to ramp up even more. There’s more tension and discord. The end of the Series 2 felt like people were coasting for a little minute, but you never feel like you’re ever going to start an episode where everything is ok. It’s only going to build on the hideous things that have happened in each episode!

“But the tensions never go away. The tensions between Nat and Allie are always this far from breaking through. For Christine (Catherine McClements) and Nat it’s never been anything else.”

Tangle is produced by the prolific John Edwards and Imogen Banks, both of whom have made Offspring together. It is written by Fiona Seres and Tony McNamara.

In three seasons the drama has become an example of how subscription television can produce challenging dramas that reflect the changing face of Australian families.

“The standard of writing gets better with each series. The more Fiona and Tony get to know the characters the more they’ve been able to play with them, especially the kids. That’s what really shines through in this series. All the kids –and the actors– have all matured. So there’s a whole new world of danger and drama that’s open to us.”

Tangle airs 8:30pm Sundays on Showcase.