Upper Middle Bogan: Oct 16

ABC’s dysfunctional family (not to be confused with The Moodys) is back on Thursday night in a new season of Upper Middle Bogan.

Things kick off during a summer heat wave with a bickering Danny (Patrick Brammall) and Bess (Annie Maynard) and a resourceful Wheeler clan featuring Glenn Robbins, Robyn Malcolm and Michala Banas.

For my money Robyn Nevin is pretty priceless in this series, created by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope. And watch out for Harrison Feldman.

Bess continues to struggle with the adoption discovery, developing some erratic and misplaced trust and abandonment issues; thinking Danny is either lying to her or going to leave her. Danny isn’t – he is just concentrating on his new passive cooling system to avoid using the planet-destroying air conditioner.

He’s determined to be a cutting-edge architect even if it means he has to endure swollen fingers, continually adjusting blinds and listening to the rest of the family complain about being hot – the passive cooling system is not working. So after a week of heat hell, Danny caves in and gives the house a good blast of cool air. When Bess finds out Danny lied about using the air conditioner, she kicks him out.

Meanwhile at the other end of the freeway, where the air conditioner is on full bore, the Wheelers have no trouble keeping cool. Troy is desperate to get back with Amber, but he’ll need to convince her first that her trust and abandonment issues with him aren’t well founded.

8:30pm Thursday ABC.