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Austin: June 30

Is bringing Austin to London the perfect treat for Austin -or for Julian’s film?

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In Sunday’s episode of Austin film maker Yolanda (Charlotte Nicdao) arrives to make a father-son doco -but Ingrid Sally Phillips) is less than impressed with exploiting Julian’s son, Austin (Michael Theo).

Having made up with Ingrid and promising her that he will put an end to the documentary, Julian is caught off guard when the documentary film maker, Yolanda Cox, arrives at the hotel to commence the film. After some back and forth between the subject (Julian) and the film maker (Yolanda) Julian agrees to continue with the documentary, in part to rejuvenate his reputation but mainly because he’s obligated to pay her full fee, regardless if the documentary goes ahead or not!

After discovering she has missed the first “magic” meeting between Father and Son, Yolanda cajoles a frustrated and decidedly annoyed Ingrid into participating in the film and to share her point-of-view on the story. Meanwhile Austin, enjoying the new connection with his father, is keen to travel to the UK, but Mel is having none of it unless she accompanies him – according to her she’s a great “plus one”. Will the documentary actually offer Austin an opportunity of realising his long-held dream of traveling to London or will he be left behind?

8pm Sunday on ABC.

4 Responses

  1. I’m pretty sure we found out if Austin would go to London during the pre-launch promotional phase, so no mystery there.

    And with the ratings slump + this press release, it’s obvious that the ABC/Northern Pictures are now in the same “damage control” mode for Austin they were with Better Date Than Never a few months back.

    Perhaps being able to secure Screen Australia/Create NSW funding and other issues are at play here. But surely by now, enough time has passed to make a third season (of the original, Australian) Love On The Spectrum a viable idea? Having said that, LOTS:AU only really worked because it mostly left the viewer wanting more at the end whereas BDTN and now it seems Austin have been/are drawn-out affairs.

    1. I really have no idea where you are coming from suggesting “damage control” via a drama synopsis (which is issued by ABC and crafted before anything aired). I have no idea what “issues” this refers to. Northern Pics has done very well with LOTS both here and abroad.

      1. Austin has lost 113k viewers in its first three weeks of the overnight ratings or its current equivalent, so I just assumed this week’s issuing of a press release (something I don’t recall seeing ahead of episodes 2 and 3) may have been an attempt to boost viewership.

        Of course, I didn’t mean to suggest that Love On The Spectrum hasn’t done well for Northern Pictures here or overseas, although it seems odd we haven’t seen new seasons/episodes of the Australian original after 3+ years while more of the US version seems to be coming soon. This makes me wonder if funding, casting and the like are preventing more LOTS:AU from being made.

        In any case, I certainly think Northern Pictures would be disappointed with the performances of Better Date Than Never and (so far, at least) Austin. Perhaps Austin will perform better in the UK where people might be less familiar with Michael Theo’s story, but one still can’t help but wonder if a UK version of LOTS would do better there.

        1. I don’t post every single synopsis, but thought it would be good to share the love for Austin. I do think where a season is fully available on iview it is going to be highest at the top. There’s also an issue where if you binge watch at the top of the season only episode 1 is reflected in BVOD numbers, which I have filed on previously. I don’t see why they would be disappointed in Austin numbers, last Sunday 481k. As for LOTS, not an easy show to cast and MT set the bar high.

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