Something rich and strange...
Written by Andrew Knight
Directed by Michael Carson
GUEST CAST
Paul English as Jack Gibson
Fiona Corke as Trudi
Bruce Myles as Tony
This is where it all starts. Sigrid Thornton plays a successful, hard-edged corporate lawyer in a prominent Melbourne firm. The cracks in her life are visible though - distracted face, unhappy children, elusive husband. Nonetheless, she is about to be offered a partnership in the firm when her life falls apart.
She treads on the family cat, gets her car clamped, the partnership offer is made to a "friendlier" female colleague, Rupert is expelled from school, her husband Jack is charged with corporate fraud (also losing the family savings) and she discovers that he's having an affair with Trudi, Laura's sister.
Miranda describes her mother as being the worst mother in the world. As her world collapses around her, she remembers the joking offer of an old friend that she take up a position as a country magistrate.
Sudddenly, in Laura's distraught, panicked state, Pearl Bay, a tiny backwater town where she enjoyed a perfect family holiday many years earlier, becomes an oasis in a hellish day. Sigrid Thornton plays the unbalanced, slightly wacky Laura Gibson very well. I found her portrayal of a hard-edged corporate lawyer a little less convincing. It was a little forced, a little too formulaic for my tastes but it was still a very entertaining one. Perhaps I'm a snob - her law firm looked to be a smaller boutique firm rather than a high powered corporate law firm. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the persona they were projecting for Laura made it seem as if the firm should be a little more blue ribbon.
Laura hastily buys a home by way of a telephone auction, sells her home and goes barrelling off to Pearl Bay with her two bewildered children in tow.
Laura discovers that memory has been somewhat misleading and deceptive, helped in large part by the slick, oily Bob Jelly. She discovers that the town is cut off from civilisation by the bridge which was destroyed in a storm. Nonetheless, she encounters a host of friendly characters - not the least of which is the cheery if somewhat mysterious Diver Dan. The great thing about Diver, is that when you first see him, he looks like such a scruffy character in his silly hat and floppy clothes - it's almost impossible to imagine him as the romantic lead.
My favourite scene in this episode is when Laura starts ripping the boards off the window, assisted by Miranda and Rupert with the instrumental Seachange theme playing in the background. It's the perfect little melody - sweet, wistful and very melodic. A very auspicious start to a great series.
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