By TANIA PHILLIPS
Time of our Lives
ABC1, Thursday, 8.30pm
BROAD brushstrokes with a hint of the minute details of life – this is the way of ABC drama Time Of Our Lives, which has returned to our screens on Thursday nights.
This is one of the more clever and intelligent programs on Australian television and with a cast that includes Tony Barry, William McInnes, Claudia Karvan, Justine Clarke, Shane Jacobson and Stephen Curry – it really couldn’t be anything else.
Following the Melbourne-based Tivolli clan it’s an exploration of keeping, losing and finding the one you love against a background of the domestic.
It sounds like it could be just another of the melodramas that plays out across out screens each week night with only the names changing and enough clever writing to keep us interested and entertained but not enough to provoke thought or really touch us. And yet it’s not.
Where some shows shy away, this confronts; where most are full-on, this is subtle and while most of the shows around are driven by the story this is much more a character-based study of the way a modern family works in its complexities.
It is about the messy everyday where everyone is flawed, real and trying to do the best they can. There is no hero or villain (although if I want to hate a character it’s William McInnes’ Matt Tivolli – oldest son, sports agent etc).
So far the Tivollis have had to deal with a father injured and getting older, break-ups and breast-cancer genes as well as realising that juggling family and a career is not easy and your kids, whatever the age, are not as perfect as you think – and that’s just the first episode.
This is a show that pulls no punches and there are a lot of characters to get your head around but somehow in its presentation – which is much more movie-like than your usual television drama – it all flows perfectly. In episode one Justine Clarke’s character ran through a lot of the episode like she was running from her diagnosis – leading us almost from one scene to the other like a river or a string tying the whole thing together.
This is a simple drama about complex family issues produced in a stylistic but not inaccessible way. In short this is intelligent television – it’s just a shame there are only eight episodes in this second series because intelligent television is a rare and precious thing, like fine wine at vinegar prices.
– Tania Phillips
