By Tania Phillips
Sando
ABCTV, Wednesday, 9pm
From the writer of Here Come The Habibs and the writer of The Moodys, comes Sando – the latest Wednesday night ABC comedy offering.
Sando – Victoria Sandringham (Sacha Horler) is the head of a furniture and electrical chain store empire, sharp-talking and always ready to make a deal with everyone.
She has built her mother’s electrical store into an empire but along the way she has alienated her entire family (getting pregnant to your daughter’s fiancee will do that) and now 10 years after that slip-up she’s about to be kicked out of her own company. With nowhere to live she turns back to her family – who really aren’t all that pleased to see her!
The six-part series sees Sando trying to ingratiate herself back into her family and save her job. This series is not so much, will she do it, but do we care?
The episodes start with a spoof of those bad furniture commercials we all love to hate. They are loud and brash like Sando herself and stuck in the ’80s (oh God, that wardrobe is vomit inducing).
The problem is that though Horler (who stepped in when original star Genevieve Morris had to pull out due to illness) is at the top of her game as Sando, the character is so much a caricature that it is hard to find anything remotely human about her to empathise with. Co-writer and creator Phil Lloyd is Sando’s ex-husband and jingle writer and again another character that seems too cartoonish to be real. Though some of the support cast, led by Rob Carlton as a company director, Uli Latukefu as Gary, Sando’s salt of the earth son-in-law and Zane Ciarma as Sando’s youngest son Vic Junior (as his step sister says – he may act like a hostage negotiator but I think I like him) give nice nuanced performances that add much-needed heart and realism to the chaos. Sure, it’s funny in patches but two episodes in and jokes don’t quite resonate or hit the mark.
