Loveday Writing

The Preview also makes clear that another year will pass in Doctor Doctor’s timeline when the fifth season eventually premieres, Penny will return, and several fellow-Australian actors are joining the cast: Lincoln Younes, Zoe Ventoura, Darren McMullen, John Waters, and Chantelle Jamieson, playing “pivotal” roles.

I’m looking forward to reviewing Doctor Doctor’s fifth and final season with the hope that the writing has improved from the previous season, which I felt unravelled four years’ of Hugh’s character development by essentially having him go back to his old ways with Tara, and that the writers give the characters and the show a proper send-off.

The Preview only dedicated three paragraphs to Harrow, with two of those focusing on recalling the season 2 finale where Harrow was called to a body of a young man, who was listed as Harrow’s son. The Preview’s focus on Harrow ends by stating that season 3 will see Harrow trying to solve the mystery of this man’s identity.

Five Bedrooms will be airing its second season this year. The first season ended with Ainsley discovering she was pregnant with Lachlan’s baby, and that his ex-wife was also pregnant with his baby, as well as the house being sold just as the gang changed their minds about selling it.

The Preview states that the second season will kick off with Ainsley being “a little way” into her pregnancy and the gang looking for a new house to live in, suggesting that if the season 2 premiere doesn’t pick up from where we were left off, not much time would have passed since the season 1 finale. The second season will also see the introduction of Liz’s ex-husband, and Heather and Ben trying to make their blossoming relationship work. The second season was actually supposed to air last year but was prevented from doing so due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only one paragraph was dedicated to How to Stay Married and the only reference to possible story arcs was the question of whether Greg will be left behind (as Em’s career launched in the previous season) or will he find a way to keep the love alive? Much like last year, I was surprised that it was renewed for another season, however the writing of the show did improve in its previous season, so let’s hope the improvements continue in the upcoming one.

In regards to new shows, Aftertaste, will air on the ABC. According to the Preview, Erik Thomson stars as a very famous, very angry, Gordon Ramsay-like chef, Easton, in the comedy series, whose international career implodes when he blows his top one too many times. The Preview also states that he has “nowhere else to go but to his alcoholic hoarder of a father in the Adelaide Hills and stay in his childhood bedroom.” Easton also runs into his niece, Diana, a talented pastry chef who he hopes can resurrect his career. Rachel Griffiths also stars in the series.

Another promising ABC show I’m thinking of reviewing is The Fires, a six-part, drama anthology that will tell the stories of people caught in the maelstrom of the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires. Each episode focuses on the people, from volunteer firefighters to families, who “had to decide at terrifyingly short notice whether to stay to defend their homes or flee.” TV Week has classified this as a drama, however it does sound like it’s based on true stories, most likely a conglomerate of true stories that will have an element of creative licence.

Another promising ABC show I’m thinking of reviewing is The Newsreader. Set in the ‘80s, the drama will focus on the bond between a notoriously difficult TV newsreader and a young, ambitious reporter as they team up and cover world-changing events of the time such as the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters. The cast includes Anna Torv, Sam Reid, Robert Taylor, William McInnes, Stephen Peacocke and Marg Downey.

A promising drama on the Nine Network is Amazing Grace, starring Kate Jenkinson as Grace, a midwife working at St Brigid’s Birthing Centre, which is attached to a Sydney hospital, with her mother, Diane (Sigrid Thornton) who is an obstetrician at the hospital. Grace’s ex-husband, Jim (Ben Mingay) works as a paramedic, so she will constantly be running into him. The Preview also states that a young mum-to-be walks into the Birthing Centre in the first episode who will change Grace’s life forever.

RFDS, which I mentioned in my 2020 Previews blog post, is a drama that will air on Channel Seven. Production was halted last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is set to air this year. The eight-episode series will focus on the frontline workers of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Stephen Peacocke will portray flight nurse, Pete, and Justine Clarke will portray base manager, Leonie. The series also stars Rob Collins, Emma Hamilton, Ash Ricardo, Kate Mulvany, Rodney Afif, Jack Scott, Sofia Nolan, Thomas Weatherall, and Ash Hodgkinson.

Overall I’m looking forward to seeing and reviewing new seasons of my favourite shows and shows that I’ve reviewed, as well as checking out new shows, both new shows listed in this post and shows I haven’t come across yet. I’m especially looking forward to reviewing after the upheaval that the COVID-19 pandemic caused not only for me, but for the production and airing of these shows. Stay tuned.