Loveday Writing

After Annabelle tells Helen to lose the “festival of brown” and polish herself up for the interview, Helen buys herself a bright yellow suit and goes to her interview at Gruber & Gruber.  Ray Gruber (Marty Sheargold) interviews her, where it’s revealed that Helen’s father, Anthony, is a retired Supreme Court judge.

We then cut to Helen in the Airbnb house she is renting. While she is having breakfast, the host, Juliana, comes over. Helen tells Joanna that her grandmother, Minh, is in her bedroom again and keeps coming in to clean up. When Joanna tells Helen that Minh told her that she is really messy, Helen reminds her that she is renting the house. Joanna dismisses her, saying she should be grateful.

We then see Helen going into a café, Artisan, on her way to work (back in her brown suit). When she has a go at a man sitting at a table, talking on his phone loudly, she is asked to leave by the staff for “talking aggressively”. Helen goes to work, with George (Aaron Chen) (aka Webmaster) taking Helen’s photo for the firm’s website (he is also revealed to be the firm’s probate clerk). Roz (Julia Zemiro) then introduces herself to Helen, where she is revealed to be Ray’s sister, and she is the office manager as she has been temporarily suspended from practising.

Roz gives her Helen an office tour, which Ray interrupts to give her files, and Roz tells Helen that the toilet is locked despite it being inside. When Roz finishes, Ray tells Helen that she’ll be working in the conference room until an office is sorted out for her. Later, Roz assigns Helen a client, Ruth O’Malley. Helen tries to get out of it, but Roz dismisses her. Ruth has come to the firm as her mother has recently died and she wants a ‘vasectomy clause’ in the will – a clause that Ruth’s brother will only get his inheritance if he has a vasectomy – enforced. Helen tells her this clause can’t be enforced.

Meanwhile, Roz goes into see Ray and informs him that Helen was fired from her previous firm for ‘attacking’ a client. Roz tells Ray that she should be supervised but he counters that Roz can’t supervise Helen due to her suspension, so she tells Ray he has to. They go out into the firm’s foyer to wait for Helen to finish her meeting with Ruth, which isn’t going well.

Helen asks Ruth what her brother thinks about the clause, he’s worried that the vasectomy will affect his work as a professional penis painter (he paints with penis). Helen’s meeting with Ruth ends with her yelling at Ruth by using a piece of paper as a megaphone. Roz and Ray come in, with Ray telling Helen to step out and Roz taking Ruth out of the room. Ray takes Helen into his office and questions her about being fired. Helen tells Ray that she didn’t ‘attack’ the client, she shouted at her and called her a ‘silly old whore’ as she had an affair with her husband. Ray tells her that she may have just lost the firm a client, Roz walks in and tells them she’s managed to get Ruth to come back, making up an excuse that Helen behaved the way she did because she took too many painkillers. Ray later tells Roz the full story of Helen’s firing, and asks Roz to mentor her.

The next day, Helen tries to buy coffees from Artisan, only to discover she is banned as the man she insulted the previous day is the owner. Helen ends up buying $1 coffees from the local convenience store. Roz then tells Helen she needs to work on her people skills and to make a connection with the clients. Helen then has another meeting with Ruth, this time with George in attendance. Again the meeting doesn’t go well, with Helen making matters worse by using the sausage rolls she got with the convenience store coffees to make her point, at one point accidentally using the order of service for Ruth’s mother’s funeral as a piece of paper, to put the sausage rolls on.  Ruth leaves saying that she’ll get another solicitor.

Later, Helen realises that Ruth left the order of service behind and tries to find Ruth. Ruth is next door at Artisan, unable to get the scalding hot coffee she wants. Helen finds her and apologises for putting the sausage roll on the order of service, and takes her to the convenience store to buy her a cup of coffee. They sit at the back of the store and bond, with Ruth showing her a video of her brother at work, Ruth agrees to let Helen be her solicitor.

Helen goes home to find Ruth’s brother, Dean, waiting for her. Dean tells her that he rang her office, George gave him her address, and Minh let him in. Dean offers to paint her portrait, but instead Helen has Dean paint Ray’s portrait, based off a photo.

The episode ends with Helen bringing Ray’s portrait into the office the next day, and Roz says she’ll have hers done. During the end credits, we see Dean painting Roz’s portrait, talking away to her as he paints.

Overall this was a great pilot with intelligent and witty dialogue, fantastic one-liners, and it perfectly established the show’s premise and characters, as well as showed the chemistry between the cast. No major story arcs or subplots were presented, so I’m guessing that each episode will be self-contained, writing wise.

I’m looking forward to reviewing the rest of the season.

Stray Observations:

Running gags:

• Helen’s lack of references on her job application.
• Helen’s choice of a brown, then a bright yellow suit.
• Ray and George referring to Roz as being ‘struck off’ despite the fact that she’s been temporarily suspended.

-Roz’s middle name is Joanne.

-How exactly did paint end up across Dean’s arse cheeks?

Best one liners and interactions:

• “My husband recently ran off with an older woman so I thought the best way to deal with trauma was to run away.” (Helen to Annabelle)
• “I’m not really a dead people person either.” (Helen to Annabelle on working at a probate law firm)
• “I’ve got three suits all the same, saves time. Never have to make a decision about what to wear, it’s great!” “Is it?” (Helen-Annabelle)
• “May I suggest that you polish yourself up for the interview.” “I think this is beyond polishing don’t you?” “Could you at least lose the festival of brown? You are blending into the chair like some sort of furniture chameleon.” (Annabelle-Helen-Annabelle)
• “I like your suit, it reminds me of cheese.” (George to Helen)
• “I like your face.” “This one?” “A lot of experience in that face.” “Mm hm.” “It says ‘I’ve been around the block, I know what I’m doing.’ Yeah? ‘I’m a workhorse, plain and simple I get the job done.’ Am I right?” “Yeah that’s me, plain and simple…and like a horse.” (Ray-Helen going back-and-forth)
• “When someone dies it’s sad and then kind of boring.” (Ray to Helen)
• “What are you, 50, 55?” “47.” “You look older, which works for me.” (Ray-Helen-Ray)
• “I’ll see you Monday, no high-vis.” (Ray to Helen on her bright yellow suit)
• “Who’s the walking banana?” “That is your replacement, the new you.” “Is she afraid of being hit by a car?” (Roz-Ray-Roz on Helen)
• “I just don’t like the word ‘hubby’, for some people it’s ‘moist’, for me it’s ‘hubby’.” (Helen to Ruth)
• “I didn’t attack her. I did shout and I might have called her a ‘silly old whore’…” (Helen to Ray on why she was fired by her previous firm)
• “Do you know what a client is?” “Yes, a friend you haven’t met yet.” “It’s money, Fisk.” (Ray-Helen-Ray)
• “If they’re a farmer, you could talk about…” “Hay, cows, manure? Wanting a wife?” “The weather.” (Roz-Helen-Roz on building up Helen’s people skills)
• “Can I get a couple of bits of legal fee?” (George asking Helen for some of the sausage roll she used to demonstrate legal fees to Ruth)
• “Why is there a knife in here?” (Roz to George on a knife on the conference room table)
• “I don’t mind if you want to hang out here, pretend it’s a café, and drink this shitty coffee but you can’t watch porn in here, shut it down.” (Michael, the convenience store employee to Helen on watching a video of Ruth’s brother painting with his penis)