Loveday Writing

In the lead-up to the ceremony, Diana introduces Harry to Brett and Denise, and eventually Easton. We see Nayani mending the hems of Denise’s wedding suit, which leads to the reveal that Nayani and Diana haven’t spoken to each other since Diana left for London and Nayani is resentful towards her. They argue over hemming, which leads to Diana spilling her drink on the suit. This leads to Nayani suggesting to Denise that she wear June’s old wedding dress due to the lack of options.

Meanwhile, Brett is having to deal with his cousin, Tammy, having panic attacks over being the celebrant, Easton is trying to maintain a Zen state (to Margot’s disbelief), and Margot encourages Easton to get a job if he’s not going to cook anymore. Diana continues to drink throughout the day due to Nayani’s resentment towards her, Harry pressuring her to deliver a menu for a top chef back in London, and the stress she feels about lying to Harry about dating Kwame, when Harry offers to help him with the hor d’oeuvres.

The stress and tensions come to a head when the ceremony gets underway. Diana is drunk and outraged when she sees Easton giving Denise away. She gets even more upset when Easton goes to fire one round from Jim’s shotgun as a sign of respect to him, as she was his favourite and she feels she should do it. Diana and Easton fight over the shotgun, which leads to Easton accidentally shooting a cockatoo and the wedding being called off.

We then go forward a week in time where it’s revealed that Diana and Easton were charged with firearms offences and sentenced to community service at a church’s soup kitchen for the next two weeks. Diana and Easton start but don’t completely air out their unresolved issues, with Diana pointing out to Easton that he and Denise lied to her about June and drove her to run away to London, and Easton in turn, points out to her that they moved on with their lives.

The premiere ends with Diana and Easton agreeing that the soup they made, in which they had to strictly abide by the church’s recipe, is bad, and their attempts to fix it leads to a fight and accidentally throwing soup on some of the homeless people they are serving.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid season premiere as the wedding provides a reason for Diana’s return, the community service provides circumstances for both Diana to stay temporarily and to have to work with Easton again. I appreciated the time jump as it allowed for character development and for questions to be raised that I’m sure will be answered as the season progresses.

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

Stray Observations:

-Diana tells Brett that Harry is a ‘grammar Nazi’ and can even translate his wedding vows into Latin to make it sound sexy. Harry then proceeds to say ‘you can’t say grammar Nazi anymore’ in Latin.

-According to Brett, fashion is Denise’s Achille’s Heel, he chose her wedding suit.

-Brett gives Tammy a used sandwich bag to breathe as she’s hyperventilating, which leads to her briefly choking on a sesame seed.

-When Harry tells Brett that he’s sure his wedding vows will be a Homeric masterpiece, Brett thinks Harry knows he referenced The Simpsons in them.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “’You’re my main squeeze, Denise. You’ve got me on one knee today, tomorrow, forever. I tie myself to thee. All I really want to do is just love and hold ya. And if you’ll be my Marge, I’ll forever be your Homer’…you can’t reference The Simpsons in your wedding vows, you idiot!” (Brett reciting his wedding vows to himself)
• “Executive decision, invoice the birds.” (Tammy to herself)
• “I can so sew!” (Diana to Nayani on fixing the hems of Denise’s wedding suit)
• “No, my beautiful British weirdo!” (Diana to Harry)
• “Uncle Warren, he’s a ship captain he can legally marry people!” “He owns a kayak!” (Tammy-Brett when Tammy wants to back out of being the celebrant at the wedding)
• “You do realise you just spent the last fifteen minutes explaining the fermentation process to a winemaker?” (Margot to Easton)
• “I need a stiff one…a stiff drink!” (Diana to the wedding bartender)
• “It’s alright, I nod off at weddings too.” (Margot to a drunk Diana)
• “You’ve been gone for hours and hours!” “About twenty minutes.” (a drunk Diana-Harry)
• “We have to kick him out of the nest, he might land on his face or get eaten by a goanna, but that’s how nature works, it’s cruel.” (Brett to Denise on Easton staying with them)
• “I bet Jesus didn’t serve his fish without seasoning.” (Easton to Diana on the church’s soup in the soup kitchen)