Loveday Writing

The pilot did a good job of establishing the premise and its characters of a successful business woman who washed out and is estranged from her family. The pilot kicks off on all cylinders with the reveal of how successful Sando’s discount furniture business is and that she’s pregnant with her daughter’s fiancé’s baby at her daughter’s wedding.

We are then brought forward ten years into the future where Sando is still irresponsible, but her daughter, Susie, has moved on to marry a better man, Gary, and have a daughter, Rian, and is living with her father, Don, as her online business is struggling. When Sando throws a “crazy end of financial year” party without consulting anyone, Sando’s CFO, Tony, tells her she’s been thrown out of the company and her home, which was paid for by the company. As she has no job and home, she tries to reach out to her family to make amends. The pilot ends with Sando moving into the old family pool house at Gary’s suggestion, as she could help them all out.

I wrote in my review of the pilot that I wasn’t sure if the slapstick comedy (which ranged from Susie’s fiancé, Vic, being thrown through the church doors by Susie, to Susie tasering Sando) really suited the show as it was over-the-top.

The second episode, much like the pilot, kicked off with an old Sando’s commercial. This pattern would continue in every episode of the season as a way to establish the theme of each episode. The second episode focused on apologies and introduced Vic Junior, the son Sando and Kevin had together.

While Vic Junior is portrayed as obnoxious, he does point out to Susie that she and him were innocent bystanders in Kevin and Sando’s affair, which leads to Susie letting go of her hostility towards him and even admits to liking him more than her other younger brother, Eric. I also appreciated the contrast between Vic Junior and Sando’s relationship, and Eric’s unhealthy and creepy way of trying to help her.

Kevin also makes an appearance, revealing that he and Sando are no longer together. He genuinely apologises to Susie for hurting her, and because it was a genuine apology (unlike Sando’s apologies to her earlier in the episode), she forgives him. Towards the end of the episode, Sando calls Susie out for her unwillingness to forgive her, especially as her actions ultimately led to Susie marrying a better man and having a beautiful daughter.

When I wrote my review of the third episode, I wrote that I’m critical where I need to be when I’m reviewing but I’m not usually scathing. I was scathing of the third episode due to the ridiculousness of the writing of the A story, which the characters themselves pointed out, and I hoped that there would be improvement in the second half of the season, and thankfully there was.

There was improvement in the writing and character development from the fourth episode onwards. Kevin and Gary became friends, much to Susie’s chagrin, but he also supports her business ideas more than Gary does, and he helps them get their tensions out in the open. I appreciated this character development as the writers didn’t go down the cliché path of the “ex-boyfriend trying to win over his former girlfriend”.

The fifth episode had Don and Sando locked in his man cave, which allowed them to resolve some of their past issues, culminating in them having sex but not getting back together.

The season finale was pretty solid with a lot of secrets coming out in a domino effect fashion, culminating in the family brawling whilst filming a commercial for Sando’s Warehouse, which Sando claims is a re-branding strategy for the company, changing it from Sando’s Warehouse to Crazy Sando’s. The finale also ended on a dark note with Susie revealing she plans on destroying Sando, Tony being fired, Eric being admitted to a mental hospital after a breakdown, and Nicky planning to write a tell-all book on the entire family. 

I also wrote in my review of the finale that it was well done, as all the story arcs came to a close with no loose ends, with the final moments setting up story arcs for a second season. I also wrote that whilst the season got off to a shaky start by going overboard with outlandish jokes and slapstick moments, but thankfully turned a corner at the fourth episode where the season focused more on the family dynamic, and character and subplot development, which lead to a natural and fitting season finale.

Despite my scathing reviews of the first-half of the season, I wrote in my review of the finale that I hoped this season wouldn’t be the last of Sando. However, as four years have passed since the first season aired and there’s been no news of a second season since, I doubt any more episodes will be made.

Behind the Reviews – Edition #21 will be released next week and will focus on Seachange (Reboot).