Claudia Karvan, Asher Keddie, Brendan Cowell, Dan Wyllie, Lynette Curran, Alex Cook, Max Cullen, Ben Mendelsohn, Justine Clarke, Sam Parsonson, Gillian Jones, Kelly Butler, Kym Gyngell, Claire van der Boom, Alex Dimitriades

Aside from say, ‘’Cooks’’, ‘’Pacific Drive’’, ‘’Headland’’, ‘’Above the Law’’, ‘’The Bob Morrison Show’’, ‘’Bullpitt’’, ‘’David Tench Tonight’’, ‘’Big Brother’’, ‘’Breakers’’, ‘’Sit Down Shut Up’’, ‘’My Two Wives’’, ‘’Skirts’’, ‘’Young Lions’’, ‘’Good Cop Bad Cop’’, ‘’Marshall Law’’, ‘’Bligh,’’ ‘’Paradise Beach’’, ‘’Crash Palace’’, ‘’Tripping Over’’, ‘’Hey Dad’’, and ‘’Street Legal’’there’s been some great Australian television over the years – obviously the good: bad ratio isn’t exactly even– most principally, Foxtel’s acclaimed ‘’Love My Way’’.

Claudia Karvan left Channel Ten’s once-successful and once-entertaining ‘’The Secret Life of Us’’ at the right time – just before the soapy storylines took precedence over serious and relatable issues like relationships, grieving and struggling to pay your rent from week to week. What the smart little cookie did is take the best bits of ‘’Secret Life’’ (the ‘realistic’ bits), as well as its creator (John Edwards), and jumped ship to Pay-TV where they were prepared to give the duo free-reign to do, well, essentially whatever they wanted.

The result? An engaging, very realistic and immaculately penned and performed drama centring on a group of thirty-something’s whose lives are, to say the least, in a shambles.

Karvan plonked herself into the lead role – that of Frankie, a single mother and painter, who’s both unlucky in love and seemingly, life. The producers knocked us for six at the end of the first season when they decided to kill off the character of Frankie’s young daughter – don’t anyone saw that coming, did they? – But therein lied a fantastic set-up for season two…. How does one continue on after everything they loved and lived for is tragically taken away from them?

Frankie ultimately finds love with her future step-brother – it’s a bit ‘eww’, but funnily enough, it’s never even touched upon that they’re related so don’t think about it, and you’ll be OK – played by Ben Mendelsohn, whose introduced at the end of the second season. Everything seems to be looking up for the long-suffering Sydneysider.
Or is it? Season 3 sees the new marriage – they’d gotten married between seasons it seems – of Frankie and Louis (Mendelsohn) hanging on by a thread; largely due to his inability to communicate with his new partner, as well as his battle with the bottle. And when his weird teenage son comes to live with them, everything goes to hell.

Featuring a superb line-up of talent, including the especially fantastic Brendan Cowell (as Frankie’s on-off love interest and best friend, Tom), ‘’Love My Way’’ might just be the most solid Aussie TV drama to grace the screen – well, the first one since, er, Tottie Goldsmith flashed her, ah, Totties in ‘’Fire’’.

Unfortunately, Karvan and Edwards have reportedly decided to leave the series there, at Season 3, and have moved on to bigger and better things (Karvan has a lead role in the new Spierig brothers film ‘’Daybreakers’’, and soon starts work on a remake of the horror film ‘’The Long Weekend’’ co-starring James Caviezel), so it’ll be up to someone else to keep the ‘Good Local TV Drama’ fire burning.

Special Features? Nadda. Zip. Not-a-one. Well, unless you believe, like the distributor seemingly does, that ‘Slipcase Packaging’ is a special feature?

Rating :
Reviewer : Clint Morris