Offspring wraps its fifth season with a TV future in limbo
FOR five years, fans of Offspring have laughed, cried and almost torn their hair out in frustration – but if this week’s finale is the end, it’s a fitting farewell.
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FOR five years, fans of Offspring have laughed, cried and, sometimes, just about torn their hair out in frustration at the antics of Asher Keddie’s alter-ego Nina Proudman and her crazy extended family.
Now, as the fifth season — billed by some as the darkest of the comedy drama — ends, the show’s future remains uncertain, with Channel Ten and producers John Edwards and Imogen Banks still negotiating its future.
But if this Wednesday’s season five finale is the end for Offspring, it’s a fitting farewell, which offers resolution — and hope.
“If this is the end, I think you could leave it there,” Kat Stewart, who plays the erratically lovable Billie, says.
“The full year is put away — it closes that tumultuous year of Patrick’s death and Zoe’s (Nina’s daughter) first birthday. It’s a lovely way to come full circle.”
Nina’s traumatic season has divided fans, but Keddie “didn’t want to cheat the audience to move through some of the grief”.
“By the same token we had to move forward,” Keddie has said of the season.
“You do feel the spikes of grief … but you also see her trying her darnedest to re-emerge in the world and to choose to live.”
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The finale unfolds on the eve of the anniversary of Nina’s beloved Patrick’s (Matt Le Nevez) death, and the first birthday of the tiny anchor that has seen Nina through a tumultuous year — baby Zoe.
It’s vintage Offspring, with touchstones to all the relationships and the comedy and wackiness that have defined the show.
Especially poignant has been the changing relationship between Billie and Nina — cherished even amid criticisms the year has held too much grief for Nina.
”We haven’t had the sisters getting together this much since the first series,” says Stewart.
“I know some have been upset at the amount of sadness, but the message I take away is even when so much has gone wrong, there’s that idea of even in grief there is also hope.
“Zoe is the personification of that, the symbol of renewal and hope and the big juicy mess of life and celebrating both the fantastical bits of life and the shitty things that happen.”
“When Zoe comes on screen you go ‘Oh my God — that is what Nina has to live for’,” Keddie says of Zoe.
The relationship between Nina and Billie is believably sisterly because it’s far from saccharine.
“I don’t have sisters, but there is something special about sisters,” says Stewart.
“I’m lucky I’ve had a couple of experiences to play a sister and live that relationship vicariously — with Justine Clarke on Tangle and now with Asher.
“One of the joys has been working with her more this season — there’s real shorthand that develops in five years, and she’s so good.
“I love the shenanigans. When we were stalking Dr Chris (Don Hany) in the first series — that was fun. I’ve sort of tortured her (Nina) getting ready for dates. As well as the warm stuff I’ve enjoyed playing the antagonistic nature of the relationship.”
OFFSPRING IN A MINUTE:
SEASON 1: Meet Nina and her bundle of neuroses; Billie and her desperate wish for children, and a hottie named Dr Chris Havel (Don Hany) who Nina fantasises over and hooks up with, only to find he’s married, his wife mentally ill. Then Nina sleeps with Billie’s bloke, Mick (Eddie Perfect) — and bolts out of Melbourne for a job in Baltimore.
SEASON 2: The sisters reconcile, Nina returns to Melbourne. Dr Chris has moved to Brisbane. Enter Dr Patrick Reid (Matt Le Nevez) — Nina’s new love — until Dr Chris comes back into her life, and she has to choose.
SEASON 3: Nina chooses Patrick. They move in. They break up. She’s pregnant, then she’s not, then she is. Meanwhile Billie struggles to fall pregnant.
SEASON 4: Nina and Patrick are back together. The season is blown apart with the death of Patrick, and birth of Nina’s baby, Zoe.
SEASON 5: Six months after Patrick’s death, Billie blossoms as she helps out with baby Zoe, but is devastated by her break-up with Mick. Nina struggles with grief, motherhood and new relationships. Toddler Alfie falls terribly ill. A mother dies in childbirth. Nina’s new bloke, Thomas, is exposed as a married, two timing liar. Fans say “enough sadness already”.
OFFSPRING FINALE
8.45PM WEDNESDAY (AUGUST 6) TEN
Originally published as Offspring wraps its fifth season with a TV future in limbo
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