Nail-biting new Aussie show you need to stream

Asher Keddie is at her ‘woman on the verge’ best in this new psychological drama – and episode five is a jaw-dropper.

Amid the glut of content on offer from streaming services, it’s easier than ever for a gem of a show to totally pass you by – which Fake, originally released in July, almost did for me.

The eight-part psychological drama stars Asher Keddie doing what Asher Keddie does best: Play a tightly-wound woman on the verge of completely unravelling.

There are more than a few shades of Love My Way’s Julia in her portrayal of Birdie, a single, middle-aged journalist who gets swept up in a new romance with mysterious divorced grazier Joe (David Wenham, using his cool blue eyes to menacing effect throughout).

Birdie and Joe match on a dating app and meet for a drink, and even from that first meeting there are red flags: I mean, who brings a work colleague to a first date?

But he’s persistent and open-hearted, willing to be vulnerable in a way that relaxes Birdie’s defences. And as her mother (Heather Mitchell) is so fond of telling her, she’s not getting any younger and isn’t exactly fending off potential suitors. Soon, she’s totally swept up in this new love affair.

Joe seems like the perfect guy – if Birdie can just ignore all those niggling red flags.

We, the audience, are told very early on in the piece that something’s not quite right with Joe, but it takes Birdie a lot longer to figure it out. That can make for a frustrating watch at times, as Birdie reluctantly accepts excuse after excuse for Joe’s secretive, at times bizarre behaviour.

Why is he always so hard to reach? Why has she never been to his house? Why does he appear casually super-wealthy at times, barely able to afford a meal at others?

As Birdie’s mount, we mull over the possibilities: Is Joe a cheater, a scammer, a sociopath – or all of the above?

The tension comes to a head in episode five, an absolutely gripping 40 minutes of television that largely unfolds in the back of a taxi.

I won’t give it all away, but we watch Birdie in horror as she makes a series of increasingly frenzied phone calls to friends and family, hustling hard to scrape together money Joe needs to close yet another mysterious deal. He’s good for it, he’ll pay you right back, she insists – even though deep own even she’s not sure if that’s true.

Asher Keddie unravels in the back of a taxi.

By this point, Birdie’s totally lost herself. With three episodes left in the series, the question then becomes: Can she find her way free of this mess, and free of Joe?

Fake lives or dies on Keddie’s central performance, and she’s brilliant as ever. Screenwriter Anya Beyersdorf deftly weaves in Birdie’s history with her family and friends so that, even when you can tell she’s getting duped, you never feel that she’s stupid: There are all-too-clear steps that made her vulnerable to this man’s advances.

Fake is a hard watch at times, as Birdie goes along with Joe’s mounting lies. Picture: Sarah Enticknap

And Wenham is genuinely creepy as Joe, while also being an utterly charming love-bomber who has a perfectly reasonable explanation for every issue Birdie raises.

Heather Mitchell, Spencer McLaren and Nicholas Brown are Birdie’s loved ones, alternating between swept up in Joe’s charms and suspicious of his motives. The show also marks the final on-screen role for former Neighbours actor Janet Andrewartha, who died in July.

With such a self-contained story, it’s hard to imagine there’ll be a second season of Fake. As it stands, it’s a stomach-churning modern horror story that’s well worth diving into.

Fake is now available to stream on Paramount+.

Originally published as Nail-biting new Aussie show you need to stream