Comedy gem and its grouchy heroine make a welcome return to TV

Fisk, season two ★★★★

Wardrobe choices are a common signpost of the personality of screen characters. For women, a red dress might signal a seductress, a black ensemble could indicate a femme fatale. But what about a woman in brown? Specifically drab brown, not a rich chocolate or buttery caramel, but a blah dust-brown?

This is the colour chosen by lawyer Helen Tudor-Fisk (Kitty Flanagan) as the foundation of her working-woman’s wardrobe. And not only has Helen selected this as her professional attire, she’s turned it into a uniform, buying three identical, shapeless pantsuits because, she explains with an eye-roll, “Who can be bothered deciding what to wear every morning?”

Brown is the working-woman’s wardrobe of choice for suburban lawyer Helen Tudor-Fisk (Kitty Flanagan). “Who can be bothered deciding what to wear every morning?”Credit: ABC

The fact that Helen is happy to reduce her professional garb to a uniform reflects her approach to life. There are more important things to do: walking the dog; finding a decent coffee; drinking wine; eating cake, particularly fruit cake, as the more popular mud cake is under-cooked and over-rated, in her opinion. And the fact that her outfit is so unflattering is just one of the signs that Helen, the grouchy heroine of the comedy gem, Fisk, is, in such matters, clueless. Fashion is not a priority for her, a failure that one of her employers, the proudly high-maintenance Roz (Julia Zemiro), frequently points out.

As viewers familiar with last year’s first season of the comedy co-written by comedian and actor Flanagan with her musician sister, Penny, will be aware, Roz is the sister of Ray (Marty Sheargold). They run Gruber & Gruber, a law firm specialising in probate, wills, deceased estates and conveyancing. Helen arrived in Melbourne following her divorce with references that did not reflect well on her personal or professional skills, and her employment options were therefore limited. She landed at a practice in need of solicitor as Roz had been suspended.

As viewers of legal series would also be aware, this firm, as indicated by its unprepossessing location in the middle of a suburban shopping strip, sits at the opposite end of the legal spectrum from that which is more commonly TV terrain: gleaming, glass-tower city offices staffed with keen and hungry legal eagles. At Gruber & Gruber, they’re not quite dodgy ambulance-chasers, but they operate in similar territory. In the final episode of the first season, the Grubers were chuffed to be nominated in the Local Small Business Awards, where the categories included Best Wok-Based Takeaway.

Glenn Robbins, pictured in a scene with Julia Zemiro as Roz Gruber, guest stars in an episode of Fisk.Credit: ABC

Through the first season (ABC iview), Helen gradually revealed a perhaps-surprising aptitude for her job and decency in her treatment of clients. In spite of her griping, she could be inventive when it came to resolving disputes. And as she tackled cases and suffered a ban from the local coffee shop, the series deftly built an idiosyncratic and endearing ensemble around her.

Sheargold’s nicely understated performance sees Ray as wearily wise and conflict-averse, retreating to his car for a snooze in order to avoid difficult colleagues or clients. Zemiro looks to be having a ball as a briskly opinionated steamroller with a bouffant, supremely confident of her judgment and her sex appeal. And Aaron Chen is adorable as George, the firm’s helpful receptionist and self-appointed webmaster whose perceptive barbs are delivered with a polite deference that almost conceals their zing.

The core cast is joined by a lively bunch of semi-regulars, including John Gaden as Helen’s father, Glenn Butcher as his loving partner. Popping up in guest roles are some of the country’s funniest performers, including Glenn Robbins, Marg Downey, Denise Scott and Ed Kavalee.

As the second season begins, Helen is harrumphing about a new café that offers blended juices but no coffee; protesting about the heat-generating photocopier deposited in her office; and trying to resolve a nuisance claim.

Welcome back, Helen Tudor-Fisk. Or, should that be, as reported in the local paper noting her prize as Ethical Business Person of the Year at the Small Business Awards, Helen Tuna-Fisk?

Fisk (season two) is on ABC, Wednesdays, 9pm.

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