This striking series is the best Australian drama of the year

It’s Fine, I’m Fine ★★★★

Australian television drama is in a perpetual state of semi-crisis. Can it find a viable home on commercial networks? Should we make more genre-based works? Are there any brooding small towns that haven’t had a murder that exposes long-buried secrets? When the question keeps changing, there’s no easy answer to be had. But there is a simple solution. Produce a worthwhile show. Do that and the doubts are suddenly irrelevant. The corrective powers of a vital series are amazing, and It’s Fine, I’m Fine is the latest example.

Dedicated therapist Joanne (Ana Maria Belo) is wracked with self-doubt in It’s Fine, I’m Fine.Credit: SBS

Debuting earlier this month on NITV and now available in full via SBS on Demand, It’s Fine, I’m Fine is the best Australian drama, albeit with lashings of deeply felt and striking humour, to air in what has been a solid year of new local titles. Created by writer/director Stef Smith, who’s made the leap from short films and video clips with assurance, the quartet of episodes add up to a feature film in length, but there’s a command of form and tone that is impressive. This is a talent to watch.

The setting is stage-like: the suburban office of therapist Joanne (Ana Maria Belo), who works her way through a selection of patients who treat her couch like a hot seat they want to escape. The pithy shrink might be a New York City staple, but the concept, and the very real issue of addressing mental health issues and emotional care, is not common in Australia. Joanne is dedicated, but wracked with self-doubt. One of the telling angles of It’s Fine, I’m Fine is that the doctor might quietly need as much assistance as her patients.

The room is a foundation space for Smith’s creative vision: a place where difficult conversations butt up against creative flourishes to create a fluid reality. Pacific Islander Betty (Wendy Mocke) is scared she’ll be judged for going to therapy, a fear only reinforced by the scornful doubts of her late grandmother, Bubu Agnes (Margaret Pittas), who perches on the couch arm offering dismissive commentary that only Betty can hear. The fantastical feels connected to the equilibrium of the various visitors – it’s never just a helter-skelter creative gambit.

Bubu Agnes (Margaret Pittas) and Betty (Wendy Mocke) on the couch in It’s Fine, I’m Fine.Credit: SBS

Many of the cast have writing credits, allowing for diverse perspectives. Arky Michael, who for me will forever be George on Sweet and Sour, is terrific as Aziz, a man who can’t deal with the absence of a lover, while Cecilia Morrow’s Eve is an incisive take on the recent screen staple of the harried 30-something woman jumping from one personal scrape to the next. “I’ve got a bottle of wine that’s not going to drink itself,” she quips while trying to desperately wrap up her session with Joanne, panic edging into her self-deprecation.

Neither the therapist nor the show offers easy resolution, but the embrace of conversation and the battle to see what’s apparent – especially with a dysfunctional mother and daughter played by a finely matched Heather Mitchell and Eryn Jean Norvill – is compelling throughout. The sarcastic retorts hold genuine truths and the honest admissions have a hilarious edge. If it hasn’t already happened, hopefully someone has snapped up Stef Smith, and her collaborative approach, for a new series with more episodes (extra locations are optional). It might save us some familiar questions about the state of Australian drama.

It’s Fine, I’m Fine is streaming on SBS on Demand.

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