Why Asher Keddie is the queen of barely contained chaos

When it comes to playing stressed women, Asher Keddie shines. She did it as the brittle Julia in Love My Way (2004-07, Stan) and again as the winningly discombobulated Nina in Offspring (2010-17, Paramount+). Within the parameters of the script, she imbues her characters with humanity and humour and they become intriguing, sometimes even endearing, despite their flaws.

She’s doing it again in Strife (Binge) as Evelyn Jones, the publisher of a pioneering website for women called Eve Life. Publicly acclaimed as a “magazine queen”, Evelyn is the mother of teenagers Alex (Darcy Tadich) and Addy (Willow Speers), and the soon-to-be divorced wife of teacher Jon (Matt Day).

Asher Keddie, far right, with BeBe Bettencourt, Maria Angelico, Olivia Junkeer and Bryony Skillington in Strife: barely contained chaos.Credit: Binge

As the series begins, she’s nervously ricocheting around in what, it soon becomes clear, is a standard state of barely contained chaos. Making emergency calls to her therapist, Robert (Meyne Wyatt), she’s torn between the needs of her office and her family. Her website is struggling financially and avidly chasing readers and advertisers. Meanwhile she’s trying to present a brave face to a world where she’s celebrated as feminist trailblazer. The magazine queen is enduring a rocky reign.

Set in 2012, the eight-part comedy drama is “inspired by” Mia Freedman’s book, Work Strife Balance, its title here reduced to simply Strife, the single word referring to Evelyn’s private and professional lives. As she observes helplessly to Robert, she craves the “sugar rush” of approval while feeling guilty about the time and energy that she devotes to her work and its impact on her relationship with her children.

“I’m struggling to make decisions,” she despairs following a meltdown in the office and some unsettling news about Eve Life’s rivals. “I change my mind all the time. I act before I think and then it’s usually too late. I hurt people.”

The fact that the series is inspired by Freedman’s book, rather than based on it, is a noteworthy distinction. Showrunner, head writer and executive producer Sarah Scheller (The Letdown, Netflix) uses the memoir as a springboard to tease out issues, but hasn’t been restricted by Freedman’s account of her experiences in the early days of the Mamamia website.

The TV show Strife is based on Mia Freedman’s memoir.Credit: Cybele Malinowski

Instead she’s drawn from a range of events, tackling subjects that remain relevant and resonate years on: the use of photoshopping to create idealised images of women; trolling and online vitriol; the hostility than can be heaped on prominent women; the generational and racial disparities between feminists.

Some of the ructions at Eve Life recall specific events, although not necessarily related to Mamamia. A profile of a female politician campaigning to become prime minister and the reaction to it recalls the febrile Gillard years. A disastrous live-blogged interview with a celebrated American entertainer draws on a promotional tour by comedian Amy Schumer. The photoshopping scandal actually involved Lena Dunham, Vogue magazine and the Jezebel website.

Meanwhile the series zeroes in on the chasm between Evelyn’s public image and her private reality. She’s separated from Jon, who’s depicted as an intelligent, sensitive and compassionate partner and father. She’s camped in an apartment with a sparsely stocked fridge and boxes awaiting unpacking.

He’s capably overseeing a well-managed and welcoming home, cooking dinners and attuned to his children’s problems and needs. She seems to drop the ball at every juncture: being unfamiliar with her kid’s routines and activities; failing to provide dinner for the family when she invites them over; regularly provoking antagonism from her unhappy daughter.

Asher Keddie (pictured with Matt Le Nevez) was winningly discombobulated as Nina in Offspring.Credit: John Tsiavis/Ten

The gulf between what Evelyn says and what she does is an ongoing theme that’s neatly illustrated when, on a phone call to the kids, she instructs them to order the healthy lunches from the school canteen and to “remember vegetables”, as she hurriedly scoffs a leftover slice of takeaway pizza for breakfast.

While visiting lawyer and friend Daniel (Alex Dimitriadis) to work through divorce papers, he wistfully recalls a dinner from their shared past where Evelyn served a memorable beef wellington so delicious that Lucy (Emma Lung), his wife and Evelyn’s best friend, requested the recipe. A belated confession reveals that Evelyn had the dinner catered, but even with her best pal she’d been concerned with keeping up appearances.

At work, Evelyn advocates the importance of sharing personal stories to new hire Jeet (Olivia Junkeer), arguing that a confessional approach encourages readers to connect. However she habitually masks the truth of her own circumstances. When she does draw from personal experience in a column or TV appearance, she oversteps and causes discomfort for her family by exposing things that they would prefer remain private.

The witty and perceptive scripts, on which a range of writers worked, skilfully probe the complicated realities of Evelyn’s domestic and office environments. The story pitching scenes at Eve Life are sharply written and very funny as the staff, under the keen eye of editor Christine (Maria Angelico), brainstorm potentially “clicky” subjects: celebrity breakups, health and beauty tips, reality-TV recaps, parenting advice, “birthgasms”, the hot new trend in prairie dresses, an expose of whether yogurt can cure thrush. In one scene, single mum Penny (Bryony Skillington) proposes, “Seven reasons why mothers make better employees”.

“No,” responds Evelyn curtly.

“Eleven reasons?” Penny responds, undeterred

The generational divide and differences in priorities between the women in the series are also deftly delineated, juxtaposing Eve’s relationships with intern Norma (Lucy Ansell), with best friend Lucy, and with her delightfully dry mother (Tina Bursill), who regularly tweets her views on her daughter’s activities under the online handle of Gin and Tonic. More publicly comes the clash of feminist panellists on a Q&A-style show, drawn with pitch-perfect accuracy by episode writer Lexi Freiman.

Asher Keddie as Evelyn and Matt Day as Jon: Eve seems to drop the ball at every juncture.Credit: Kane Skennar

“There’s a special brand of hatred reserved for a woman that labels herself as a feminist and fails to be a f---ing saint,” Evelyn remarks bitterly to a journalist (Roy Joseph) who’s following her around to research a magazine profile.

Vibrant and richly textured, Strife is keenly in tune with its times even though it’s set a decade ago. And Keddie has again fashioned a messy, multi-faceted character who can be as irritating as she is compelling.

Strife is on Binge.

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