Wellmania: Netflix, lambchops and green smoothies revived Australian TV
Wellmania, starring Celeste Barber, has launched like a rocket and is the detox Australian television so desperately needs.
Wellmania is the detox Australian television so desperately needs. Which also, incidentally, is the entire premise of this romp of a series which debuted on Netflix to rave reviews and, more importantly, huge viewership.
The series, touted as a “dramedy”, has launched like a rocket since it premiered last week and landed in the top 10 Netflix charts of not only Australia, but globally.
The homegrown production is now the seventh most popular series in English in the world and a top show in close to 40 countries including the UK and Iceland. This is no mean feat for a show about green smoothies that features a lot of blue language.
Wellmania stars Celeste Barber, in a role that fits her like cinematic Spanx. The comedian, famous for her relatability and self-deprecating Instagram videos mocking models, graces the screen with zero grace, and it is perfect.
Another highlight is the luminous Miranda Otto playing a French sex therapist/Esther Perel-esque character named Camille who is really “Karen from Wagga Wagga” and who has multiple doctorates.
Barber is Liv, a successful food writer based in New York on the cusp of an opportunity to host a cooking inspired reality TV show. However this “human tornado” is also on the verge of a breakdown, a full physical (and looming mental) snap thanks to her “live fast, die young” approach to life. That sanitised version is according to the press material but in the show it’s more succinctly captured by her mantra: “F--k diet, f--k exercise. Carpe that diem”.
Despite Liv having a bigger chip on her shoulder about Australia than Western Australia, this show set and filmed in and around Sydney is a love letter to the Emerald City. Seeing Sydney on the small, streaming screen really hammers home how the city personifies seemingly effortless clean living, wellness and a “hot by association” mentality. Even the cracked and overcrowded Bondi to Bronte goat track looks enticing as Liv trots up the path in inappropriate high-top sneakers.
Liv is back in Sydney from her New York base to surprise her best friend Amy for her 40th birthday. She is due back in days for a life-changing meeting when a series of silly and unfortunate events sees her down and out back in her single bed at her mum’s place in the ’burbs.
After fainting in the US Consulate in a bid to get her green card back she is forced to makeover her health before being granted permission to return to the country which has an obesity rate of about 40 per cent.
What follows is a journey akin to Mr Bean with an unacceptable BMI.
“All I need to do is starve myself and have my colon rinsed out,” Liv, 39, says before throwing herself into a “wellness journey” of juice cleanses, cupping and clean living.
Wellmania is the brilliance of The Castle combined with a refreshingly natural, non-contrived dialogue between a wonderfully representative cast. Nothing feels forced or overtly symbolic. Well, nothing except the premise of the show about a booze hag going “full Bondi”.
Despite opening with a sex scene, featuring more devil’s water than a Dan Murphy’s haul on the Thursday before Good Friday, as well as illicit drug use, it feels, dare I say, almost family friendly. This is a return to the golden age of Aussie TV where local stars, screenwriters and storylines shone.
But Wellmania isn’t a throwback – it’s the future and it’s fantastic. As already stated, the casting is the first layer of brilliance. Nothing about it screams “diversity hire”. Every scene and every character is whip smart (even the kids). The script and chemistry is as zingy as a wet face lathered in retinol and as frothy, and surprisingly delightful, as a macadamia milk latte with a shot of MCT oil. Nothing feels forced. Except for maybe Liv’s first colonic irrigation … using an open system (if you know, you know).
For a minute, well actually more like 26-consecutive ones in this eight-part run, you’ll feel weirdly patriotic.
There is just something about a show focusing on a hot mess trying to get healthy that feels authentically Australian right now. Or perhaps it’s a welcome reprieve from the stodgy, dank news about interest rates, inflation and the impending referendum, but Wellmania is escapism for those of us who have consumed all of TikTok and can’t afford a Gwinganna getaway.
Against an undercurrent of sad trauma, there are brilliantly executed sledges about gluten-free kid’s birthday parties, fledgling marriages and cocaine in bathrooms. Wellmania proves that Australian creativity, despite the Covid interruption and years of budget cuts, is thriving and flourishing.
For me, it was the lamb chops that did it. In this scene, Liv – who boasts a Michelin palate – asks her widowed mum to cook her lamb chops for dinner while sitting at the breakfast bar planning her brother Gaz’s impending wedding. It made my emotional response to the show peak like Liv’s cholesterol. Something about the mention of the humble dinner option took me right back to my grandmother’s kitchen table, a place where memories of long, loud meals, happy hearts and full bellies were seared into my consciousness.
The secret sauce for Wellmania is in its backstory and those who were involved behind the scenes. The show is based on Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness by former journalist Brigid Delaney, who wrote the book after she found herself at an “unhealthy” point in her life as she approached 40. She was asked whether she wished to trial a controversial fast which then serving prime minister Malcolm Turnbull endured. She agreed, jetted home to Australia and arrived at the “wellness clinic” hungover and with a large latte in hand. What followed was a lot of Chinese herbs, boiled chicken, sweat and other bodily fluids being exorcised during her “journey”.
Delaney’s fingerprints, and wry, unique observations, are all over this new adaptation. She created the series with author and journalist Benjamin Law, who also has a producing and cameo credit.
Wellmania is not just about poking fun at those who live in activewear, it’s a family drama that tackles things such as dementia, grief, ageing and our mind-body connections but in a way that will get mainstream Australia talking about these important issues with humour and heart. There are now demands for a second season. Let’s hope Netflix coughs up the refined-sugar, dairy-free dough to make it happen.
Wellmania is streaming on Netflix
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