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Sydney Morning Herald
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
This ABC beachside drama is funny, intriguing and anchored in real Aussie life
The Family Next Door ★★★★ When Isabel (Teresa Palmer) blows into Pleasant Court, a neat suburban cul-de-sac in the beachside village of Osprey Bay, she hits like a sirocco, all hot, bothered and unsettling. She's attractive, single, and mysterious, and soon enough tongues are wagging, suspicions aroused, hackles raised. Everybody needs good neighbours, but the regular inhabitants of this tight-knit court are soon wondering if that's what their short-term renter – there for two weeks to research and write an article on a town that could be the 'new Byron Bay' – really is. Based on a novel by Sally Hepworth, who has made no secret of her admiration for the work of Liane Moriarty, The Family Next Door feels rather more grounded in the everyday than, say, Big Little Lies or Nine Perfect Strangers. That makes it more relatable, though it perhaps also costs a little in terms of glamour. Still, it does have a very good-looking and talented cast, appealing real estate and some excellent beaches to make it all very pleasing on the eye. Loading Adapted by Sarah Scheller (Strife, The Letdown) and directed by Emma Freeman (whose extensive credits include The Newsreader, Fake, Love Me, Clickbait and Offspring), the six-parter flits pleasingly from social satire to comedy to domestic thriller. The focus shifts from episode to episode, with each household in the court getting its turn in the spotlight, as Isabel's real agenda is gradually revealed. Bella Heathcote is the first to shine, as Ange, the tightly coiled real estate agent who lets the rental to Isabel, lives next door, and doesn't hesitate to pop in unannounced. She's a budding developer, originally from Sydney, who schedules sex with her husband Lucas (Bob Morley) and fusses endlessly so everything is just so. 'People here don't like change,' she tells Isabel in an early exchange. 'Selfish NIMBYs who don't like growth.'
The Age
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
This ABC beachside drama is funny, intriguing and anchored in real Aussie life
The Family Next Door ★★★★ When Isabel (Teresa Palmer) blows into Pleasant Court, a neat suburban cul-de-sac in the beachside village of Osprey Bay, she hits like a sirocco, all hot, bothered and unsettling. She's attractive, single, and mysterious, and soon enough tongues are wagging, suspicions aroused, hackles raised. Everybody needs good neighbours, but the regular inhabitants of this tight-knit court are soon wondering if that's what their short-term renter – there for two weeks to research and write an article on a town that could be the 'new Byron Bay' – really is. Based on a novel by Sally Hepworth, who has made no secret of her admiration for the work of Liane Moriarty, The Family Next Door feels rather more grounded in the everyday than, say, Big Little Lies or Nine Perfect Strangers. That makes it more relatable, though it perhaps also costs a little in terms of glamour. Still, it does have a very good-looking and talented cast, appealing real estate and some excellent beaches to make it all very pleasing on the eye. Loading Adapted by Sarah Scheller (Strife, The Letdown) and directed by Emma Freeman (whose extensive credits include The Newsreader, Fake, Love Me, Clickbait and Offspring), the six-parter flits pleasingly from social satire to comedy to domestic thriller. The focus shifts from episode to episode, with each household in the court getting its turn in the spotlight, as Isabel's real agenda is gradually revealed. Bella Heathcote is the first to shine, as Ange, the tightly coiled real estate agent who lets the rental to Isabel, lives next door, and doesn't hesitate to pop in unannounced. She's a budding developer, originally from Sydney, who schedules sex with her husband Lucas (Bob Morley) and fusses endlessly so everything is just so. 'People here don't like change,' she tells Isabel in an early exchange. 'Selfish NIMBYs who don't like growth.'
Sydney Morning Herald
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Perfect on the outside, chaos within: Teresa Palmer taps her heart of darkness in ABC drama
Teresa Palmer is heavily pregnant with her fifth child and positively glowing (as usual) when she joins me to talk about her role in The Family Next Door, a six-part ABC drama series in which she plays a woman who moves into a quiet suburban cul de sac near the beach and rapidly proceeds to blow it all apart. 'At its core, The Family Next Door is about the tension that exists between perception and truth,' says Palmer, who plays Isabelle, a woman who arrives in Pleasant Court claiming to be a journalist looking to write a travel piece, but whose real reason for being there will wreak havoc on the tight-knit community. 'All these people in this cul-de-sac have crafted these perfect little lives on the outside, but on the inside they're dealing with trauma and chaos and shame and longing. The series peels back that glossy facade, and it's very revealing, which is wonderful.' Isabelle is not an especially likeable character, though. She lies and steals and hides her true motives. She stomps around, emanates rage even when she's eating her food or drinking a beer, and immerses herself in ice baths any time it all threatens to become too much (which is often). 'I think there's a self-centeredness about Isabelle,' she says of her character, whom she describes as a disruptor. 'She has such a mission that she's eagle-eyed focused on, and it doesn't matter the ruin that is left in its wake – she is chasing something with this reckless abandon, and it's not necessarily the best thing for everyone.' Based on a novel by Sally Hepworth, the series has been adapted by Sarah Scheller (The Letdown, Strife) and is directed by Emma Freeman (The Newsreader, Fake). And while it has distinct echoes of the work of Liane Moriarty – whose Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall have been so successfully adapted for screen in recent years – there's a pleasing and more grounded nuance to the way the characters and relationships are portrayed. Bella Heathcote plays Ange, the real estate agent with ambitions to become a developer and transform the sleepy seaside town. She leases the short-term rental to Isabelle, lives next door, frantically curates a perfect version of what she wants life to be, and hovers over the cul-de-sac like something between a guardian angel and a tyrant. Her husband is Lucas (Bob Morley), a handsome photographer-surfer-layabout, who may or may not be having an affair. Lawyer Fran (Ming-Zhu Hill) is married to Nigel (Daniel Henshall), a depressed and lethargic PhD candidate. Lulu (Jane Harber) and Holly (Maria Angelico) run a vegan cafe. Essie (Philippa Northeast) is struggling with post-natal depression and exhaustion after the birth of her second child, and with the fact she and husband Ben (Tane Williams-Accra) are so broke they've had to move back in with her mother, Barbara (Catherine McClements). Loading Everyone's kids, meanwhile, run from yard to yard on ad hoc play dates, while the parents take every opportunity for impromptu drinks on deck chairs as the summer heat bakes the bitumen and sprinklers sprinkle. It's Neighbours meets Home and Away, with a dash of something much darker – the Australian dream teetering on the brink of a nightmare. 'There are cracks beneath the surface for all these people, and Isabelle's presence is the breakdown to break through,' says Palmer. 'I mean, there's absolutely no sustainability in living this veneered life without actually getting under the surface, so I think my character is necessary for the growth of everyone.' Not that she's judging. 'I actually feel like I identify with all of them,' says Palmer. 'There's little pieces of each one of these women that I can relate to.' Relatability is Palmer's secret sauce. Though she's been working steadily as an actress since 2006, the 39-year-old has also built a parallel identity as a blogger, podcaster and social media personality with a focus on wellness and motherhood. In January, she and her partner (American actor/filmmaker Mark Webber) and their kids (her boys are eight and 11, her girls are four and six) relocated to Byron Bay. Loading 'We've always split our time between Los Angeles and Adelaide,' she says. 'That was always the back and forth, and also wherever I'm filming – we would all just move to the location. But I was like, 'All right, let's get pregnant and go to Byron Bay, put the kids in school and buy a house.' And that's what we've done.' Byron seems the perfect backdrop for the yummy mummy persona Palmer projects in her web presence. And by her own reckoning, it's not just a projection. 'I have this joy-filled life, my dream life,' she says, and somehow it doesn't come across as boastful. But her choice of screen roles couldn't make for a starker contrast. Isabelle is a dark character full of rage, fuelled by trauma in her past. In the Disney+ series The Clearing, loosely based on the true story of Melbourne cult The Family, she was an adult wrestling with the complex relationship with the 'mother' (Miranda Otto) who had abducted her as a young child. She has, in fact, been drawn to dark roles since the very start of her career, having made her debut in 2:37, a film about a suicide at an Adelaide high school. 'I am drawn to these darker characters who have an evolution from the start to the end,' she says. 'In The Clearing, my character was a broken flower, a little bit lost. But in this, there's such a drive in Isabelle. It's unrelenting, and then there's an aggressiveness to the character, which is really exciting to explore. 'I really love that trauma shows up and manifests itself in different behaviours. There's no right way to deal with trauma. Everyone handles it differently.' On the surface, it would appear there's not a lot of trauma in her life. So what does she draw on for these roles? 'It's funny, I always try to derive from my own past experiences,' she says. 'Of course, I have little traumas and things I went through that were not necessarily easy in my life. Me and my mum growing up together, just her and I, and her having schizo-affective disorder, it wasn't easy. But I still had the best childhood. All I knew was love. And these characters don't have that. 'And even though my childhood looked different from some of the other kids I went to school with, I had the best relationship with my mum, and I had all these wonderful childhood experiences where I just got to have this really playful, awesome mum who kind of let me get away with anything, and it was epic. I wouldn't change anything. But obviously, there's untapped feelings that I can draw upon in these roles.' Loading Playing the darkness is what she excels at, she feels. 'I find a simpler character much harder to portray. Comedy would be harder for me. But the dark, traumatic roles, I find that much easier to tap into, for whatever reason. And also it reflects something real: the inner chaos and trauma and grief and rage and all those things. People are told to keep things neat and quiet, but I like emotional mess and telling that story.' On the screen, you mean, or in real life, too? 'On screen, on screen,' she says urgently. 'It represents real experiences, but I would like to not have that bleed over into my life.' The Family Next Door premieres 8pm, August 10, on the ABC.
The Age
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Perfect on the outside, chaos within: Teresa Palmer taps her heart of darkness in ABC drama
Teresa Palmer is heavily pregnant with her fifth child and positively glowing (as usual) when she joins me to talk about her role in The Family Next Door, a six-part ABC drama series in which she plays a woman who moves into a quiet suburban cul de sac near the beach and rapidly proceeds to blow it all apart. 'At its core, The Family Next Door is about the tension that exists between perception and truth,' says Palmer, who plays Isabelle, a woman who arrives in Pleasant Court claiming to be a journalist looking to write a travel piece, but whose real reason for being there will wreak havoc on the tight-knit community. 'All these people in this cul-de-sac have crafted these perfect little lives on the outside, but on the inside they're dealing with trauma and chaos and shame and longing. The series peels back that glossy facade, and it's very revealing, which is wonderful.' Isabelle is not an especially likeable character, though. She lies and steals and hides her true motives. She stomps around, emanates rage even when she's eating her food or drinking a beer, and immerses herself in ice baths any time it all threatens to become too much (which is often). 'I think there's a self-centeredness about Isabelle,' she says of her character, whom she describes as a disruptor. 'She has such a mission that she's eagle-eyed focused on, and it doesn't matter the ruin that is left in its wake – she is chasing something with this reckless abandon, and it's not necessarily the best thing for everyone.' Based on a novel by Sally Hepworth, the series has been adapted by Sarah Scheller (The Letdown, Strife) and is directed by Emma Freeman (The Newsreader, Fake). And while it has distinct echoes of the work of Liane Moriarty – whose Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall have been so successfully adapted for screen in recent years – there's a pleasing and more grounded nuance to the way the characters and relationships are portrayed. Bella Heathcote plays Ange, the real estate agent with ambitions to become a developer and transform the sleepy seaside town. She leases the short-term rental to Isabelle, lives next door, frantically curates a perfect version of what she wants life to be, and hovers over the cul-de-sac like something between a guardian angel and a tyrant. Her husband is Lucas (Bob Morley), a handsome photographer-surfer-layabout, who may or may not be having an affair. Lawyer Fran (Ming-Zhu Hill) is married to Nigel (Daniel Henshall), a depressed and lethargic PhD candidate. Lulu (Jane Harber) and Holly (Maria Angelico) run a vegan cafe. Essie (Philippa Northeast) is struggling with post-natal depression and exhaustion after the birth of her second child, and with the fact she and husband Ben (Tane Williams-Accra) are so broke they've had to move back in with her mother, Barbara (Catherine McClements). Loading Everyone's kids, meanwhile, run from yard to yard on ad hoc play dates, while the parents take every opportunity for impromptu drinks on deck chairs as the summer heat bakes the bitumen and sprinklers sprinkle. It's Neighbours meets Home and Away, with a dash of something much darker – the Australian dream teetering on the brink of a nightmare. 'There are cracks beneath the surface for all these people, and Isabelle's presence is the breakdown to break through,' says Palmer. 'I mean, there's absolutely no sustainability in living this veneered life without actually getting under the surface, so I think my character is necessary for the growth of everyone.' Not that she's judging. 'I actually feel like I identify with all of them,' says Palmer. 'There's little pieces of each one of these women that I can relate to.' Relatability is Palmer's secret sauce. Though she's been working steadily as an actress since 2006, the 39-year-old has also built a parallel identity as a blogger, podcaster and social media personality with a focus on wellness and motherhood. In January, she and her partner (American actor/filmmaker Mark Webber) and their kids (her boys are eight and 11, her girls are four and six) relocated to Byron Bay. Loading 'We've always split our time between Los Angeles and Adelaide,' she says. 'That was always the back and forth, and also wherever I'm filming – we would all just move to the location. But I was like, 'All right, let's get pregnant and go to Byron Bay, put the kids in school and buy a house.' And that's what we've done.' Byron seems the perfect backdrop for the yummy mummy persona Palmer projects in her web presence. And by her own reckoning, it's not just a projection. 'I have this joy-filled life, my dream life,' she says, and somehow it doesn't come across as boastful. But her choice of screen roles couldn't make for a starker contrast. Isabelle is a dark character full of rage, fuelled by trauma in her past. In the Disney+ series The Clearing, loosely based on the true story of Melbourne cult The Family, she was an adult wrestling with the complex relationship with the 'mother' (Miranda Otto) who had abducted her as a young child. She has, in fact, been drawn to dark roles since the very start of her career, having made her debut in 2:37, a film about a suicide at an Adelaide high school. 'I am drawn to these darker characters who have an evolution from the start to the end,' she says. 'In The Clearing, my character was a broken flower, a little bit lost. But in this, there's such a drive in Isabelle. It's unrelenting, and then there's an aggressiveness to the character, which is really exciting to explore. 'I really love that trauma shows up and manifests itself in different behaviours. There's no right way to deal with trauma. Everyone handles it differently.' On the surface, it would appear there's not a lot of trauma in her life. So what does she draw on for these roles? 'It's funny, I always try to derive from my own past experiences,' she says. 'Of course, I have little traumas and things I went through that were not necessarily easy in my life. Me and my mum growing up together, just her and I, and her having schizo-affective disorder, it wasn't easy. But I still had the best childhood. All I knew was love. And these characters don't have that. 'And even though my childhood looked different from some of the other kids I went to school with, I had the best relationship with my mum, and I had all these wonderful childhood experiences where I just got to have this really playful, awesome mum who kind of let me get away with anything, and it was epic. I wouldn't change anything. But obviously, there's untapped feelings that I can draw upon in these roles.' Loading Playing the darkness is what she excels at, she feels. 'I find a simpler character much harder to portray. Comedy would be harder for me. But the dark, traumatic roles, I find that much easier to tap into, for whatever reason. And also it reflects something real: the inner chaos and trauma and grief and rage and all those things. People are told to keep things neat and quiet, but I like emotional mess and telling that story.' On the screen, you mean, or in real life, too? 'On screen, on screen,' she says urgently. 'It represents real experiences, but I would like to not have that bleed over into my life.' The Family Next Door premieres 8pm, August 10, on the ABC.
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Were the Friends even human? Watching the old shows again, they certainly don't breed like the rest of us
I've started watching this great fantasy series from the mid-90s and early 00s – it's called Friends. It follows a group of humanoid characters who treat childbirth as a social occasion, wear full makeup postpartum and never look after their babies. The fantasy element is very clever – so subtle in fact that it is only now, watching it decades later, as a parent myself, that I even noticed it. Perhaps back in the 90s the otherworldly nature of Phoebe Buffay waiting to give birth to triplets in a room chock-full of her wise-cracking friends, despite it being a high-risk pregnancy, was understood. Maybe the way that Ross Geller's baby Ben is delivered under a sheet, by an obstetrician apparently working blind, was a well-known speculative fiction trope back then. Possibly when it originally aired, parents were simply amazed by the special effects involved when Rachel Green was shown sitting in a coffee shop gossiping about her love life, three weeks after giving birth, in full makeup and blow-dry, high heels, a pair of size 10 jeans – and entirely without her baby. Whatever was going on, no one at the time seemed fazed by this uncanny valley where babies breastfeed just once in their life, never get ill and are put behind glass in hospital nurseries to be glanced at by visiting relatives who then have sex in cupboards. Luckily, television depictions of birth and parenting have come a long way since I was a child. And I was paying attention, even then. For instance, I remember the scene from Cold Feet in which Karen stormed into her husband David's office demanding that he hire her a nanny (nannies are a big feature of these shows, you will notice). What I didn't remember, and only spotted on a recent rewatch, is that in a preceding scene Karen is shown tearing her hair out at the kitchen table, while trying to feed porridge to her toddler. Except the toddler has a dummy in his mouth, rendering him entirely unable to eat any porridge even if he wanted to. This sort of continuity error might seem small-scale to some of you, but it's the sort of glaring misunderstanding of early parent life that makes me wonder if anyone on that writing, directing and production team was regularly feeding their own child. In recent years, the number of television shows showing something a little closer to what I recognise as pregnancy, birth and early child-wrangling have exploded: Motherland, The Letdown, Trying, Catastrophe, Better Things and Breeders have all made some effort to involve a little domestic labour in their plotlines. Some of them let the babies actually cry and breastfeed. Occasionally the parents look tired and can't make social arrangements. Sometimes, the children in these shows even have lines. I have no doubt that this is, in part at least, because there are more women writing, directing and producing television today. And before you say it, yes, I know Marta Kauffman created Friends and I also know that she has three children. But as I've already pointed out, Friends is a fantasy series. It's magical realism. Kauffman knows that, I know that and I'm sure Lisa Kudrow, who got pregnant during season four, knows that too. I'm not so oblivious to the needs of television drama and comedy to think that you can make a 20-minute episode showing a woman sitting in a dark room at 3am trying to guide a nipple into her baby's ear, in a delirium of exhaustion while wondering idly if she's got threadworms again. But as books such as Becky Barnicoat's new graphic novel Cry When the Baby Cries have shown, the comedy and drama involved in pregnancy and parenthood are right there, in heart-rending, breathtaking detail, if we just allow people to show them. Maybe books have always done it better. About 40 years after they were published, the classic Jill Murphy children's books Five Minutes' Peace, Peace at Last and Whatever Next! still speak more directly to the experience of being a parent than many film and television depictions we've had since. Mrs Large from Five Minutes' Peace may be a bipedal marmalade-eating elephant living in the suburbs. But she's still a more realistic parent than Rachel Green. Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of Motherhood
