Why Offspring Should Be The Next Family Drama You Binge On
We are constantly on the hunt for our next Netflix show to binge on. If you love family dramas or dramedy and are looking for a unique, offbeat show to watch with your family, Offspring is the perfect option for you! It is an underrated family drama based in Melbourne, Australia based on the Proudmans, a quirky, messy yet loving family whose dynamics move your heart and make you laugh. Great combination, right? So here is why you should be binging on Offspring:
(Minimal) Spoilers ahead
- Relatable Characters
Almost all characters of the show are flawed. They make mistakes, have their vices, do not have everything in life (great career, love life, work-life balance, money etc.), they succeed, fail, act ridiculously and yet share an unbreakable bond. The characters feel relatable because this is how life is and how people are — imperfect and yet sailing through. If you are tired of black and white characters, or stereotypical tropes of Miss Cool, Miss Perfect, Mr. Sad, Mr. Loser, etc. this show will be a breath of fresh air!
2. Nuanced and Complex Relationships
When Darcy impregnates a woman half his age, they decide to co-parent the kid. Their relationship is not transformed into a romantic one. As they start sharing a home, they turn from strangers to friends to best friends with a great understanding and respect for each other’s boundaries. The portrayal is done with utmost maturity without caricaturing the two. Another great example is the relationship between siblings. Billie loves her sister Nina to bits and will do anything for her but at the same time is jealous of her overachieving sister with a great career. Her love and jealousy co-exist and compete; and even as love triumphs, it is gradual and after some emotional space or struggle. No love stories are perfect in the show and reminds us of our own struggles to keep a relationship going just because we love someone. No perfect parents, no fairy tale love story that you will aspire for. It is as real, nuanced, and complex as our own lives and yet, it always gives us hope and touches our hearts.
3. Attitude Towards Sex
The Proudman family trait is their proneness to impulsive sex and using sex as coping mechanism. Sex is an unspoken theme of the show, almost an anchor for the story without it being written as vulgar or to grab attention. Sex is neither a taboo nor a selling point of the show. The family discusses sex and its repercussions- the good and the bad- openly. They rejoice when a sibling enjoys good sex and cringe when the mother discusses her sex life. But cringe all you want, Geraldine’s character is clear that age is not linked with desires, and she has just as much right to live her life on her own terms.
4. Portrayal of Mental Health
While TV series and movies have increasingly started showing characters with mental health issues, the representation is still very limited and unidimensional. The protagonist, Nina suffers from high functioning anxiety. But the show does not delve on her panic attacks but treats it as a very common habit that many of us may be guilty of- she often imagines scenarios in her mind, both the extreme positive and extreme negative outcome, someone judging her and severing ties with for the smallest thing- or in simple words, overthinking. Where her anxiety is subtly inserted, is in her tendency to get affected by the harsh, unreal scenarios in her head rather than the reality. Nina’s mental health issues do not become the focus of the show or her entire personality but are a part of her character’s otherwise rich life- as is the case with all humans. Mental health is a textured background that does not cast gloom or despair but evokes hope.
5. Great Acting
Each character in Offspring is multi-layered and every actor has done justice to the role. Be it lead actors like Asher Keddie (Nina) or Kat Stewart (Billie), or supporting actors like Lachy Hulme (Dr. Martin Clegg), the entire cast seem to have delivered amazing performances where emotions were conveyed through the eyes and pregnant silences than through dialogues necessarily. An extremely memorable scene for me was when Billie feels jealous of the female singer her husband is performing with and she sings the same song in front of the mirror, almost to compete with the other woman and convince herself she can sing too. There are no dialogues to articulate her inner anger, jealousy, or pain; instead, the emotions come through as she starts singing the song. The resolve to compete felt in the first few lines give way to her voice breaking as she fights her tears in the end.
6. Amazing Music
The show makers seem to have scoured the earth for the most unique, unheard of songs which are sewn beautifully with the narrative. I shazam-ed my way through the seasons, often reaching songs which range from million views to less than thousand. My favourite discoveries were Heart That’s Pounding (Sally Seltmann), A Song About Me (Coby Grant, Gonna Be Happy (Cathy Heller) and You Make Me Happy (Clare Bowditch). If you love discovering new and different music, do watch the show for purely this reason!
Most of us have watched American and British shows, but there is always something rewarding when one expands to shows from other regions. It offers a tiny window to a different culture, mannerisms, and lifestyles or reminds us just how similar we all are, no matter from which corner of the planet we might belong to. Offspring is a fun and warm watch for everyone so go binge it right now without much further ado.
Let me know if you have watched it and what you loved about it in the comments below.