Australian TV writers pick their favourite episodes
AS FANS we all have our favourite episodes of the TV shows we love ... and so too do the people who write the scripts.
Offspring — Debra Oswald — Episode 501:
I feel lucky to have had the chance to work on a range of TV scripts, including Bananas in Pyjamas, Police Rescue and Palace of Dreams, but I guess I should focus on Offspring.
My biggest source of pride is that our team of writers managed to keep the story strong and fresh over five series (65 episodes) and it was very satisfying for us to follow the characters through so much of their lives, with the emotional layers that accumulate over time. But if I was forced to nominate one script, it would be episode one of series five.
At the end of series four, we killed Patrick, Nina’s great love, when she was eight months pregnant. Not only did this provoke an intense reaction from fans, it was also a huge thing to do our characters. Returning to the drama in series five was always going to take the show into tricky but potentially rich territory. How to come back from that in a way that absorbed the enormity of what had happened and honoured the feelings of the audience but didn’t send the series careering off into a different kind of drama? Right from the telemovie pilot, Offspring had navigated a mix of tones — comic, heartbreaking, playful, sexy, serious — and I wanted to maintain that balance. So I tried to write episode 501 in a way that gave full weight to Nina’s grief but also allowed laughter and joy and sexiness to exist in our world alongside the sadness.
One of the main plot points in 501 was Nina having her first orgasm in six months — possibly a risky choice in a story about grief! But I think the whole creative team (and especially Asher Keddie) handled it beautifully.
In that episode, I love the gorgeous pre-credit sequence that sweeps us through the previous six months — a sequence constructed with the skills of the director Emma Freeman and the director of photography John Brawley. I hope we got there with episode 501 — incorporating a tragedy into the world of Offspring without killing off the chance for comedy and joy.
Debra Oswald has a new book called Useful.
To discover the favourite episodes of other Australian writers click the link below.
SOURCE: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/australian-tv-writers-pick-their-favourite-episodes/story-e6frfmyi-1227415901202