How many times have we heard the hoary sitcom trope that “family is who you’re closest to?” Your colleagues at work are a family; the people you live with at college are a family; the group of friends that hang out at the same coffee shop are a family. What we haven’t seen before is how a group of 30- and 40-somethings, sick of being single and alone in crummy living situations, become a family simply by buying a house together. That’s the idea behind the Aussie dramedy Five Bedrooms.
Opening Shot: Scenes from an Indian wedding. A female voice over says, “Fall in love. Get married. Buy a house. It’s beautiful. But this story isn’t about that.”
The Gist: Way in the back of the reception hall is a table full of singles, the last of a social circle that is pretty much all married. There’s Liz (Kat Stewart), a whip-smart attorney who has just gone through a very painful divorce and seems to be connecting with the mimbo-ish Ben (Stephen Peacocke), even though they have nothing in common. There’s Liz’s best friend Harry (Roy Joseph), a doctor who’s gay but doesn’t have the heart to come out to his very traditional mother Manju (Kumud Merani), who keeps trying to set him up with Indian women. And then there’s Ainsley (Katie Robertson), a real estate agent (and the show’s narrator) who happens to be in love with her very married “work husband”, Lachlan Best (Hugh Sheridan).
They’re all in uncomfortable living situations — especially Harry, who lives with his mother, Lachlan, whose marriage is perpetually on the rocks, and Ainsley, who lives in a “granny flat” in back of her landlord Heather’s (Doris Younane) house. So when Heather wanders over to their table to complain about the unrelenting misery of marriage, the conversation turns to finding a house, which seems impossible these days. Heather jokes that the five of them would have an easier time if they pooled their money together and buy one big house.
A few weeks later, they do just that. Ainsley and Lachlan have found a house up for auction, and, after a bit of a nerve-wracking bidding process, they get the house for $2.52 million. Heather comes to the auction because she thinks of Ainsley as a daughter and knows the history between her and Lachlan, who used to come over to visit Ainsley — and sometimes sleep with her — after his wife Melanie (Kate Jenkinson) would kick him out. She thinks going into this arrangement with mostly strangers is silly enough, but it’s particularly bad news for Ainsley. Ainsley says this is something she needs to do, but Heather tells her to keep the guest house keys just in case things blow up.
There are other issues, as well: As soon as they move into the house, things start to fall apart. For instance, Lachlan and his wife have shower sex (long story… Let’s say Mel was angry her husband moved without telling her), not realizing that there’s no plumbing under his en suite bathroom; the resulting flood ruins Liz’s room. Liz has to keep telling Ben that, despite their post-wedding fling, things have to stay platonic. Harry gets repeated guilt trips from his mother, who then sees him and Liz in bed together (as friends, of course!) and jumps to conclusions.
But the biggest trauma is between Ainsley and Lachlan. After Mel’s visit, she finally admits to him that she’s in love with him, and immediately goes back to Heather’s granny flat to rethink this investment. But she and Heather come up with an idea: What if Heather moves in and Lachlan sells his share to her? Why is the long-married Heather looking to move out? Let’s say her husband is more interested in random eBay auctions than he is in listening to her.
Our Take: Five Bedrooms originally aired on Australia’s Network 10 last year, and it’s a pleasant-enough show that examines the age-old TV trope of just what a family is. The first episode held a couple of chuckles and a laugh or two, but if you’re looking for gut-grabbing comedy, you’re looking in the wrong place. But that doesn’t mean the show isn’t worth watching, and that’s due to its extremely appealing cast.
Let’s face it: The idea behind Five Bedrooms isn’t all that different from Friends or Coupling or any other “friends as family” shows; it just shows these friendships developing from a starting point rather than in progress. But it helps that the people buying into this money pit of a house are a little older and a little more in need of other single people as friends; it makes the notion of these five semi-strangers entering this arrangement a bit more plausible. And, while the first episode doesn’t go super-in-depth into everyone’s story, we know more than enough about everyone to root for them as they figure out how to live together as roommates and friends.
One aspect we really enjoyed about the premiere is that it gets the whole Ainsley/Lachlan thing out in the open immediately. We’re not going to see an entire season of Ainsley pining away for him and coming oh-so-close to letting him know how she feels. As soon as he tells her that he feels she’s like a sister to him, all of the crap that he’s put her through over the years comes right out. And now that she’s fashioned this swap between Lachlan and Heather, it’ll be interesting to see how things play out with among the three of them during the first season. Will Lachlan see the light on Ainsley, and how will the married Heather fit in to all this?
Sex and Skin: We hear the shower sex between Lachlan and Mel, and we see some under-covers flashback sex between Ainsley and Lachlan.
Parting Shot: Ben, Liz, Ainsley, Harry and Heather put their fists in (Heather from 10 feet away) and agree to stay in the house for six months before considering getting out of the arrangement, which would potentially lose them all a lot of money.
Sleeper Star: We’ll highlight Stephen Peacocke here because his last name is almost a match for the service the show is on, but also because Ben is the person we know the least about after the first episode. Is he just going to be the handsome but vacant guy in the house or will he have more depth?
Most Pilot-y Line: Lachlan tries to give a positive after the plumbing mishap: “It’s always darkest before the night.” “Dawn,” replies a heartbroken Ainsley. Is Lachlan that dense? Even Ben knows that pretty common phrase.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Five Bedrooms won’t make you laugh out loud, but as you get to know the people who have bought into this massive mess of a house, you’ll likely start rooting for their ersatz family to function like a real one.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.
Stream Five Bedrooms On Peacock
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vbmV3c2xhZ29vbi5jb20vay1wb3Atc3Rhci13b25oby1vbi1zdGFydGluZy1vdmVyLXNvbG8tbmV3LWVwLWZpbmFsbHktcmVmbGVjdGluZy1teS1vd24tY29sb3JzLzI3MDQ4MC_SAQA?oc=5
2020-08-14 08:47:00Z
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