A Place to Call Home

[Donald Binks]

I was wondering if there are many others who have been watching this brilliant Australian series - (now into its 6th and final season).

For those who don't know of it, the stories concern the life of a wealthy family who reside on their country estate in the 1950's. A young woman comes to reside in the town. She is Jewish and has had a hideous past due to the war...

Although perhaps some of the characters tend towards the stereotypical, they are not too far in that direction. The episodes are well written and I find that my life must be totally boring in comparison to what seems to happen to this family. There are many plots and one's attention is never dimmed.

When so much television is absolute pap these days, it is wonderful that one can sit down and enjoy a sophisticated programme that is done so well.

[Harlowgold]

It airs on PBS in my town (alas only once - most unusual for this channel which tends to rerun most programs at least twice each week - so I occasionally miss it). I enjoy it very much although there are a few things about it that I have issues with - the villainess wife is so absurdly over the top in her machinations it comes close to ruining the show for me, it's a little too latter-day PC for a show set in the 1950's (I'm a liberal but I would like a little more realism for a period piece when dealing with assorted prejudices), and it moves almost too fast for a "soap", issues often resolved in a couple of episodes and on to the next problem. I particularly like the performances of Noni Hazelhurst as Elizabeth, Marta Dusseldorp as Sarah, and Craig Hall as Jack Duncan. I need to be careful reading about this show online as it apparently is still in the fourth season in my area and a brief glance at Wikipedia alas told me of the death of a minor character and that a fairly major supporting one apparently is not in season five.

[bobfells]

Donald, my wife and I have watched several seasons of HOME on Acorn TV. I agree that the series is well written and well acted, and the photography is top notch. But we feel that around season 3 the story ideas began getting a little strange. We began watching season 4 and left off after a few shows. Bringing the "Regina" character back and having her live near the the other characters became a bit much. Also, the "mother" character does a 180 from a mean old harpy to a loving matriarch also suggested that new writers were brought in for an overhaul.

One false start we noted around season two was a "frame" device that takes place in the present where the lead character Sarah is now an old lady and a young woman interviews her. This sort of prologue was a one-off and we never saw it used again but unfortunately it suggested how things turn out with old Sarah now running the place. So much for keeping the audience in suspense.

In a way, this series reminded me a bit of a Spanish TV series called GRAND HOTEL. Sumptuously photographed with an attractive cast, even with English subtitles it was terrific for the first two seasons. Then it started getting weird and there were continuity problems as if the producers and writers "forgot" certain events such as one of the characters murdering another. This literally got dropped out of the plot! We stuck with the entire run but the finale was preposterous as if some bigwig decreed that after all the skullduggery by various characters the story had to have a happy ending no matter what.