So who else watched new Australian show “Spirited” starring Claudia Karvan on the W Channel tonight? This isn’t really a review, more of a thoughts post, but it does contain very light spoilers. The first episode of Spirited titled “The man who fell to earth” – an homage to one David Bowie perhaps – set up the overall story neatly. Our lead character Suzy Darling (played by Karvan) is married to a douchebag husband Steve Darling, played to perfection by Rodger Corser. Suzy has had enough of Steve making her look like an ass and swiftly moves out into her own apartment, with the kids, who seem absolutely non fussed, so Steve must be a bit of a douche dad too.
Enter the main story thread in the form of Henry Mallet, played by Brit actor Matt King. Henry can’t remember much and thinks he may be a time traveler who only Karvan’s character Suzy can see, making it far more likely he’s actually a ghost. This premise somewhat reminded me of “The Ghost and Mrs Muir”, though most of you are probably too young to remember that wonderful little show.
Despite being an adult show, Spirited at times felt like one of those quirky teen shows, like “Round the Twist”. That’s not to say it was a bad episode by any means, I certainly enjoyed its odd quirk more than say the recently aired Aussie show Offspring (also from the producers of Love My Way). Karvan does well to carry the show and King is a joy to watch. I’ll be tuning in next week to see how the second episode goes, how about you guys?
