Författare: Alexa Scarlata Research Fellow Media Communications RMIT Uni

Disney+ will add their latest Australian original to their catalogue today. The brief seems to have been to “amp up the Australianness” – and boy is it a cacophony.

Last Days of the Space Age is a vibrant, lush look at an incredible moment in Australia’s recent history. It’s promising to see Disney finally pour some money into a series with high production values and a focus on Australian voices, but the execution itself leaves much to be desired.

A delayed promise

The November 2019 launch of Disney+ in Australia was loud. In the weeks leading to its arrival, Disney ran an elaborate public transport ad campaign and hosted numerous pop-up events around the country.

The week of the launch, it hijacked entire prime time ad spots on local commercial broadcasters, with a revolving directory of its seemingly never-ending library. Ash Barty and Rove McManus featured heavily in this early marketing.

Disney’s aim was clear: it had gone on a local hiring blitz because Australia was an important market to the business and the company intended to produce new content here.

Since then, Disney+ has proved extremely popular. It recently surpassed Prime Video as the second most-used subscription streaming platform in Australia (after Netflix), with 28% of adults using the service in the first half of 2023.

However, much as we saw with Netflix, Disney’s early promises to produce Australian content didn’t immediately come to fruition – and it took nearly three years to announce a slate of local content commissions and acquisitions.

It has now released a couple of documentaries (Matildas: The World At Our Feet and Shipwreck Hunters Australia). Two scripted series – The Clearing (a thriller about a female-led cult) and The Artful Dodger (an Oliver Twist sequel set in 1850s Australia) – also came out last year, but arguably flew under the radar.

Everything, everywhere, all at once

Last Days of the Space Age is set in Perth in 1979. It follows three families and multiple generations grappling with the oddest confluence of true events: a strike at the local power company, the arrival of Miss Universe pageant contestants from around the world, and a crashing US space station, Skylab.

Fictional characters live through true events that took place in Western Australia, 1979.
Joel Pratley/Disney+

It’s an incredible and exciting premise. But perhaps there were some concerns there wasn’t enough going on already?

Why else are we also taken along on a feminist surfing odyssey reminiscent of Puberty Blues, a Vietnamese refugee’s quest to find her lost son in Malaysia, and one character’s journey coming to terms with their participation in the UK government’s atomic bomb testing 20 years earlier?

Last Days features deaths, defections and deb balls – all in eight short episodes. As a result, we get but a glimpse of Eileen Wilberforce (Deborah Mailman) battling to be accepted by her horrendous neighbours. And I’m left desperate to know more about Svetlana’s (Ines English) and Yvgeny’s (Jacek Koman) backstory in the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, by including as many plot points as possible, the fantastical events experienced in Western Australia 45 years ago struggle to breathe.

That said, the upside is that, unlike Disney+’s previous local productions, the show feels like it is first and foremost meant for Australian viewers.

Linh Dan Pham plays the role of Vietnamese refugee Sandy Bui.
Joel Pratley/Disney+

A brilliant cast from home and away

The show’s cast is enormous and terrific. Disney does that now seemingly necessary thing where it fronts a show with established and recognisable international talent. It has thrown Game of Thrones’ Iain Glen and the incredible Linh-Dan Pham from The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) into the show’s mix to appeal to viewers around the world.

But it has also lured Aussie exports Jesse Spencer and Radha Mitchell home. Thomas Weatherall is captivating and moves well beyond his performance in Heartbreak High, while the sisterly dynamic between newcomers Emily Grant and Mackenzie Mazur rings true. All the while, Mailman is perhaps the best thing about the show.

Emily Grant and Mackenzie Mazur play sisters Mia and Tilly.
Joel Pratley/Disney+

The series sounds comforting to the Australian ear, refusing to convert or explain references for international audiences. The writing team, which worked on Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Heights and Hungry Ghosts, have created a world that is both familiar and full of humour.

Given the particular 1979 events on which the show is centred, it’s unlikely we’ll see a second season of Last Days.

So what does this mean for future Disney+ commissions in Australia then? Disney has been tightlipped about what it’s going to invest in next.

It will be interesting to see whether the reception of Last Days of the Space Age inspires more local storytelling. If the series crash-lands (sorry, I had to), it might be bad news for more distinctly Australian commissions from the streamer.

The series seems to have been made first and foremost for Australian audiences.
Joel Pratley/Disney+ Läs mer…

As we dive into October, here are some captivating new films and series to help fill your evenings on the couch.

This month’s streaming picks from our experts feature plenty of strong women characters – from Nicole Kidman’s role as a fearsome matriarch in The Perfect Couple, to empowered young women battling it out in a K-pop reality show contest. Meanwhile, Marvel’s latest offering Agatha All Along brings a fresh feminist-queer twist to the Marvel universe.

Whether you’re in the mood for romance, documentary or murder mysteries, we’ve got something for you.

Last Days of The Space Age

Disney+

Disney+‘s new drama Last Days of the Space Age is set in Perth in 1979 – and could be considered the streaming service’s first real foray into Australiana.

The series follows three families through a series of true events, including a power company strike, the arrival of a bunch of Miss Universe contestants from around the world and the crash of the US space station Skylab. Amid this chaos, it also touches on the denial of local Indigenous history, a Vietnamese refugee’s search for her lost son, a feminist surfing adventure – and more.

By trying to juggle so many plot points in eight episodes, the series overwhelms itself and at times can feel underdeveloped. Nonetheless, its focus on Australian audiences and stories gives it a refreshing authenticity.

The cast is stellar, featuring local talent such as Jesse Spencer, Deborah Mailman and Radha Mitchell, alongside international names including Iain Glen and Linh-Dan Pham. Newcomers Emily Grant and Mackenzie Mazur also shine in their roles.

As Disney’s first truly Australian-centric show, Last Days of the Space Age is a promising step for local storytelling. Let’s just hope it’s not the last of the streaming service’s major local commissions.

–Alexa Scarlata

Emily in Paris, season four

Netflix

Season four of Emily in Paris continues the frothy delightfulness of previous seasons, complete with absurd fashion moments, sharp dialogue and easily resolved PR catastrophes. This show is the televisual equivalent of fairy floss in the best way: nutritionally empty, yet sweetly satisfying.

The almost hermetically sealed, aspirational world of Emily’s Paris remains untouched by pandemics, Olympic scandals or economic realities. Instead, we bounce from the titular French capital to the snowy slopes of Megève, to Roma – all rendered in the dreamy romance of a technicolor fantasy. Although she is now fully ensconced in Parisian life, Emily (Lily Collins) carries the show with spunk and a wide-eyed American optimism.

“Hot chef” Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) still has zero personality, but that doesn’t matter as he is surrounded by charismatic and charming characters in the bonkers Luc (Bruno Gouery) and witty Mindy (Ashley Park), both of whom are standouts this season. Sylvie Grateau (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) continues to inspire us all, thanks to her derision of Emily’s American ways and iconic style.

Do not attempt to make sense of the timeline, geography or economics of Emily in Paris. Just open your mind and heart to its goofy, spectacular pleasures.

– Jessica Ford

Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE

Netflix

Netflix’s Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE is about 20 aspiring young women who are finalists in a global competition, launched by entertainment industry heavyweights HYBE and Geffen Records, to find the next big K-pop group.

While I’m not a huge fan of the K-pop music genre, this docuseries has all the hallmarks of a streaming success. It takes talented contestants from all over the world, pits them against one another, and packages the outcome in a glossy and highly bingeable format.

There’s a fine line between empowerment and exploitation explored in the series. The girls are trained relentlessly and judged on categories such as “star power” and their general attitude. Non-compliance is seen as unacceptable.

At times I worried about the show’s potential to negatively influence young viewers – and especially young trend-conscious girls. That said, director Nadia Hallgren (who is known for her sensitive work documenting women of colour) does well to show that the participants’ quest is far from glamorous.

I appreciated the intimate access into the lives of these girls, who often have no fallback if their efforts in the merciless industry don’t pay off. There are some fascinating moments where you see the stars in their eyes begin to dim as they’re taken to breaking point. This prompts some to take matters into their own hands – showing a true fighting spirit.

– Phoebe Hart

The Perfect Couple

Netflix

Based around a lavish wedding due to take place in a multimillion-dollar beach house on the Nantucket coastline, The Perfect Couple is a glossy “whodunnit” featuring the uber-wealthy getting up to no good.

Just hours before the ceremony, the body of maid of honour party-girl Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy) washes up dead. With secrets lurking at every plot twist, everyone’s a suspect.

In a narrative device reminiscent of Big Little Lies, scandalous revelations are gleefully delivered during a series of police interviews. Detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) listens with equal parts revulsion and fascination, a fitting stand-in for us viewers.

While the whole cast appear to be enjoying themselves immensely, Nicole Kidman is the undeniable star of the show. Recent roles have seen Kidman become synonymous with the glamorous, albeit fragile, housewife. The icy matriarch Greer Garrison Winbury – equally revered and feared – is a welcome deviation that Kidman performs with relish.

The Perfect Couple arguably doesn’t offer the same depth of social critique as similar predecessor shows such as Big Little Lies or The White Lotus. Nonetheless, its fast pace and slick execution render it tremendously fun and binge-worthy viewing.

– Rachel Williamson

KillJoy

Stan

At 16, Kathryn Joy applied for a passport. To do this, they had to obtain the death certificate for their mother, Carolyn. After growing up in a house in which their father had killed their mother, Kathryn learned exactly how their mother had died: “gunshot wound to the head”.

The bare brutality of this information shocked them into looking anew at their father, escaping from small town to big city, spiralling into trauma-induced mental anguish, and embarking on a journey of self-discovery through tracing their family’s violent history.

Eight years of this journey are documented in the new Australian documentary Killjoy.

The narrative is held together by two investigative processes: finding out about how Carolyn had lived, as well as died; and understanding how to travel through, and with, pain and vulnerability to a place of fullness and purpose.

The film takes us with Kathryn as they trace their own history, irrevocably intertwined with that of their mother. The result is a unique journey into the inner turmoil, development, hopes and passions of a beautiful sensitive mind struggling to understand themselves against an ongoing backdrop of gender violence and political activism.

– Sharon Crozier-De Rosa

Read more:
The documentary Killjoy captures the personal and the political of family violence and gender activism

Agatha All Along

Disney+

With episode three having just dropped, Kathryn Hanh is back as Agatha Harkness in the much-anticipated Agatha All Along – a follow up to the critically acclaimed Marvel series WandaVision.

Following her battle with Wanda (Elizabeth Olson), Agatha is stuck in Eastview without her powers. Episode one opens with Agatha trapped in a parody of Mare of Easttown, with Hahn hamming up the mannerisms of Kate Winslet’s performance alongside Aubrey Plaza. She’s soon woken up, however, by a mysterious teen played by Heartbreaker’s Joe Locke. To regain her strength, she must transport herself to the Witches’ Road and survive the journey. But she can’t do this without forming a coven with other witches.

With a coven played by the star-studded ensemble of Debra Jo Rupp, Ali Ahn, Sasheer Zamata and Patti LuPone, Agatha dares to walk the Witches’ Road. Along the journey, each witch will be faced with a trial in which they must succeed or face certain death. Adding to the tension is the mystery around the teen’s identity and the potential former romance between Hanh and Plaza’s characters.

Showrunner Jac Schaeffer, who also created WandaVision, has imbued Agatha All Along with the same humour and pop culture awareness. The show is reminiscent of the 1990s obsession with witchcraft and supernatural power, such as Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Charmed and Practical Magic. It’s refreshing to have a Marvel entry that is genuinely feminist and queer.

– Stuart Richards Läs mer…