\n\t\t\t\t\tWhy has Isabelle moved to Pleasant Court, Osprey? The whispers, gossip and lying begin.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It\u2019s wine o\u2019clock in Pleasant Court, Osprey, when Ange (Bella Heathcote), Essie (Philippa Northeast), and Fran (Ming-Zhu Hii) set up their plastic chairs in their street.<\/p>\n
The sun is beating down casting an orange hue over the seaside town. And there is deep suspicion about their newest neighbour, Isabelle (Teresa Palmer) who is renting a house whilst researching a travel article on the Great Ocean Road community. Or so she says.<\/p>\n
Welcome to The Family Next Door, a new 6 part series based on the book by Sally Hepworth. But whilst this looks similar to another famed Aussie TV street, there\u2019s nothing cosy or soapie about this drama.<\/p>\n
Writer Sarah Scheller doesn\u2019t reveal her full hand when \u201cBella\u201d \u201cEssie\u201d and \u201cLulu\u201d episodes unfold, deviously teasing motivations as part of a complex mosaic.<\/p>\n
What is clear is that Isabelle has driven from New South Wales following a significant death in her life, leaving her partner behind in search of answers\u2026<\/p>\n
She rents a home from realtor Ange where she can observe and embed herself in the local community, befriending Ange\u2019s husband Lucas (Bob Morley) and post-natal anxious Essie. In Pleasant Court, the locals are chummy but like Desperate Housewives, there are secrets behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall court, people talk\u201d \u2013 Holly.<\/p>\n
The marriage of Fran and Nigel (Daniel Henshall) is strained, with Nigel struggling with depression. Essie and husband Ben (Tane Williams Acra) are living with Essie\u2019s mother Barbara (Catherine McClements) who is protesting the local property development which Ange is pushing to investor Clive (Vince Colosimo).<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople here don\u2019t like change \u2013 Ange.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Lulu (Jane Harber) and partner Holly (Maria Angelico) are trying to get their new vegan restaurant off the ground whilst parenting daughter, Elvis.<\/p>\n
Ricocheting through it all is Isabelle, smiling, lying, snooping, and even stealing mail as part of a greater agenda. But what is it?<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is pressing my buttons\u201d \u2013 Lulu<\/p>\n
Under the sultry sun there is backyard cricket, Little Nipper races, reading the latest Spotlight catalogue and gossip.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just came back in a kimono\u201d \u2013 Barbara<\/p>\n
Teresa Palmer is pitch-perfect as the duplicitous Isabelle, smiling through inner rage. This marks her third drama for 2025 (and the third as a \u2018writer?\u2019) and is the most accessible of them all.<\/p>\n
Bella Heathcote is fantastic as the paranoid, demanding Ange, who regrets leasing the house across the street to her newest neighbour. Philippa Northeast, most recently impressing in The Newsreader, is a fragile Essie, trying to live up to her mother\u2019s ideals and keep her life together.<\/p>\n
Charming Bob Morley as a surfie and photographer is chilled but can never seem to satisfy Ange.<\/p>\n
Director Emma Freeman elicits some lovely, nuanced performances from her cast set against the allure of an Australian beachside location (there probably needed to be more crowds given the
summer season). Loved Catherine McClements folding laundry to the sounds of Australian Crawl\u2019s \u201cErrol\u201d -these touches bring humour and character.<\/p>\n
Themes of motherhood, fidelity, revenge unravel simultaneously. It might be easy to make comparisons to Big Little Lies, but it\u2019s so familiarly Australian I was taken back to works such as Lantana. We\u2019ve seen a lot of small towns with dead bodies and crime suspects of late. This is not that. It\u2019s people trying to muddle through the toil of choices and daily survival. And one who is determined to crash through come hell or high water.<\/p>\n
Highly recommended.<\/p>\n
The Family Next Door screens 8pm Sundays on ABC (all episodes on iview)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why has Isabelle moved to Pleasant Court, Osprey? The whispers, gossip and lying begin. It\u2019s wine o\u2019clock in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-55540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}