Three\u2019s new local comedy-drama will make you rethink what it is to be a suburban school mum, writes Tara Ward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A woman crouches low to the ground inside a suburban storage unit, her ear pressed against a garage door. It\u2019s a cold, dark night, and as she listens for any noise outside, a bag filled with cash sits at her feet. The silence is interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps and doors being rattled, growing louder until it reaches the door she\u2019s hiding behind. A hand pushes its way underneath as she holds the door down, desperately trying to stop whoever\u2019s on the other side from breaking in and finding her. As the door bangs to the point of breaking, the woman whispers four words to herself: \u201cWhat the fuck, Jerry?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
These are the deliciously tense first moments of Ms X, Three\u2019s brilliant new local crime drama. Created and written by Hannah Marshall and David de Lautour, Ms X tells the story of busy Auckland mother Mia (Melissa George), who finds herself in quite the pickle when she suspects her husband Jerry of having an affair. Jerry is never at home, leaving Mia to juggle two hormonal teenagers, hectic school drop-offs and annoying neighbourhood watch meetings. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m a supporting character in my own life,\u201d she complains to her friend Tracey (Michelle Langstone).<\/p>\n
Mia (centre) and teenagers Olivia and Max (Screengrab: Three)<\/p>\n
So when Mia\u2019s bank account is suddenly frozen and she discovers a stranger\u2019s lacy underwear in the laundry, she begins to suspect her photocopier salesman husband is doing more than just selling ink and toner. Confused and suspicious, she bumps into old school friend Oscar (Dean O\u2019Gorman), who happens to work as a private investigator (while also trying to convince Hammer Hardware to stock his latest invention, something called a \u201cself-tightening rope\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an unexpected encounter that sets the suburban mum\u2019s life on an alternate trajectory. Together, Mia and Oscar \u2013 who lives inside a video store and who hasn\u2019t actually investigated a case yet \u2013 try to track Jerry down so they can scare him straight. Oscar is never short of a bad idea, and when their plan goes awry, the pair quickly find themselves in over their heads, tangled up in Auckland\u2019s criminal underworld. Mia must then keep up the domestic facade of the ideal school mum, while also outsmarting the dangerous baddies trying to hunt her and Oscar down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mia and Oscar (Screengrab: Three)<\/p>\n
It might sound far-fetched, but Ms X\u2019s antics always feel entirely plausible. The writing is clever and darkly funny, the pacing is lively, and the viewer finds themselves in the same predicament as Mia, with no clue about what unexpected twist will happen next. Marshall and de Lautour have grounded the story in a relatable suburban world, and George anchors the drama with an unwavering performance of a woman trying to keep calm and carry on in the midst of a criminal storm. O\u2019Gorman is a delight as the unpredictable Oscar, while the ever-wonderful Langstone heads a stacked supporting cast that includes Oscar Kightley, Antonia Prebble, Simone Kessel, Robbie Magasiva, Elizabeth Hawthorn and Xana Tang.<\/p>\n
Ms X is a show that feels decidedly New Zealand, yet its energetic storytelling will appeal to audiences around the world. The series has already received strong reviews in Australia, and is set to screen on Peacock in the US and Disney+ in the UK (NZ On Air today announced funding for season two<\/a>). Co-creator Marshall has achieved a rare feat of having two shows debut in Aotearoa during the same week \u2013 she also created and stars in new rom-com Settling, which starts on Three on Thursday \u2013 proving that she is one of our brightest talents both on and off the screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kudos should also go to Three, who have bought us a trio of bold and intriguing local television dramas this year \u2013 first Crackhead<\/a>, then Head Girl<\/a>, now Ms X. Chuck in the upcoming Settling as well, and the network is becoming the place to go to watch contemporary New Zealand stories. Ms X is a fast-paced and entertaining series that takes the viewer on a wild ride, and deserves a big audience both here and overseas. Don\u2019t miss this fresh, funny series that grabs the crime genre by the scruff of the neck and breathes vital new life into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ms X screens Mondays at 8.30pm on Three and is available to stream\u00a0on ThreeNow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three\u2019s new local comedy-drama will make you rethink what it is to be a suburban school mum, writes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69,247381,1066,1529],"class_list":["post-558574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nz-drama","tag-pop-culture","tag-three"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}