Smash hits

There’s something quite stomach-churning about watching a well-written drama, well-acted and thought-provoking, as told in the first person by a character that you don’t like. This is what I found when I watched the first episode of this eight-part adaptation of the bestselling novel The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas.

An Australian adaptation with a pretty star-studded cast featuring Jonathan LaPaglia from Cold Case, Sophie Okonedo from Hotel Rwanda, Melissa George from Grey’s Anatomy, and Alex Dimitriades from Neighbours (plus Heartbreak High, which was a distraction as I tried to place him), this initial opening episode sets the scene for the following seven and is told from the perspective of LaPaglia’s Hector. Hector is having a 40th birthday party and is feeling old, spurred on by a kiss from his children’s confused babysitter, as well as weak in the face of his matriarchal Greek mother and non-Greek wife needing different things from him. The party is in the form of a daytime barbecue, with friends and family from different walks of life coming together and bringing their children to toast a slightly belligerent Hector.

“…land mines are scattered around like Fisher Price at a toddler’s celebrations”

I’m not going to say who is the perpetrator or receiver of the slap, as the drama progresses like a well-written episode of emotional Casualty. Potential personal explosions and land mines are scattered around the party like Fisher Price at a toddler’s celebrations. It could be any one of a number of alliances and uneasy friendships that spark off The Slap. You may want to give one or two yourself.

Which brings me back to Hector. Well acted, well drawn, flawed and familiar. It’s his tone that dips in with snippets of information from voiceover-land. That intimacy with a man so cut off – an honesty that he may not be happy with everyone knowing, sits uncomfortably with me as his eyes cover the young girl, as he lashes out at his strong wife, and acts out an awkward relationship with his own children. This discomfort is possibly paramount to understanding the dynamics between the characters, and promises much for the next seven episodes as the fallout progresses. These are not perfect people.

Raising issues of race, class, sexuality, the rights of children, and the different perspectives of men and women – this drama has a lot on its shoulders. It doesn’t seem to flinch from this though, if the opener is anything to go by. Understated, with a confidence in the skills of its players and contributors, this doesn’t promise easy viewing but does offer a quiet quality and believability not pandering to likeability. Interesting. Intriguing. I must get past needing to like my key drama players.

The Slap, BBC4, Coming Soon