[TV] Outrageous Fortune 1.1

**1/2 (out of 5)

It's a new New Zealand drama. Well, I'll call it a drama series (even though it has at least 3 clearly comic characters). The show's Situation is clear: can the Wests, a family of lifelong criminals, go straight? I'm withholding judgment for the moment, but with perfs that range from wavery to delightful and quite a few fun moments, Outrageous Fortune looks like it's got potential.

The Wests are likeable crims - they don't deal in drugs, they don't home invade on purpose. They are - and I'm sure the series designers will hate me saying this - cuddly PC criminals. Anthony Starr is the standout so far - playing twins that define the split between crime and going straight. One's a munter burglar who gets all the funny dumb lines and the other's a clean-cut lawyer with a secret.

Robyn Malcolm plays the hard-put-upon mum who - despite being in almost every scene - has a character I can't define any clearer than "the hard-put-upon mum who's in almost every scene". However, her performance is solid and charismatic, a real pleasure to watch.

The show's conflict is simple. Being a criminal is all the Wests know. How easy it will it be for them to go straight when they face the temptation to bend the rules in almost every situation? However, it's important to note that only the mum wants them to go straight. Every other member of the family is being forced into it.

Overall the show works pretty well. I can forgive the odd wavery perf and scene because most of the time I was entertained. And the ending is interesting - a montage of West family members trying to go straight. However, only Starr's twins seem to be in situations that have the potential to force characters to make choices between a life of crime and the straight-&-narrow. That could be a mistake - this is clearly an ensemble, so each plotline needs to have the potential to fire.

What do I mean by 'fire'? Well, Robyn's mum, Cheryl West, is the one who's issued the ultimatum so she's the one who has to interfere in peoples' lives in order to enforce it. However, if there's nothing to enforce (no temptation to be criminal or break the rules) then there's no drama. And then the show will fall apart. I'm fascinated to see what sort of conflict the writers can get out of a character working at a fish & chip shop.

The next few episodes should be interesting. Will Outrageous Fortune be a show where they juggle crises from all the characters every week or will it be a spotlight episode for each character? Does the show have interesting places to go? The prison term for the father (which upsets the status quo) suggests a 4-year arc but do the characters (who at times seem disturbingly 1-D) have enough potential in them to sustain that?

We have 13 eps this season to find out.