By Craig Mathieson
Copyright smh
Top End Bub ★★★½ (Amazon Prime Video)
Forget unrelenting grimness so complete you can describe it with a gruff German word. The trickiest tone on television is a light touch that actually resonates. Thankfully, that’s what this Australian series, a sequel to the hit 2019 film Top End Wedding, brings to the screen. Galvanised by grief and focused on adapting to demanding personal circumstances, Top End Bub nonetheless prospers with warm laughs, a good measure of silliness, and some culture clash chaos. This show gives off a nurturing glow.
The set-up is purposeful and – deliberately – a touch jarring. The romantic-comedy couple from the movie, Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) and Ned (Gwilym Lee), are prospering in Adelaide as, respectively, a divorce lawyer and cafe proprietor. But when Lauren’s sister, health worker Ronelle (Shari Sebbens), is lost in a car crash, the two are in Darwin, grieving for Ronelle and dealing with their inherited responsibility. They’re next up to raise Ronelle’s eight-year-old daughter, Taya (Gladys-May Kelly). Parenting suddenly goes from the theoretical to the practical.
In the movie Ned, and occasionally even Lauren, were educated in the ways of Darwin and the Tiwi Islands to the north. His British pluck and her Indigenous moxie easily made for comic friction. The series, which spans eight half-hour episodes, has to fashion a sharper edge. Ned is confused by what has happened, Lauren scared of letting down Taya, who everyone calls “Bub”. Neither was ready to let go of their own priorities to accommodate a heartbroken child. There has to at least be a suggestion they’ll crack under pressure.
