How do you create interesting drama themed around a dog park? If you’ve been to one before, it doesn’t exactly scream “riveting”. I approached the ABC’s new six-part series wondering: will random people from the dog park meet and bonk? Will various disputes erupt, perhaps over where the off-leash area begins and ends? Will class wars break out between the bourgeoisie (chihuahuas), the working class (German shepherds) and the unemployed aristocracy (greyhounds)?
Having gobbled down all six leisurely paced, very enjoyable episodes, Dog Park actually feels like a bit of a bait-and-switch: entice viewers with the promise of pooches, then serve ‘em emotionally nuanced characters and scenarios. The show, co-created by Amanda Higgs and Leon Ford, has been marketed as a comedy but it’s more a light-touch drama. Location-wise, it’s based in Melbourne and, emotions-wise, in a relationship interregnum, during which it’s unclear whether a marriage will survive.
The odds that the relationship between sad sack protagonist Roland (Ford) and his wife, Emma, (Brooke Satchwell, recently excellent in Dear Life) will go south feel about 50/50. Emma is soon to leave Melbourne for a promising job opportunity in New Mexico and it’s unclear when she’ll come back, or whether the pair will stay together. The writers – Ford, Penelope Chai, Nick Coyle, and Chloe Wong – do a fine job sketching a fractious depiction of love that many will relate to. Small moments can blow up unexpectedly but healing remains possible; some wounds are new and open, others are old and slowly healing.
And … there are doggos! And quite a lot of doggos. Roland, a career counsellor at a Tafe, is a bit of a grump – not the sort of person who enjoys chit-chat with strangers. So he becomes part of a local dog group rather reluctantly, almost press-ganged into it by the cheerful and gregarious Samantha (Celia Pacquola), who walks Roland’s pooch Beattie without his permission.
Samantha introduces Roland to the park-congregation including Penny (Elizabeth Alexander), Pamelia (Grace Chow), Jonah (Ras-Samuel) and Andrew (Ash Flanders). They’re friendly in an almost creepy way; for a while I wondered whether the protagonist might’ve inadvertently inserted himself in a The Wicker Man-type situation, with dog enthusiasts instead of pagans (or perhaps pagan dog enthusiasts). They say things like “Come and join us!” They share coffees and snacks, drink in the park together, and even have in-costume sing-a-longs. I’m not entirely convinced such groups actually exist, but by god, it’s a nice fantasy. (Or maybe I’m just jealous: can someone invite me and my jack russell, Bessie?)
The series itself feels very well grounded, thanks in part to a finely balanced central performance from Ford, who never opts for the easy paths or stereotypical angles. Roland is cranky but not a misanthrope, all the comedy bent around his bad mood. This is a more rounded and less performative kind of irritability that feels totally genuine. Occasionally I wondered: is this guy a jerk? But most of the time he struck me as being obviously flawed but fundamentally decent, with, like many men, at times great difficulty in expressing himself emotionally.
In one scene, deep into the series, Roland responds to one person’s unexpected but welcome arrival by exiting the premises and walking to the park, admitting to Samantha that “I froze”. In another, Roland and Emma’s daughter Mia (Florence Gladwin) is delighted by his thoughtfulness, exclaiming “oh my god, dad, you got all my favourite things!” – to which he responds by completely downplaying his act of generosity: “Maybe one or two, not on purpose though.”
Small moments like these might not seem like much on paper, but they can be deceptively difficult to pull off and, in Dog Park, they really resonate. The series is paced and toned in quite a lovely, unprepossessing way by co-directors Matthew Saville and Nina Buxton, who imbue the drama with an earthy, unshowy accessibility that reminded me of films like Lonely Hearts and others directed by the late Australian film-maker Paul Cox. This is thoughtful, gently persuasive television that caught me by surprise: I came for the dogs, but left caring much more about the humans.
Dog Park starts on ABC TV and ABC iview on Sunday at 8.30pm
