I know this is a column about shows you recommend watching in isolation, but I’m not sure if this one is comforting or excruciating right now. Maybe both! But if you’re self-isolating with small children, it’s almost definitely the latter.
The Letdown is the story of a new mum, Audrey (Alison Bell), struggling to cope with her changed circumstances. As the primary caregiver to her daughter Stevie, she’s largely confined to her home. She feels inadequate, out of control, confused, and frustrated as her previous life – friends, parties, a semi-stable career! – slips out of grasp.
“There’s no point whinging about what you’ve lost: muscle tone, sleep, freedom…” says Ambrose (Noni Hazlehurst), the stern leader of her local mothers’ group. The Letdown never quite whinges about Audrey’s new life, but it is frank and self-deprecating in a particularly Australian way about its difficulties.
Created and written by Alison Bell and Sarah Scheller, The Letdown was originally developed as part of ABC TV’s Comedy Showroom in 2016. It then went on for a two-season run in collaboration with Netflix. In feeling and form, the show follows in the vein of another recent ABC gem turned international success story: Please Like Me. Bell and Scheller wrench humour from the tender and personal (the story stemmed from Scheller’s experiences at a mothers’ group). And through that, The Letdown spotlights the sometimes joyous, sometimes tortuous complexity of domestic and family life.
This is a particular kind of domestic life – white, inner-city Sydney, well off enough to live in a family-owned home there – but the story is enriched by the other members of Audrey’s mothers’ group. There’s methodical business woman Ester (Sacha Horler), eager stay-at-home dad Ruben (Leon Ford), bogan mum of three Barbara (Celeste Barber), overachiever Sophie (Lucy Durack), young mum Georgia (Xana Tang), and queer musician Martha (Leah Vandenberg).
These people are dealing with very different problems, but they’re united by many too. Over two seasons, The Letdown creates a sweet patchwork of their stories that feels like a big comforting doona for anyone (but specifically new mums) feeling overwhelmed or alone.
I don’t have any children, but I am in the age range where people expect motherhood to be on your mind. I suppose it is. Each baby that pops into my news feed makes me wonder about the shape and feel of that world. How do you know if it’s what you really want? How do you reckon with the parts of yourself you leave behind?
My mum has told me many times, “one day you’ll be a mother and you’ll understand”. It’s only ever said in moments of sacrifice.
The Letdown is a rare look at those initial sacrifices that are mixed in with the joy, and the world that consistently takes them for granted. I can’t say it makes me want to push a human being out of my body tomorrow, but it would definitely give me a sense of humour about the horror of it all if and when I do.
• The first season of The Letdown is now on Netflix
