Bad Mothers Review

Bad Mothers Review

Bad Mothers is the first new Australian drama for 2019 from Nine, but is it worth your time?

The series focuses on the mothers at Bedford Primary School. There’s Sarah Pooley (Tess Haubrich, Pine Gap), a hard-working GP and mother to Xavier and Eve; her friend Charlotte Evans (Melissa George, The Slap), and the bad mothers of Bedford – Maddie Hicks (Mandy McElhinny, Love Child), her sister-in-law Danielle Hicks (Jessica Tovey, Wonderland), and personal trainer Bindy Burridge (Shalom Brune-Franklin, Doctor Doctor).

When the series, we are thrown into the middle of a murder mystery that rocks Bedford, which will slowly unravel as the hour-long episode progresses. At a school fundraiser, Sarah accuses Bindy of having an affair with her husband, charming chef Anton (Daniel MacPherson, Neighbours and Strike Back), but that’s not the case when Sarah discovers who it actually is and her life is thrown into chaos.

Sarah gets unlikely support from the anti-Bedford Mother’s Club – the Bad Mothers: Bindy, Danielle and Maddie, who she used to judge. All of these women are dealing with their own issues. Danielle spearheads the school’s caring project – raising baby chicks – which soon unravels when there’s a chick fatality. Maddie believes her son is wrongly accused and resorts to dognapping to prove her theory.

Bad Mothers creators choosing to tell the pilot in flashback by showing our dead body in the opening scene and then flashing back to focus on what led to that moment was a wise choice. It hooks the viewer in the first moments and gives up a chance to know the characters before everything changes.

Creators Rachel Land and Gavin Strawhan offer a script that is intriguing captivating and full of surprises. The casting is also excellent, with all the main cast giving very solid performances. Tess Haubrich is a star on the rise, but it’s the friendship between the five leads that holds the most attention.

With the pilot just a starting point, Bad Mothers is shaping up to be THE murder mystery of 2019.

 

4/5 Stars

Bad Mothers premieres Monday, 18 February at 9:pm on Nine.

 

1 Comment

  1. Barb

    I thought some of the acting was bad and the sets looked cheap! No wonder I don’t watch many Aussie shows.

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