Some of the best TV in recent years has come from limited series – compact, self-contained dramas that draw viewers into their worlds, play out their tales and conclude on a satisfying note, never to return. When they end, the story’s over. A current example might be Fleishman is in Trouble (Disney+), but a recent roll call would include Mare of Easttown, Unbelievable, Unorthodox, Dopesick, It’s a Sin and The Undeclared War.
Yet there’s also a particular pleasure to be derived from ongoing series, from the opportunity to reacquaint yourself with characters you’ve come to care about, from seeing their development over years and watching them face new challenges and experiences.
Claudia Karvan and Nathalie Morris in Bump, which has now entered a third season.
When a series is firing, its return feels like the reappearance of an old friend. That’s the case with Bump (Stan*), a local comedy-drama that’s become a summer highlight and whose third, 10-part season recently landed. Bump’s never been predictable. It began as a topsy-turvy love story with high-school students Oly (Nathalie Morris) and Santi (Carlos Sanson jnr) shocked to discover that their night of passion led to her pregnancy. From there, the series created by Kelsey Munro and Claudia Karvan continued to do what it does well, avoiding cliches as it develops characters blessed with charm, vitality and substance.
Academically inclined feminist Oly and sporty, artistic Santi sometimes clumsily accepted their new responsibilities, falling from lust into love, the series making their trials and triumphs completely, and at times painfully, believable.
It also built a lively and distinctive community around them. Oly’s parents, frustrated school teacher Angie (Karvan) and her slightly adrift businessman husband, Dom (Angus Sampson), whose marriage was on the rocks, were joined in the second season by Oly’s brother, Bowie (Christian Byers), who’s involved in a journey to achieve harmony while perpetually appearing slightly off-kilter.
Santi’s family, originally from Argentina, is made up of his sports teacher father, Matias (Ricardo Scheihing Vasquez), his wife, Rosa (Paula Garcia), and their two sons, as well as the matriarch, devout, canny Bernadita (Claudia Di Giusti). The community also features a number of school friends, including Oly’s BFF, Reema (Safia Arain), and Santi’s mate, Vince (Ioane Sa’ula).
Now it’s leapt ahead years, opening up possibilities for its central couple and their families and friends. The new season begins with their daughter, Jacinda, now called JJ or J, starting school. However, like the other couples on the show, Oly and Santi have separated. They’ve been sharing custody of their daughter as they’ve taken “a break” from their relationship (no wink to Friends intended) at Oly’s suggestion because, she explains, “I thought we needed to get to know ourselves as individuals”.
One of the advantages of a continuing series is that it allows time and space to develop characters in ways that might not initially have been imagined, to see what actors bring to their roles and to capitalise on it. That’s especially evident here in relation to a couple of the supporting characters.
Elsewhere, Vince might be the not-so-bright best pal who leads the hero astray. Here he’s sweet and perceptive, in no way opposed to a big night out, but also the teenager who decided he wanted to be a nurse and is now working in a hospital as a midwife and becoming a sperm donor for his lesbian housemates.
Garcia is a joy as Santi’s firecracker stepmother, a riot of flamboyant colour and clinking bling. Rosa can be loud, tough and demanding, but is also vulnerable, astute and loving. Her food truck selling empanadas has grown into a restaurant and she’s now dealing with surly teenage sons.
Jacinda (Ava Cannon), Bernadita (Claudia Di Giusti) and Santi (Carlos Sanson Jr) in Bump, season 3.
While Rosa’s business has blossomed, other plans and dreams have not panned out so well, and dealing with disappointment is a key theme in the season. Oly had visions of her future as a globe-trotting agenda-setter, but she’s still at uni, feeling uncomfortable about being labelled a teen mum and frustrated that her world has become so small. Santi has put aside his artistic dreams and is working as a labourer.
Because this show doesn’t default to standard options, his new love interest, Keeks (’Ana Ika), isn’t a bitch or an airhead whom viewers can readily resent as a third point in a romantic triangle. She’s considerate and level-headed and, in different circumstances – that is, if we weren’t hoping for Oly and Santi to get together and live happily ever after with JJ – we might see her as an eminently suitable partner.
The new season also finds Angie in recovery from cancer, liberated by her brush with serious illness, and no longer concerned with keeping up appearances. Karvan looks to be having a ball as Angie cuts loose. Dom is still searching for direction, trying to develop an app that enables men to meet other men for fruitful platonic friendships. But he hasn’t quite nailed the algorithm, or anticipated the kinds of men who might be attracted to such a service.
The deftly written new season of this beautifully cast production also benefits from directors whose light, assured touch allows it to flow seamlessly as it captures the characters’ confusions and longings.
The result is a community of decent people trying their best, even though they’re making mistakes and sometimes behaving badly. And that turbulent process doesn’t get any more elegant as they get older: the grandparents are just as messed-up as their kids. While the show celebrates family life, it doesn’t airbrush the complexities.
Novelty can be wonderful. The buzzy, must-see new series is a prized arrival in an era where there always seems to be something beckoning for attention. But Bump makes a persuasive case for the value and particular pleasures of a well-crafted continuing series. In season three, the novelty might’ve worn off, but it still shines.
* Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.
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