Trauma is buried deep inside for the leads of The Newsreader,played by Anna Torv and Sam Reid.Credit:Ben King
The creator of the six-part series,Michael Lucas,whose previous shows includeParty Tricks andFive Bedrooms,has lodged a psychological study in the midst of historic storytelling. The rush of calamitous events is a thrilling backdrop – the newsroom staff literally drop everything and rush to their desks – but what looms as momentous is actually perceived as a handful of crucial facts that need to be quickly conveyed. History isn’t being written,it’s getting laid out in shorthand. It’s the staff who are being detailed.
Rookie report Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) is a mess of ambition and unfulfilled desire. He wants to report live and even get behind the studio news desk,but his initial attempts are close to farcical (with a strongBroadcast News vibe). As Helen’s producer,Dale finds a fellow soul. “You’ve got to impart the information to me. I’m the audience,” she tells him,offering advice after he rescues her from self-harm. With personal secrets from their past liberally lodged in the narrative,their connection is a recognition of a fellow soul.
The very different – in some ways – Australia of 1986 is imparted through the burden carried by Helen and Dale. The former is a judged public figure,whose own boss,head of news Lindsay Cunningham (William McInnes),is cavalier about her appearance in public and controlling to the point of sexual coercion in private. The latter is attracted to camera operator Tim Ahern (Chai Hansen),who is careful about who knows he’s gay,but Dale recoils after they share a moment of passion and chooses to pursue Helen.
William McInnes as newsroom boss Lindsay Cunningham in The Newsreader.Credit:Ben King
What the two journalists get from each other physically isn’t made clear,but the emotional strength they draw down,particularly in Helen’s case,is acute. Trauma is something that’s buried deep inside for the leads ofThe Newsreader,but if their jobs allow them to find personal satisfaction the bright spotlight their celebrity brings also threatens to expose their hidden lives. It’s a contemporary read,but there’s something about the jitteriness of Torv’s performance and Reid’s leading man chin that also suggests classic Hollywood melodrama.
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The score can’t resist period tunes,with a particularly good deployment of The Motels’Total Control,but the most evocative sounds are the pensive,period-echoing keyboard tones of composer Cornel Wilczek. They sound like an invocation,ushering in moments that emotionally turn upside down the era’s taupe-heavy production design. A shadowy close-up of Dale,distraught in a stairwell after a terrible live news update,is shot from below by series director Emma Freeman,as if you can see behind the faltering barriers he’s put up.