The ABC’s The Newsreader returns for a second season on Sunday 10th September.
If you’ve not seen the first season, prepare for spoilers if you read on.
The first season of the show saw new anchor Helen Norville (Anna Torv) fight to be taken seriously while sharing hosting duties with long-standing c0-anchor Geoff Walters (Robert Taylor). Set in the mid-1980s Norville is one of the first women to anchor a nightly news program but at each step of the way she has to fight against misogyny and sexism.
Meanwhile up-and-coming reporter Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) is getting some big stories and had dreams of being an anchor too. Additionally in the whirling pool of ambition is researcher Noelene Kim (Michelle Lim Davidson) who dreams of being a producer, former AFL player turned sports reporter Rob Rickards (Stephen Peacocke) and executive producer Lindsay Cunningham (William McInnes).
Romances were also firing during the first season between the characters with Dale having a crush on Helen, Rob chasing Noelene and Dale also having a moment with cameraman Tim.
Dale’s big secret is he’s bisexual, but in the era of the AIDS pandemic and homosexuality still being illegal in most of Australia, he’s presented more as a straight man trying really hard to resist some urges.
The first season’s personal dramas were presented against a backdrop of the news of 1986, Lindy Chamberlain, The Challenger Disaster, AIDS, Halley’s Comet, the Russell Street Bombing and Chernobyl.
The second season of the show picks up one year later, Dale and Helen are now TV’s golden couple living together and working together on the news desk.
The first episode sees them covering the 1987 federal election and managing the expectations of new network owner Charlie Tate (Daniel Gillies) who has big ideas for the way news should be presented and promoted. Meanwhile Geoff has signed on to host anew show on a rival network.
Watching the series is at times a cringeworthy experience. It brilliantly puts the chauvinism, racism and homophobia of the time front and centre. It reminds us of how far we’ve come and allows us to see the remnants of these attitudes that still exist in Australian media.
While real life events such as the Hoddle Street massacre, Australia’s bicentennial celebrations, the stock market crash, and the heroin crisis forming the backdrop for the series, it’s the real-life characters of the time who are not mentioned that are equally intriguing. The characters all remind us of various television presenters of the 1980s.
At a time when media moguls were buying and selling television stations and radio empires at a rapid rate, and long-standing ethics were being abandoned and sacrificed for greater ratings, it’s fertile ground for drama. The team are fighting to break news stories, while trying to keep details of their own personal lives under wraps.
The Newsreader returns for a second season on Sunday 10th September.
Graeme Watson
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