The SLAP - time to start writing Series Two

Melissa George as Rosie and Anthony Hayes as Gary

Suggestion to Tony Ayres and rest of the crew behind ABC teleseries The Slap: you've spent so much time establishing the main characters in depth that it would be a waste not to produce a second series. Imagine if The Wire or Six Feet Under had only one series each? I'm sure Christos Tsiolkas, who wrote the novel, could be persuaded to play along.

I've been following the progress of The Slap since before the start of filming, starting with an attempt at reading the book. I liked a lot about it, especially the structure (each chapter has a different character at its centre), but never finished it. Not because I found the characters too dislikable, a complaint many readers seem to have had, but because it would have been a much better read at half the length.

I think that about a lot of books - fiction and non-fiction alike.

Complaining that you dislike the characters seems to me a totally wrong-headed reason for disliking the book or the TV series. The characters were obviously deliberately written to have major flaws in order to break down any notion that here are heroes and villains; to complicate the morality of the tale, making it harder to decide whose side you're on. That's what real, adult  drama does.

In November last year I interviewed series script producer Tony Ayres at Friday on My Mind, the weekly talk session at the Australian Film and Television School (AFTRS) in Sydney, a fascinating conversation later published in the AFTRS quarterly journal, LUMINA.

Since the series began screening  I've been an avid - though not uncritical - fan. Episode One, showing the slap of Hugo, the spoilt brat, at the backyard BBQ around which the rest of the story revolves, was far more vivid than what I remembered from the book.

The casting has been largely inspired, especially the female roles: Melissa George has been a revelation as the appalling - yet somewhat sad and pathetic - Rosie, the revenge-fixated mother of slapped kid Hugo.

Essie Davis as Anouk

Essie Davis, as Anouk, showed exactly why she became so revered on the London stage after disappearing from the Australian film and theatre scene early in her career. And Sophie Lowe has been a perfect embodiment of the sexually forward yet immature teenager, Connie.

The only weak casting choice is Jonathan LaPaglia (Anthony's brother) as Hector. He plainly lacks the charisma needed to make an immediate impact as the protagonist of the all-important first episode, especially up against Alex Dimitriades in the role of his cousin Harry, the kid slapper.

Britain's Sophie Okonedo, whose heritage is Nigerian and Ashkenazi Jewish, was a surprising casting choice as Aisha, Hector's wife, given her character's Indian extraction in the novel. Not sure what was going on here. Aimed at making the series more approachable to a British audience (the series has been sold for screening in the UK)? Still there's nothing wrong with Okonedo's performance, so it's not really an issue.

Episode Five, featuring the court room scene, was a humdinger. Melissa George has come a long way from her former soapie sexpot image, giving a deeply affecting performance as Rosie, the mother determined to get vengeance on the Greek Australian Harry for slapping her out-of-control little boy at a BBQ.

Lex Marinos as Manolis (right)

After this I found last week's Episode Six, centered on Hector and Harry's Greek-migrant father Manolis, anti-climactic, even allowing for Lex Marinos's strong performance. There were too many flat spots, especially in the first half. The giveaway was the way the William McInnes voiceover was laid on with a trowel - seemingly to overcome the material's essentially literary, rather than, dramatic nature (it sought to give the viewer access to Manolis's interior thoughts by telling us, rather than revealing his character through action). In the first part at least. The final part of the episode worked better in dramatic terms.

And enough with the cliche of bazouki music and Greek folk dancing already. Do Anglo characters need to do Morris dancing to prove their heritage? I know at this point any Australian with Greek heritage will point out that this older generation of Greek migrants hold firmly onto their old culture. But in film and TV terms, it comes over as trite and cliched.