Australian television – or at least, the people who commission Australian television – can’t get enough of dramedy. Why bother with separate dramas and comedies when you can combine the two and cover both audiences at half the price?
But it’s a tricky line to walk; different genres have different needs. The first season of Bay of Fires was too interested in keeping audiences on their toes to notice that it was swinging a little too wildly between wanting to be a broad parody of small town mysteries and wanting to be taken seriously as a serious small town mystery.
ScreenHub: Bay of Fires Season 1 review: excruciating attempts at comedy
Despite the uneven tone, some elements worked: you can’t go wrong with a supporting cast made up of Australia’s top comedy actors. But overall the series kept hitting the wrong notes, too out-there for mystery fans, too dramatic for anyone just after a laugh.
Watch the Bay of Fires Season 2 trailer.
Season 2 begins with Mystery Bay still off the map. That’s just the way the locals like it, as a pair of hiking influencers discover when they stumble into town only to be offered a free mushroom meal. They’re not dead – they wake up at a bus stop with their phones smashed – but the point is clear: this town wants to stay hidden.
That’s because the big financial scheme that put Stella (Marta Dusseldorp) on top of Mystery Bay’s crime hierarchy at the end of last season is still ticking over nicely a year later and everyone’s cashed up. Maybe a little too cashed up for their own good, but considering Mystery Bay is a town packed with shady types (everyone there is in witness protection, only the people doing the protecting forgot about them) that’s pretty much what you’d expect.
Meanwhile, in flashback to Stella’s days as a corporate bigwig, we’re introduced to her then-husband Allesandro (Alex Dimitriades). Her high-minded speech about ‘being true to your core values’ doesn’t click with him (he’s too busy following the big game), but before we can get used to her happy glowing expression it’s the present day and she’s having her head dunked in a mud hole by gangsters.
With former overlord Frankie (Kerry Fox) gone and the town out of the drug business, the mob have given her a choice: either increase their payments by 50% (which will reveal the scam that’s bringing in all the money), or replace the drugs. For Stella, that’s no choice at all.
Bay of Fires: escalation
As you’d expect, things rapidly escalate. Trying to ramp up their income by escalating the take from the scam ends up blowing up the scam, leaving Stella extremely cash poor. This fails to impress the locals, who were barely tolerating her leadership in the first place.
Fortunately the mob still recognise her talents – they just won’t take no for an answer when it comes to the drug business. At least she can rely on Jeremiah (Toby Leonard Moore). But what’s going on with her kids Otis (Imi Mbedla) and Iris (Ava Caryofyllis)?
With mysteries resolved and threats removed – for now at least – Bay of Fires is free to find its groove as a quirky crime drama with the occasional comedy side quest. The oscillating tone of the first season hasn’t completely vanished, but now that we know what’s really going on the whole thing hangs together as a darker take on shows like Rosehaven.
Whether we need a darker version of the well-worn ‘small town full of oddballs’ genre is another question, and there are times where this feels like it’s flailing without the first season’s central hook.
There’s plenty of twists and turns, and for the most part they feel earned, but Stella’s struggles to find her feet don’t always provide a stable core. There’s no mystery left in Mystery Bay, just shady types and dirty deeds.
In Season 1, Stella’s outsider status made her a natural lead. Now she’s become a member of the community (to an extent), and some of that distinctiveness has faded. As a corporate high flyer out of her depth, she was interesting; as a crime boss, she’s … well, not a great crime boss, and the rest of the ensemble cast – including Matt Nable, Roz Hammond, Pamela Rabe, Bob Franklin, and Nicolas Bell – are increasingly moving closer to centre stage.
Bay of Fires’ strengths are familiar to any Australian drama fan. The locations on Tasmania’s west coast look great, Dusseldorp is an always engaging presence, and the supporting performances are strong.
Co-creator (with Max Dann and Marta Dusseldorp) and writer Andrew Knight (Seachange, Jack Irish CrashBurn, After the Deluge) has been around long enough to ensure proceedings work smoothly. And now that it isn’t trying quite so hard to be funny, the humour comes naturally from a cast of characters that have firmly settled in.
Which is good, because with a premise that’s running out of steam, the characters are often the main reason to watch Bay of Fires.
Bay of Fires Season 2 premieres on 15 June on ABC at 8pm, with all episodes available on ABC iview.
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