Top End Bub review: sassy family fun

Last time we checked in on hotshot lawyer Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) and her wannabe chef partner Ned (Gwilym Lee) – in 2019’s Wayne Blaire-directed rom-com delight Top End Wedding – they had just gotten married in the gorgeous surrounds of the Tiwi Islands.

A ten-days-to-get-it-done whirlwind, their nuptials also involved Lauren and her estranged mum, Daffy (Ursula Yovich), reconciling, and Daffy reconnecting with her adoring husband, Trevor (Huw Higginson).

So all’s happily ever after, then, right?

Yeah, nahhhh.

Even the most wholesome of adventures need a bit of chaos energy and a dash of tragedy to keep the dramatic wheel turning. So it is, as co-creators Tapsell and writer Joshua Tyler return to the scene, a few years later, with Prime Video show Top End Bub. All is very much not well.

Watch the Top End Bub trailer.

Well, it is for about five minutes. Back in Adelaide, Lauren’s nailing it as a legal eagle who has flown free from the overworked net of her previous employer (Kerry Fox’s Ms Hampton). Her office is perched atop Ned’s thriving cafe, handing her an ‘extra hot’ coffee as she rocks up for work. ‘I didn’t order extra hot,’ she says, but he means she is.

This bliss is blown of course when Lauren’s sis, Ronelle (Shari Sebbens), swerves off the road and is killed, summoning Lauren and Ned back to the Top End on Sorry Business.

Top End Bub: plenty of chuckles

Sebbens instead steps into the shoes of Top End Bub series co-director alongside Christiaan Van Vuuren (A Sunburnt Christmas), who keep the mourning to a minimum. There’s no time, as Daffy and the family communally decide that Lauren and Ned will care for Ronelle’s kid, Taya (Gladys-May Kelly), commonly known as Bub, whether they’re ready for that responsibility or not.

Lauren gets it, but Ned’s pissed he doesn’t have a say. A kid was very much not part of their plan, just as their careers were finally taking off. ‘It’s not set in stone,’ he grumbles, only for Lauren to rejoin that 65,000-year-old cave drawings beg to differ. ‘It’s the Tiwi way.’

Funnily enough, and there are plenty of chuckles here, Ned comes around quicker, having lost his dad as a teenager and unable to stay cranky too long while Bub’s clearly aching. A they quickly bond, it’s Lauren who struggles to let go of their Adelaide life.

A discombobulation almost transformed into a literal car crash when, still in jammies, sleep mask lodged in her tousled hair, she nearly sideswipes school principal and bestie Dana (the magnificent Elaine Crombie) while dropping off Bub. ‘Jesus Christ,’ Dana squeaks. ‘One dead bridesmaid not enough for you?’

It’s a cracking line, punched up even funnier when a grimacing/grinning Lauren blurts out, ‘Bit bloody soon’.

Top End Bub: focus on family

This sassy, snappy irreverence and a firm focus on family, however haphazard, ensures Top End Bub bubbles along beautifully. The stakes are deliberately low, though not without friction. Lauren makes the rash decision to try and track down the dad Bub’s never known, with unasked-for help from her mother and, only slightly more consensually, Clarence Ryan’s enigmatic Cowboy.

Appearing and disappearing a bit like Batman, the Mystery Road: Origins actor more closely resembles Mark Coles Smith’s Jay Swann, a quietly growling kind unpicking mysteries and locating lost souls for favours, including a fair few shots of the cocktail cowboys have been phallically associated with. No wonder Dana dubs the missing link ‘sperm daddy’.

But this big reveal is hardly the deal.

Top End Bub: cheesy in a good way

There’s more found family chill to be had in this gently ribbing comedy than, say, the all-out warring of Meet the Parents. Ned’s loved by all, even if Daffy does take a crack at him being pasty enough when he emerges with a beauty face mask one morn, and cutely queer Uncle Leroy (Guy Simon, good fun) bristles at a clueless Ned questioning his footy coaching approach.

Newcomer Kelly is a great find who enjoys equally adorable chemistry with Tapsell and Lee as they do with one another, also holding her own against stalwarts like Rob Collins, the almighty Yovich and fellow seasoned veteran Higginson.

Leaning into Darwin and the Tiwi Islands’ local spirit and spit-balling humour, there’s plenty to keep a familiar story unique. And when eight roughly half-hour episodes are done – via saucy sailor drag shows, Crombie and Yovich duetting and a freedom cheese jaffle segue that spills into a tropical storm – one final twist will have you asking when the next season’s coming?

Top End Bub premieres on Prime Video on 12 September 2025.

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Director:

Format: TV

Country: Australia

Release: September 12

Available: Prime Video